From: johnl@iecc.com   
      
   >> Aw, come on.  Where I am, for example, today DST moved an hour of   
   >> daylight from 04:00-05:00, when almost nobody is awake, to   
   >> 20:15-21:15 when almost everybody is.   
   >   
   >Well, part of the problem is stubbornly insisting on a uniform "day"   
   >dictated by clocks despite the obvious variations in solar day and   
   >circadian rhythms.   
   >   
   >Another is that our time zones probably aren't correct in the first   
   >place.  If most of us (particularly along the borders) shifted one time   
   >zone, we could keep the same time year-round.  Sure, the mornings in the   
   >winters would be darker, but most of us have to get up in the dark   
   >anyway and then head into environments that are artificially lit all day   
   >anyway, so there's no energy loss there.   
      
   The complaints we got around here for extended DST were about kids   
   waiting for school buses in the dark in the late fall and winter.  In   
   the summer, even with DST the sun rises here by 5:30 AM, when only the   
   farmers are up.   
      
   In any event, the major point of time zones is so that people with   
   common interests use the same time.  The solar time for Paris is close   
   to the solar time for London, but France uses the same time as Germany   
   and Switzerland and Italy, since its economy is more integrated with   
   them.  (France was on GMT until the German occupation in WW II, and   
   they never changed it back.  Go figure.)  Madrid is farther west than   
   London, but Spain also uses continental time for the same reason.   
      
   I expect that's the same reason Detroit is on EST/EDT, it's useful to   
   be on the same time as New York and Washington.   
      
      
   >> Hawaii is so far south that the variation in day length is insignificant.   
   >   
   >By that logic, Florida and at least half of Texas probably shouldn't do   
   >DST either.   
      
   Um, Texas is about ten degrees farther north than Hawaii.  But if   
   Texas wanted to have different time from the rest of the country, I   
   wouldn't stop them.   
      
   R's,   
   John   
   --   
   Regards,   
   John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",   
   Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly   
      
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