Daylight-Saving Time again!
Yes Folks, it's that time of year again... Daylight-Saving Time! Also known as "Summer Time" in many parts of the world. When most of the USA SPRINGS Forward. All except those hold out mutant states! You know... Hawaii, Indianna (Talk about fucked up time, we'll get into that in a bit), and Arizona.
I figured this would be as good a time as any to enlighten you all as to the why's of DST, and a short bit of history about it!
Are you ready to learn something today!? GOOD!
What are some of the reasons for having Daylight-Savings time you might ask yourself. Well let me list some of the reasons that the US Department of Transportation cites!
- It saves energy. When we're awake, we're more likely to have our TVs, VCRs, and lights on (among other home appliances). By shifting the hours we're likely to be awake to correspond with the daylight outside, we're less likely to have the lights on, so we use less electricity.
- It saves lives. When people's waking hours correspond with daylight hours, they're safer. Traffic accidents, for example, are less likely when it's light out.
- It cuts down on crime. Crime tends to happen after dark. As is the case with accidents, people are less likely to fall victim to crime when their waking hours are synched up with the sun.
The concept of Daylight-Saving time ws first suggested in a whimsical essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. It was mostly passed off and forgoten until an Englishman by the name of William Willett latched on to the idea again in 1907, at which time he campaigned for setting the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during the spring and summer months. However in 1908 the House of Commons rejeced a bill to advbance the clock by one hour in the spring and return to GMT in the autumn.
It wasn't until the advent of World War I (1916) that Daylight-Saving time was again introduced. DST was recognized as a way to conserve fuel by reducing the need for artificial light. The United States Followed suite and implemented the practice of DST in 1918, but was quickly repleased as people hated it. Until World War II that is, when it was re-instated and has been in practice since.
Up until 1966 DST was practiced in a willy-nilly type of fasion in the United States of America, each state setting their own start and end times for DST, some states practicing DST some not. So in 1966 Congress passed a law saying if you wanted to follow the practice of Daylight-Saving Time, it had to follow the national pattern. But being Americans we couldn't let it stop there. So in 1973, during the OPEC oil embargo. President Nixon enacted a special, two-year DST period. It was not continued in 1975 due to resistance of agricultrual states. Finally in 1986 President Reagan made the latest change to DST, moving the official start of Daylight-Saving Time to the first Sunday in April. Previous to this DST started on the Last Sundayin April, but moving it up lets us save even more oil!
So there you have the quick and dirty history on the When and Why of Daylight-Saving time... Now on to my personal petpeve... Indiana!!!!!
You know I can understand if a state does not want to partake in DST at all, but for christs sake make up your mind! Check this out. Indiana is made up of 92 Counties, 77 of which stay on Eastern Standard Time all year. 10 of the Counties use Eastern Standard Time AND Central Standard Time. And a final 5 counties use a combination of Eastern Standard Time and Eastern Daylight Time. I mean come on here! Lets write the book on confusing someone what time it is! You can look here for a more detailed explination of how Time in Indiana works..
If you happen to want an even more indept look at Daylight Saving Time, it's history and how it works around the world, check out This site off of WebExhibits.org. http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html
That is all!
-GOOTG
Comments
Plagerism anyone?
Posted by: Southpaw | April 7, 2003 02:35 PM
Don't know where you get that.
Yes this article I'm sure is very similar to all the other 10 million articles out there that deal with this same topic. Hell I'm not ashamed to say I got most of my info from Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as numerous other websites. Ever typed in "Daylight Saving Time" into GOOGLE? Amazing how much info pops right up. So I guess if doing research, and basing something you write on information initially collected by others then one can shout Plagiarism all they want.. But hell if that's plagiarism, there can hardly be anything that is published today that is not.
Posted by: EGOne | April 8, 2003 12:20 AM
The difference is when it's word for word from another source, we call it PLAGERISM. When its been distilled down and put into your own words its not plagerism. If you cite the exact word for word copy then it's not plagerism. I knew it was EB before you said that. I shouldn't be able to konw that if it's not plagerism, and since you didn't reference EB..... it's plagerism! BTW I don't think adding a word here or there gets you off the plagerism hook either.
Posted by: Southpaw | April 8, 2003 01:44 PM
You know the thing of it is, the only part of this whole thing that was copied word for word is from a DOE website that make up the bulleted points.
But by all means please feel free to quote some sites and references which show word for word plagurism besides the block quotes.
Posted by: EGOne | April 8, 2003 08:48 PM
Interestingly that wasn't the part that matches the EB word for word.
Posted by: Southpaw | April 9, 2003 09:07 AM
Well since you didn't do as I had asked, here it is. The entire text of the EB article you are claiming I copied Verbatim.
also called Summer Time, system for uniformly advancing clocks , especially in summer, so as to extend daylight hours during conventional waking time. In the Northern Hemisphere, clocks are usually set ahead one hour in late March or in April and are set back one hour in late September or in October.
The practice was first suggested in a whimsical essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. In 1907 an Englishman, William Willett, campaigned for setting the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during the spring and summer months. In 1908 the House of Commons rejected a bill to advance the clock by one hour in the spring and return to Greenwich Mean (standard) Time in the autumn.
Several countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, adopted summer daylight saving time during World War I to conserve fuel by reducing the need for artificial light. During World War II, clocks were kept continuously advanced by an hour in some nations—e.g., in the United States from Feb. 9, 1942, to Sept. 30, 1945; and England used “double summer time” during part of the year, advancing clocks two hours from the standard time during the summer and one hour during the winter months.
In the United States, daylight saving time formerly began on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. In 1986 the U.S. Congress passed a law moving up the start of daylight saving time to the first Sunday in April, while keeping its end date the same. In most of the countries of western Europe, daylight saving time starts on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in September. In Britain and many other countries worldwide, it lasts from March 30 to October 26.
Posted by: EGOne | April 9, 2003 09:29 AM