DST Gone

Yesssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It still has to get through the senate, and then, of course, the president has to sign it, but he's already indicated that he wants it, so I might not have to post my stupid video again this November.

Crossing my fingers and toes that this gets signed into law!!!

This is scientifically the wrong thing to do. DST is not going away-- they are making it "permanent." Just like they did in 1974. Google that if you want to see why it was reversed within a year. This bill, if it does become law, will actually kill several hundred (thousand?) people.

The scientifically correct thing to do is to eliminate DST and stay permanently on standard time. But as we know, our politicians don't really bother with science.

Michael I agree with you 100%. I would rather eliminate daylight saving time and stick with standard time, but I will take permanent daylight saving time over the stupidness of changing clocks twice a year. That's the real nuisance.

I think that was passed as a temporary measure, meaning there was little incentive to address the temporary issues created with permanent solutions.  With a permanent change, people might have more motivation to solve safety related issues.

My personal preference would be to "rip the band-aid off" and move the entire country to GMT.  I think there would be great benefit to operating on a unified time, in an era of global commerce, communication, and travel.  

Regardless of what our clocks say, I will be happy enough to just stop changing them twice a year.

That sounds like Zulu time to me.  We use it in the military to coordinate action between several timezones to work as one.

Yeah, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), Zulu Time, or UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Any kind of unified time system would be a much better solution in the world of global eCommerce. I just don't think Americans would ever go for it, much like we're still reluctant to fully adopt the metric system or Celsius.

People always complain, "If we switch to permanent [whatever] time, then kids will be going to school in the dark or coming home in the dark." But that's not a clock problem. That's a school scheduling problem. If you're worried about kids waiting for the bus in the dark, talk to your local school board about starting school later. Adjust the schedule to fit your community instead of making the entire country change its clocks twice a year.

When I was growing up in Buffalo, I remember going to school in the dark during the winter, and somehow I survived. Millions of other kids did too.

The closer you get to the equator, like here in southwest Florida, the less seasonal variation there is in daylight. We still notice some change, but nothing like what they get farther north. Local issues can be solved locally. There's no reason to make the whole country deal with changing clocks twice a year because one region has a different sunrise or sunset.

Personally, I'd rather stay on permanent standard time, but if the choice is between permanent daylight saving time and changing the clocks forever, I'll happily take permanent daylight saving time. I just want the clock changing to stop. And like you said, GMT for everybody would be great. Then you just got to learn what your local sunrise and sunset times are. Okay, dinner's at 0300 here. Got it.

It would be nice to have happen, but this is politics. The house passed it, but will the senate even touch it.  Just git er done dammit.

Probably not. I bet these guys get together, and they all do stuff like, "Okay, this is a bill that I want to look good on, so I want to vote for it, but we really don't want it to happen, so you guys all vote no." At least I can say I voted for it, so I look good. Next time, they rotate: "Oh, now you guys can look good, but we'll all still vote it down." They play this stupid game with politics. It's ridiculous.

Richard Or the House/Senate member(s) that can get some else to vote for them while they are in a Hospital somewhere for 6 months.  But even worse are those that vote "present"!  Maybe Billy Connolly had it right when he said: "The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever being one!"

Exactly. That's why I like what the ancient Greeks did. They selected many public officials by lot. "You don't want to be a senator? Too bad. You're doing your civic duty for the next couple of years." Career politicians should not be a thing.

I read about what the Ancient Greeks did many "moons" ago and really liked the idea.  I've mentioned it in several political discussions since then and got the "are you crazy" look.  Recently, those looks have changed to "hmmm, might be a good idea".

Richard Florida is actually where 8 kids died the last time they switched to "permanent" DST:

https://time.com/archive/6842307/the-nation-daylight-disaster-time/

I had to chuckle with your anecdotal "evidence" "When I was growing up in Buffalo..." Science! Science should lead the way here. Yes, people are stupid. Yes, they resist change. This is why cold, dispassionate science should lead the way.

I'll throw one more article out here, which goes more in depth on the effects (some positive) of DST:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/100-years-later-the-madness-of-daylight-saving-time-endures

I would urge anyone wanting to platform this to read the science. It's not really in doubt. Just search "scientific studies on daylight savings time" to see dozens of articles supporting staying on standard time.