changing the clocks - why?
Discussion
Amusing anecdote from site above 
link above said:
Palestinian Terrorists
In September 1999, the Palestinian West Bank was on daylight saving time while Israel had just switched back to standard time. West Bank Palestinians prepared time bombs and smuggled them to Arab Israelis, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded—one hour too early—killing three terrorists instead of the intended victims—two busloads of people.
blindswelledrat said:
hey, dont knock it. im up to six minutes now.
plus, the collection of time is coming along too.
You are wasting your time.
No electrician on earth will be able to wire time and daylight to a car battery
ah, but you see, im waaay ahead of you. im not an elctrician.
zebedee said:
only reason I have seen is something to do with more efficient use of energy - but bearing in mind we put the lights on an hour earlier now, how is that efficient?
what is the point?
I reckon it's a conspiracy to get me locked up. I'll know for sure if I get a note through the door with the name and address of the
responsible for changing the clocks. Dark at 5pm now... really really pisses me off. It's all the fault of some do gooder early riser, you know the type, totally convinced that the entire world would benefit if only everyone started their day at 5 am sharp.
Apparently one of these chaps was walking around when he noticed that many other folks were having a lie in. How inefficient he thought. He concocted the idea of daylight saving which basically means getting up an hour earlier in summer so that we can all be more like him.
This was later justified by claims that cows could tell the time so farmers, who are self employed and so can get up when they want to, had to be ready for them when they turned up. Also we were told that walking to school in the dark was so much more dangerous than walking home in the dark. More recently our friends at Health and Safety have sagely informed us, based on studies done decades before our modern cars and roads and when many more cycled or walked to get around, that dark roads in the evenings is a greater hazard than dark roads in the mornings.
In short - interfering busybodies.
Apparently one of these chaps was walking around when he noticed that many other folks were having a lie in. How inefficient he thought. He concocted the idea of daylight saving which basically means getting up an hour earlier in summer so that we can all be more like him.
This was later justified by claims that cows could tell the time so farmers, who are self employed and so can get up when they want to, had to be ready for them when they turned up. Also we were told that walking to school in the dark was so much more dangerous than walking home in the dark. More recently our friends at Health and Safety have sagely informed us, based on studies done decades before our modern cars and roads and when many more cycled or walked to get around, that dark roads in the evenings is a greater hazard than dark roads in the mornings.
In short - interfering busybodies.
Isn't it something to do with Scottish crofters or something like that? Apparently they wanted extra light in the morning so persuaded those in charge to change the clocks back to make the mornings lighter. Shame that there aren't any crofters left any more and that now the evenings are so dark and depressing. Think I must be getting S.A.D. or whatever it's called 
I heard the crofters story too, cow milking or something. However, as the EU has destroyed British agriculture the argument is no longer valid.
Who organises what time we're on anyway? The Home Secretary? It's about time somebody organised a petition to stop these dark evenings and stay on BST all year round. Far more sensible and less aggro for everybody. Where do I sign?
Who organises what time we're on anyway? The Home Secretary? It's about time somebody organised a petition to stop these dark evenings and stay on BST all year round. Far more sensible and less aggro for everybody. Where do I sign?
Time to post the same link I post every single frikkin' year...
www.straightdope.com/classics/a910906.html
For those too lazy to click the link
www.straightdope.com/classics/a910906.html
For those too lazy to click the link
Straightdope said:
Dear Cecil:
One thing I have never understood is daylight saving time. Why can't we just put the clock forward a half hour next spring and then never touch it again? --Chris Tittle, earth
Dear Chris:
The newspapers have been trying to explain this for years, and still nobody gets it. Time to bring out the big battalions. People have the idea that the purpose of daylight saving time is to give them more time to frolic on summer evenings. Hah. The real purpose is to conserve energy. You want to line up the hours of daylight with the hours most people are up and about. That way they'll use the lights less and we'll waste less oil, coal, etc.
On December 21 sunrise is around 7:20 AM and sunset around 4:40 PM--business hours. Fine. Problem is, as the day lengthens you get more daylight in both AM and PM but you need it mostly PM. Rather than try and noodge the clock ahead every day, you bide your time till April. Then bam, you switch to DST, thereby shifting an hour of wasted daylight from morning till evening. When the days start to get shorter again, you shift the hour back. It's a hassle but it's more effective than this half-hour-split-the-difference nonsense.
Now for questions from the class.
- Why do we need to change the clock at all? Why don't we just get up earlier?
Yeah, right. Besides, this is the 20th century. You do what the clock tells you to do. When the masterminds behind it all want people to dance to a different tune, they don't retrain the populace, they change the clocks.
- Why are farmers against daylight saving time?
Because they're idiots. They claim DST makes them get up when it's pitch dark. Like hell. Farmers can get up when they want (subject to the OK of the cows, of course). Except on market days they don't have to be in sync with the rest of us. They just don't feel like resetting the alarm. TFB.
IDIOCY OF FARMERS EXPLAINED
Dear Cecil:
As a farmer, I resent being called an idiot. The reason we are against daylight saving time is that our crops can't stand the extra hour of sun in the dry part of the year. They burn up and wilt. --J. Bass, Dallas, Texas
Dear J.:
This is a joke, right?
Dear Cecil:
You didn't know how close to the truth you were when you attributed the farmer's schedule to the cows in your column about daylight saving time. It's true clock time doesn't mean much to a farmer or his cows. The problem arises when the milk cans, filled from the bulging udders of cows ready to give milk at the same point in "God's time" each day, end up sitting on the station platform while the trains (running on Man's time, which has been set back an hour) obstinately refuse to show up to carry the precious fluid to you waiting city dwellers with your dry Cheerios. Get with the program, Uncle Cecil. --Terry Stibal, Mount Vernon, Illinois
Dear Terry:
You think the farmers have ever heard of, say, a refrigerator?
Dear Cecil:
I left the farm 35 years ago, but I still remember the farmers' quarrel with DST, at least in Wisconsin. It had nothing to do with cows and clocks, but rather with farmers and clocks. As soon as farmers began working according to the clock instead of according to the sun, along came DST and robbed farmers of two hours each day. This is how. Field crops become damp with dew every evening, and are dried by the sun every morning. Crops ready by 8 o'clock "sun time" now were not ready until 9 o'clock DST. Thus one hour was lost in the morning. Then at the end of the day, farmers working by DST knocked off at 7 o'clock, which was only 6 o'clock "sun time." Thus they lost another hour in the evening. The unanswerable question, of course, is why farmers ever work according to clocks. --Frederick A. Kreuziger, Dallas
Dear Frederick:
I'll say. I was kidding when I said farmers were idiots, but now I'm starting to wonder.
simpo two said:
I heard the crofters story too, cow milking or something. However, as the EU has destroyed British agriculture the argument is no longer valid.
Who organises what time we're on anyway? The Home Secretary? It's about time somebody organised a petition to stop these dark evenings and stay on BST all year round. Far more sensible and less aggro for everybody. Where do I sign?
Cart, horse. If you want more daylight after work, simply get up and start work an hour earlier.
i.e. surely it's more sensible to change work and school hours. So, office workers on 9-5 (for argument's sake, this isn't a debate about who works the longest hours!) work 8-4 instead. Job done, and we keep GMT all year round. Farmers and crofters can do whatever they want, I'm not sure why they care about what time it is.
Greenwich Mean Time reminds the world that we invented the system
althouth I guess quite a few americans would think it's something to do with Connecticut
I think the long and short of it all is that we love having the BST time, longer summer evenings, sit outside the pub till 10:30pm etc etc, and I think we would all love to be on BST all the time but can't as it would mean ditching good old GMT. The time that the rest of the world references itself to.
What kind of country would we be if we lived by one time and made the rest of the world reference itself to a time we don't use any more!
There's your answer, no arguement, no questions!!
What kind of country would we be if we lived by one time and made the rest of the world reference itself to a time we don't use any more!
There's your answer, no arguement, no questions!!
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