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Daylight Standard Time

I just checked when Daylight Savings Time begins next year to see if it would be possible to schedule another Birding BoF at SD West 2009 or not. Sadly the answer is no. Daylight Savings Time starts the day before the conference on March 8! It doesn’t end until November!

Let’s face it: “Standard” time is now the odd one out. There’s almost twice as much daylight savings time as standard time in any given year. If all the late risers out there (and candy manufacturers and barbecue vendors) really can’t stand dawn and dusk arriving at a reasonable hour, maybe it’s time to bite the bullet and just eliminate standard time completely.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 6:30 AM and is filed under Astronomy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Atom feed. You can skip to the end and make a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Daylight Standard Time”

  1. John Cowan Says:
    October 4th, 2008 at 12:36 PM

    We almost did for a while. Wikipedia says:

    In response to the 1973 energy crisis, DST in the United States began earlier in both 1974 and 1975, commencing on the first Sunday in January (January 6) in the former year and the last Sunday in February (February 23) in the latter. The extension of daylight saving time was not continued due to public opposition to late sunrise times during the winter months. In 1976, the United States reverted back to the schedule set in the Uniform Time Act.

    I remember seeing flash pictures of kids waiting for school buses in the pitch dark. The “public opposition” was pretty vehement.

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