Yet again comes the proposal to make Daylight-Shifting Time even worse by extending it to the whole year, so that we are always pretending 12 noon is not the middle of the day.
Professor Aoife Foley of Queen’s University Belfast says: “By simply forgoing the winter DST in October [that is, by not turning clocks back], we save energy because it is brighter in the evening during winter.”
You are less ignorant: you know that DST, “Daylight Saving Time,” is the changed time in summer, mot in winter, when we are back on standard time. I sent a letter that will probably not be published:
Confusion reigns in Rachel Hall’s article “Save energy by not turning clocks back in October, says expert” (20 October).
In winter we are on the standard time for our part of the planet, matching natural time, when the sun is highest at 12 noon and lowest at 12 midnight. It is in summer that, since the law of 1916, we have been on “Daylight Saving time,” calling 7 “8,” 12 “1,” and so on.
Rather than distorting clocks, it would be better to adapt to the seasons by opening schools and businesses at times appropriate to them. This, too, could be one simple change: an hour earlier in summer.
My full description of the clock-shifting issue is here.
Etymology department
Kherson is in the news: capital of one of the four Ukrainian provinces that Putin has claimed to annex, and target of Russian shelling and forced evacuations and Ukrainian counter-offensive.
If you have a smattering of Greek or of ancient history, you wonder about the name. Khersonêsos or kherronêsos meant “almost-island, peninsula”; it was the name given to a Greek colony founded about 500 BC, near what is now Sevastopol; and the Crimea in general was called Tauris (from its natives, the Tauri) or the Tauric Chersonese. The word was sometimes abbreviated to Khersôn.
But modern Kherson is not in the Crimea, nor on a peninsula. It is on the west bank of the Dnieper River as it flow into the Black Sea, one bay away from the Crimea.
The explanation is that Russia’s Empress Catherine conceived a “Greek Project” in which the European part of the Ottoman Turkish empire would be carved up: part for Russia, part for the Habsburg empire of Austria-Hungary, a revived Byzantine kingdom for her grandson, and a “Dacian” kingdom, in what is now Romania, for her favorite courtier, Potemkin. The plan included founding cities at strategic points, some of them with Greek-inspired or other-hstory-inspired names, and the first, in 1778, was Kherson.
Another, in 1780, was Mariupol, which has suffered even worse in the current war.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Thanks for sharing your ideas, Guy.
I’m one of those who’ve bemoaned the ‘fall back’ without considering all the consequences of staying ‘sprung’.
Changing behavior has always seemed the way to go, but I would never have opted for a plan that keeps the end of working hours so close to sunset. But I like words to adhere to their intended defined meanings, so I’m all for your plan to save noon. While we’re at changing behaviors, let’s shorten the winter business hours so there’s more free time to enjoy the shortened daylight. Better and simpler – let’s shorten all business hours!
Good luck to us all.
Some will note only the “I gotta get up earlier!?” part and overlook the benefit of getting away sooner. Some will be suspicious that the plan is a scheme to extend working hours. (And some may be right .. never lose an opportunity to profit from change!)
The operating hours posted on the website of my old local hiking park used to be similar to those in the image you posted in your full discussion – kind of descriptive instead of explicit. I was going to point that out as another example of the solution being in place already, but the point is overdone now.
‘December to February: 8:00 am to 6:00pm’ is now presented as
‘December 8:00 am to 6:00pm’
‘January 8:00 am to 6:00pm’
‘February 8:00 am to 6:00pm’
etc..
Doltishness is nothing new … https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/03/15/the-us-tried-permanent-daylight-saving-time-in-the-70s-people-hated-it/ …
I have always despised Daylight Savings Time. Midnight should be as close to th eactual middle of the night as your location in your time zone permits. But, alas, most people, including politicians of Left, Right , or Center are not well informed about astronomy. This divorces even further from the workings of nature than would otherwise be the case.
There is a proposal in the USA also to make DST year round. it has passed the Senate, but not in the House of Representatives. I hope that bill expires with the election of the new Congress.
Modify the opening times of schools, college,shops,etc to fit the season would be best but I can’t see it coming off.Unfortunatly those who like to get up early dominate and our days will be set around them.I favour the keeping of summer time all year and lighter evenings are more useful to me than mornings (generally asleep then!).I had never heard of Kherson until the present problems and the only places in the Ukraine I’d been to were;Lvov,Ivano Fanskava and Vorokhata and some villages and hamlets plus up it’s highest peak which I think was called Hovelara and about 2060m.
Bravo to you, Guy, regarding your comments about changing clocks. I say LEAVE IT BE! Let’s adapt to the natural rhythms of nature and “sun” time! Don’t mess with Mother Nature, she knows best.