Category: News and Views
When we change our clocks
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html
Beginning in 2007, most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time.
In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.
> See more information about elsewhere in the world.
Spring forward, Fall back
During DST, clocks are turned forward an hour, effectively moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html
Date change in 2007
On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.
Some U.S. areas
For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and Arizona . The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.
A safety reminder
Many fire departments encourage people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder. "A working smoke detector more than doubles a person's chances of surviving a home fire," says William McNabb of the Troy Fire Department in Michigan. More than 90 percent of homes in the United States have smoke detectors, but one-third are estimated to have dead or missing batteries
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html
Yeah, I barely found the same article above on a different site. Up until then, and even after reading it, I was still confused, because while I learned that the time was still correct, my computer had gone an hour back, so for this week, I'm trying not to use my computer to check the time. *smile* But, especially on Sunday and yesterday, I was all confused since I normally wake up at 5:00 to watch some shows, so at that time when I got on the computer (which I also usually do when I get up), , it threw me off at first, thinking I had woken up too early and then finding out I missed my shows. I wonder if there's a way to reset the computers to set themselves at the new time now?
Actually, I wonder if it even matters that we have Daylight Saving's Time. I mean, it's not a huge deal to me, but at the same time, I don't get why it's that important, including why we now have it changed to different weeks.
Um...what time is it? I don't believe my computer's clock changed but just in case?
My personal thoughts/thots are keep track of time, what you conceive it to be and constant check with family and known trusted friends.
Daylight Saving Time used to be {if I remember correctly on like last Thursday of month or 4th Thursday of month.. then Prez.Bush did a time clock switch change for like year 2007 {i think, don't quote me..anyhow.. *breath .. }
Clock, Daylight saving Time to go into affect/effect.. anyhow.. THIS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4th, 2007 ~~ The one hour's Time Difference though not in all countries and not in all STATES IF in U.S.A. {Take Arizona for example -- at last known information on Time Change CHECK.. Check your local Time -- Your Local New's Network }
~*Thunderous MidNight*~
3:24 AM -- Michigan,usa --
October 30th, 2007 Current Time
~*TMN*~
..Footnote: Regarding Post #5 above {smiles}
Listen, the line reading.. "{if I remember correctly on like last Thursday of month or 4th Thursday of month.. "
Think it was month of October ..OR.. was it November?
Maybe blbobbby will logg in and give further information..
{'Cause he is Smart ..and.. *older!!..LOTS and Lots older..
..I'm leaving for now.. laters, ~*Thunderous MidNight*~ 3:30 AM
Just taking note that r. blbobby did not respond,
Any one gathering Time-clock, "Daylight Saving Time," information?
Feel free to respond.
Thanks, Much appreciation ~ peace be n- luv
~*Thunderous Midnight*~
You were doing fine ~ and I didn't want to interrupt. But, since you asked :
Daylight saving time (DST; also summer time in British English) is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn ; several ancient cultures lengthened each summer daylight hour instead. Modern DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett, and saw its first widespread use in 1916 as a wartime measure aimed at conserving coal. Despite controversy, many countries have used it since then; details vary by location and change occasionally.
Adding daylight to afternoons generally benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but it can cause problems for agriculture and other occupations whose hours depend on the sun. Extra afternoon daylight appears to cut traffic fatalities ; its effect on health and crime is less clear. DST is said to save electricity by reducing the need for artificial evening lighting, but the evidence for this is weak, and DST can boost peak demand, increasing overall electricity costs.
DST's clock shifts complicate timekeeping and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, and heavy equipment; they also serve as twice-yearly fire safety reminders. Many computer- based systems can adjust their clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST rules change.
Origin
In an ancient water clock, a series of gears rotated a cylinder to display hour lengths appropriate for each day's date.
Though not punctual in the modern sense, the ancients adjusted daily schedules to the sun more flexibly than modern DST does, often dividing daylight into 12 equal hours regardless of day length, so that each daylight hour was longer during summer. For example, Roman water clocks had different scales for different months of the year: at Rome's latitude the third hour from sunrise, hora tertia, started in modern terms at 09:02 solar time and lasted 44 minutes at the winter solstice, but at the summer solstice it started at 06:58 and lasted 75 minutes. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season. Unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some Mount Athos monasteries.
Benjamin Franklin suggested firing cannons at sunrise to waken Parisians.
During his time as an American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin anonymously published a letter in 1784 suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by arising earlier to use morning sunlight. Franklin's mild satire proposed taxing shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise, in the spirit of his earlier proverb "Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Franklin did not propose shifting clocks; like ancient Rome, 18th-century Europe did not keep accurate schedules. However, this soon changed as rail and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklin's day.
In 1905, the prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett was inspired to invent DST during one of his pre-breakfast horseback rides, when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through the best part of a summer day. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk. His solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. He lobbied unsuccessfully for the proposal until his death in 1915; Wartime Germany, its allies, and their occupied zones were the first European countries to use DST, starting 1916- 04-30. Britain, most other belligerents, and many European neutrals soon followed suit, but Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year, and the United States did not use it until 1918. Since then the world has seen many enactments, adjustments, and repeals.
Benefits and drawbacks. Willett's 1907 proposal argued that DST increases opportunities for outdoor leisure activities during afternoon sunlight hours. Obviously it does not change the length of the day; the longer days nearer the summer solstice in high latitudes merely offer more room to shift apparent daylight from morning to evening so that early morning daylight is not wasted.
However, many people ignore DST by altering their nominal work schedules to coordinate with daylight, television broadcasts, or remote colleagues. DST is commonly not observed during most of winter, because its mornings are darker: workers may have no sunlit leisure time, and children may need to leave for school in the dark.
Energy use. Delaying the nominal time of sunrise and sunset increases the use of artificial light in the morning and reduces it in the evening. As Franklin's 1784 satire pointed out, energy is conserved if the evening reduction outweighs the morning increase, which can happen if more people need evening light than morning. However, statistically significant evidence for any such effect has proved elusive. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DOT) concluded in 1975 that DST might reduce the country's electricity usage by 1% during March and April, but the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) reviewed the DOT study in 1976 and found no significant energy savings. In 2000 when parts of Australia began DST in late winter, overall electricity consumption did not decrease, but the morning peak load and prices increased. A 2007 simulation estimated that introducing DST to Japan would increase energy use in Osaka residences by 0.13%, with a 0.02% decrease due to less lighting more than outweighed by a 0.15% increase due to extra cooling; the simulation did not examine non-residential buildings. In North America, there is no clear evidence that electricity will be saved by the extra DST introduced in 2007, and though one utility did report a decrease in March 2007, five others did not. DST may increase gasoline consumption: U.S. gasoline demand grew an extra 1% during the newly introduced DST in March 2007.
Economic effects. Clock shifts affect apparent sunrise and sunset times in Greenwich in 2007. Retailers, sporting goods makers, and other businesses benefit from extra afternoon sunlight, as it induces customers to shop and to participate in outdoor afternoon sports. For example, in 1984 Fortune magazine estimated that a seven-week extension of DST would yield an additional US$ 30 million for 7-Eleven stores, and the National Golf Foundation estimated the extension would increase golf industry revenues $200 million to $300 million. Conversely, DST can adversely affect farmers and thers whose hours are set by the sun. For example, grain harvesting is best done after dew evaporates, so when field hands arrive and leave earlier in summer their labor is less valuable. DST also hurts prime-time broadcast ratings [ and theaters, especially drive-ins.
Clock shifts correlate with decreased
economic
efficiency. In 2000 the daylight-saving effect implied an estimated one-day loss of $31 billion on U.S. stock exchanges.
Clock shifts and DST rule changes have a direct economic cost, since they entail extra work to support remote meetings, computer applications and the like.
For example, a
2007 North American rule change
cost an estimated $500 million to $1 billion.
Public safety
In 1975 the U.S. DOT conservatively identified a 0.7% reduction in traffic fatalities during DST, and estimated the real reduction to be 1.5% to 2%,
but the 1976 NBS review of the DOT study found no differences in traffic fatalities.
In 1995 the
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
estimated a reduction of 1.2%, including a 5% reduction in crashes fatal to pedestrians.
Others have found similar reductions.
(Continued)
Single/Double Summer Time (SDST), a variant where clocks are one hour ahead of the sun in winter and two in summer, has been projected to reduce traffic
fatalities by 3% to 4% in the UK, compared to ordinary DST.
It is not clear whether
sleep
disruption contributes to fatal accidents immediately after the spring and autumn clock shifts. A correlation between clock shifts and accidents has been
observed in North America but not in
Sweden.
If this twice-yearly effect exists, it is far smaller than the overall reduction in fatalities.
In the 1970s the U.S.
Law Enforcement Assistance Administration
(LEAA) found a reduction of 10% to 13% in
Washington, D.C.'
s violent crime rate during DST. However, the LEAA did not filter out other factors, and it examined only two cities and found crime reductions only in
one and only in some crime categories; the DOT decided it was "impossible to conclude with any confidence that comparable benefits would be found nationwide."
Although outdoor lighting makes potential crime victims feel safer, it may actually encourage crime.
In several countries,
fire safety
officials encourage citizens to use the two annual clock shifts as reminders to replace batteries in
smoke
and
carbon monoxide detectors.
This is especially important in autumn, just before the
heating
and candle season causes an increase in home fires. Similar twice-yearly tasks include reviewing and practicing fire escape and family disaster plans, inspecting
vehicle lights, checking storage areas for hazardous materials, and reprogramming
thermostats. This is not an essential function of DST, as locations without DST can instead use the first days of spring and autumn as reminders.
Health
DST has mixed effects on health. In societies with fixed work schedules it provides more afternoon sunlight for outdoor
exercise,
which can contribute greatly to health. It alters sunlight exposure; whether this is beneficial depends on one's location and daily schedule, as sunlight
triggers
vitamin D
synthesis in the skin, but overexposure can lead to
skin cancer.
Sunlight strongly influences
seasonal affective disorder
; DST may help in
depression
by causing individuals to arise earlier,
but some argue the reverse.
The Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation Fighting Blindness, chaired by blind sports magnate Gordon Gund, successfully lobbied in 1985 and 2005 for U.S. DST extensions, but DST can hurt night blindness sufferers.
The End
Bob
Very interesting topick.
Thanks thunderous midnight for creating it and Bob for your last posts. Very interesting.
According to the web (I don't remember the exact site),
"Beginning in 2007, most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the
first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time.
In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last
Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment."
Therefore, it looks like the European community set their clocks back to standard time at 1 a.m. last Sunday, and we, here in the states will do so tonight (actually tomorrow morning) at 2 a.m.
Hope this helps.
Bob
In agreement with Nikos,
Yes Bob, Thanks for the information ~
Valuable that you've provided.
~*Thunderous MidNight*~
I had forgotten about the time change and fed my dog at five in the morning, rather than six. lol but steven doesn't understand about time changes. He just wants to eat. lol
<lol> that's funny.
I once went into work an hour early, a feat unheard of during my working career.
Bob
Better earlier than later i guess lol.
Now in Australia they are lucky. Spring is coming there and they just started daylight save time. When we start our summer time next March they will go back to the Winter time. So things are happening the oposit way there.
The only seasons in Florida are hot and hotter, no matter what the time is.
You just described Texas too.
Bob