Daylight Crazy Time
It's March, time for my annual rant against Daylight Savings Time. But this year the respected periodical The Atlantic has sided with me.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/03/time-to-kill-daylight-saving/387175/
So I'm glad to see I'm not the only person left in the US who still goes in for critical thinking. It's supposed to save energy...it doesn't. It's supposed to be for the farmers...they hate it. My position is this...if you want to go to work earlier and get home earlier, speak to your boss. I suspect he or she may be very receptive to the idea. But don't make everyone change their clocks because you don't have the self-discipline to get out of bed one hour earlier.
And big news flash...changing clocks doesn't actually change the time. Noon will continue to occur when it always has...when the apparent path of the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. It's just that after today clocks in places like Southwest Florida will say "1:30" when it does that instead of "12:00". We're already a half hour off because of our being at the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, DST will make the error an hour and a half.
Let's also discuss another error in timekeeping...the fictional times we see lately in the media..."12 am" and "12 pm". The abbreviation "a. m." is short for "ante meridiem"...it's Latin for "before noon". So 12 am is twelve o'clock "before noon". OK, so that's midnight.
Now let's try to decipher "12 pm". The abbreviation "pm" stands for post meridiem or "after noon". OK, twelve pm is when it's twelve on the clock and it's after noon. So that's midnight too. Seems odd that there would be two different designations for the same time, but I'll go with it. Whenever anyone says 12 am or 12 pm I'll know they mean midnight in both cases. Hope this works out.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/03/time-to-kill-daylight-saving/387175/
So I'm glad to see I'm not the only person left in the US who still goes in for critical thinking. It's supposed to save energy...it doesn't. It's supposed to be for the farmers...they hate it. My position is this...if you want to go to work earlier and get home earlier, speak to your boss. I suspect he or she may be very receptive to the idea. But don't make everyone change their clocks because you don't have the self-discipline to get out of bed one hour earlier.
And big news flash...changing clocks doesn't actually change the time. Noon will continue to occur when it always has...when the apparent path of the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. It's just that after today clocks in places like Southwest Florida will say "1:30" when it does that instead of "12:00". We're already a half hour off because of our being at the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, DST will make the error an hour and a half.
Let's also discuss another error in timekeeping...the fictional times we see lately in the media..."12 am" and "12 pm". The abbreviation "a. m." is short for "ante meridiem"...it's Latin for "before noon". So 12 am is twelve o'clock "before noon". OK, so that's midnight.
Now let's try to decipher "12 pm". The abbreviation "pm" stands for post meridiem or "after noon". OK, twelve pm is when it's twelve on the clock and it's after noon. So that's midnight too. Seems odd that there would be two different designations for the same time, but I'll go with it. Whenever anyone says 12 am or 12 pm I'll know they mean midnight in both cases. Hope this works out.
Replies
Applause!
LOL~! I look forward to this yearly rant, Richie! And I don\'t disagree with you one bit!
I am in agreement with you..I say pick a time and leave it.
Hahaha! Love the rant & I too don\'t agree with the need for DST.