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Government

'Stupid' Daylight Saving Time Ritual Continues. But Why? (nbcnews.com) 241

Posted by EditorDavid from the falling-backwards dept.
Many Americans want to abolish Daylight Saving Time, reports NBC News: Since 2018, nearly all states have passed or entertained legislation that would drop the twice-a-year time shift. And 19 states have passed laws or resolutions in support of year-round daylight saving time, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. But there's a caveat: Nothing can change until Congress addresses a 1960s-era law blocking such action.
"This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid," U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said in March, reintroducing legislation to end Daylight Saving Time. In an official statement the Senator announced that "Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done."

But according to the Hill, "Both the House and Senate versions of the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 haven't appeared to go far. The Senate bill has been read twice and referred to a committee, while the House bill has only been referred to a subcommittee."

While America waits, another medical association has come out in favor of ending Daylight Saving Time, reports NBC News: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine is a medical association whose professionals advocate for policies that improve sleep health. On Tuesday, the academy released a statement calling on the U.S. to eliminate daylight saving time completely, stating that standard time best supports health and safety, as it aligns with people's natural circadian rhythm. Undergoing the time switch itself raises the most concerns. Research shows that after the "spring forward" time change, workplace injuries, car crash deaths and heart attack risk have all increased. One 2023 study found that a week after transitioning from the time change, people reported more dissatisfaction with sleep and higher rates of insomnia.
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'Stupid' Daylight Saving Time Ritual Continues. But Why? More

'Stupid' Daylight Saving Time Ritual Continues. But Why?

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  • The whining will continue no matter what (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @03:46AM (#63981004)
    Suppose the US ends daylight savings time, then what will happen?

    Another group will emerge saying that it was much better when we had it, and we should go back, blah blah blah blah.

    Nothing will change except a different chorus will be complaining. Someone will always be pissed off and airing their grievance. It's much more about the joy of whining then any real issue.

    • Re:The whining will continue no matter what (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nicubunu ( 242346 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:07AM (#63981020) Homepage

      All the time you can find somebody to complain about something. But now it appears a majority wants DST to go.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 )

        A majority may want to end it, but they don't agree on how to replace it.

        Some want year round standard time.

        Others want year round DST.

        I prefer keeping DST. I like having an extra hour of daylight in the summer without commuting to work in the dark during the winter.

        • Re:The whining will continue no matter what (Score:5, Funny)

          by nicnet ( 1232268 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @05:05AM (#63981102)

          maybe they should have 6 months of each?

        • A majority may want to end it, but they don't agree on how to replace it.

          If they ever decide to abolish it then the only intelligent answer is to put it in the middle. That way nobody gets to "win" (or gloat).

          Nobody wants to end it though, especially the politicians and press. They all enjoy the whining and complaining too much. This press gets two days of free stories a year and the politicians get to go around saying "I know, I'm working to abolish it, vote for me!"

        • Some want year round standard time. Others want year round DST.

          For at least three decades now I've been an advocate of splitting the difference.

          There's nothing hallowed about a one-hour increment. Park the clocks half-way between DST and Standard, and leave them there forevermore. Each side gets some of what it wants, and some of what it doesn't. It's a simple compromise that will put this fucking twice-a-year bullshit behind us.

        • Shift your working hours around (Score:4, Interesting)

          by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:02PM (#63982312) Homepage

          I like having an extra hour of daylight in the summer without commuting to work in the dark during the winter.

          What about shifting your working hours a bit around(*), so you drive at a time when there's still light?
          Or do you have one of those jobs where you absolutely have to show up exactly when a specific magic number shows on the clock?

          (*): instead of jumping suddenly a whole hour forward or backward, slowly follow the sunrise.

          This isn't as stupid idea as it seems: one big argument for more flexible working hours (i.e.: arrange your 8hours shift as you wish as long as everybody on the team is present between 11:00 and 15:00), is that more people can avoid rush hour and driver when there are less traffic jams.
          This both lowers time lost to commuting and reduces risk of accidents.

          (I am assuming that most /.ers are working jobs that can afford some fexibility (e.g.: IT admins) rather than jobs with fixed opening hours when the whole team needs to be around before opening (e.g.: working in a restaurant) )

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        No, lots of people want DST to stay and standard time to go. There's a big difference. Permanent standard time means earlier sunrise and less evening light in the summer, which people dislike. Permanent DST means waking up in the dark in the winter, which is actually bad for you.

        • Florida is exploring a potential loophole:

          * Move the part of Florida that's presently in Eastern time into Atlantic time and simultaneously abolish its observance of DST. Which would have exactly the same effect as permanent EDT, but skirts the present rule's lack of permanent DST as an option

          * Do the same thing with the western Panhandle (move to Eastern, abolish DST), if and only if Alabama does the same thing. They like the idea, but don't want to deal with being a different time than than their friends

        • Re:The whining will continue no matter what (Score:4, Insightful)

          by KiloByte ( 825081 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @12:42PM (#63981782)

          No. If you think it's too warm or cold, you adjust your thermostat, not redefine Celsius/Fahrenheit just to keep your setting intact.

          Want to wake up later? Move your business' open hours, not redefine time zones.

      • All the time you can find somebody to complain about something. But now it appears a majority wants DST to go.

        Majority of whom? And can they agree on how to end it and with which time? The overwhelming majority don't actually give a shit, and as such don't comment. It's wise to remember when you speak of majorities you only speak of those who are vocal about it. You can see this in Europe as well, when the vote to abolish DST mandates in the EU came about there was a citing of overwhelming support from those who responded to the survey. And yet nearly all the respondents came from a single constituency in Germany w

    • I remember the good old days when kids could ride their bikes until sunset, come home and set their clocks back an hour and wait for Halloween. Until President Bush ruined it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megane ( 129182 )
        Basically someone conned him into believing that it would save energy. It doesn't. There's a reason it's called "Daylight Saving Time", not "Energy Saving Time". But if we tried to go back now to the old dates, there would be enough things with the current time change dates burned in that it would not be fun.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jhoegl ( 638955 )
      DST doesnt exist in Arizona, to no ones tears.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megane ( 129182 )

        Arizona is not the entire world. The effect of DST is entirely dependent upon your latitude, and your longitude within your time zone. Arizona is at the western edge of MST. They can live without going forward an hour because they are already half an hour foward. Arizona is also in the south, where variations in the length of the day are smallest. Indiana, the other state famous for no DST, is also the westernmost state in EST.

    • No one likes day light savings. It's fucking stupid. Everyone knows it's stupid. Everyone hates it. There is "pro daylight savings" movement.

      • No one likes day light savings. It's fucking stupid. Everyone knows it's stupid. Everyone hates it. There is "pro daylight savings" movement.

        Not everybody lives in the same latitude so not everybody gets to have an opinion.

        Try to see it as "two more interesting days per year"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by teg ( 97890 )

        No one likes day light savings. It's fucking stupid. Everyone knows it's stupid. Everyone hates it. There is "pro daylight savings" movement.

        I love it. I live to the north, and having daylight longer in the evenings - rather than wasting it when sleeping at e.g 4 a.m. - is great. And in winter, earlier light is beneficial too,

      • I am ridiculously positive on DST. There are MANY MANY MANY people (vast majority??) who feel the same. Ha ha!

    • If they want to take things up a notch, make a flag with 19 stars

    • Suppose the US ends daylight savings time, then what will happen?

      Another group will emerge saying that it was much better when we had it, and we should go back, blah blah blah blah.

      Nothing will change except a different chorus will be complaining.

      Yes, but without the time change on their calendars they won’t have dates to rally around, so their complaints will be spread out so thin that they’ll go unheard in the noise. Right now, you get a majority of people complaining in unison twice per year.

      If your biggest complaint about time changes is the chorus of complaints about time changes, we’re currently living in the worst version of reality for you.

    • They can complain all they want, but at least the rest of us won't be doing the clock dance twice a year. And yes analog decorative clocks are still a thing.

    • Re:The whining will continue no matter what (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @10:41AM (#63981506)

      Suppose the US ends daylight savings time, then what will happen?

      Another group will emerge saying that it was much better when we had it, and we should go back, blah blah blah blah.

      Nothing will change except a different chorus will be complaining. Someone will always be pissed off and airing their grievance. It's much more about the joy of whining then any real issue.

      Another group wants to stay permanently on Daylight savings time.

      Here's the issue at heart, why some people think the shift is stupid, and some like it.

      The earth is a spheroid. The earth rotates at an axis not perpendicular to its exposure to its energy source. So the length of daylight is tied to that issue, and where you are on the globe will affect how that length of daylight becomes an issue. Let's dive in.

      Okay, let's take people living near the equator. DST seems pretty stupid. The length of daylight stays pretty close to the same all year round.

      So let's now take the mid latitudes. There is quite a bit of daylight difference between summer and winter. I live in Pennsylvania, roughly near the middle of the middle latitudes. So here, without DST, when my office was in the basement for a while, I rose in darkness, travelled back and forth in darkness, and didn't see any daylight outside the weekend for a month and a half at least.

      Now for the high latitudes. Eventually we reach a point where it is not possible to make adjustments. There are times when we don't see the sun at all for long periods of time, and other times when it never sets. Nothing can be done to adjust that. But people living there seem to understand better why the mid latitudes would like DST

      I've found that the people like Rubio who yes, is from Florida, are generally taking their own situation into account, and might not be aware that others have a much different daylight/dark environment.

      But what is really interesting is the claim that 1 hour shift actually kills humans, that all must be on one time. Okay, let's take that into consideration. Nw we need to know why outside of the lower latitudes, people that live in higher latitudes should experience death rates directly linked to the length of day/night, and it probably should not be possible for humans to live in the lands where sometimes it never gets dark, and sometimes it never gets light.

      As well, there are states that have do not recognize daylight savings time. Since the one hour shift kills humans, there should be a remarkable difference in longevity in states like Arizona and Hawaii, Not observing DST means that there will be overall less heart attacks, many less traffic accidents and people should on average live longer. Does anyone have that comparative research?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )

      Suppose the US ends daylight savings time, then what will happen?

      But it already has happened, why don't you know about it? Probably because it is so bad that it only lasts a year before they go back, and then everyone forgets. Then decades later, a new generation thinks that we should end it, smug about being so smart that they were the first to think of it.

      Lots of people "know" that it would be better than what we have. Except they really don't know, because they have never experienced (or even know about) the few times that it was turned off. They haven't lived throug

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      If it was such a good idea you'd think somebody would have tried it before.

      Oh right. [washingtonian.com]

  • EU (Score:4, Informative)

    by nicubunu ( 242346 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:06AM (#63981018) Homepage

    The same for the EU, abolishing DST was supposed to happen years ago, but it was postponed for unrelated reasons (what COVID has to do with DST? what the war in Ukraine has to to with DST?) and now it looks dead in the water.

    • Re: EU (Score:5, Informative)

      by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @06:01AM (#63981164)
      I noticed here that the discussions changed when the EU decided to abandon dst. Everyone was convinced that dst sucked. All of the sudden we had to decide which time to keep. That's when the advantages of dst became clear. Extra daylight can be charming when having a beer outside in summer. Etc.
      The discussion is still going on. There is no reason to hurry though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        DST sucks, and leap seconds suck. Clearly the right solution is to adjust clocks slowly, with 20 daylight-saving seconds being added or removed each day, except add 19 or 21 second when we need to adjust UTC as well. Over 180 days, this will give the full hour of daylight-saving time shift, without burdening everyone with a sudden clock change.

        You may now admire my brilliance!</s>

        • No. A better idea: adjust the length of the day so we have a good amount of sun in the winter and in the summer. No need to wake up when it's still dark, or go home at night. It's the best idea.
      • The same thing happened here in Alberta. The politicians were absolutely sure that DST was a bad idea and so we were supposed to switch to one permanent time and they took it to a referendum which was strongly in favour of keeping DST because most people want to not commute to work in the dark in winter and to have long, light-filled summer evenings

        DST seems to be one of those ideas that cause a little trouble twice a year that people love to moan about but when they actually think about it they realise

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by caseih ( 160668 )

          Not quite. The politicians were sure that Alberta hated the time change (they were correct) but the option was keeping dst year round or the status quo. The majority of votes cast were against dst year round. Had the referendum been about abandoning dst entirely it certainly would have passed. It was a stupid referendum, entirely about some politician's ego.

        • The same thing happened here in Alberta. The politicians were absolutely sure that DST was a bad idea and so we were supposed to switch to one permanent time and they took it to a referendum which was strongly in favour of keeping DST because most people want to not commute to work in the dark in winter and to have long, light-filled summer evenings DST seems to be one of those ideas that cause a little trouble twice a year that people love to moan about but when they actually think about it they realise it's the best option, at least when you live a long way from the tropics.

          Note that the honorable Marco Rubio is from Florida, where there is a lot less difference in day length, and he thinks DST is stupid. It's sort of understandable, but he's got blinders on - not taking other's situations into account.

          But in places like Alberta, Going full time Standard time, would really plunge people into darkness for quite a long period of winter.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            Not really. With DST year round most people in Alberta would go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. On standard time there morning commute is typically light while the return commute is on the dark. Families with children going to school overwhelmingly prefer standard time one the winter. I think most people prefer some light on them morning too.

            Albertans firmly rejected remaining on DST year round in the referendum. Had the referendum been about abandoning DST it would have passed easily.

      • That's when the advantages of dst became clear.

        That's not a DST advantage, that's an earlier clock advantage. You don't need to keep DST, you just need to keep summer time.

  • It is easy to take world standard time for granted.

    Before 1883, towns across the nation set their own times by observing the position of the sun, so there were hundreds of local times. Instead of Eastern Standard Time, for example, there was Philadelphia Standard Time or Charleston Standard Time.

    A short fascinating article about the history of standard time and DST: https://americanhistory.si.edu... [si.edu]

  • Assuming you wake up at 7 am, and you have your leisure time starting 6 pm, In a place where I live you have:
    • * "Winter" time only:
      • - mornings after/before sunrise 280 / 85
      • - afternoons with/without daylight 169 / 196
    • * "Summer" time only
      • - mornings after/before sunrise 218 / 147
      • - afternoons with/without daylight 228 / 137
    • * Daylight saving scheme
      • - mornings after/before sunrise 267 / 98
      • - afternoons with/without daylight 195 / 170

    Taking into account that I usually get up before 6 am, I would

  • Ah, the Circle of Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:10AM (#63981028)

    It's strangely comforting to know we can count on these stories twice a year. Isn't that worth a little inconvenience?

    • It is as if people like complaining so much about the time change that we keep the time change just so the news cycle is never empty. Just incase.

    • It's strangely comforting to know we can count on these stories twice a year. Isn't that worth a little inconvenience?

      No this is new. It's the first time you are being called stupid right in the headline if you support it.

  • I have lived with both options (Score:5, Informative)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @04:18AM (#63981030) Homepage
    If you are near the equator it makes little difference but as you get closer to the poles daylight saving feels like a practical way to do things. I live in New Zealand and I am far enough south that number daylight hours in day varies by several hours between summer and winter. Without daylights savings I would waste an hour of morning daylight in summer sleeping. By contrast I lived in China for a couple of years. Putting aside how stupid it is to have only one timezone for a country that wide even living in a longitude similar to their reference, Beijing, you had the craziness of being in full daylight at 5am in Summer and sunset way too early for summer.

    Having lived in both systems I know I far prefer daylights saving if you are outside the tropical latitudes.
    • It's practical to just leave it on DST year round outside the tropics. The sun being set before 5pm is way too early.

    • This. I live in the south of Norway, and it should even be more noticable here (we are closer to the pole than NZ). DST makes a real difference. The week before we switched now, I mentioned to my wife that I am looking forward to the switch, so we can have some daylight during the morning routine. Which involves having kids wake up, biologically sensing that is is morning, and driving to kindergarten/school/work preferably without it being utterly dark.

      I understand that for people who live on latitudes clos

      • Flood them out, then we can revert to standard time.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 6Yankee ( 597075 )

        I live at 65N and I'm going to work in the dark regardless. Sunrise at 1030, sunset 1430, except it never bothers to drag its arse over the trees. The darker evenings are just an unnecessary kick in the balls, right as the weather turns to shit for a month.

      • We're not talking about Norway, slightly south of Norway, the Tropics, or the Poles. This article is about the U.S., which needs to ditch DST, and switch to year-round Standard Time. DST in the U.S. makes little to no sense, and just needs to die.

  • I just read the thread about restaurants using QR codes instead of actual menus and waiters, etc... and had a thought about this DST stuff. What we need is a QR code that directs to a website that shows the current time and, of course, tracks DST. For convenience, maybe people could wear the QR code on their wrist and post them bed-side. Yes, I know people could simply wear watches and have clocks, but those have to be changed twice a year; this solves that problem.

  • They may agree on not wanting to set clocks (Score:3)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @06:06AM (#63981170)

    What they sure as all hell cannot agree on is what time to fix on. And the closer to the poles you are, the more relevant this question becomes. And the critical issue is not sunset, but sunrise.

    In Summer, sun rises around 4am normal time. In Winter, around 8am. I guess you see the problem. Sure, if we lock it to DST, we could win that extra hour in Summer, because 4am to 5am, barely anyone needs that sunlight and we sure love that the sun only sets at 10pm. But in Winter, locking the clock to DST means that the sun rises at 9am and your kids walk to school at nighttime.

    And this is Central Europe. Not Skandinavia.

    I'm not waiting for the bozos to come to a decision anymore. I have flexible work hours. And March to October, I come an hour later. That's my simple solution and I don't give half a fuck about DST anymore. Actually, I live on UTC year round. It makes coordinating with the people I know much easier, who just so happen to also live their life on UTC.

    The rest of the world can do what they want, the impact they have on me is sufficiently minimal that I don't give a fuck.

    • Re:They may agree on not wanting to set clocks (Score:5, Informative)

      by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @09:13AM (#63981372) Journal
      Scientists/biologists agree that standard time is much better health-wise the daylight savings time, no matter what the beer'in-the-evening crowd thinks they would like. It just isn't good for us all year, especially winter as you say.

      • Like I said, I disconnected from this discussion a long time ago. Since I don't go to bed before midnight, the evening-beer-topic doesn't come into play (whether I drink that at my 7pm or your 9pm doesn't matter to me), and since I don't go to work before 7am my time (i.e. 9am DST/8amCEST), I don't have a problem with sunrise either.

        The whole clock adjustment madness can blow me.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Everyone who doesn't like the time change is free to do the same thing. Except for most people it means getting out of bed up to an hour before they absolutely have to, so bitching about time changes it is.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsqr ( 808554 )

        Scientists/biologists also agree that it's much better health-wise if you stop eating red meat, and get off your ass and exercise regularly. I don't see a lot of people jumping on that bandwagon.

    • But in Winter, locking the clock to DST means that the sun rises at 9am and your kids walk to school at nighttime.

      So? At some point they need to learn to not be afraid of the dark. Since you made the effort to point out that it's Central Europe and not Scandinavia I feel the need to point out that kids still go to school in Scandinavia, even in winter and they are just fine.

      Don't "think of the children" this argument. Learn to be a proper parent.

  • Representatives representing people from 19 states have signaled that they prefer âoeswitching time twice a yearâ over âoeall year standard timeâ as they are well aware they can already do the latter any time they want, while the former is at the mercy of a dysfunctional congress.

  • Why? Because, idiocy. (Score:4)

    by msauve ( 701917 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @06:47AM (#63981240)
    >19 states have passed laws or resolutions in support of year-round daylight saving time,

    People either follow solar time (e.g. farmers), or a civil time which developed in the absence of DST, with noon being roughly mid-day. Wanting to replace something as stupid as DST with something even more stupid, like "year-round" DST, is something expected of a politician.

    Don't complain that it gets dark at x o'clock. It always has, up until idiot politicians started screwing with timekeeping for no real benefit. Don't try to legislate change to a timekeeping system which developed over millennia.

    People who live on the eastern edge of a timezone tend to complain that it gets dark too early (based on conventional business hours). But change to DST, then on the western edge, it stays light too late. Business and school hours developed as the compromise, based on standard time. You want more sunlight after work? Start work earlier.
  • How many different ways can you spin the same story every year for the rest of your journalism career? Not many, it seems. This looks like an easy target for LLMs. In fact, here you go with all the usual hyperbole (I didn't even need to prompt ChatGPT to include hyperbole!):

    Daylight Saving Time: An Unnecessary Relic of the Past

    Every fall, we are subjected to a ritual that disrupts our lives, causes confusion, and, in many cases, poses health risks. It's time to call a spade a spade and declare that Da
    • Just had a thought: Perhaps journalists/editors use writing the biannual DST story as a kind of forfeit or punishment, e.g. "If you lose this drinking game you have to write the DST article tomorrow!"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shakrai ( 717556 )

        Perhaps journalists/editors use writing the biannual DST story as a kind of forfeit or punishment, e.g. "If you lose this drinking game you have to write the DST article tomorrow!"

        This is more accurate than you know. Newsrooms are workplaces like anywhere else, with various rituals and customs that determine who draws the short straw. I used to work in local news (IT side, not reporting) and saw all manner of silliness amongst the journalists to determine who got to cover the shitty/tedious stories. Thinking about it, most of the stories were pretty tedious for the reporters and cameramen. Building caught on fire? Sounds exciting, except, you're gonna be there for at least 8 hou

  • You want to keep nice long summer evenings, and you do not want sunrise at 4am? Then just keep it. It is fine.

  • curious (Score:4, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @09:02AM (#63981354) Journal

    Every other /. story I checked that references a US legislator identifies either immediately or in context that the lawmaker is either a Republican or Democrat. "Democrat Elizabeth Warren" or "Republican speaker", etc

    Yet this one doesn't. (The OP does, for that matter.)

    Could it be that the author/editor here likes the proposed idea but ... simply can't stomach the idea of agreeing with (much less endorsing something proposed by) a filthy Republican?

    You guys are hilariously childlike.
    And, transparent.

    Also, curious that both articles fail to note that generally the developed world (the part that matters) ALSO does daylight savings time (about 70% of the countries; those that don't are like Azerbaijan, Iran, Jordan, Namibia, Russia, Samoa, Syria, Turkey and Uruguay). Apparently the "well Europe uses it" argument so favoredfavored by metric advocates doesn't apply here?

  • Yet, the US still can't get it done.

    • Such is the state of our government 'system'. Modern work schedules are easily flexible to adjust with our needs - at this point just pick one of standard or saving time and stop changing the damn clocks.

  • Is TFA referring to the ritual of the hour change or the republishing of the same story every six months?

    • Coming here with popcorn to argue and complain about having to change the clocks twice a year is the ONLY pleasantry of still having DST.
  • Some of the reasons for change are hard, like when you have 2 Canadian Provences and 1 US state locked in a power grid that would require all 3 to agree to a change. I live in Ontario, my hope that Quebec would be agreeable is slim, usually Quebec takes the opposite stance to Ontario, cuz why not.. Never mind trying to get a US state to join in on the change. Why would the US have to care about when a Canadian sees the morning sun? The legacy of technical debt in the power grid will be more of an issue for

  • for what, more than 25 years now? You haven't missed a switch yet in all that time, so yeah, the whole process continues just for this tradition... ...and hell, even if they did stop the switch (in either direction), you'll probably still have the biannual post because then we have to talk about how it still sucks, one way or another.

    So, there we are. It's all about ranting on /., because if we didn't rant here, we'd feel something more fundamentally wrong in the universe...

  • Mostly Republicans want to make DST permanent because they think it gives them a free hour of sunlight.

    IIRC it was Sitting Bull who had strong words for such stupidity.

    The irony is that plan approximates Solar Noon to 1PM.

    This is an affront to all of: science, Nature, God, and Nature's Creator. Pick any.

    They think if schools had Summer Hours, like most businesses, the very fabric of society would fall apart. Imagine looking up hours on Google - inconceivable!

    Meanwhile, they are elevating the State above G

  • It's been shown time and time again people spend less when the Sun goes down. The lobby that's keeping daylight savings Time around is the retail shopping lobby who doesn't want to lose the sales. For the same kind of reason you're going back to the office whether you like it or not and whether there's any reason for you to or not. Doesn't affect your productivity but it does affect commercial real estate values.

    You are not a human being. You are an input on a spreadsheet for a billionaire. The sooner yo

  • I remember it being explained when I was in school as it gave farmers an extra hour of daylight to work. We haven't been an agricultural based country in fifty years or more. We are moving into a tech based country and business being on a global market so there is no need for the Daylight Saving time

  • An experiment is required (Score:4, Funny)

    by q_e_t ( 5104099 ) on Sunday November 05, 2023 @01:22PM (#63981916)
    1/3 of zip codes assigned, at random, to permanent DST, 1/3 to status quo, and 1/3 to permanent lack of DST. See which group does best. Implement findings.

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