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: And now, a rant on a topic that noone else gives a shit about...
Okay, most of you may have already heard my rants on Daylight Savings time, Why I hate it and such; Nontheless, several months have past, and they want me to set my clock forward so you get to hear me bitch some, okay?
FUCK DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME.
Seriously, it's one of the worst ideas I have EVER heard. The next time someone tries to defend it with something along the lines of "It's a good thing, cus if we get up an hour earlier there are more light hours in the day." I'm going to grab the closest semi-blunt object (considering where I spend my time that is most likely a rolled up copy of the reporter, or an old issue of cosmo) and strike the on the nose while very clearly and slowly saying "NO."
Okay, I'm going to go down a whole list of reasons why DST is a load of crap, but first and foremost I want to address this one: By changing the little hands on our mickey mouse watches we somehow command the earth to spin slower, or the sun to counterrotate or something. It just doesnt work that way. Just because mickey is now fondling himself rather than checking his pockets for his keys when the sun comes up does not actually affect the event. If you were too take a stop watch, and hit 'start' when the sun goes over the horizon, and hit 'stop' when it hits the other horizon today you are going to get about a 12 hour and 30 minute time. And if you do that next week, when Daylight Savings Time has come into affect... (it may be effect, I usually know, but here I'm unsure)IT'S STILL GOING TO BE ABOUT 12 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES!!!
"You know Jamez, you're obviously upset. And whoever made that last point is a total moron. But so are you. You see, It's not 'Daylight Extension Time' or anything of the sort. It's not there to make somehow add more hours to the day; that's impossible. What it actually does is SAVE daylight for the fall. See by moving the clocks later in the spring, and moving earlier in the fall, you make it seem that you've SAVED the daylight you lose in the spring until fall. see?"
...
I hate you disembodied voice in my head. Alot. YOU DONT SAVE ANY LIGHT BECAUSE YOU CANT SAVE LIGHT!!!! And guess what? If you were to time sunup to sunrise in the fall, after you 'fell back'... You'd still get the same number (obviously not exactly the same unless it was on an equinox but close enough)!!
"Jamez, you know what? Grow the fuck up. Sure, you may not like DST but the fact is; it wasn't made for you. DST was instated for farmer's to be better able to harvest crops and plant them. Surely you wouldn't be so egotistical as to say that your personal angst is more important than the economic well being of our agricultural work force?"
And now: A history lesson.
The first DST law was passed in 1918. The first DST law was repealed in 1919. Franklin Delano Roosevelt imposed year-round DST for three years during WWII. In 1966, a uniform DST was finally standardized by Congress for the entire country. In the 1970s, Nixon ordered a 15 month period of continuous DST in order to conserve energy. The last president to fuck with DST was Reagan, who moved the start date to the first sunday in april.
Now, to address your misguided conception of DST and farmers:
FARMERS MOSTLY HATE DST. Okay, so now they've mostly given it up as a lost cause, but when the first DST law was on its way through Congress, the Farmers guild actually lobbied against it. Dairy farmers were especially upset because their cows didnt give a damn where Mickey's hands were, ever. The wonderful bovine cud-chewers demanded to be milked every twelve hours, and wouldn't budge at the idea of resetting their biological clocks just because the local creameries wanted their milk an hour earlier. So no, farmers were not the driving force behind DST.
"So all knowing Jamez, who WAS the driving force behind the DST movement?"
Don't take that tone with me, tyler. Well, if you had bothered to read the assigned text, you would know that city businessmen were the ones leading the charge. See, they figured that the factory workers making their way home in the afternoon sun would be more apt to hop in for a little bit of shopping. Oh, and as a nice little nod to their country-mouse brethren, they decided to help out the 'disenfranchised' farmers by speaking on their behalf without actually, you know, talking to them first. One of the pamphlets circulated among the members of congress in favor of DST argued that it would benefit the men who worked the land because "most farm products are better when gathered with dew on. They are firmer, crisper, than if the sun has dried the dew off." At least that's what the founder and owner of Boston department store Filene's would have you believe; he was, after all, the chair of the commitee circulating the pamphlet. Of course, this is complete bullshit. Guess what? A lot of crops can't be harvested until the morning dew HAS EVAPORATED. And as far as firmness and crispness goes... well, let's grab that copy of the reporter again, and repeat as before.
"Okay, so maybe I was wrong about the famers. Sure, they have a legitimate gripe about this, but hey, the businessmen seem to have a point too! With our economy WAY less dependent on agrarian means than it was in 1918, doesnt it make sense to have a policy that helps out our more commercial interests?"
No. NONONONONONONONONO. Seriously, this is almost as dumb. Okay, I'll grant you that some businesses get more money from this, as they sell more in the late afternoon/evening. But that this is good overall for the economy is doubtful at best. So Filene's Basement is filled with guys coming home from work in the evening; but what about the movie theaters and take-out restaurants? Surely people are going to be less likely to visit them in the daylight. And what of Dunkin Donuts another of Beantown's icons? Why are we to value their profit line less than Filene's? Surely they will suffer as commuters are less likely to stop in for a newspaper and a coffee in the sticky night of morning. So yeah, it can help some, but DST will hurt other businesses, and the overall economic effect can't be determined. Anyone that tells you different is selling you something, and I would smell the box before I gave them my credit card number.
"Aha! But what about the energy concerns! Obviously there's something to this idea of energy saving if FDR, Nixon, Reagan and several Congresses have endorsed it in one way or another!"
N- NO. Can't you get it through your head? DST IS A BAD IDEA. Anything you use to endorse it is stupid. Okay, so it saves energy because people come home after work and don't turn on the lights. What about the same people stumbling out of bed in the morning in the pitch black, you think they arent turning them on then? Besides, people arrive home in the afternoon between spring and fall, or what I like to call 'Summer'. Some of you may not have noticed before, but it's a little warm in the afternoon during the summer. And I don't know about you, but I like to have the A/C on when the thermometer rises above about 80 degrees or so. Guess what? That costs energy. Add that to the lights being turned on in the morning, and all of a sudden you are consuming MORE energy. In fact, the petroleum industry was "an ardent and generous supporter" of DST for a long time, because it believed that the nice afternoon sun would cause people to hop into their cars and just go for a drive - and use more gas.
"Alright Alright, whatever. You don't like DST, I get it. But so what? It's not hurting anyone. It's been around for almost a hundred years. You're not going to change anything. Get over it."
Riiiight, cus the whole "you can't change it so don't complain" will get my vote.
Besides. It does hurt people. It really is bad for your health. According to sleep experts at the University of British Columbia, the number of traffic accidents and fatal industrial mishaps skyrocket on the monday after we spring forward. Why? Because losing even a single hour of sleep over the weekend makes a lot of people drowsier. And, unfortunately, there isn't a corresponding "super-safe" monday in the fall.
But thats not all. See, even that one day wouldnt be all that bad. But the fact is, the problems continue.
See, according to a leading UK safety group, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is completely against DST, as the lighter mornings in the winter could cause hundreds of extra deaths every year. They claim that as many as 450 deaths and serious injuries could be prevented in the UK alone if DST is revoked there. Basically, by turning clocks back at the end of October, there are darker evenings when commuters are more likely to be involved in accidents. Official fatality figures show that when the clocks were turned back in 2003, road deaths rose from 256 in October to 316 in November – including a 50% jump in pedestrian deaths, which rose to 95. While numbers are not available for the US, it's fairly obvious there is a problem.
So, in conclusion:
<3
Jamez
Okay, most of you may have already heard my rants on Daylight Savings time, Why I hate it and such; Nontheless, several months have past, and they want me to set my clock forward so you get to hear me bitch some, okay?
FUCK DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME.
Seriously, it's one of the worst ideas I have EVER heard. The next time someone tries to defend it with something along the lines of "It's a good thing, cus if we get up an hour earlier there are more light hours in the day." I'm going to grab the closest semi-blunt object (considering where I spend my time that is most likely a rolled up copy of the reporter, or an old issue of cosmo) and strike the on the nose while very clearly and slowly saying "NO."
Okay, I'm going to go down a whole list of reasons why DST is a load of crap, but first and foremost I want to address this one: By changing the little hands on our mickey mouse watches we somehow command the earth to spin slower, or the sun to counterrotate or something. It just doesnt work that way. Just because mickey is now fondling himself rather than checking his pockets for his keys when the sun comes up does not actually affect the event. If you were too take a stop watch, and hit 'start' when the sun goes over the horizon, and hit 'stop' when it hits the other horizon today you are going to get about a 12 hour and 30 minute time. And if you do that next week, when Daylight Savings Time has come into affect... (it may be effect, I usually know, but here I'm unsure)
"You know Jamez, you're obviously upset. And whoever made that last point is a total moron. But so are you. You see, It's not 'Daylight Extension Time' or anything of the sort. It's not there to make somehow add more hours to the day; that's impossible. What it actually does is SAVE daylight for the fall. See by moving the clocks later in the spring, and moving earlier in the fall, you make it seem that you've SAVED the daylight you lose in the spring until fall. see?"
...
I hate you disembodied voice in my head. Alot. YOU DONT SAVE ANY LIGHT BECAUSE YOU CANT SAVE LIGHT!!!! And guess what? If you were to time sunup to sunrise in the fall, after you 'fell back'... You'd still get the same number (obviously not exactly the same unless it was on an equinox but close enough)!!
"Jamez, you know what? Grow the fuck up. Sure, you may not like DST but the fact is; it wasn't made for you. DST was instated for farmer's to be better able to harvest crops and plant them. Surely you wouldn't be so egotistical as to say that your personal angst is more important than the economic well being of our agricultural work force?"
And now: A history lesson.
The first DST law was passed in 1918. The first DST law was repealed in 1919. Franklin Delano Roosevelt imposed year-round DST for three years during WWII. In 1966, a uniform DST was finally standardized by Congress for the entire country. In the 1970s, Nixon ordered a 15 month period of continuous DST in order to conserve energy. The last president to fuck with DST was Reagan, who moved the start date to the first sunday in april.
Now, to address your misguided conception of DST and farmers:
FARMERS MOSTLY HATE DST. Okay, so now they've mostly given it up as a lost cause, but when the first DST law was on its way through Congress, the Farmers guild actually lobbied against it. Dairy farmers were especially upset because their cows didnt give a damn where Mickey's hands were, ever. The wonderful bovine cud-chewers demanded to be milked every twelve hours, and wouldn't budge at the idea of resetting their biological clocks just because the local creameries wanted their milk an hour earlier. So no, farmers were not the driving force behind DST.
"So all knowing Jamez, who WAS the driving force behind the DST movement?"
Don't take that tone with me, tyler. Well, if you had bothered to read the assigned text, you would know that city businessmen were the ones leading the charge. See, they figured that the factory workers making their way home in the afternoon sun would be more apt to hop in for a little bit of shopping. Oh, and as a nice little nod to their country-mouse brethren, they decided to help out the 'disenfranchised' farmers by speaking on their behalf without actually, you know, talking to them first. One of the pamphlets circulated among the members of congress in favor of DST argued that it would benefit the men who worked the land because "most farm products are better when gathered with dew on. They are firmer, crisper, than if the sun has dried the dew off." At least that's what the founder and owner of Boston department store Filene's would have you believe; he was, after all, the chair of the commitee circulating the pamphlet. Of course, this is complete bullshit. Guess what? A lot of crops can't be harvested until the morning dew HAS EVAPORATED. And as far as firmness and crispness goes... well, let's grab that copy of the reporter again, and repeat as before.
"Okay, so maybe I was wrong about the famers. Sure, they have a legitimate gripe about this, but hey, the businessmen seem to have a point too! With our economy WAY less dependent on agrarian means than it was in 1918, doesnt it make sense to have a policy that helps out our more commercial interests?"
No. NONONONONONONONONO. Seriously, this is almost as dumb. Okay, I'll grant you that some businesses get more money from this, as they sell more in the late afternoon/evening. But that this is good overall for the economy is doubtful at best. So Filene's Basement is filled with guys coming home from work in the evening; but what about the movie theaters and take-out restaurants? Surely people are going to be less likely to visit them in the daylight. And what of Dunkin Donuts another of Beantown's icons? Why are we to value their profit line less than Filene's? Surely they will suffer as commuters are less likely to stop in for a newspaper and a coffee in the sticky night of morning. So yeah, it can help some, but DST will hurt other businesses, and the overall economic effect can't be determined. Anyone that tells you different is selling you something, and I would smell the box before I gave them my credit card number.
"Aha! But what about the energy concerns! Obviously there's something to this idea of energy saving if FDR, Nixon, Reagan and several Congresses have endorsed it in one way or another!"
N- NO. Can't you get it through your head? DST IS A BAD IDEA. Anything you use to endorse it is stupid. Okay, so it saves energy because people come home after work and don't turn on the lights. What about the same people stumbling out of bed in the morning in the pitch black, you think they arent turning them on then? Besides, people arrive home in the afternoon between spring and fall, or what I like to call 'Summer'. Some of you may not have noticed before, but it's a little warm in the afternoon during the summer. And I don't know about you, but I like to have the A/C on when the thermometer rises above about 80 degrees or so. Guess what? That costs energy. Add that to the lights being turned on in the morning, and all of a sudden you are consuming MORE energy. In fact, the petroleum industry was "an ardent and generous supporter" of DST for a long time, because it believed that the nice afternoon sun would cause people to hop into their cars and just go for a drive - and use more gas.
"Alright Alright, whatever. You don't like DST, I get it. But so what? It's not hurting anyone. It's been around for almost a hundred years. You're not going to change anything. Get over it."
Riiiight, cus the whole "you can't change it so don't complain" will get my vote.
Besides. It does hurt people. It really is bad for your health. According to sleep experts at the University of British Columbia, the number of traffic accidents and fatal industrial mishaps skyrocket on the monday after we spring forward. Why? Because losing even a single hour of sleep over the weekend makes a lot of people drowsier. And, unfortunately, there isn't a corresponding "super-safe" monday in the fall.
But thats not all. See, even that one day wouldnt be all that bad. But the fact is, the problems continue.
See, according to a leading UK safety group, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is completely against DST, as the lighter mornings in the winter could cause hundreds of extra deaths every year. They claim that as many as 450 deaths and serious injuries could be prevented in the UK alone if DST is revoked there. Basically, by turning clocks back at the end of October, there are darker evenings when commuters are more likely to be involved in accidents. Official fatality figures show that when the clocks were turned back in 2003, road deaths rose from 256 in October to 316 in November – including a 50% jump in pedestrian deaths, which rose to 95. While numbers are not available for the US, it's fairly obvious there is a problem.
So, in conclusion:
<3
Jamez
