Saving my time
March 11 is the new, improved Daylight Saving Time (note there is only one S in Saving). Thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, beginning in 2007 the old "spring forward, fall back" routine will happen earlier for the spring part, and later (November 4) for the fall part. The supposed benefits of Daylight Saving time changes will be studied as part of this federal legislation and Congress will decide whether to go back to the previous schedule of the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October.
Meanwhile, a whole lot of "smart" electronics will be in a quandary about what time it is come March 11. Some will have received a "fix" and recognize the new time change. Others will sleep through the time change waiting for the pre-programmed change that was supposed to occur on March 25. End users who manually change the time on these "smart" devices on March 11 will have to go back and reset them on March 25. Some devices such as cellphones won't be so easy to program so unless your service provider is broadcasting the correct time, you'll have to live with a faulty readout for awhile.
Most us of have grown accustomed to this odd Daylight Saving ritual and take for granted that it achieves its intended purpose, which is to provide more daylight hours later in the day during the spring, summer and early fall. Doing so would presumably save energy and allow humans more outdoors time after work. That's what Benjamin Franklin proposed in the 1700s, but it didn't actually take hold in Europe and the US until the early 1900s. In fact, it was so unpopular when it was first introduced in 1917, Congress repealed it in 1919. Eventually, it came back and stayed.
Not all states observe Daylight Saving, making things even more complicated. Arizona, for instance, sticks with Standard time and makes no adjustments during the year. This means California and Arizona share the same time for part but not all of the year. The other US locations that don't observe Daylight Saving are Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
And if you work internationally, you'll have to rely on the World Clock to determine (a) whether the country you work with even observes Daylight Saving, and (b) if so, when. Since this experiment with new start and stop dates results from American law, even those European countries that observe Daylight Saving do so under the old rules.
If I was a kid nowadays, I would start a neighborhood business setting the clocks on electronic devices and programming VCRs for my clueless neighbors. With the double whammy that some folks will face this year because of the time change hiccup, I would clean-up.
In my view, we already live overly complicated lives. This latest experiment with time changes is yet another complication to juggle and, worse, something that may turn our electronic tools against us. No matter what Congress decides concerning the "new, improved" Daylight Saving, most people will likely find this to be a major inconvenience and the excess attention will be cause to re-examine whether the whole ritual is worth the trouble in the first place.
One thing's for certain ... it's not saving ME any time.
Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com