Sunday 26 October 2014

Leave TF the clocks alone

Hi Ukraine, what's the time in Kiev today?  Did your government dick about with the time as well as ours?  Rewrite: Did your government dick about with the time as badly as ours?  Every year on two Sundays a year in the wee hours, the governments of the WEA change the time by an hour.  There is a handy mnemonic to remember which way it goes: "Spring forward; Fall back". It happened today but I still sprang out of bed at the same bioclock time to bloggedy-blog for you. They make the switch on Sunday morning because this a traditional day of rest and the clear and present dangers associated with the change are minimised if most people don't work on the day the change occurs.  Of course, the Lord's Day Observance Society doesn't have the clout it did in 1943 and so many people worship St Mammon on Sundays that numerous workers in retail do now work on that day.

The clear and present dangers following from clock-change and the disruption of circadian rhythms include 10% increase in heart attacks; 20% decrease in work productivity; more workplace injuries; 17% increase in traffic accidents after the Spring forward; 2% lost on exams scores. Monetising these issues suggests that institutionalised clock-changes costs the US economy $433 million each year !  The costs to the global economy are not pro-rata but rather higher because the changes in different countries are a mad mix of arbitrary dates which  make scheduling International meetings in Megacorp tiresomely difficult for about two months every year.

The wonderful CPG Grey explains the whys and wherefores of DST in his usual colourful gallop.
Changing clocks is delusional, confusing, dangerous and costly. STOP IT.


I make no apology for a less-is-more post yesterday 
but got two complaints, so I'm making it a twofer 
Sunday to add to the 'extra' hour you had in bed 
this morning, ye lazy-arses.

1 comment:

  1. Agree wholeheartedly. Mind you I hope my quip about the shortest blob blog ever was not percieved as a complaint;)

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