What kind of crank would I be if I didn’t publish a rant about Daylight Saving Time (DST)? My (four) readers have come to hold me to certain standards.
Coffee maker
Microwave
Cable box(2)
VCR (2)
Stereo
Xbox
Car (2)
Computer (4)
Palm
Alarm clock (2)
FTP server offset (12)
For those readers smearing feces on the walls of their cells, that’s 29.
I would admit that a significant minority of these devices were smart enough to take care of themselves, and the inconvenience of updating the others was minor, but I’m on an incoherent tear here, so let’s instead allow the list’s implications to loom ominously for themselves.
Okay, now with the ranting:
DST is of benefit to no one other than those who, arguably, should be bred for food. Courtesy of my brother Eric, I paraphrase the following letter-to-the-editor quote on one interesting virtue of DST:
“…my plants sure appreciate the extra light.”
This shit just writes itself, doesn’t it?
The cost of DST outweighs its benefits. Department of Transportation studies show that DST reduces U.S. electricity usage by 1 percent each day that it is in effect. What the DOT studies don’t address is the loss of workplace productivity because of disrupted sleep schedules, changes to commuter schedules and worldwide differences in observance of the practice. Nor do the DOT studies mention the increased traffic fatalities (disrupted sleep schedules again, plus it’s darker during the morning commute), or the IT hours squandered coding for the changes, especially in embedded systems, every time the rules change.
Recall with me, what was the reason that you were taught as to why we observe DST? Farmers, right? Turns out that most farmers don’t give a flying handshake about DST because:
1) They get up with the sun regardless of what the clock says.
2) Their animals don’t observe it.
With all of these compelling data, it should come as no surprise that our Commander-In-Chief (a reader), recently signed into law a change extending Daylight Saving Time by approximately three weeks, effective in 2007.
I encourage all four of you to visit Standard Time and end my madness.
2 thoughts on “Daylight Saving Time”
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Of all the backwards things they do in Arizona (the last of the continental United States and my former home), DST is not one of them. Since the Navajo nation resides in both Arizona and New Mexico, it DOES observe DST. The Hopi nation DOESN’T. So, in traveling from Phoenix to the Four Corners area during the months when the rest of the country is observing DST, you are likely to change your clock exactly three times if you are so inclined and all within the borders of the same state. How neurotic. For more details, click here.
If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times – No direct reference to me in your blogs. I have more things to do all day – surf.