DST

[ToddG]

From the NIST web site:

Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday March 10, 2013, at 2:00 am local time.

Probably a question for the pilots among us...

Why does it happen local time instead of, say, 0200 Eastern? By doing it on local time, it causes a temporary break from normal time zone differences. We jump forward at 0200 Eastern, so it's 0300 Eastern but still 0100 Central... EDT is two hours ahead of CST for that hour, etc.

I figure there has to be some intelligent reason for it, but I can't figure out why the system doesn't just synchronize every time zone simultaneously.

[LHS]

That would assume that DST is at all logical.

I'm so glad I live in a place that ignores it entirely.

[Tamara]

I like DST so much that I think we should just stay on it.

Snip that hour of daylight off the front end of the day where it's only useful to roosters and paperboys and stitch it on the other end where decent human beings can use it.

[hufnagel]

I never understood it because, animals don't care. they're going to get up when they get up, and you better feed them when they do, otherwise they get all kinds of mad.

[Drang]

From the NIST web site:


Probably a question for the pilots among us...

Why does it happen local time instead of, say, 0200 Eastern? By doing it on local time, it causes a temporary break from normal time zone differences. We jump forward at 0200 Eastern, so it's 0300 Eastern but still 0100 Central... EDT is two hours ahead of CST for that hour, etc.

I figure there has to be some intelligent reason for it, but I can't figure out why the system doesn't just synchronize every time zone simultaneously.

1) Pilots operate on Zulu Time, not local time.
2) Because bars open and close their doors according to local time, not Eastern Time.
3) Ben Franklin invented Daylight Savings Time as a joke, stop trying to make it make sense.

[Shellback]

I like DST so much that I think we should just stay on it.

Snip that hour of daylight off the front end of the day where it's only useful to roosters and paperboys and stitch it on the other end where decent human beings can use it.

Yet again, the voice of reason.

[LHS]

I like DST so much that I think we should just stay on it.

Snip that hour of daylight off the front end of the day where it's only useful to roosters and paperboys and stitch it on the other end where decent human beings can use it.

If I could, I would send you our excess daylight in return for your blessed darkness.

[GJM]

Equally confusing is living primarily in Alaska and making appointments with others in the other conus time zones. I tried to get our company to switch to Zulu time, but I lost.

[David Armstrong]

Can you imagine the mess in Russia, with 11 time zones!?

[YVK]

Can you imagine the mess in Russia, with 11 time zones!?

Trust me, between alcohol haze and people not giving a damn about anything, nobody even notices it over there. Besides, last I heard Putin simply cancelled DST there.

[jetfire]

I like DST so much that I think we should just stay on it.

Snip that hour of daylight off the front end of the day where it's only useful to roosters and paperboys and stitch it on the other end where decent human beings can use it.

Let's be friends because this is truth. I like staying up until 9pm and having it be light.

[JFK]

It is clear to me that 30 round magazines and semi automatic firearms are the cause of DST. This is why we need to make sure our small children, criminals and prohibited persons are not able to access these tools. Sure this year it is one hour, then it is two, then three. Where does it stop? We need reasonable restrictions on DST. It is just the moral thing to do.

[Byron]

At my previous job I frequently had to participate in conference calls with our sister offices in foreign locations. Getting NYC, São Paulo, Glasgow, London, and Mumbai together on the phone is frustrating enough on a normal day, but near the DST shift everything goes out the window. I had always known that DST wasn't a universally-observed practice, but I hadn't previously realized that even among countries that do observe DST, the changeover date is not universal.

People used to look at me like I had three heads when I would dare suggest that we use Zulu time. Apparently it would have been 'weird' to try such a radical thing, and the status quo was doing just fine. I guess people really like asking things like, "Wait... 12:00 my time or your time?" on a daily basis.


I like DST so much that I think we should just stay on it.
Agreed.

Or if we can't all agree to just stay on DST all year long, I think Plan B should be the Daniel Tosh strategy (NSFW language):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4J2IKVMUxE


By the way, if you ever have a job where you have to give speeches in front of people, pepper in the phrase "suck it."

[RoyGBiv]

From the NIST web site:


Probably a question for the pilots among us...

Why does it happen local time instead of, say, 0200 Eastern? By doing it on local time, it causes a temporary break from normal time zone differences. We jump forward at 0200 Eastern, so it's 0300 Eastern but still 0100 Central... EDT is two hours ahead of CST for that hour, etc.

I figure there has to be some intelligent reason for it, but I can't figure out why the system doesn't just synchronize every time zone simultaneously.

For the vast majority of everyday events, it's easier to make the change based on local time, at a time when most people would not have any appointments.
Would it be more or less convenient if the change happened at 00:00 GMT (Zulu), when it's 14:00 EST, 13:00 CST, 11:00 PST? What would that do for Sunday sports schedules? Oy Vey!

I've never had a problem scheduling international conference calls for Monday morning after a time change. I try not to work on Sundays if I can avoid it, so the dust is pretty well settled by Monday.