Daylight Savings Time

[hazelm]

A question for residents of Great Britain:  Did you go on Daylight Savings Time yesterday?  Back when I followed such,  Britain went onto DST one week before USA did.  But, BBC did not go onto DST.  They stayed on prime meridian time (whatever it is called over there).    National Public Radio broadcast BBC news every day at noon (our time here in the Midwest).  During the brief spell when Britain was on DST before we were, that broadcast came in on our radio at 11:00 AM.  Of course, we soon caught up.  Just something I remember.  So, are you on DST today?

[exchemist]

A question for residents of Great Britain:  Did you go on Daylight Savings Time yesterday?  Back when I followed such,  Britain went onto DST one week before USA did.  But, BBC did not go onto DST.  They stayed on prime meridian time (whatever it is called over there).    National Public Radio broadcast BBC news every day at noon (our time here in the Midwest).  During the brief spell when Britain was on DST before we were, that broadcast came in on our radio at 11:00 AM.  Of course, we soon caught up.  Just something I remember.  So, are you on DST today?

No. We are now on GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), which makes sense since Greenwich is in London. We are on GMT in the Winter half of the year. 

 

We move to BST (British Summer Time) on 31st March. 

 

But today was the first weekday this year on which I was able to shave without the light on, at 0620 - something I always regards as a welcome milestone. :)

[hazelm]

No. We are now on GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), which makes sense since Greenwich is in London. We are on GMT in the Winter half of the year. 

 

We move to BST (British Summer Time) on 31st March. 

 

But today was the first weekday this year on which I was able to shave without the light on, at 0620 - something I always regards as a welcome milestone. :)

Right.  I remembered something just after I posted my question.    Several years ago,  our powers that  be made a drastic change in our DST  schedule.  They  made DST begin earlier and end later.  So, yes,  we would be ahead of Britain now and later returning to standard time.   It is all quite ridiculous in my opinion - and that of many others.  The golfers benefit.  Guess they have a lot of influence.  We will go on DST next  Sunday midnight.  Spring isn't here yet and snow covers the ground.  This morning temperature here was 3 degrees F with a wind chill of -10.  Who goes golfing in this weather?  :lazy:

 

And, thank you.

Edited March 4, 2019 by hazelm

[fahrquad]

It is sunny and 52'F here and we are on EST.  Most of the US goes on Daylight Savings Time on Sunday. Since no one lights with candles anymore, I fail to see the point in continuing this ridiculous and disruptive practice.  BTW, we haven't had a real winter in SC this year, but then who in their right mind plays golf?

 

"During his time as an American envoy to France (1776–1785), Benjamin Franklin, publisher of the old English proverb "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise",^[24][25] anonymously published a letter in the Journal de Paris suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight.^[26] This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise.^[27] Despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST; 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this soon changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklin's day.^[28]"

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

Edited March 4, 2019 by fahrquad

[exchemist]

I tend to agree that the little point in changing the clocks. It seems to me that we should stick to GMT and have the sun at its zenith at noon, i.e. mid-day should mean what it says.

 

If we want to start and finish work at different times in winter and summer let's do that ourselves. I guess the key thing is synchronising the school day with the work day, as parents need that to be able to mesh the two. But we could always start school at 0800 in summer and 0900 in winter if we wanted and office work would follow.

[hazelm]

I tend to agree that the little point in changing the clocks. It seems to me that we should stick to GMT and have the sun at its zenith at noon, i.e. mid-day should mean what it says.

 

If we want to start and finish work at different times in winter and summer let's do that ourselves. I guess the key thing is synchronising the school day with the work day, as parents need that to be able to mesh the two. But we could always start school at 0800 in summer and 0900 in winter if we wanted and office work would follow.

I don't care how they do it.  Just wish they'd set it one way and leave it there.  It's this constant changing that drives me batty. 

[fahrquad]

If a business or activity requires sunlight, then their schedule can be adjusted accordingly without screwing things up for everyone else.

[hazelm]

If a business or activity requires sunlight, then their schedule can be adjusted accordingly without screwing things up for everyone else.

So many businesses don't open until 10:00 anyway.  They are already on their own DST.  It's all crazy.

[fahrquad]

I tend to agree that the little point in changing the clocks. It seems to me that we should stick to GMT and have the sun at its zenith at noon, i.e. mid-day should mean what it says.

 

If we want to start and finish work at different times in winter and summer let's do that ourselves. I guess the key thing is synchronising the school day with the work day, as parents need that to be able to mesh the two. But we could always start school at 0800 in summer and 0900 in winter if we wanted and office work would follow.

 

I am all for having school start at 8:00am in the summer.  It keeps those noisy little buggers off the beach. :huh:

[fahrquad]

This should probably be a topic for another thread, but I have long favored year round school for K-12, with periodic week-long breaks to accommodate family vacations.  Students seem to lose so much of what little they learned during the summer break.  I believe that some of the reasons for having summer vacation are so that kids could help on the family farm, schools could save on air conditioning costs, teachers could attend re-certification training, etc... .  As a grumpy old man with a few kids in the neighborhood, it would be nice not having the little buggers around during the day.

[hazelm]

I am all for having school start at 8:00am in the summer.  It keeps those noisy little buggers off the beach. :huh:

Our "noisy little buggers" do not go to school in summer.  Although starting mid-August can  make one think they do.  We used to never start until day after Labor Day (first Monday in September) and, even then first week was half days. 

 

Nowaday, children start school at varied hours depending on what grade they are in.   Then they are dismissed the same staggered way.  That keeps school buses busy all day.

[fahrquad]

...But today was the first weekday this year on which I was able to shave without the light on, at 0620 - something I always regards as a welcome milestone. :)

 

Much less blood loss that way.

[fahrquad]

Our "noisy little buggers" do not go to school in summer.  Although starting mid-August can  make one think they do.  We used to never start until day after Labor Day (first Monday in September) and, even then first week was half days. 

 

Nowaday, children start school at varied hours depending on what grade they are in.   Then they are dismissed the same staggered way.  That keeps school buses busy all day.

 

Here in SC school starts in mid-August here too.  It started after Labor Day when I went to school in NY but that was back in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

[fahrquad]

There are quite a number of articles and studies about the pro's and con's of year long school, but here is one for starters and I will leave this topic alone (largely because I don't give a flying flip either way)(no kids).

 

https://www.care.com/c/stories/3283/the-pros-and-cons-of-year-round-school/

[hazelm]

I tend to agree that the little point in changing the clocks. It seems to me that we should stick to GMT and have the sun at its zenith at noon, i.e. mid-day should mean what it says.

 

If we want to start and finish work at different times in winter and summer let's do that ourselves. I guess the key thing is synchronising the school day with the work day, as parents need that to be able to mesh the two. But we could always start school at 0800 in summer and 0900 in winter if we wanted and office work would follow.

Exchemist,  does not noontime zenith vary around the year?  Your idea is sound but would it work? 

[Moronium]

Exchemist,  does not noontime zenith vary around the year?  Your idea is sound but would it work? 

  

Not only that, but it only occurs at certain latitutudes, i.e., between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

 

At the poles there aint no zenith for 6 months out of the year, no matter how you want to define it, because....well, mainly because there aint no sun.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Moronium

[hazelm]

Not only that, but it only occurs at certain latitutudes, i.e., between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

 

At the poles there aint no zenith for 6 months out of the year, no matter how you want to define it, ibecause....well, mainly because there aint no sun.

I had not thought of that and you are right.  Dark up yonder so Santa can stay hidden.  :-) 

 

Seriously,  I in Missouri and a friend in Texas were watching sunrise times and became aware that in summertime,  I get the sun before she does and in wintertime, she gets the sun before I do.  Only a minute or two - maybe three - but it does happen.  Makes perfect sense.

 

Note to any Welshman or Englishman who has not looked at the USA map,  Missouri is quite a few hours north of Texas.