Daylight Savings - why?
Discussion
98elise said:
Agrispeed said:
MrsMiggins said:
I don't understand it, and the talk about the farmers needing it makes no sense to me either. Do the cows on the dairy farm look at their watches to decide when they need to be milked?
Well, in a word, yes, they do!Because the cows are milked early, normally at dawn they know roughly when to start to get up. The last few weeks before the clocks change you have to spend much longer getting the cows to come in and they are restless. Also, before we had to milk as early as we do now (we start at 5:30) the cows would normally be milked at dawn, and therefore it would be too early or late if the clocks didn't change.
Also, it's horrible when you start milking in the dark and finish the morning milking before it gets light too.
It is limited to some degree by when the collection tanker arrives and what time the world starts moving. But you have a point, although it is nice to finish in the morning after dawn, rather than feeling like it's still the middle of the night!
Agrispeed said:
98elise said:
Agrispeed said:
MrsMiggins said:
I don't understand it, and the talk about the farmers needing it makes no sense to me either. Do the cows on the dairy farm look at their watches to decide when they need to be milked?
Well, in a word, yes, they do!Because the cows are milked early, normally at dawn they know roughly when to start to get up. The last few weeks before the clocks change you have to spend much longer getting the cows to come in and they are restless. Also, before we had to milk as early as we do now (we start at 5:30) the cows would normally be milked at dawn, and therefore it would be too early or late if the clocks didn't change.
Also, it's horrible when you start milking in the dark and finish the morning milking before it gets light too.
It is limited to some degree by when the collection tanker arrives and what time the world starts moving. But you have a point, although it is nice to finish in the morning after dawn, rather than feeling like it's still the middle of the night!
Over the next three weeks 90% of my mornings will start my day at 5am latest and I won't finish until 8 or 9pm and it's part of the job.
HoHoHo said:
Agrispeed said:
98elise said:
Agrispeed said:
MrsMiggins said:
I don't understand it, and the talk about the farmers needing it makes no sense to me either. Do the cows on the dairy farm look at their watches to decide when they need to be milked?
Well, in a word, yes, they do!Because the cows are milked early, normally at dawn they know roughly when to start to get up. The last few weeks before the clocks change you have to spend much longer getting the cows to come in and they are restless. Also, before we had to milk as early as we do now (we start at 5:30) the cows would normally be milked at dawn, and therefore it would be too early or late if the clocks didn't change.
Also, it's horrible when you start milking in the dark and finish the morning milking before it gets light too.
It is limited to some degree by when the collection tanker arrives and what time the world starts moving. But you have a point, although it is nice to finish in the morning after dawn, rather than feeling like it's still the middle of the night!
Over the next three weeks 90% of my mornings will start my day at 5am latest and I won't finish until 8 or 9pm and it's part of the job.
I do enjoy seeing and hearing the world wake up. Especially when you can watch the morning rush start when your all nice and warm and done half your days work!
Eleven said:
HoHoHo said:
Over the next three weeks 90% of my mornings will start my day at 5am latest and I won't finish until 8 or 9pm and it's part of the job.
It gets even worse in December right?
How about this, we make 1 sunday a month an hour longer and loose a day.
I really enjoyed the extra hour today, by 9 pm id had the full fry up, cleared up and off out on the bike. I looked at the clock and was surprised that it was only 12. 24 hours isn't enough on a Sunday, the extra hour really makes the difference.
I once seen a girl from Canada, she complained that she simply couldn't sleep at night in central Scotland in the summer as it never gets dark up here. Its true, on a good night in summer its 11 before the sun goes down and even then its not properly dark. Then its back up at 3 or 4 am. I find myself waking up before my alarm in the summer but in the winter its a utter chore.
I really enjoyed the extra hour today, by 9 pm id had the full fry up, cleared up and off out on the bike. I looked at the clock and was surprised that it was only 12. 24 hours isn't enough on a Sunday, the extra hour really makes the difference.
I once seen a girl from Canada, she complained that she simply couldn't sleep at night in central Scotland in the summer as it never gets dark up here. Its true, on a good night in summer its 11 before the sun goes down and even then its not properly dark. Then its back up at 3 or 4 am. I find myself waking up before my alarm in the summer but in the winter its a utter chore.
Rovinghawk said:
Agrispeed said:
True but I'm not bloody getting up at 3am!
You get up at the same actual time, regardless of what the figures on your watch say.The problem is that everyone else does different hours, so if you do get up very early or do nights, or anything that does unusual hours, it's a pain to do anything with anyone who doesn't or go out if you see what I mean.
Don said:
Depending upon where you were this would mean schoolkids travelling to school in the dark in the mornings. There again they'd get a little more light-time in the evenings for some outdoor exercise.
Back in the 70s and 80s when schoolkids didn't finish school at 2.30pm as they appear to these days I'd be travelling back from school in the dark.I don't get this clock changing - the only difference for me now is that I travel to work in the dark (it will be soon, anyway) and back in the dark and don't even get a bit of time to do jobs outside. It's stupid.
HoHoHo said:
Talksteer said:
HoHoHo said:
Don't understand why is this modern age we need to move clocks either way.
I can see no reason whatsoever.
Research appears to indicate that we get up too late and go to bed too late, there would be lots of health, economic and safety benefits from doing this.I can see no reason whatsoever.
Because every contract, working practice, tradition, passtime, hobby, club would have to change the "time" they operate at. The cost of doing this would be immense the number of years it would take would be massive.
You could try persuading everyone to wake up earlier by convincing them of the merits of this and hoping they will chance but in practice it would be very difficult as every institution is interconnected so would be out of step if they changed on their own.
On the other hand the government can just change the clocks which costs bugger all and we would see immediate benefits. What's more this is very easy to do and see what happens.
The problem is that for the 58 million of us who get marginally healthier and 0.5% richer we will barely notice, however a few tens of thousands of people will have some form of disruption (maybe a few places in Scotland will have to change school opening times) and will very vocally object.
Most of the population are in favour of doing it.
Terrible idea, let's not do it because we can't be arsed.
GMT is our "natural" timezone. BST was invented (I believe) to help make the most of the long summer evenings, particularly when the summer harvest was such a big part of our lives.
The issue is that modern life no longer really aligns with GMT - 12 noon is "mid-day" for very few people, if any. We rise later, go to work later and stay up later. BST is a better fit for modern life.
Scrap Daylight Savings and you end up with GMT all year round, which is the worst of both worlds. What we actually want is to have daylight savings all year, and stay on BST permanently. Either that or we all need to start working 8am to 4pm...
The issue is that modern life no longer really aligns with GMT - 12 noon is "mid-day" for very few people, if any. We rise later, go to work later and stay up later. BST is a better fit for modern life.
Scrap Daylight Savings and you end up with GMT all year round, which is the worst of both worlds. What we actually want is to have daylight savings all year, and stay on BST permanently. Either that or we all need to start working 8am to 4pm...
So we have a perfectly logical time system where the middle of the day coincides with the sun. We then for some reason set out "working hours" so that they don't match this perfectly logical day.
Then the supposed fix for this is not to get up an hour earlier but to change a whole time zone to "fix" this! Got to love human logic.
Then the supposed fix for this is not to get up an hour earlier but to change a whole time zone to "fix" this! Got to love human logic.
NerveAgent said:
So we have a perfectly logical time system where the middle of the day coincides with the sun. We then for some reason set out "working hours" so that they don't match this perfectly logical day.
Then the supposed fix for this is not to get up an hour earlier but to change a whole time zone to "fix" this! Got to love human logic.
Bob on. Maybe if we did this, and worked more to our natural clock, rather than some arbitrary timings we've inherited from who knows where, we'd actually be healthier, happier and more productive as well.Then the supposed fix for this is not to get up an hour earlier but to change a whole time zone to "fix" this! Got to love human logic.
NerveAgent said:
So we have a perfectly logical time system where the middle of the day coincides with the sun. We then for some reason set out "working hours" so that they don't match this perfectly logical day.
Then the supposed fix for this is not to get up an hour earlier but to change a whole time zone to "fix" this! Got to love human logic.
Yep - instead of fixing the thing that is wrong - we just fudge something else so now we have two things that don't work properly instead of one.Then the supposed fix for this is not to get up an hour earlier but to change a whole time zone to "fix" this! Got to love human logic.
The problem is however, moving the clocks to BST is easier (and cheaper) than trying to change the 9-5 work culture*.
(*and before any powerfully built company director types start berating me - yes I know many of you get up two hours before midnight and work 95 hours a day on average
)Edited by Moonhawk on Tuesday 28th October 11:36
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