Daylight Savings in the other end of the world

OK, it's just coming up to summer here, so the daylight lasts longer.

In winter, the 'shortest day' is 10 hours or so - from 7am to nearly 5pm, non daylight savings time. (information gained from [link|http://www.auslig.gov.au/cgi-bin/gazmap_sunrise?placename=sydney&placetype=0&state=NSW#loc|here].)

In summer, (pretending we're still on non daylight savings time), the 'longest day' is 14 and a bit hours - from 4:40am til 7:05pm. I guess more people can make use of the evening daylight than the morning. The decision to implement daylight savings in Australia was decided by referendum in 1976. ([link|http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/crd.nsf/pages/time2|A History Of Daylight Savings])

There's stacks more Daylight Savings links available at [link|http://www.dstc.qut.edu.au/DST/marg/daylight.html|this site].

John.

OK, so on both sides of the equator, Daylight "Savings" Time is designed to shift daylight an hour later on the clock in the summer. (Which is why it's called "Summer Time" at least in several Northern European countries; probably some English-speaking ones, too).

And that's all well and good, *if* you happen to live in an old-fashioned agricultural society where lots of manual labour needs to be exerted -- on un-flood-lit fields -- during hay-making and harvest time. Also, it might be useful -- or at least not actively harmful -- in climes closer to the equator (like Streyelya, no?), where the day length doesn't vary as much as elsewhere.

But the nearer you get to the poles, both North and South, the more the day length varies; the longer and shorter are the summer and winter extremes. This means that for a large part of the winter season, ordinary folks' working hours (say, "nine to five", or eight to four which seems to be more common in practice at least in Scandahoovia) give them precious little daylight left after work (in mid-winter, none at all).

And since I couldn't really care much less whether it's dark outside my workplace window until 9:30 in the morning or until 10:30 -- I'm stuck in there, working, regardless -- but I *do* care a little bit whether I get to go home from work in the afternoon, or in what feels like the middle of the night, the time I'd most want Daylight "Savings" Time to be *on* -- is exactly the time when it's been shut *off*!

Also, at least up here in the rather rich and thoroughly industrialized countries under the North Star:

the day is pretty long anyway in summer;
agriculture is a tiny industry, employing some low single-figure percentage of the population;
agriculture, too, is thoroughly mechanized -- the farmers have headlights on their tractors and combine harvesters nowadays.

So Daylight "Savings" Time is lot less necessary in summer, now, than it perhaps once used to be.

Which means, all together, that AFAICS the whole Daylight "Savings" Time system is thoroughly fucked up: It's exactly bass-ackwards from what it oughta be. Daylight is a much more precious resource, to be "saved" for (=shifted to) the time people can actually enjoy it -- i.e, *after* work -- in winter than in summer.

Post #17,960 by Meerkat 11/12/01 7:57:48 PM Reply	Daylight Savings in the other end of the world OK, it's just coming up to summer here, so the daylight lasts longer. In winter, the 'shortest day' is 10 hours or so - from 7am to nearly 5pm, non daylight savings time. (information gained from [link\|http://www.auslig.gov.au/cgi-bin/gazmap_sunrise?placename=sydney&placetype=0&state=NSW#loc\|here].) In summer, (pretending we're still on non daylight savings time), the 'longest day' is 14 and a bit hours - from 4:40am til 7:05pm. I guess more people can make use of the evening daylight than the morning. The decision to implement daylight savings in Australia was decided by referendum in 1976. ([link\|http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/crd.nsf/pages/time2\|A History Of Daylight Savings]) There's stacks more Daylight Savings links available at [link\|http://www.dstc.qut.edu.au/DST/marg/daylight.html\|this site]. John. On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #18,215 by CRConrad 11/14/01 8:29:59 AM Reply	(For J"M" & WB both) Why DST suxx nearer the poles: OK, so on both sides of the equator, Daylight "Savings" Time is designed to shift daylight an hour later on the clock in the summer. (Which is why it's called "Summer Time" at least in several Northern European countries; probably some English-speaking ones, too). And that's all well and good, if you happen to live in an old-fashioned agricultural society where lots of manual labour needs to be exerted -- on un-flood-lit fields -- during hay-making and harvest time. Also, it might be useful -- or at least not actively harmful -- in climes closer to the equator (like Streyelya, no?), where the day length doesn't vary as much as elsewhere. But the nearer you get to the poles, both North and South, the more the day length varies; the longer and shorter are the summer and winter extremes. This means that for a large part of the winter season, ordinary folks' working hours (say, "nine to five", or eight to four which seems to be more common in practice at least in Scandahoovia) give them precious little daylight left after work (in mid-winter, none at all). And since I couldn't really care much less whether it's dark outside my workplace window until 9:30 in the morning or until 10:30 -- I'm stuck in there, working, regardless -- but I do care a little bit whether I get to go home from work in the afternoon, or in what feels like the middle of the night, the time I'd most want Daylight "Savings" Time to be on -- is exactly the time when it's been shut off! Also, at least up here in the rather rich and thoroughly industrialized countries under the North Star: the day is pretty long anyway in summer; agriculture is a tiny industry, employing some low single-figure percentage of the population; agriculture, too, is thoroughly mechanized -- the farmers have headlights on their tractors and combine harvesters nowadays. So Daylight "Savings" Time is lot less necessary in summer, now, than it perhaps once used to be. Which means, all together, that AFAICS the whole Daylight "Savings" Time system is thoroughly fucked up: It's exactly bass-ackwards from what it oughta be. Daylight is a much more precious resource, to be "saved" for (=shifted to) the time people can actually enjoy it -- i.e, after work -- in winter than in summer. Christian R. Conrad The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
Post #18,324 by Meerkat 11/14/01 6:25:58 PM Reply	Easy - just shift to the wrong end of the world :) But seriously, yes, sounds like a strange set-up. More light daylight robbing, than saving. On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.

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