Clock changing

[sobrique]

OK, so which sadist came up with the idea of sneakily stealing an hour?
First sunday after equinox, we put the clocks forward. Meaning it's now an hour earlier than it was last week.

It's very Orwellian don't you think? I mean, in as much as time is an arbitrary division of the day anyway. But rather than just going "we'll we're going to alter working hours the week after each equinox" instead we tell ourselves (in a deep and sonorous voice) that "It is now 7am. Anyone who thinks it is 6am is misguided and wrong, and should be reported to the Ministry of Day".

Oh well, I'll feel better once I've sorted out that coffee.

Comments

[eithnepdb.livejournal.com]

Nice spin there :)


Good morning ;)

We don't set ours back until next weekend in the states - oddly, I think we turn them back at the same time in the fall.

Worse yet - there are certain cities within states that rebel and don't turn them at all.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

I think that france changes clocks a week later too. At least, I seem to recall having to change my watch on the way over on the ferry, but didn't have to on the way back. That was a little surreal.

I thing 'first sunday after equinox' is a reasonable point - it's keyed to the same 'point' in the year, with the sunday meaning it's (generally) less inconvenient.

But then I have a 24 hour watch that's keyed to sunrise, sunset and phases of the moon so I like to 'follow' the pattern of the seasons.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I've long thought that changing the clocks twice a year is ridiculous. Apparently the USSR spent quite a while with completely wrong clocks, Stalin forgot to issue a decree setting them back in the autumn and nobody dared to remind him.

I'm a bit sceptical about the concept of timezones too. Use UTC everywhere, use the 24-hour clock (since the 12-hour clock would no longer make sense without being closely tied to morning/afternoon).

...clearly UTC everywhere won't happen, but it might be possible to kill DST.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

In one sense, using UTC as a universal time works. Everyone is on the 'same' time. Which would of course require dropping AM and PM because they're just irrelevant.

I rather like having timezones though - it's fairly easy if you know what time it is in germany to make a good guess if someone will be available to talk to you on the phone for example. (OK, germany isn't that amazing an example, but the difference between east and west coast of the US can be interesting...)

[xarrion.livejournal.com]

With the prevalence of electric lighting and other modern conveniences, the use of DST is more of a tradition than a necessity nowadays, isn't it?
How many jobs actually rely on starting at dawn and/or finishing before dusk?

[crashbarrier.livejournal.com]

oh sunday was great woke up at 7. forgot the clocks had changed so spent so it was really 8 oclock. spent the morning bibling so that i could go to breakfast.. only to have everyone else walk strate out the door:( bloody clocks bloody time zones...*grr*