CLOCKS

[Shawnee123]

Heh...that makes sense. That's what I thought about the farmers too...they work all day and night anyway.

So I'm curious as to what the political motivations were (in tw's view) as to why it was moved up earlier this year? Who decides that? What benefits occurred and for whom?

This is something I never would have thought much about before: inquiring minds want to know.

[glatt]

What's really interesting to me is the way the time zone maps are drawn. Looking at the two extremes of the Eastern Time zone, the sun rose in Lubec Maine today at 6:40 AM, and it rose in Ontonagon Michigan in the Upper Peninsula at 8:10 AM. That's an hour and a half difference in the start of daylight hours, and they are in the same time zone. So this DST can be really helpful for some locations and really bad for others. I bet Maine is pretty happy about it, and Michigan is bummed. Last week, Maine had tons of early morning light and it was pitch black in the late afternoon, and now it's more balanced. Michigan had a decent balance and now they are dark in the morning and have a lot of light in the afternoon and early evening.

[monster]

Originally Posted by glatt

Michigan had a decent balance and now they are dark in the morning and have a lot of light in the afternoon and early evening.

Right. Grrr. Now we're back to sending the kids to school in the dark and they have to go to bed in the light (in theory)

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

Heh...that makes sense. That's what I thought about the farmers too...they work all day and night anyway.

So I'm curious as to what the political motivations were (in tw's view) as to why it was moved up earlier this year? Who decides that? What benefits occurred and for whom?

This is something I never would have thought much about before: inquiring minds want to know.

I'm glad that the fall back was changed - there's now more light for trick-or-treating.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

So I'm curious as to what the political motivations were (in tw's view) as to why it was moved up earlier this year? Who decides that? What benefits occurred and for whom?

The original purpose of daylight savings was pioneered back in Franklin's time. It had a purpose; getting people out and about earlier when the sun was up earlier. However the latest time change (three weeks earlier) had no basis in science. It was promoted in Congress on some non-peer reviewed conclusion from some professor. Politicians bought into the myth for reasons similar to why consumers buy surge protectors. Advantages of daylight savings time are lost when implemented too close to winter. Implementing daylight savings time three weeks earlier was not based in any science.

Politicians were just knowing without first learning facts (just like Saddam's WMDs). It was proposed on wild speculation that it would save energy. Some research says it saved a trivial amount of energy. Other research says it increased energy consumption. IOW it had no science purpose. Was implemented by politicians making decisions on their feelings - not by using facts. That is called myth in markets. And politics in Congressional chambers. Same politics that said Saddam had WMDs. When myths are more important than reality.

Political motivation at this point was to do something for no useful purpose. I don't know which (if any) politicians got rich on this.

BTW, time zones are determined by an agency of the Interior department. Indiana is on east coast time except a small region near Chicago. Some areas do not use daylight savings time. A county near the time zone border can appeal to the Feds to be moved from one time zone to the other or be exempted from daylight saving time.