(no subject)
last week, in the local mx(free daily paper for public transport users to be distracted by and less likely to graffiti the seat in front of them) they had a sports writer complain about the lack of unity in the eastern seaboard when it came to daylight savings time.
a victorian sports writer who moved up here seven years ago.
i felt it was my duty to respond to a few of his points and i shall now entertain you (i hope) or annoy you (teehee) with the final product....
+++++
vaughan,
i read your piece in yesterdays mx and found myself bemused by your piece on queensland's reluctance to align with the other states on daylight savings time.
i've lived through the times without, under sir joh and the times with, under labour.
you say you've yet to hear a good reason why it should not take place.
i'm not about to recount to you tales of faded drapes and carpets, or "how will the cows know how to get up an hour early?"
no, i'm going to explain to you that we eastern states should align ourselves, by abolishing daylight savings, outright.
daylight savings was first thought of by the great american writer and philosopher benjamin franklin. he conceived the idea in a time where we had no phones, no electricity and most people were in bed, asleep, shortly after dusk. daylight savings, then, meant a way to enjoy the summer months by having an extra hour of it to bask in, after work.
in particular, an extra hour in dear old Boston.
now, i can understand how you, as an ex-victorian, could relish the idea of anything bringing a ray of sunshine into your dark, dank, dreary life, but we here in queensland live in an area that is best described as "sub-tropical" to "tropical."
this means we get more bloody sunshine than we know what to do with.
in fact, as this map ( http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html ) shows, we are on a latitude that is shared with many countries who never had daylight savings and others that have also realised that it had no place being invoked, in the first place.
you say it's amusing and frustrating to hear the debate. i feel likewise, with the main bone of contention being "i have to get up an hour earlier, because queensland won't tow the company line." oh, how my heavy heart bleeds for your mild discomfort.
but you manage to ignore the vital truth of the matter. under daylight savings you would still be getting up an hour earlier! just like the cows already know when it's dawn and time to get milked, you delude yourself to think that, just because the clock reads 7am, that it must be 7am, not 6am. and the amount of lost productivity/increased accidents in the first week of switching the clocks forward from the people who have to re-align their own internal body clocks should be taken into account, not to mention the disruption to family evening
time.
the last time we had dst in queensland, i observed my younger cousins as they had to be corralled and prepared for bed when the sun had not yet set. the difficulty my sister will face should daylight savings return of trying to get her children to go to sleep when the sun stays up until 9:00 at "night" would be tantamount to herding cats out of a field of catnip.
ultimately, the evolution of western human society into one that has created 24hr convenience, entertainment, shopping and news services, where the population have been working later into the evening, staying up to watch late night television while chatting to one another, across the globe, at all hours, via their internet accessible i-thingies feels like one that has outgrown the need to be told "early to be, early to rise...."
and we're just waiting for our "enlightened" cousins to the south to realise their folly.
the fiend
honestly, he sounded like a petulant child visiting his friends house for a sleep over and finding out they don't have dessert after dinner...
a victorian sports writer who moved up here seven years ago.
i felt it was my duty to respond to a few of his points and i shall now entertain you (i hope) or annoy you (teehee) with the final product....
+++++
vaughan,
i read your piece in yesterdays mx and found myself bemused by your piece on queensland's reluctance to align with the other states on daylight savings time.
i've lived through the times without, under sir joh and the times with, under labour.
you say you've yet to hear a good reason why it should not take place.
i'm not about to recount to you tales of faded drapes and carpets, or "how will the cows know how to get up an hour early?"
no, i'm going to explain to you that we eastern states should align ourselves, by abolishing daylight savings, outright.
daylight savings was first thought of by the great american writer and philosopher benjamin franklin. he conceived the idea in a time where we had no phones, no electricity and most people were in bed, asleep, shortly after dusk. daylight savings, then, meant a way to enjoy the summer months by having an extra hour of it to bask in, after work.
in particular, an extra hour in dear old Boston.
now, i can understand how you, as an ex-victorian, could relish the idea of anything bringing a ray of sunshine into your dark, dank, dreary life, but we here in queensland live in an area that is best described as "sub-tropical" to "tropical."
this means we get more bloody sunshine than we know what to do with.
in fact, as this map ( http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html ) shows, we are on a latitude that is shared with many countries who never had daylight savings and others that have also realised that it had no place being invoked, in the first place.
you say it's amusing and frustrating to hear the debate. i feel likewise, with the main bone of contention being "i have to get up an hour earlier, because queensland won't tow the company line." oh, how my heavy heart bleeds for your mild discomfort.
but you manage to ignore the vital truth of the matter. under daylight savings you would still be getting up an hour earlier! just like the cows already know when it's dawn and time to get milked, you delude yourself to think that, just because the clock reads 7am, that it must be 7am, not 6am. and the amount of lost productivity/increased accidents in the first week of switching the clocks forward from the people who have to re-align their own internal body clocks should be taken into account, not to mention the disruption to family evening
time.
the last time we had dst in queensland, i observed my younger cousins as they had to be corralled and prepared for bed when the sun had not yet set. the difficulty my sister will face should daylight savings return of trying to get her children to go to sleep when the sun stays up until 9:00 at "night" would be tantamount to herding cats out of a field of catnip.
ultimately, the evolution of western human society into one that has created 24hr convenience, entertainment, shopping and news services, where the population have been working later into the evening, staying up to watch late night television while chatting to one another, across the globe, at all hours, via their internet accessible i-thingies feels like one that has outgrown the need to be told "early to be, early to rise...."
and we're just waiting for our "enlightened" cousins to the south to realise their folly.
the fiend
honestly, he sounded like a petulant child visiting his friends house for a sleep over and finding out they don't have dessert after dinner...