Now the Commies Have Gone Too Far: California Trying to Axe Daylight Saving Time
Now if they wanted to eliminate Standard Time in California, I’d be all for it. But this is a step too far:
With little debate, a bill to end California’s observance of daylight saving time cleared its first committee on Monday.
Assembly Bill 385 could make California the third state not to observe daylight saving time, in addition to Hawaii and Arizona. If approved by a two-thirds majority of both houses of the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, it would put a measure on the ballot asking voters whether or not the state should eliminate the practice.
I look forward to Daylight Saving Time every year and mourn when we must return to Standard Time. I like the extra hour of light at night, and could not care less when the sun comes up in the morning.
Naturally, California has the opposite opinion that I have, as it does with everything.
Just f**k California.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 6:57 pmIt would be better to just make daylight savings time all year. It actually is detrimental to health to force an abrupt change in your circadian rhythm..
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:01 pmWhat is it with the Internet? I see people giving this same wrong opinion everywhere.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:02 pmOne time, I stayed up all night and counted the hours to see if the sun would really come up one hour later. Then it dawned on me.
nk (dbc370) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:06 pmI love this: “The alternate option of keeping California on daylight saving time year-round would require federal permission.” Screw that. Where did the states place their testicles? Declare DST to be a year-round phenomenon, and let the feds roll in the tanks and try to stop it. If this be treason, make the most of it.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:07 pmYou mean Darkness Squanering Time? Get rid of it. Nice to see California doing something right for a change.
Dave Barry had the best take on it: the purpose of Daylight Saving Time is for Congress to show its power over the American people by forcing them to fiddle with their clocks twice a year for no apparent reason.
Chuck Bartowski (8489f0) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:13 pmWhat wrong opinion? I didn’t have a wrong opinion, I said if you liked it that way just do it all year.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:14 pmSomewhere between the coast and Denver there is a place with enough abandoned desert to slip in an extra twilight time zone.
hey, leaves the clocks alone, go to work an hour early and leave an hour early.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:15 pmThis one:
[UPDATE: Oh Good Lord. I misread MD in Philly’s comment. He was right all along!]
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:15 pmThat . . . doesn’t work for a lot of people.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:16 pmI thought you said you liked daylight savings time, then why not more of it?
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:18 pmWhat if the entire country moved their clocks 30 minutes once, and then left them there…..
reff (4dcda2) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:18 pmmourn when we must return to Standard Time. I like the extra hour of light at night,
by your own words my opinion is justified!!!
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:19 pmBecause not everybody has the freedom to go to work and leave whenever they like.
[UPDATE: Again, I do want DST all year round. I just don’t think it can be accomplished for many by shifting when you go to work.]
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:22 pmIf your quitting time is 5 p.m. period, then you want 5 p.m. to come earlier in the day (within reason) so you can do things outside after you get home.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:24 pmIt’s probably best they do away with the scheme and people conform to their comfort zone by changing their work-hours seasonally. What’s the difference?
There are certain things that everyone has to conform to or the thing dies by the disgruntled minority. That’s why strong-arm singularity is necessary in a socialist nation.
jcurtis (f4a47c) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:24 pmThere’s no extra hour of light. The day after the Daylight Time Savings change takes place has almost exactly the same number of hours of light as the day before.
That’s like saying, “My blanket is too short and won’t cover my feet. I’m going to cut a foot off the top to sew to the bottom to cover my feet.” You have not thereby improved your blanket, I assure you.
DST is a silly law that compels all your obligations to shift back and forth by an hour, twice each year. It’s a combination of medieval superstition and governmental busy-bodiness, and thus paradigmatic relic of the Woodrow Wilson administration. We should kill it.
This may be the biggest policy disagreement you and I have ever had, Patterico.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:25 pmWell, yes, the individual decision to go in and leave one hour early would not work for a lot of people,
it didn’t work for me the other day when the local hardware store decided to close an hour early without any warning, they were still inside and wouldn’t sell me 6 bolts.
But if the switched to DST one year and never switched back, everybody would be on the same schedule.
Painted Jaguar (a sock puppet) (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:27 pmI would have assumed that the legislature in Sacramento would prefer to spend more daylight, than attempt to save any of it.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:28 pmOf course you are right in the absolute sense, beldar, but the amount of daylight to use after your work day is over does change by 1 hour.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:28 pmI understand there is no extra hour of light. This is a battle between morning people and normal people. Normal people do not care about the hour of light at the beginning of the day during Standard Time. They are sleeping in as long as possible, rubbing their eyes, stumbling into the shower, shoveling down breakfast, hurriedly tapping out poorly reasoned and proofread blog posts, and getting to work at the last possible moment consistent with their professional obligations. Then, when they get home at the end of the day, they enjoy that extra hour of light to go for a walk, ride a bike, etc.
Lord knows what morning people do. I don’t even want to know. I know it has something to do with getting up at an unholy hour.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:30 pm“I like the extra hour of light at night, and could not care less when the sun comes up in the morning.”
Then you’re missing out, my friend. I have no opinion at all on the political or pragmatic elements of Daylight Saving Time, to me it’s a practical matter which bureaucrats can debate regarding practicality. I wouldn’t know.
But I started running an out-door cash business when I was eleven years old, which required me to be up and outside at five o’clock in the morning, every morning, without fail. I developed a great love of pre-dawn/approaching dawn light, almost like a Bob Wilson love of it.
It’s very, very beautiful. I don’t care about the politics, but while you’re still here on this planet, treat yourself to something wonderful. Get up really early in the morning and look at the sky. Aeschylus did.
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:31 pmShifting back and forth is indeed silly. This is why we should have DST all year round. You commie.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:31 pmI left off the wink emoji 😉 on purpose at the end of #17 above because of my confidence that the blog’s proprietor would have inferred it anyway.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:32 pm*shakes head sadly*
Morning people. See what I mean?
I’ve tried to be a morning person. I have. It’s pretty. You get stuff done. You exercise and start your day all perky. It’s great . . . for like four days.
Then reality sets in, and you get tired. And you go back to being a normal. And to hating Standard Time.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:33 pmNot just people. When the powers that be concocted daylight savings time one of their excuses was that it would be good for the farmers.
Any farmer could have told you that moving up milking time by an hour only confuses the cows. It doesn’t produce more milk, or even the same amount of milk.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:34 pmBeldar,
It should go without saying that all the righteous anger I am expressing here is tongue in cheek. It detracts a little from the humor to point that out explicitly, but this is the Internet, so it’s probably a good idea to do it anyway. For example, I recently tweeted: “I like free speech, but if President Trump wants to institute a social media shutdown for 24 hours after a mass shooting I’m good with that.” I had to spend the next 24 hours explaining to people that I was kidding.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:35 pmFor a brief period of time I’d regularly spring out of bed at the crack of noon.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:36 pmLet the farmers follow MD in Philly’s advice and start and end their day whenever they want. Why does a farmer care?
Courts, by contrast, begin and end at certain times, and care nothing about when the sun rises and sets.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:36 pmThere are three things every American should see: Manhattan (at any hour, or all of them if possible), the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas at sunrise. The first two are obvious, the last is because of the weird little fight between man-made neon light (before dawn) and approaching sunlight in the onset of natural light. Who will win? The sun, of course, but for a while the neon puts up an interesting struggle.
Look at more paintings.
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:38 pmI currently hold the Guinness Book of World Records award for most consecutive hours spent asleep in a row. I had pulled two consecutive all-nighters in college, and I came home on Friday afternoon and fell asleep at 5:30 pm. I got up at 11 a.m. the next day, only because I had to be at work at noon. That’s 17 1/2 hours of continuous sleep. I’d like to see anyone beat that.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:39 pmFarm workers care. They’re employees.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:41 pmYes, it is beautiful in the morning, especially around 4 am when it seems that the birds like to begin their pre-dawn chirping,
and it is especially beautiful when I can go back to sleep and not worry about getting up.
There was a certain beauty seeing the dawn come after being up all night on call,
but your body feeling crappy overall for not sleeping kind of blunted the pleasure.
Shifting back and forth is indeed silly. This is why we should have DST all year round.
See, now you came around to my point of view.
A little comic relief (of sorts) is a good thing amidst all of the total nonsense that we otherwise have to talk about.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:43 pmWelcome to my Navy, where our motto was, “Sleep til you’re hungry, then eat til you’re tired.”
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:44 pmI guess, but I would think agricultural companies would conform their times to the daylight, since it’s outdoor work. But I am no expert on their operations, so I could be wrong.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:44 pm“Courts, by contrast, begin and end at certain times, and care nothing about when the sun rises and sets.”
Well maybe we’d have better courts if they did. Humans are animals, and animals, properly living, are attuned to their nature.
“You’re on Earth, there’s no cure for that!” — Samuel Beckett
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:45 pm“If you sleep half the time, cruise is only three months long.”
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:45 pmActually, P, I think they have done experiments in the north during the long night to see what happens to a person’s biological clock without outside reference. I think their day and night lengthened to about 24/24 instead of 12/12.
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:46 pmThe surgical resident’s motto was eat when you can, sleep when you can…
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:47 pmMD in Philly,
I read your comment exactly backwards all along. Not sure how that happened. Sorry! That was indeed always my view!
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:47 pm“That’s 17 1/2 hours of continuous sleep.”
Oh for pete’s sake, I’ve had makeout sessions that lasted longer than that.
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:49 pmIt’s traditional, or it was, that graduating classes at AOCS put on a skit.
We broke tradition by making a video. It was called “Top Bunk,” and it was about how you were guaranteed 8 hours of sleep a day in our class. And whatever you got at night was extra.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:50 pmI’ve updated my earlier comments to show I did not, in fact, have a disagreement with MD in Philly.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:51 pmPainted Jaguar: MD has no hard feelings, he knew you would come around….
Painted Jaguar (a sock puppet) (f9371b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:58 pm#30 hunson abedeer,
Speaking of Manhattan at dawn, I assume you’re a fan of the opening scene of the film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:02 pmThat’s odd. None of my makeout sessions lasted more than three hours before we got down to business.
Are you sure you knew what you were doing? Did none of the girls mention anything about technique, like, “Vinny, you’re doing it wrong,” or , “I just remembered I have an early flight to Bangladesh, call me a cab?”
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:04 pm“That’s odd. None of my makeout sessions lasted more than three hours before we got down to business.”
Business? Heh. You clearly know nothing about art.
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:15 pmI’ve seen the sunrise over the mountains of Moab while standing on top of Masada. It was a grand sight, but not worth waking up at 3AM to see. We took the easy way up, the Roman road. If we had taken the original preRoman trail, we would have had to wake up at 2AM. The cable cars didn’t start until about 9AM, so it was walk the way.
I am guessing that sunrise over Grand Canyon must be similar but I don’t ever intend to wake up early enough to see it.
But Patterico is right. When Standard Time starts, rush hour in Miami takes place at sunset or after, and the people who can’t drive in daylight are even worse after dark.
kishnevi (f594bb) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:24 pmMy problem is, not only am I not a morning person, but I am also not an afternoon or evening person.
kishnevi (f594bb) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:26 pmMy business is an art, sir.
It’s an art and a science.
It’s everything fine and majestic about human sexuality, wrapped in bacon.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:26 pm“But Patterico is right. When Standard Time starts, rush hour in Miami takes place at sunset or after…”
I don’t dispute it at all from a practical aspect; like I say, I don’t dispute the political or practical angles, about which I really have no basis for an opinion. Just don’t cheat yourselves of something very beautiful, even just once in a while, that’s all.
“My business is an art, sir.” [but I do have to say, the bacon quip is truly awesome!]
Oh now come on, dood. Look, I normally have a great deal of respect for you personally (I’m from a Navy family myself! Right here! I dig it!!). But I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman: [That’s Ezra Pound for you illiterates at home] I won’t ever presume to lecture you about the military or the Navy especially, and in return, don’t you dare ever lecture me about art.
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:42 pmI’ve tried to be a morning person. I have. It’s pretty. You get stuff done. You exercise and start your day all perky. It’s great . . . for like four days.
Then reality sets in, and you get tired. And you go back to being a normal. And to hating Standard Time.
Yes, you are so right! And on top of it, after the first four or five days, you not only get tired but unfortunately get tired at 3:00 pm but still have work to do, so you end up desperately struggling to keep from nodding off in your office and dreaming about being back in your comfy bed.
Dana (995455) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:56 pmPersonally, I hate the constant shifting back and forth that DST forces us into. I’m firmly in the “pick one and stick to it” camp. I don’t particularly care if it’s “winter” time or “summer” time that we stick with, and if picking “summer” time makes more people happy, then that’s the better option. But this constant shifting back and forth is ridiculous.
As a computer programmer, I’m one of the people who bears the costs of DST. Did you know that if you’re writing a program to analyze time-stamped log files, it can sometimes be IMPOSSIBLE to know what time an event happened? In 2015, the “fall back” happened on November 1st — specifically, at 2:00 AM on November 1st, all clocks were reset to say 1:00 AM. So let’s say you have video footage that shows someone breaking into your store on November 1st, 2015, and the video’s timestamp says “1:30 AM”. Was that 1:30 BEFORE, or AFTER, the “fall back”? The video camera doesn’t say — but those two points in time, that are both labeled “1:30”, actually happened an hour apart. If you’re trying to match up that security-camera footage to, say, a suspect’s alibi (“Here’s a picture of me trick-or-treating at midnight, two hours away from your store”)… well, whether that alibi holds up is entirely dependent on whether that’s the “old” 1:30 or the “new” 1:30 (which was 2:30 according to the “old” time zone). If it’s the former, the suspect is in the clear. If it’s the latter, he’s still under suspicion, because he could easily have reached your store by 2:00 AM (which became 1:00 AM) in time to break in and appear on that footage.
If you’re confused by the previous paragraph — so am I. And that confusion is more than half the reason I want this “let’s shift our time zone back and forth” idea dead, decapitated, and buried at a crossroads with a stake through its heart.
Robin Munn (630f6e) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:56 pmMr. Aberdeer, just because I joined the Navy and can operate a forklift and gut a hog, which is where bacon comes from, as you’d know if your parents had “the talk” with you, doesn’t mean I have no appreciation for the finer things in life.
Not that I would lecture you about it. Just that I want you to know I do appreciate art.
As any glance at my collection of velvet paintings of Elvis and dogs playing cards would demonstrate.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:56 pmI have been known to frequent all the finer art galleries in Tiajuana because my passion for art just will not rest.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 8:59 pmhttps://ryanfisher.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/elvis-0011.jpg
This is nothing compared to my beach blanket.
Also the donkey painted to look like a zebra, but she died.
But, dammit, she was art!
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 9:11 pmFor Robin Munn’s sake alone, pick one and stick to it, indeed. My gosh.
Dana (995455) — 6/14/2016 @ 9:34 pmSorry of I confused anyone, Dana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56SAxtf-RTg
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 9:43 pm“As any glance at my collection of velvet paintings of Elvis and dogs playing cards would demonstrate.”
Hah. Totally righteous.
Now, THIS guy can play poker with my dogs and check out my (rather good) art collection ANY day of the damn WEEK!
See how it’s done, the rest of youse?
Anchors aweigh, my dear sir.
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:12 pmDaylight Savings Time reduces energy use and fights global warming. Of course, logic isn’t real strong with these folks.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:18 pm“Awwww, Daddy’s little monster! Here. Put on this magic amulet. It’ll grant you wishes. Like…. (CONFUSED) ponies, I guess, and other stuff kids like.”
— the real Hunson Abadeer
hunson abedeer (cacaf3) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:20 pmAnd Patterico, you coward, Double Daylight Time YEAR-ROUND!!!!11!!
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:20 pmAn alternative, which DOES get an extra hour of sun: We move the clocks forward 1 hour every day at 11AM, and back every day at 11PM. The unions will support it, so it will pass easily in California. Soon, there will be special clocks that will do this automatically.
It will play hell with DVRs though.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:25 pmWhy do you think Arizona doesn’t follow Daylight Savings Time?
Because it is hot! So the sooner it gets dark, the sooner it cools down. Arizonian’s spend time outside at night during the summer. Come to think of it, Californian’s do too.
Here is a fun fact: the Navajo Reservation does in fact participate in Daylight Savings Time. The Navajo Nation takes up nearly a quarter of Arizona.
But inside the Navajo Reservation is the Hopi Reservation. And, yes, the Hopi do not follow Daylight Saving’s Time.
AZ Bob (d6a3a9) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:31 pmDOWN WITH DAYLIGHT SAVINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s still light at 10 at night around here… which would be fine if I was 12 and trying to play wiffle ball until midnight but, Christ, I’m not 12 anymore. I think morning haters can just live with summer evenings getting dark at 9 o’clock.
Rich Horton (0ca444) — 6/14/2016 @ 10:39 pmI’m with you on this one – DST is way better than standard time.
aphrael (3f0569) — 6/14/2016 @ 11:22 pmAw for [bleep] sake. My automatic alarm clock that sets the time itself by tuning to the official time at the Naval Observatory, never has gotten daylight savings time right.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 6/14/2016 @ 11:25 pmMy nifty watch sets itself on the atomic clock broadcast in Colorado and always seems to know when to go back or forward an hour. Pretty cool if I remember to catch the hands swinging around at 2 am.
I am dismayed at the things our government finds to worry about. Particularly the guys in California.
Dustin (2a8be7) — 6/14/2016 @ 11:49 pmAnd I work at night and on a rotating set of days, so a lot of things like weekends and time of day have a lot less meaning to me. But when I have a nice afternoon with people I like I sure do appreciate the hell out of it.
Dustin (2a8be7) — 6/14/2016 @ 11:51 pmHow foolish. Do adults really need the government to tell them to start work at 7 AM instead of 8 AM?
cedarhill (abed02) — 6/15/2016 @ 4:51 amI blame the railroads for the establishment of time zones!
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 6/15/2016 @ 5:34 amWell, if the job is a government job like our host,
MD in Philly (cf3c76) — 6/15/2016 @ 5:42 amyes.
You are so 20th century, CS. everybody today knows the RR story was a lie. The reason for time zones was for the white Christian oppressors to keep the slaves, then later the oppressed workingman, laboring the extra hour.
There was also a false rumor it has to do with farmers and planting and harvesting and such nonsense. But trust me, it was strictly for oppressive American capitalist pigs to make more money and widen the income inequality gap.
Rev. Hoagie© (734193) — 6/15/2016 @ 6:54 amYes, they do. Have you ever owned a business? The idiot snowflakes today need to be told to report period. They’ve been taught the money is “owed” to them because education.
Rev. Hoagie© (734193) — 6/15/2016 @ 6:57 amAt the risk of developing a reputation I don’t need or want, I figure I’ll address this.
When people started proposing playing with the hour hand on their clocks in the late 1800s/early 1900s, one of the main excuses they came up with is that it would give farmers an extra hour to work their fields. It was an ideal selling point developed by people who knew nothing about farming, for the consumption of people who knew nothing about farming.
In reality the people pushing for daylight saving time were largely urban commercial interests who wanted office workers to have an extra hour of daylight so they’d go shopping. But they didn’t want to say it was about encouraging people to spend money. So they came up with silly arguments like boosting farm productivity.
Farmers did not want this help. It screwed things up for them as they couldn’t ignore the fact that even if they didn’t want to participate in daylight saving time, contractors/tradesmen, their employees, and their markets were going to be operating on daylight saving time.
Really, it’s the improvement in artificial illumination that unscrewed things for them. Artificial illumination is, pardon the pun, light years ahead of what was available in 1918 when this country first implemented daylight saving time.
This wouldn’t have been possible with the available headlights circa 1920, if anyone even put headlights on tractors in 1920 (and if the farmer had a tractor).
http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/463675/119403901/stock-photo-tractor-plowing-at-night-119403901.jpg
Also, a lot of animal husbandry has moved indoors where, ta da! Farmers can control the lighting, instead of depending solely on the sun.
http://www.illuminexlighting.com/dairy-farmers-milking-the-benefits-of-led-and-induction-lighting/
It works pretty much the same way with chickens and egg-laying.
Thanks to improvements to the electric light bulb the animals are no longer confused by daylight savings time.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:05 amFrom November (when Standard Time begins) to January in Los Angeles, the sun sets before 5 p.m. This is Communism. The latest it ever sets, in June and July, is 8:08 p.m. I realize there are places closer to the western edge of a time zone that get more light at night, but that’s not us.
Patterico (fb172b) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:13 amcause in the daylight anywhere feels like home
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:22 amThe main reason to support daylight savings time is because people sleep better in darkness. The sun rising causes us to wake. Having the extra hour of darkness at daytime helps us sleep in.
Win win.
njrob (a07d2e) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:36 amIn 1919 Nebraska passed a law that all tractors sold in the state had to be tested for power output by the University of Nebraska. I know this will stun most people, but at the time manufacturers were advertising power outputs that were wildly optimistic.
Being Nebraska, if there was a tractor for sale anywhere in the US it was for sale in Nebraska.
Sure enough I went through all the tractors tested in 1920 and only saw headlights on one of them.
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe20s/machines_08_01.html
Which must have been about as useful as the proverbial t*ts on a bull. Aside from the general uselessness of headlights on anything in 1920, it was illegal to operate your tractor after dark in many jurisdictions out of consideration for your neighbors.
Before dawn was fine. It would have been alright to shoot cannons before dawn as it was time for your lazy neighbors to get to work.
But by the same token as soon as it got dark and people quickly became tired of winding up the victrola they had nothing better to do than go to sleep.
This was before the time when the vast majority of farm houses had electricity, when radio was a rare and expensive luxury (if there even was a station within reception range) and, apparently, before the invention of recreational sex.
Fun fact: Feruccio Lamborghini started out as a manufacturer, Lamborghini Trattori, in 1948.
He didn’t found Lamborghini automobili until the 1960s when he finally had enough in his bank account to afford a supercar. And he discovered that the Italian builders of supercars were selling barely road-legal versions of their race cars. Lamborghini wanted a fast but comfortable grand touring car, and figured the only way he’d get what he wanted would be to build it himself.
This is probably the only Lamborghini I’ll ever be able to afford (it looks like someone even installed a lighting kit).
http://static.businessinsider.com/image/51367b916bb3f7105f000000/image.jpg
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:38 amOpposite here. DST can die in a fire.
It’s the worst thing ever.
Change business hours, not the clock.
SarahW (67599f) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:46 amin the sun is how you know if you talking to a sparkle vampire
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:52 amDST is terrible, at least here. I spend hundreds or thousands more dollars per year in air conditioning bills because it’s hotter, later, for one thing. And I just don’t see any countervailing benefits.
archyfeet (341ca0) — 6/15/2016 @ 8:56 amIf you look at the history of DST and the various iterations and tweaks the feds have come up with for it (introduced in WWI, reintroduced by FDR in WWII, etc.) the two main supposed benefits were supposed to be 1. increased productivity and 2. reduced energy consumption.
Naturally, the feds have been wrong on both counts.
One of the last times Congress played around with it was in the mid ’70s as a response to the Arab oil embargo. But Congress didn’t propose it only as a reaction to that; they believed it would have broader benefits. Somehow they figured DST would save on all forms of energy consumption.
Instead, since people wake up an hour earlier, go to work an hour earlier, and consequently can get home an hour earlier, they run their air conditioners more.
Or, they can have an extra hour to spend on the lake in their bass boat or on their jet ski. I’ve never seen any study that showed anything except, thanks to the extra hour for recreation, DST has led to an increase in fuel consumption.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:14 amKind of a time zone curmudgeon who would rather shift the time zone boundaries eastward to make it more like LA, Chicago, and Boston for everybody.
New Pacific – Idaho, Utah and AZ added.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:20 amNew Mountain – entirety of the Dakotas south to Kansas (outside of KC Metro), all OK all TX(!)
New Central – Florida, Georgia, all TN and KY, all OH and all MI with IN included
New East, remaining states, PA south to SC and and eastward
Toward the beginning and toward the end of Daylight Savings Time, it saves energy; in the middle, in the summer, it increases energy consumption as compared to not having it.
Daylight Savings Time is an easy way to get someone to become more of a morning person.
If we had year round Daylight Savings Time, people would gradually adjust their schedules, so it might be necessary to turn the clock ahead aagin one hour every twenty or thirty years or so. But then eventually, you’d lose a whole day and you’d be starting Saturday on Friday.
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:26 amFrom November (when Standard Time begins) to January in Los Angeles, the sun sets before 5 p.m.
The LA commute home is terrible enough, but in the dark? Those first weeks of November are depressing. The clocks should go an extra hour FORWARD during the winter so we can pretend it’s still summer. The weather’s nice enough otherwise.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:40 amNo it’s not. My lifestyle is evidence that if that’s the goal, it doesn’t work.
Hunting season is the only way to turn me into a morning person.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:48 amI said “more of amorning person”
Tp become a real morning person, everybody in the state would have to turn their clocks ahead three hours.
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:56 amIn late fall, thats a lot of time to kill in the dark out West, and it was made worse when upon the conclusion of the Sunday Night Football Game, I still had to deal with a 2 1/2 hour gap before the 11:00 news.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 6/15/2016 @ 10:08 amThere’s no reason businesses can’t choose summer hours.
The time should stay the same all year, or at the very least, DST be limited to REAL SUMMER, where the days are so long you can’t really tell the difference in the morning.
SarahW (67599f) — 6/15/2016 @ 10:32 amIf the hour is just a affectation and it doesn’t matter if the sun rises at 2AM and sets at noon, then just get rid of time zones entirely. At lest this way people on the East Coast would stop calling me at 6:30 in the morning.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 6/15/2016 @ 11:24 amPatterico,
You may be on something. On Dec. 15th of this year, the Sun will rise in L. A. at 7 am, and set at 4:40 pm providing 9:40 of daylight. But in San Francisco, the times will be 7:20 am and 4:50 pm (San Francisco is a over three degrees of Longitude west of L. A.) providing 9:30 of daylight; Portland: 7:50 am and 4:20 pm, 8:30 of daylight; and Seattle: 8:00 am and 4:10 pm, 8:10 of daylight.
The City of L. A. is screwed up, but I would argue that the silliness increases as you work your way north. On first blush you might consider a Vitamin D deficiency as the root cause, but with supplements and such, I think you need to look elsewhere. My theory is that communists and greens are clones from the same twig, and this is a twig that enjoys living in urban settings, and their only connection with nature is a high def flat screen. Real daylight is anathema to them, both personally and figuratively. Virtual reality is their way to experience nature, where penguins talk and dance, primitive cultures were one with Mother Earth, and energy is available in infinite quantities at every wall outlet. All their needs will be met with an EBT card, and anything that doesn’t conform to their virtual reality is a cause for mass action. Mowing lawns, raking leaves, bussing tables, weeding gardens, sweeping, cleaning, and all other such forms of drudgery are for lesser folks, folks who will work for cash and speak hardly any English. And the supporters of their non-profits, as well as the activities of their non-profits, are best viewed thru shaded lens in total darkness. But what about their children? Wouldn’t it be nice if they could play in the backyard, or walk the dog? What dog? What backyard? And even more to the point, what children?
Sunlight is their enemy.
BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 6/15/2016 @ 11:37 am5. Patterico (fb172b) — 6/14/2016 @ 7:07 pm
They don’t need to do that.
There is a master clock, I think somewhere in Washington, or maybe it’s in Maryland, becasue so much of the federal government is no longer located within the cnfines of the District of Columbia, that many many devices, including computers connected to the Internet connect to to correct the time.
If California tried to do anything on its own, it just wouldn’t work. People would find their cell phones and computers and locks, and everything set to the time Washington said it was.
What I would dspute is why do they say it so hard to get federal permission? If what it is is that a law needs to be changed, does California have no influence in Congress?
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/16/2016 @ 10:22 amTime does actually matter. It’s so basic I didn’t think to mention it, but it occurs to me it doesn’t occur to everyone. Celestial navigation. Using a sextant to measure the angle between a celestial body and the horizon.
I forget all of what used to be required. Mostly because not only wasn’t it my job to do them, it was nobody’s job to do them. I heard about them from the WWII vets. There was morning stars, and evening stars. The noon sight for latitude is no doubt the most useful of such sights. You can pretty much rely only on that and no where you are in the world. As long as you know what time it is.
Every once in a while the children who run today’s USN get something right and so I have to credit them when they do.
http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/ph-ac-cn-celestial-navigation-1014-20151009-story.html
We used to widely recognize this as a weakness in my day. In other navies. They’re fine as long as all their systems work. When I was assisting the evaluation for deploying battle groups I, and others, would throw them a curve and say they had suffered a power outage. Invariably they couldn’t function. I am glad we finally recognized this as a weakness among ourselves.
You have to be able to plan a mission with a slide rule. And be able to navigate by the sun and the stars. Even in the nuclear age. So when all else fails we can bring our ships close enough together to throw wrenches and rocks at each other.
Steve57 (ecac13) — 6/20/2016 @ 5:58 pm