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The weather is completely ridiculous today. Bright shining sun and blue skies, bone-chilling cold and gusts of wind that feel as if they could pluck you off the ground and deposit you somewhere in the next county. I am dreading the walk from work to the train station.
So there's a lot of hooplah in my office lately about having to install patches to accomodate the new start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time, because if we don't peoples' calendars will fail to synch up and there will be chaos. Its really only because of said hooplah that I am aware that DST is changing at all. Yesterday it occurred to me to actually ask the question of why DST was changing (if it ain't broke, right?) This led to some interesting revelations.
Apparently in 2005 a federal law was passed (the Energy Policy Act of 2005, in fact) which, among other things, futzes with Daylight Savings Time as an energy-saving measure. Traditionally (or in America since 1986, anyway) DST begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October. Starting this year, however, it will begin on the second Sunday in March (which is to say this weekend, March 11th) and end on the first Sunday in November. So it starts earlier and ends later. This in spite of the fact that there is a great deal of controversy as to whether DST actually conserves energy at all, particularly because its based upon a model that proceeds such innovations as air-conditioning.
This irks me, and not simply because I have to remember to change my clock or because the coming weekend is abruptly one hour shorter than I thought it was. Nor does it particularly bother me that basically every computer system everywhere is going to have to be patched to accomodate this change. No, it irks me mostly because, among other things, the bill describes this change as provisional. Contingent upon demonstrable energy savings. Which is to say after all this fuss and change there is a possibility that, in a year or two, when we discover that energy consumption did not go down (or, as some people are predicting, went up) everything will have to be changed back, necessitating further busywork.
More information on all this nonsense can be found here and here. And remember to "Spring forward" this Sunday. Or go on a clock-smashing rampage of mass hysteria that precipitates nationwide anarchy. Whatever, I don't even care anymore.
So there's a lot of hooplah in my office lately about having to install patches to accomodate the new start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time, because if we don't peoples' calendars will fail to synch up and there will be chaos. Its really only because of said hooplah that I am aware that DST is changing at all. Yesterday it occurred to me to actually ask the question of why DST was changing (if it ain't broke, right?) This led to some interesting revelations.
Apparently in 2005 a federal law was passed (the Energy Policy Act of 2005, in fact) which, among other things, futzes with Daylight Savings Time as an energy-saving measure. Traditionally (or in America since 1986, anyway) DST begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October. Starting this year, however, it will begin on the second Sunday in March (which is to say this weekend, March 11th) and end on the first Sunday in November. So it starts earlier and ends later. This in spite of the fact that there is a great deal of controversy as to whether DST actually conserves energy at all, particularly because its based upon a model that proceeds such innovations as air-conditioning.
This irks me, and not simply because I have to remember to change my clock or because the coming weekend is abruptly one hour shorter than I thought it was. Nor does it particularly bother me that basically every computer system everywhere is going to have to be patched to accomodate this change. No, it irks me mostly because, among other things, the bill describes this change as provisional. Contingent upon demonstrable energy savings. Which is to say after all this fuss and change there is a possibility that, in a year or two, when we discover that energy consumption did not go down (or, as some people are predicting, went up) everything will have to be changed back, necessitating further busywork.
More information on all this nonsense can be found here and here. And remember to "Spring forward" this Sunday. Or go on a clock-smashing rampage of mass hysteria that precipitates nationwide anarchy. Whatever, I don't even care anymore.
