Good morning from sunny Sydney,
If you think that Europe has a problem with DST, you should try Australia
which can only be described as a dog's breakfast. Queensland steadfastly
refuses to go on DST because the extra couple of hours of daylight fades the
curtains. Although we have a nominal three time zones (AEST, ACST, AWST)
there are a couple of towns / villages with times artificially set to be
outside the zones they live in. This was originally for commercial reasons,
making it easier to do business in adjoining states. These days, such
changes are pointless and unnecessary with the internet, but seem to be
retained for no particular reason other than to be different. On top of this
is DST in various states. As a consequence in summer you can meet more than
five different times in Australia which means that on a long trip you can
spend a lot of time changing the clocks in cameras, etc.
Most of us in the southern states like DST (regardless of its effect on our
curtains!) and look forward to it at the end of winter. Equally, we don't
like when it ends.
Of course the funniest thing about DST are the arguments of opponents who
seem to think that the 24 hour clock is some immutable thing handed down
from the gods, rather than a convenient human construct. And if you change
the time, then the world as we all know it will come to a shuddering end.
These people simply don't understand that the only thing that changes is the
"time" you get out of bed. Although I mostly work from 0700 to 1800 or
thereabouts, I have done fieldwork in Antarctica and Patagonia where we
changed to later starts and finishes because of the extreme winds in the
morning. Why start at 0700 and get hammered by wind all morning when you can
start at 1200 (when the wind has died down), and work the same number of
hours through the afternoon and evening relatively wind-free? So we had
breakfast at 1100, hit the ice at 1200 and worked through until about 2200
with almost no wind. Of course, this is only really feasible in high
latitudes in summer with very extended daylight hours. But it does show that
"time" as shown on a clock face is often irrelevant.
Cheers, John
John Pickard
john.pick...@bigpond.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Isabella McFedries
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2016 4:02 PM
To: sundial@uni-koeln.de
Subject: Re: Permanent DST
In message
<cacouayqb2vmbu9l9tcs9bsv_yqmn-wsveul89cx9k9racyt...@mail.gmail.com>
Dan-George Uza <cerculdest...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear group,
We are witnessing a few interesting developments! After Turkey decided a
few months ago to remain on Daylight Saving Time all year round, Hungary
is
now considering to do the same.
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/hungary-mulls-staying-on-daylight-saving-time-all-year-round/
If the measure passes, neighboring countries Hungary and Romania will
share
the same official time for half of the year although they are located in
different time zones (CET and EET respectively). For eastern Hungary the
sun sets at about 15:40 during winter, i.e more than an hour ahead of
Paris, which shares its time zone.
I'm wondering: aren't EU member states supposed to equally follow DST by
law?
Dan Uza
Hi, Dan
You are PARTLY correct - but (as I understand it), all EU member countries
must CHANGE their clocks on the SAME date, although they still keep their
individual Time-zones. For example, UK and Ireland are on GMT, whereas
France/Germany are on CET, and countries such as Greece on CET + 1 hour.
There are other examples of locations which are on PERMANENT 'Daylight
Saving' time - for example here in Canada, the province of Saskatchewan
should really be in the 'Mountain' zone (GMT-7), but always STAYS in the
'Central' zone (GMT-6) and so does NOT change its clocks twice a year.
I am afraid that these things are always for the Politicians to decide!
Sincerely,
Isabella McFedries.
--
---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
---------------------------------------------------
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
