Opuscula Florida considers Abandoning Clock changes

ACCORDING TO NUMEROUS ARTICLES on the Internet, Florida’s legislature is considering keeping the state on Daylight Saving^cq Time¹ all year.

Although this is a State issue, Washington must approve it.

Having just reset several clocks and watches, I am in favor of keeping the same “time” all year. I don’t care if it’s standard time or daylight savings time, JUST LEAVE THE CLOCKS ALONE.

A little DST history, compliments of History Stories, ibid.

• Blame DST on an English gentleman out for a ride in 1905, not Ben Franklin’s critique on the French habit of sleeping in.
• The first implementation of DST was by the Germans in WW 1. The Brit’s “summer time” came on its heels.
• U.S. farmers opposed DST when it was introduced in 1918. Farmers, and this supports this scrivener’s long-held opinion, work by the sun, not the clock.
• The Uniform Time Act, which standardized daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, although states had the option of remaining on standard time year-round.
• Florida would not be alone in refusing to spring forward and fall back. There are several locations where it is standard time all year ‘round.
• A U.S. Department of Transportation study in the 1970s concluded that total electricity savings associated with daylight saving time amounted to about 1 percent in the spring and fall months. As air conditioning has become more widespread, however, more recent studies have found that cost savings on lighting are more than offset by greater cooling expenses.

To the best of my limited knowledge, no U.S. state or territory has DST year ‘round.

Farmers are not the only people who work “by the sun.”

Most construction is “under the sun.” Likewise landscaping.

Offices and factories are “electrified” – they have artificial light and climate control. When a person goes to work has little bearing on the job. Most humans seem to function better when the sun shines. Perhaps DST is a good thing for the snow belt, but is it necessary to change the clocks twice-a-year even there?

There would be some overtime work for printers and web maintainers who would have to update schedules for interstate and international travelers to and from Florida, but that would be a one-time issue – rather than a twice-a-year task.

IN FLORIDA

Two bills before the State’s legislative bodies, called the “Sunshine Protection Act,” would ask Congress to give the state permission to make Daylight Saving Time permanent year-round. The proposals, SB 858 and HB 1013, each passed their first Senate and House committees unanimously.

According to the Miami Herald²,

The practical impact of that change would mean that on the Winter Solstice — that’s the day in the Northern Hemisphere with the least amount of daylight — sunrise in Florida would be at about 8 a.m. and sunset would be at about 6:30 p.m. instead of 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. like it is now.

The Senate version of the bill also moves the western part of the state, which is in Central Time, into the Eastern Time zone, if Congress approves.

Interestingly, Fox News³ can’t seem to “get it right.” It reports that

If the bill passes, Florida will join Hawaii, most of Arizona and a handful of U.S. territories that do not observe daylight saving time.

That’s exactly the opposite of the Florida bill. It is true that Hawaii and Arizona don’t observe DST – portions of Indiana once passed on DST as well – Florida is proposing to observe DST year ‘round. Fake news? Probably not; just lousy reporting and editing.

NEGATIVE APPROACH Orlando tv station WESH⁴ points out five negatives to a year ‘round DST.

• If Florida has permanent daylight saving time, it would be an hour ahead of the rest of the East Coast for much of the year, joining Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the easternmost parts of Canada.
• There would be no more springing ahead and falling back. That means that when the rest of the eastern states switch to daylight saving time in the spring, their clocks would be in sync with Florida from March to November.
• There would be sunny evenings, as those dark winter evenings would become a thing of the past. The sunset in Orlando on Dec. 22 would happen at about 6:34 p.m., an hour later than last year’s 5:34 p.m. sunset.
• Mornings would be darker. The sunrise in Orlando on Dec. 22, 2017 occurred at 7:14 a.m. That would be pushed an hour to 8:14 a.m. if Florida changed time zones.
• TV viewing times would be different. Our live TV viewing would be thrown off. Everything from those long Hollywood awards shows to late-night ball games from the West Coast would end even later than they do now.

The tv station, based in Mickey Mouse country, fails to report that in most cases, it’s whine has no value.

For example, Our live TV viewing would be thrown off. Everything from those long Hollywood awards shows to late-night ball games from the West Coast would end even later than they do now. SO WHAT! Since people get to sleep an hour later, what is the difference? People still will have the opportunity to sleep the same amount of time; 8 hours is 8 hours is 8 hours.

Mornings would be darker. The sunrise in Orlando on Dec. 22, 2017 occurred at 7:14 a.m. That would be pushed an hour to 8:14 a.m. if Florida changed time zones.

Again, SO WHAT!. Does that effect the resort centers’ profits (e.g., Universal, Sea World, Legoland, and the Disney)? In a word, NO! Same number of hours in the day. True, visitors to Florida would have to adjust their time pieces, but visitors from Eastern Standard Time zones to Alberta and British Columbia, Anchorage and Juneau, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Seattle, and anyplace beyond the continental U.S.’ eastern and western borders have to adjust their time pieces before and after their travels. Maybe that will make Florida more “exotic”?

What the people of Florida would have to do is set all their electronic time pieces to ignore provider generated seasonal time changes. That means all cell phones, computers and other electronic gear, those fancy clocks and watches that synchronize with the “atomic clock” via WWV’s radio signal.

This morning – March 11, 2017, I set six time pieces inside the house and two outside (in cars). The computers, cell phones, and my solar powered, WWV receiver watch (a gift from my first born) all switched over to DST sans my intervention.

Preventing an automatic switch-over is relatively easy and a one-time thing – as long as the device either (a) remains in Florida or (b) remains in a time zone that has DST. The key is to READ THE MANUAL that came with the device (or read an on-line copy of the booklet). To be honest, as a former newspaper reporter and editor, and technical writer, I DO “read the manuals”. I may be “the exception to the rule,” but I read, and usually hang on to, the documents.

I never understood the need for changing the clocks. Even when I worked a night shift (and loved it), I still was “working by the sun.” When the sun settled in the west, I knew it was time to head to the shop. No matter what time I was slated to work, I still worked eight hours.

There ARE benefits for parents and grandparents – if the time in the sun is up is moved from the morning (Standard Time) to the evening (DST), there will be more time to play outside with the young ones.

This scrivener, for one, will welcome year ‘round DST.

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/ycblqwe3

2. http://tinyurl.com/ydgse2jr

3. http://tinyurl.com/yaodjhjh

4. http://tinyurl.com/y9v3t99t

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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