Daylight Saving Time, POLITICAL TIME
Daylight Saving Time to Get an Unusually Brief Winter Break - washingtonpost.com
What is the political time? Unfortunately, we have to blame Ben Franklin for this one, he thought of it. We first used it during WWI and WWII to save fuel and electricity on an all out war footing. Since then, time like our wars have become political. Lyndon Johnson made DST uniform with the "Uniform Time Law" in 1966 --- but was that not a time of great sanity? Daylight Savings begin on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. Correcting their error, or something, Congress amended the "time savings" in 1986 to the first Sunday in April lasting until the last Sunday in October.
Now however, with greater political wisdom out of Washington and as part of the ENERGY POLICY ACT of 2005, Daylight Savings Time will commence at 2 am on the second Sunday in March 2007 and last until 2 am on the 1st Sunday in November.
Makes about as much sense as a National 55 mph speed limit --- the solution to the energy problem will come from from technology and science, really advanced science, and serious strategic planning, not political soft shoe dancing.
The elders in Hawaii have the right idea. They reject political time as unnatural, maintaining standard, sun time, through out the year. The Kenai Peninsula sits on the same meridian, longitude, as Hawaii. Alaska might well speak with the elders and like Hawaii reject the political nonsense from Washington in favor of sun time.
North of the Arctic Circle might be another matter, but given the normal sidereal rhythm of the sea and the sky, there is a truth to time that we might better honor. Human physiology exquisitely attunes itself to the sidereal cycle of sun, sea and sky. Distortion of that physiological adaptation stresses us into what amounts to a permanent jet lag. Why don't we put Alaska on normal time? We are already one hour ahead of ourselves on Juneau time as it is --- Alaskans for Hawaii Time.
What is the political time? Unfortunately, we have to blame Ben Franklin for this one, he thought of it. We first used it during WWI and WWII to save fuel and electricity on an all out war footing. Since then, time like our wars have become political. Lyndon Johnson made DST uniform with the "Uniform Time Law" in 1966 --- but was that not a time of great sanity? Daylight Savings begin on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. Correcting their error, or something, Congress amended the "time savings" in 1986 to the first Sunday in April lasting until the last Sunday in October.
Now however, with greater political wisdom out of Washington and as part of the ENERGY POLICY ACT of 2005, Daylight Savings Time will commence at 2 am on the second Sunday in March 2007 and last until 2 am on the 1st Sunday in November.
Makes about as much sense as a National 55 mph speed limit --- the solution to the energy problem will come from from technology and science, really advanced science, and serious strategic planning, not political soft shoe dancing.
The elders in Hawaii have the right idea. They reject political time as unnatural, maintaining standard, sun time, through out the year. The Kenai Peninsula sits on the same meridian, longitude, as Hawaii. Alaska might well speak with the elders and like Hawaii reject the political nonsense from Washington in favor of sun time.
North of the Arctic Circle might be another matter, but given the normal sidereal rhythm of the sea and the sky, there is a truth to time that we might better honor. Human physiology exquisitely attunes itself to the sidereal cycle of sun, sea and sky. Distortion of that physiological adaptation stresses us into what amounts to a permanent jet lag. Why don't we put Alaska on normal time? We are already one hour ahead of ourselves on Juneau time as it is --- Alaskans for Hawaii Time.
posted by Clancy Hughes | 10/29/2006 07:52:00 AM
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