Comments on: Software Now Wagging the Public Interest Dog

By: Wesley McGee

Wesley McGee — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 18:12:02 +0000

Capeche, that’s an interesting question. I suspect the answer would be quite complex, as the earth has many things that should act to provide equilibrium to the environment. (I had wanted to say to equalize the environment, but then I immediately realized that the environment is not equal throughout the planet.) Of course, many of these things are dependent on somewhat equal sunlight per latitude on the globe (i.e. water would evaporate quicker where the sun shone), and plus the oceans are a major component, as they provide most of the water for evaporation for weather, so I’d imagine that where the earth ‘froze’ would have a major impact (Daylight over the Pacific, vs over the Asia/Africa/Europe landmass).

OK, that’s my long way of saying “I don’t know”.

By: K B

K B — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 05:02:16 +0000

“What does it matter? If you don’t want your child to wait in the dark for the school bus, have the schools start later. If you want an extra hour of daylight in the evening, start work an hour earlier. If you want to be on the same time as New York, move to New York. You can’t change nature so learn to live with it.” — Pat

But Pat, your suggestions would require people to think, plan, and make decisions for themselves. Americans love to have a government which tells them to move their clocks back and forth. It makes them feel that every possible decision, down to the ticking of the clock, has already been made for them.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:44:42 +0000

The whole notion of moving the clocks is a huge mistake. Human childhood is plenty long enough for people to get a solid grasp of the vagaries of solar lighting, get used to it, and learn from it.

“Daylight Saving Time” cruelly confuses youths who are trying to wrap their minds around Planet Earth’s spin, tilt, and rotation around the sun. Not many kids get the benefit of 4D (or even 3D) solar-system-simulations, and probably none has ever been offered a good explanation of all the details involved in “what time is it?”

We are “higher beings,” most of us posessing the talents to eventually straighten out and comprehend things, to a greater or lesser degree, which were misrepresented to us as children. But it takes a long time to develop these higher faculties; it is cruelty beyond measure to knowingly lie to one in the process developing these higher faculties.

“What time it is” should be fixed, as well as possible (the Gregorian Calendar is good enough), because it screws up the perspective, and therefore development, of our kids.

The entire population of the world should use ONE time, all over the earth: GMT (or whatever). No fudging. Get used to it. Learn from it.

Grow.

[Can't you just taste the resentment?]

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:42:09 +0000

Here in Indiana, we recently introduced Daylight Saving time. For decades, Hoosiers did not want it until a pro-business Governor was elected on Dubya’s coat tails. Now the argument is about whether Indiana will be on Central or Eastern Time.

What does it matter? If you don’t want your child to wait in the dark for the school bus, have the schools start later. If you want an extra hour of daylight in the evening, start work an hour earlier. If you want to be on the same time as New York, move to New York. You can’t change nature so learn to live with it.

By: Capeche

Capeche — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:26:04 +0000

I myself have likewise always thought daylight saving time a bad idea, but this whole thing led me to want to ask another question:

If the earth stopped spinning or spun in such a way that one part of it was always facing the sun, would that part of the earth catch on fire, leaving the other part (the dark part) to turn into icey crystals?

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:08:15 +0000

well beyond the software problem is an airline problem. Since some international destinations closely follow the current American Standard time/ Saving time shift and locations dont.

There are landing time and landing rights issues that are at stake if the Congress does actually amend the start and end dates. Estimates are that the change could cost airlines $147,000,000.00 (whether that is accurate or not I dont know)

The story can be found here:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050518-9999-1b18airlines.html