tagged w/ Daylight Savings
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As the calendar turns over to a new year, a couple of researchers over at Johns Hopkins University are rethinking the way we tick off the days during our annual trip around the sun. The duo has devised a new yearly calendar in which each 12-month period is identical to the one before--meaning if your birthday is on a Monday one year, it’s on a Monday every year--until the end of time.
The Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar--named for Richard Conn Henry and Steve H. Hanke at JHU, the researchers behind the reformed calendar--isn’t just a realignment of the way we count days, but a simplification of the overall economic rhythm of the world. All the time and effort spent adjusting calendars and schedules every year to accommodate shifting days of the week could be saved, they argue. The man hours and money saved by a uniform year would be tremendous.
The calendar consists of the same12 months as the current Gregorian year, but the months have been adjusted subtly to make each quarter exactly 91 days long--two 30-day months and one 31-day month. That means September, June, March, and December would become the long months, while February would gain a couple of days.
Speaking of February, leap years would be dropped from the calendar completely. To make up for the remainder days (each Earth year is 365.2422 days long, and that remainder must be accounted for to keep the seasons from wandering out of sync with the months), Hanke and Henry propose adding a week to the end of December every five or six years to bring everything back into alignment.
In doing so, they wouldn’t disturb the carefully curated order that keeps days of the seven-day week aligned with the same dates each year. That’s key, they say, because most attempts to reform the calendar have failed because of objections to breaking up the seven-day week (it doesn’t matter what Sabbath you celebrate, you still have to keep it holy--therefore, you need that traditional seven-day week).
For all of its perceived benefits the Hanke-Henry calendar still doesn’t explain why the NCAA Football Championship always falls on a Monday night, but nobody’s perfect. There’s a lot more about the concept calendar here, including a proposed timetable for its adoption (the proposed date is Jan. 1, 2017) and an argument for switching to a universal clock that dispenses with time zones, daylight savings, and the like.
http://releases.jhu.edu/2011/12/27/time-for-a-change-johns-hopkins-scholars-say-calendar-needs-serious-overhaul/
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-01/new-calendar-proposal-would-make-each-year-identical-one
http://theabysmal.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/daylight-wheel-gregorian.gifAs the calendar turns over to a new year, a couple of researchers over at Johns... more
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Why and when did daylight savings being? An interesting article about daylight savings. Maybe more than you wanted to know...Why and when did daylight savings being? An interesting article about daylight... more
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The bug only affects iPhones running iOS 4.1 which appears to have had alarms set on repeat resulting in thousands of alarms not going off at the right time this morning. Not that many who would have been affected would have been that sad about snoozing for another hour.
Ironically it was bug Apple knew all about but still failed to fix in time for daylight saving to hit Europe. Users in Australia and New Zealand were affected more than three weeks ago when they swapped over to daylight saving. It will be interesting to see if Apple will get their butt in gear and fix the problem in time for the US to change their clocks on Sunday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/nov/01/iphone-dst-alarm-bug-europeThe bug only affects iPhones running iOS 4.1 which appears to have had alarms set on... more
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It's time to "fall back" again. At 2 a.m. Sunday, you'll have to turn your clock back one hour, because it's the end of daylight saving time.
If you're in the United States, it applies to you -- unless you're in Hawaii and some parts of Arizona. Those are the only parts of the 50 states that don't observe daylight saving time. The territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa do not observe it either.
http://bit.ly/3BHF3tIt's time to "fall back" again. At 2 a.m. Sunday, you'll have to... more
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BOSTON (Reuters Life!) - Clocks spring ahead and fall back when adjusting in and out of daylight saving time. A study published on Wednesday finds that heart attack rates do the same.
The research, based on heart attacks in Sweden, concluded that the chance of a heart attack goes up during the first three weekdays after the springtime shift to daylight saving time, possibly because of sleep deprivation.
But on the autumn Monday after clocks go back and people can get an extra hour of shuteye, the heart attack risk declines.
"Our data suggest that vulnerable people might benefit from avoiding sudden changes in their biologic rhythms," said Drs. Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute and Rickard Ljung of the National Board of Health and Welfare, both in Stockholm.
In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, they said the culprit may be the one hour of sleep lost in the spring, when the clocks are shifted ahead.
"The earlier wake-up times on the first workday of the week and the consequent minor sleep deprivation can be hypothesized to have an adverse cardiovascular effect on some people. This effect would be less pronounced with the transition out of daylight saving time, since it allows for additional sleep," they wrote.
The protective effect in the fall may last for just one day because, "Monday is the day when most of us will use this extra hour," Janszky said by e-mail.
During the shift to daylight saving time, women seemed more vulnerable to heart attacks than men. Men were more likely to be protected during the Monday in the autumn, the researchers said.
They also found that the effect was more pronounced in people under age 65.
Janszky said younger people may be affected more because they tend to be working and their schedules are not as flexible.
"Retired people are more independent from the official time," the researcher said.
More than 1.5 billion people worldwide live in countries that use daylight saving time.
BOSTON (Reuters Life!) - Clocks spring ahead and fall back when adjusting in and out... more
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Turning your clock back one hour for the end of daylight saving time could do your own ticker some good.
Researchers have found a 5% drop in heart attack deaths and hospitalizations the day after clocks are reset each year to standard time, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Unfortunately, the Swedish researchers also found that the onset of daylight saving time in the spring appears to increase the risk of heart attacks.
Physicians can now add daylight saving time to the list of seemingly mundane events that have an effect on the heart, said Dr. Ralph Brindis, a vice president of the American College of Cardiology who practices in Oakland. The risk also rises on holidays and anniversaries, though no one knows why, he said.
"This study is fascinating," Brindis saidTurning your clock back one hour for the end of daylight saving time could do your own... more
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"The decision to extend daylight saving in south-eastern Australia could create a mini-Y2K by putting the internal clocks on computers, smartphones and corporate servers out of sync.
Many electronic devices with internal clocks are set to adjust automatically for daylight saving but, as a result of the recent date changes, the adjustments this year will be incorrect."
Well if Mad Max has taught us anything, Australia is the perfect place to survive an apocalyptic kind of event, like this might become.
"The decision to extend daylight saving in south-eastern Australia could create a... more
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Cows can't deal with the Daylight Savings Time switch. They're accustomed to getting milked every 12 hours, and the switch means they don't have more time to make that milk. Less milk means less for farmers to sell, so it's bad for farmers. Now, WHY do we still do this?! Arizona, Hawai'i, Guam, and Samoa have the right idea on this one.Cows can't deal with the Daylight Savings Time switch. They're accustomed... more
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It turns out that Daylight Savings Time isn't all it's cracked up to be: a new study shows that utility bills actually went up. This means energy is not saved, which is the rationale behind DST. Plus, if you hate "springing forward," this provides ample evidence for you to argue against changing your clocks!
Don't forget: the US moves clocks forward an hour tonight!It turns out that Daylight Savings Time isn't all it's cracked up to be: a... more
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One twin was born Sunday morning, at 1:32 AM. Thirty-four minutes later, his baby sister arrived... at 1:06 AM. Conundrum!One twin was born Sunday morning, at 1:32 AM. Thirty-four minutes later, his baby... more
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