• xkcd: Time Change

    From Lynn McGuire@3:633/10 to All on Fri Jul 17 14:43:32 2026
    xkcd: Time Change
    https://www.xkcd.com/3272/

    Explained at:
    https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3272:_Time_Change

    Yeah, Randall has it wrong. The USA House just voted to make Daylight
    Savings Time permanent for the nation. My congresscritter just voted
    for it.

    "H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act, which ends an outdated practice
    by making daylight saving time permanent, meaning most Americans would
    no longer have to "spring forward" and "fall back" each year. By making daylight saving time permanent, Americans can enjoy more usable daylight
    after work and school."

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    Lynn


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 06:44:38 2026
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From James Nicoll@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 13:46:57 2026
    In article <113f7cm$3chk9$1@dont-email.me>,
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    Funny, not so long ago I read a novel where AMERICA! had corrected
    the axial tilt. That was just a background detail. Mostly the story
    was about heavily armed Americans going to other planets to kill
    anything that moved.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 08:11:58 2026
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go
    permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time? Either way you can't
    avoid people having to be awake and doing things when the sun is below
    the horizon!

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Lurndal@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 15:31:54 2026
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> writes:
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go >permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time?

    At my lat/long, DST simply makes more sense for both winter and
    summer.

    Using ST, the summer solstice dawn would begin before 0400, sunrise at 0600, and set before 2000 - DST shifts both forward an hour.

    Using DST, the winter dawn breaks at 0430 on
    the shortest day, sunrise at 0722 and sunset near 1700 instead of 1600.

    It really depends on how you are positioned in a timezone. Perhaps
    six timezones instead of three would aleviate those difficulties (but
    would likely be a very difficult transition from the current three).




    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 14:39:19 2026
    Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    No, not at all. I could get up later at one time of year than another
    without having to reset the clocks constantly.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From BobbieSellers@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 14:18:00 2026
    On 7/17/26 23:44, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    Well twice a year, presently, human biological clocks
    are insulted. Whether we move to DST or ST it will obviate the insults.
    For hundreds of years we had to wait until sunrise to do anything but
    now we have electrical lighting so we have street lights to find our
    way to work or at the farm to find our way to the barn to take care of
    the animals. Headlights on the tractors will help us plow in the dark
    if we don't shortly leave it to the LLM running the plow.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Garrett Wollman@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 21:57:01 2026
    In article <113gh8n$kji$1@panix2.panix.com>,
    Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:

    No, not at all. I could get up later at one time of year than another >without having to reset the clocks constantly.

    This doesn't actually help. Well maybe it helps you personally, but
    the point of the "summer" time change is for *all of society* to do
    it at the same time, because most people's schedules must be
    coordinated with other people (for electric utilities and retail store
    owners, the primary constituencies for the time change, millions of
    other people). Changing the clocks (twice is a year, not
    "constantly") is a much easier mechanism than having every single
    business, contract, and recurring event publish separate times for
    "November through March" and "April through October".

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 22:09:59 2026
    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:11:58 -0700, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go
    permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time? Either way you
    can't avoid people having to be awake and doing things when the sun
    is below the horizon!

    As an urbanized, industrialized society, we are accustomed to doing
    things after dark long into the evenings, with the help of large
    amounts of artificial illumination.

    Getting up before sunrise in the mornings, and using artificial
    illumination to get through the early part of the day, not so much.

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 22:13:21 2026
    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:46:57 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:

    Funny, not so long ago I read a novel where AMERICA! had corrected
    the axial tilt.

    What happened to the seasons? Climate? Ecology?

    Also, I heard somewhere that, about 10,000 or so years ago, the tilt
    changed from 24ø to the present 23«ø, and this was a factor in the desertification of the Sahara.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From William Hyde@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 18 18:40:17 2026
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:46:57 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:

    Funny, not so long ago I read a novel where AMERICA! had corrected
    the axial tilt.

    What happened to the seasons? Climate? Ecology?

    Also, I heard somewhere that, about 10,000 or so years ago, the tilt
    changed from 24ø to the present 23«ø, and this was a factor in the desertification of the Sahara.

    The obliquity is continually changing in a quasi cyclic way, from about
    22 to 24.5 with a dominant period of about 41,000 years.

    This is not solely responsible for the Sahara as the change in the
    longitude of perihelion also had an influence, weakening the North
    African monsoon.

    Higher eccentricity also makes for stronger monsoons in general, but it
    hasn't changed much in the past few thousand years.

    William Hyde

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Nuno Silva@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 19 00:30:34 2026
    On 2026-07-18, James Nicoll wrote:


    Funny, not so long ago I read a novel where AMERICA! had corrected
    the axial tilt. That was just a background detail. Mostly the story
    was about heavily armed Americans going to other planets to kill
    anything that moved.

    Ah, America as in USA, I see. If it weren't for that last sentence, it
    could have been ambiguous :-P

    /me hides

    --
    Nuno Silva

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 19 09:59:37 2026
    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:11:58 -0700, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go
    permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time? Either way you
    can't avoid people having to be awake and doing things when the sun
    is below the horizon!

    As an urbanized, industrialized society, we are accustomed to doing
    things after dark long into the evenings, with the help of large
    amounts of artificial illumination.

    Getting up before sunrise in the mornings, and using artificial
    illumination to get through the early part of the day, not so much.

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    After that it became a tradition.

    Now it has wing-nuts on both sides.

    While I would prefer staying in reality (ie, Standard Time) all year,
    we spend most of the year in fantasy (ie, DST) anyway, and removing
    the clock nonsense would be worth permanent DST.

    You do realize that DDST has been used in the past, right? There
    really is no end to this nonsense.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The True Melissa@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 19 13:55:37 2026
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them doesn't
    save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours of operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.

    --
    The meek shall inherit, we're told,
    But I'm not so easily sold.
    For supposing they should,
    It would do them no good --
    They'd lose it at once to the bold.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From BobbieSellers@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 19 13:28:55 2026
    On 7/19/26 11:52, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
    In article <MPG.44c6d9a384489b9a98a1a6@news.eternal-september.org>,
    The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.comNOSPAM> wrote:
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did
    psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them doesn't
    save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours of
    operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.


    Farmers get up with the dawn, not the clock. My great-aunt was a farmer,
    and she considered Standard Time to be God's Time, and DST to be the devil's work.

    Funny back in the 1940s when I lived on a farm in California and another in Nevada the clock helped us take care of the chores and have
    time left over from feeding, milking, collecting eggs to slaughter a
    chicken for lunch. There was enough light from the sky in Nevada before
    dawn to find your way around the farm.



    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 19 16:41:40 2026
    Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:

    Farmers get up with the dawn, not the clock. My great-aunt was a farmer,
    and she considered Standard Time to be God's Time, and DST to be the devil's >work.

    I'm surprised she accepted railroad time at all.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From James Nicoll@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 02:03:33 2026
    In article <113gtq1$3sso5$4@dont-email.me>,
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:46:57 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:

    Funny, not so long ago I read a novel where AMERICA! had corrected
    the axial tilt.

    What happened to the seasons? Climate? Ecology?

    All improved swimmingly!

    https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/til-all-success-be-nobleness
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Crryptoengineer@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 04:53:49 2026

    scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) posted:

    ERROR "unexpected byte sequence starting at index 83: '\xE2'" while decoding:

    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> writes:
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence Dƒ??Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If youƒ??re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when itƒ??s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when itƒ??s still light, versus staying up after itƒ??s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you canƒ??t legislate either the tilt of >> the Earthƒ??s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go >permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time?

    At my lat/long, DST simply makes more sense for both winter and
    summer.

    Using ST, the summer solstice dawn would begin before 0400, sunrise at 0600, and set before 2000 - DST shifts both forward an hour.

    Using DST, the winter dawn breaks at 0430 on
    the shortest day, sunrise at 0722 and sunset near 1700 instead of 1600.

    It really depends on how you are positioned in a timezone. Perhaps
    six timezones instead of three would aleviate those difficulties (but
    would likely be a very difficult transition from the current three).

    The continental US has 4 timezones.

    Agreed, being at the eastern or western edge of a timezone makes an hours difference in daylight. There really isn't an elegant solution. I'd prefer whatever
    setting puts solar noon closest to clock noon.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 05:36:56 2026
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:53:49 GMT, Crryptoengineer wrote:

    Agreed, being at the eastern or western edge of a timezone makes an
    hours difference in daylight.

    Timezones aren?t necessarily 15ø wide, or even centred around the
    corresponding mean solar time, or anywhere near it. Quite often their demarcations are determined by political issues.

    For example, when flying from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, there is a net
    eastward change in longitude, yet you set your clock back by an hour
    when you get there.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Nuno Silva@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 08:12:01 2026
    On 2026-07-18, Scott Lurndal wrote:

    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> writes:
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence Dƒ??Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If youƒ??re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when itƒ??s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when itƒ??s still light, versus staying up after itƒ??s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you canƒ??t legislate either the tilt of >>> the Earthƒ??s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go >>permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time?

    At my lat/long, DST simply makes more sense for both winter and
    summer.

    Using ST, the summer solstice dawn would begin before 0400, sunrise at 0600, and set before 2000 - DST shifts both forward an hour.

    Using DST, the winter dawn breaks at 0430 on
    the shortest day, sunrise at 0722 and sunset near 1700 instead of 1600.

    It really depends on how you are positioned in a timezone. Perhaps
    six timezones instead of three would aleviate those difficulties (but
    would likely be a very difficult transition from the current three).

    I can't help but feel that "ST" isn't a good abbreviation to use here,
    because if one looks at some timezones, ST surely means "Summer Time"
    (cf. EET-EEST, CET-CEST, WET-WEST), yet given the "DST" I suppose this
    is about the wording used in e.g. US timezone names, "Standard Time"
    (even though there you'd probably call summer time "DT", not "DST")...

    Is there any established way to refer to these that's better?

    --
    Nuno Silva

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Gary R. Schmidt@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 18:38:33 2026
    On 20/07/2026 15:36, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:53:49 GMT, Crryptoengineer wrote:

    Agreed, being at the eastern or western edge of a timezone makes an
    hours difference in daylight.

    Timezones aren?t necessarily 15ø wide, or even centred around the corresponding mean solar time, or anywhere near it. Quite often their demarcations are determined by political issues.

    For example, when flying from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, there is a net eastward change in longitude, yet you set your clock back by an hour
    when you get there.

    And the Chinese Empire uses one time zone across the entire country.

    Makes the lusers who bitch about an hour's darkness/lightness appear
    even more sad and pathetic.

    We still suffer from knuckle-draggers who scream that, "It will fade the curtains," particularly in FNQ, but even in the civilised portions of
    godzone they appear from time to time.

    "Clock Time," in any locale, is a human invention, get over it, FFS.

    Cheers,
    Gary B-)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Lurndal@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 14:17:03 2026
    Crryptoengineer <user3070@newsgrouper.org.invalid> writes:

    scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) posted:

    ERROR "unexpected byte sequence starting at index 83: '\xE2'" while decoding:

    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> writes:
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence Dƒ??Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If youƒ??re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when itƒ??s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when itƒ??s still light, versus staying up after itƒ??s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you canƒ??t legislate either the tilt of >> >> the Earthƒ??s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go
    permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time?

    At my lat/long, DST simply makes more sense for both winter and
    summer.

    Using ST, the summer solstice dawn would begin before 0400, sunrise at 0600, >> and set before 2000 - DST shifts both forward an hour.

    Using DST, the winter dawn breaks at 0430 on
    the shortest day, sunrise at 0722 and sunset near 1700 instead of 1600.

    It really depends on how you are positioned in a timezone. Perhaps
    six timezones instead of three would aleviate those difficulties (but
    would likely be a very difficult transition from the current three).

    The continental US has 4 timezones.

    Brainfart. I don't know anyone in mountain time...


    Agreed, being at the eastern or western edge of a timezone makes an hours >difference in daylight. There really isn't an elegant solution. I'd prefer whatever
    setting puts solar noon closest to clock noon.

    Why?

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 07:18:51 2026
    On 7/19/2026 10:55 AM, The True Melissa wrote:
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them doesn't
    save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours of operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.

    Agreed.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 09:20:31 2026
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:53:49 GMT, Crryptoengineer <user3070@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:

    <snppo>

    The continental US has 4 timezones.

    Agreed, being at the eastern or western edge of a timezone makes an
    hours
    difference in daylight. There really isn't an elegant solution. I'd
    prefer whatever
    setting puts solar noon closest to clock noon.

    That would be Standard Time.

    DST, by definition, puts clock noon closest to solar 1PM.

    The system (if that's the word) this replaced was for each town to use
    the correct solar time. The train schedules were ... interesting. The
    four time zones were used to simplify this.

    Ptolemy, IIRC, has an entire table giving sunrise/sunset times at
    various latitudes. Also how long the hours were: an hour (in the
    daytime[1]) back then was a fraction (1/12, IIRC, or maybe 1/10 IIDRC)
    the time between sunrise and sunset. Mechanical clocks helped
    standardize the length of the hour.

    [1] The night was divided into "watches", at least in some places.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 09:27:52 2026
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:12:01 +0100, Nuno Silva
    <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    On 2026-07-18, Scott Lurndal wrote:

    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> writes:
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then
    it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark,
    versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s
    already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either
    the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go >>>permanent DST. What is wrong with Standard Time?

    At my lat/long, DST simply makes more sense for both winter and
    summer.

    Using ST, the summer solstice dawn would begin before 0400, sunrise at
    0600,
    and set before 2000 - DST shifts both forward an hour.

    Using DST, the winter dawn breaks at 0430 on
    the shortest day, sunrise at 0722 and sunset near 1700 instead of
    1600.

    It really depends on how you are positioned in a timezone. Perhaps
    six timezones instead of three would aleviate those difficulties (but
    would likely be a very difficult transition from the current three).

    I can't help but feel that "ST" isn't a good abbreviation to use here, >because if one looks at some timezones, ST surely means "Summer Time"
    (cf. EET-EEST, CET-CEST, WET-WEST), yet given the "DST" I suppose this
    is about the wording used in e.g. US timezone names, "Standard Time"
    (even though there you'd probably call summer time "DT", not "DST")...

    Is there any established way to refer to these that's better?

    This may help: <https://www.timeanddate.com/time/standard-time.html>

    Note that it equates "Standard Time" with "winter time" and DST with
    "summer time", "especially in the UK".

    So feel free to regard using as ST as yet another USA-ism, from the
    perspective of the UK.

    It also this interesting factoid:

    "More than 60% of the countries in the world use standard time all
    year."
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 09:30:19 2026
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 07:18:51 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    On 7/19/2026 10:55 AM, The True Melissa wrote:
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did
    psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them
    doesn't
    save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours
    of
    operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.

    Agreed.

    Remember the trouble businesses had getting workers to come back to
    the office after the pandemic ended?

    And you want them to do this twice every year?
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 17:37:53 2026
    On 7/20/2026 9:30 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 07:18:51 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    On 7/19/2026 10:55 AM, The True Melissa wrote:
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did
    psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them doesn't >>> save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours of >>> operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.

    Agreed.

    Remember the trouble businesses had getting workers to come back to
    the office after the pandemic ended?

    And you want them to do this twice every year?

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however
    they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Garrett Wollman@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 01:32:54 2026
    In article <113mf0v$1jpv7$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however
    they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    That *doesn't help*.

    Retail businesses want their customers (nb: not their employees) to
    get out of work while there is still daylight, because they spend
    more when the sun is out after 6 p.m.

    Electric utilities want peak electric consumption to take place when
    there is a surplus of low-cost solar energy, not an hour after sunset.

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From BobbieSellers@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 21:52:38 2026
    On 7/20/26 18:32, Garrett Wollman wrote:
    In article <113mf0v$1jpv7$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however
    they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    That *doesn't help*.

    Retail businesses want their customers (nb: not their employees) to
    get out of work while there is still daylight, because they spend
    more when the sun is out after 6 p.m.

    Electric utilities want peak electric consumption to take place when
    there is a surplus of low-cost solar energy, not an hour after sunset.

    -GAWollman


    Well I dunno about that but in the San Francisco Bay Area rates are highest between 4 PM and 9 PM when the commute is running and the
    East Bay has to run air conditioners most often.

    Due to my straightened circumstances I am shutting down the TV
    during those hours when the Librarians and the Grimm shows are on.
    If I watch them my bills move toward my maximum payments.
    I wish I could tell you what a PIA that is.

    bliss


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 20 22:03:57 2026
    On 7/20/2026 6:32 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:
    In article <113mf0v$1jpv7$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however
    they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    That *doesn't help*.

    Retail businesses want their customers (nb: not their employees) to
    get out of work while there is still daylight, because they spend
    more when the sun is out after 6 p.m.

    Inherent contradiction there with most companies wanting _both_
    customers _and_ employees off work while there is sunlight.

    Electric utilities want peak electric consumption to take place when
    there is a surplus of low-cost solar energy, not an hour after sunset.

    At the cost of increased medical and other problems caused by shifting
    between DST and Standard Time.

    No matter what "time" is used there are tradeoffs. I personally don't
    really care which is finally selected _as long as we stop changing it
    twice a year_!

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 05:35:27 2026
    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:38:33 +1000, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:

    And the Chinese Empire uses one time zone across the entire country.

    Officially, yes.

    Informally, certain Western regions simply adjust their working/waking
    hours to match more closely with the Sun.

    I was told this by a former DEC service engineer, who did occasional
    work around that part of the world, back in the day.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Nuno Silva@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 07:44:34 2026
    On 2026-07-21, Garrett Wollman wrote:

    In article <113mf0v$1jpv7$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however >>they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    That *doesn't help*.

    Retail businesses want their customers (nb: not their employees) to
    get out of work while there is still daylight, because they spend
    more when the sun is out after 6 p.m.

    Electric utilities want peak electric consumption to take place when
    there is a surplus of low-cost solar energy, not an hour after sunset.
    -----------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Wouldn't that be after sunset?

    --
    Nuno Silva

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Nuno Silva@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 07:45:41 2026
    On 2026-07-21, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

    On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:38:33 +1000, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:

    And the Chinese Empire uses one time zone across the entire country.

    Officially, yes.

    Informally, certain Western regions simply adjust their working/waking
    hours to match more closely with the Sun.

    I was told this by a former DEC service engineer, who did occasional
    work around that part of the world, back in the day.

    So, exactly what several people are proposing, don't mess with legal
    time, especially not twice an year, and instead track the sun if you
    need to.

    --
    Nuno Silva

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From BobbieSellers@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 07:50:27 2026
    On 7/20/26 23:44, Nuno Silva wrote:
    On 2026-07-21, Garrett Wollman wrote:

    In article <113mf0v$1jpv7$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however
    they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    That *doesn't help*.

    Retail businesses want their customers (nb: not their employees) to
    get out of work while there is still daylight, because they spend
    more when the sun is out after 6 p.m.

    Electric utilities want peak electric consumption to take place when
    there is a surplus of low-cost solar energy, not an hour after sunset.
    -----------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Wouldn't that be after sunset?


    Depends on the time of years and weather but between 4 PM
    and 9 PM in SFBA- is the time of highest consumption. An hour after
    sunset is when batteries and other production come into play. In
    addition we have more wind power in SFBA* and not dependent on
    simple solar power. Electrical utilities want and expect peak use
    during that highest priced period of time.
    *San Francisco Bay Area.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 08:44:21 2026
    On Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:50:27 -0700, BobbieSellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextremeinvalid.com> wrote:

    <snippo>

    Depends on the time of years and weather but between 4 PM
    and 9 PM in SFBA- is the time of highest consumption. An hour after
    sunset is when batteries and other production come into play. In
    addition we have more wind power in SFBA* and not dependent on
    simple solar power. Electrical utilities want and expect peak use
    during that highest priced period of time.
    *San Francisco Bay Area.

    Seattle City Light came out with an announcement, or maybe a proposal,
    that sounded like that, but it appeared to me to be incoherent: it
    talked about two rates each day but the illustration showed 3
    different time periods. But we'll eventually find out what happens, if
    not what they were planning when the announcement/proposal appeared.

    We already have summer/winter seasonal differences.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 11:43:18 2026
    On 7/21/2026 7:50 AM, BobbieSellers wrote:
    On 7/20/26 23:44, Nuno Silva wrote:
    On 2026-07-21, Garrett Wollman wrote:

    In article <113mf0v$1jpv7$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Travelerÿ <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

    I'm not. I think that businesses should simply set their hours however >>>> they want _without_ changing them twice a year.

    That *doesn't help*.

    Retail businesses want their customers (nb: not their employees) to
    get out of work while there is still daylight, because they spend
    more when the sun is out after 6 p.m.

    Electric utilities want peak electric consumption to take place when
    there is a surplus of low-cost solar energy, not an hour after sunset.
    -----------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Wouldn't that be after sunset?


    ÿÿÿÿDepends on the time of years and weather but between 4 PM
    and 9 PM in SFBA- is the time of highest consumption.ÿ An hour after
    sunset is when batteries and other production come into play. In
    addition we have more wind power in SFBA* and not dependent on
    simple solar power. Electrical utilities want and expect peak use
    during that highest priced period of time.
    *San Francisco Bay Area.

    I "suspect" that you have that price/peak use backwards. The utilities
    _set_ the highest prices for when the use is the highest.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Garrett Wollman@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 20:04:43 2026
    In article <113oek4$28b1o$1@dont-email.me>,
    Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    I "suspect" that you have that price/peak use backwards. The utilities >_set_ the highest prices for when the use is the highest.

    At the wholesale level, that's sort of correct. At any one time, the
    grid operator will dispatch the cheapest source of energy, and the
    wholesale price (for US wholesale markets; other countries vary) is
    the lowest price that attracts enough generators to serve all
    outstanding demand in that particular location. The more energy that
    is demanded, the more expensive resources are dispatched. How this
    gets passed on to consumers depends on state regulation and the supply
    tariff each consumer is signed up for. (I'm simplifying a lot here.)

    In places where there is a wholesale market but retail is still highly regulated, it is common for the regulator to require backward-looking
    tariffs, where any variance in costs between past estimates and actual
    market pricing is made up in subsequent rate periods, which insulates
    retail consumers from the hour-to-hour variability in costs. This has
    caused problems in places like California with a surplus of midday
    solar power, prompting a switch to time-of-use tariffs that more
    accurately track (and incentivize consumers to track) diurnal
    variations in energy availability. (From the economist's perspective,
    if consumers with rooftop solar arrays earn very low prices for midday
    power on the feed-in tariff and pay high prices for the evening peak,
    then they are incentivized to install batteries to time-shift their
    energy surplus to when it's more valuable on the grid.)

    Before the days of cheap solar, it used to be that most electric
    systems in developed countries saw peak demand at midday. Widespread deployment of behind-the-meter solar shifts that peak to much later in
    the day, in summer typically between 6 and 8 p.m., and this causes
    problems for grid operators because the ramp up in the evening is
    extremely fast -- basically only batteries and inefficient
    simple-cycle gas turbines are able to ramp output that fast. The more
    solar generation between those hours (which is determined by how high
    in the sky the sun is) the cheaper the real-time price of energy and
    the less consumers need to pay to keep inefficient generators
    available "just in case".

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lynn McGuire@3:633/10 to All on Tue Jul 21 15:44:53 2026
    On 7/21/2026 3:04 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:
    ...
    Before the days of cheap solar, it used to be that most electric
    systems in developed countries saw peak demand at midday. Widespread deployment of behind-the-meter solar shifts that peak to much later in
    the day, in summer typically between 6 and 8 p.m., and this causes
    problems for grid operators because the ramp up in the evening is
    extremely fast -- basically only batteries and inefficient
    simple-cycle gas turbines are able to ramp output that fast. The more
    solar generation between those hours (which is determined by how high
    in the sky the sun is) the cheaper the real-time price of energy and
    the less consumers need to pay to keep inefficient generators
    available "just in case".

    -GAWollman

    The newest simple cycle gas turbines are 35% efficient. But California
    will not let you install one to my knowledge. The super efficient gas
    turbine is the GE LM6000 which can deliver up to 48 MW of electric power
    from a hot start in six minutes. I do not know what the cold start time
    is. The gas turbines are back ordered at least three years, maybe four
    years now as every one across the planet wants to buy many of them.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_LM6000

    The GE LM6000 is the great great descendant of the old CF6 gas turbine
    jet engine developed for the Boeing 747 airplane which has four of them.
    The LM6000 is built to run at 3,600 rpm with water injection for NOx
    control and water cooling for air inlet temperatures above 60 F. The combustion path is totally ceramic materials which upgrades the firing temperature from 1,600 F to 2,600 F. The LM6000 can run on natural gas, diesel, jet fuel, biofuel, etc.

    There are 200+ LM6000 gas turbines installed in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin, Texas areas with more on order. Their usage is to
    both meet excess climate conditions of 100+ F or below 25 F and to help maintain voltage in these high demand areas. They are permitted to run
    up to 10% of the hours in a year by the EPA (so-called emergency
    conditions).

    Lynn


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Cryptoengineer@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 15:31:34 2026
    On 7/18/2026 2:44 AM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    Shifting time only makes sense at mid-latitudes.

    Too near the equator, and the winter/summer variation isn't big
    enough to matter.

    Too near the poles, and an hour's change isn't enough. When I
    lived in Stockholm, the sun set about 10PM, and rose by 3AM in
    summer - and in winter, it rose about 10AM and set by 3pm.

    I carried a flashlight to get to the school bus stop in winter.

    pt


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Cryptoengineer@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 15:32:52 2026
    On 7/18/2026 11:11 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
    On 7/17/2026 11:44 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    What I find stupid about the whole thing is the suggestion is to go permanent DST.ÿ What is wrong with Standard Time?ÿ Either way you can't avoid people having to be awake and doing things when the sun is below
    the horizon!


    I'd prefer what ever would cause solar noon and clock noon to be closest together.

    pt

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Cryptoengineer@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 15:37:07 2026
    On 7/19/2026 1:55 PM, The True Melissa wrote:
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    Might have worked for crop farmers, but cows and other livestock didn't
    get the message.


    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them doesn't
    save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours of operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.


    Moving things such that outdoor activity starts after it starts to get
    light makes some sense.

    pt


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Cryptoengineer@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 15:41:13 2026
    On 7/18/2026 5:18 PM, BobbieSellers wrote:
    On 7/17/26 23:44, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    ÿÿÿÿWell twice a year, presently, human biological clocks
    are insulted. Whether we move to DST or ST it will obviate the insults.
    For hundreds of years we had to wait until sunrise to do anything but
    now we have electrical lighting so we have street lights to find our
    way to work or at the farm to find our way to the barn to take care of
    the animals. Headlights on the tractors will help us plow in the dark
    if we don't shortly leave it to the LLM running the plow.

    I don't think the cows will go along with this.

    pt

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Garrett Wollman@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 20:44:14 2026
    In article <113tq6m$42qs$1@dont-email.me>,
    Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
    Shifting time only makes sense at mid-latitudes.

    *Or* if you're trying to coordinate with other people whose clocks
    shift. That's why the EU has harmonized rules for it, even though
    Cyprus and Finland hardly need it. That's also why Detroit is on
    Eastern Time rather than Central, which would be more "natural", and
    which it originally was when standard time was first introduced.

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Lurndal@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 21:04:46 2026
    Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> writes:
    On 7/19/2026 1:55 PM, The True Melissa wrote:
    Verily, in article <ge0q5lpp3j982qs00c7ej5qgho89n5a7cq@4ax.com>, did
    psperson@old.netcom.invalid deliver unto us this message:

    On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D?Oliveiro
    <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The whole point with the clock changeovers is precisely to try to
    maintain some rough synchronization with that sunrise time, I would
    think.

    The original point was to keep Defence Plants working longer hours
    because the light lasted longer. There was, after all, a war on.

    The version I've heard is that it was for farmers, so they would have
    more daylight in the winter.

    Might have worked for crop farmers, but cows and other livestock didn't
    get the message.


    With either version or any other, there are still exactly the same
    number of minutes of daylight in any given day. Renumbering them doesn't
    save or lose anything. If some enterprises want to adjust their hours of
    operation with the calendar, they should adjust their own schedules
    instead of altering the clock.


    Moving things such that outdoor activity starts after it starts to get
    light makes some sense.

    In the 19th century and into the 20th, many factories were mostly
    illuminated by natural sunlight (often sawtooth roofs with north facing
    windows which provided both a mechanism to light the factory as
    well as remove heat).

    Adjusting the time within a timezone, in the days before widespread
    electric lighting, made sense. Today, not so much.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Lurndal@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 21:09:20 2026
    Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> writes:
    On 7/18/2026 5:18 PM, BobbieSellers wrote:
    On 7/17/26 23:44, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:43:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

    Gonna be dark until 8 am or so in the winter. Still, stopping the
    stupid time changes will be a relief.

    If you?re far enough from the equator for it to matter, then it
    becomes a choice between waking up when it?s still dark, versus
    staying in bed while it gets light. Or alternatively, going to bed
    when it?s still light, versus staying up after it?s already dark.

    Which would you prefer? Because you can?t legislate either the tilt of
    the Earth?s axis, or the way human biological clocks work.

    ÿÿÿÿWell twice a year, presently, human biological clocks
    are insulted. Whether we move to DST or ST it will obviate the insults.
    For hundreds of years we had to wait until sunrise to do anything but
    now we have electrical lighting so we have street lights to find our
    way to work or at the farm to find our way to the barn to take care of
    the animals.

    I seem to recall a fairly significant fire caused by an oil lantern
    in a barn, in the days before electricity.

    Headlights on the tractors will help us plow in the dark
    if we don't shortly leave it to the LLM running the plow.

    I don't think the cows will go along with this.


    Dairy cattle like to get milked twice a day. They don't much
    care about whether it is light or dark out - which actually
    argues against a time change. My Uncle milked at 5 and 5 ST
    (6 and 6 during DST).

    Beef cattle graze whenever they're hungry, and rest otherwise;
    the timezone matters not.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Garrett Wollman@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 21:30:06 2026
    In article <4qv8S.93577$HoMb.75292@fx42.iad>,
    Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:

    Dairy cattle like to get milked twice a day. They don't much
    care about whether it is light or dark out - which actually
    argues against a time change. My Uncle milked at 5 and 5 ST
    (6 and 6 during DST).

    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time. Not to
    mention, in older days of small family operations, the children's
    schools -- if the kids have to be at the bus stop at 6:45 to be picked
    up at school, what farm chores they can be relied on to do in the
    morning, vs. paying hired help, depends on the season.

    -GAWollman

    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 23:12:36 2026
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:

    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time.

    Somehow, I don?t think that works. If the milk-trucks are going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on ?official time? till they?re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won?t be ready for milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 23:14:48 2026
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 15:32:52 -0400, Cryptoengineer wrote:

    I'd prefer what ever would cause solar noon and clock noon to be
    closest together.

    I think that?s called ?UT1?, rather than ?UTC?.

    No, that?s *average* solar noon. *Actual* solar noon is going to vary
    from day to day, throughout the year.

    Look up ?analemma? for a graphic illustration of this fact.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Jay Morris@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 23 20:22:47 2026
    On 7/23/2026 6:12 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:

    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time.

    Somehow, I don?t think that works. If the milk-trucks are going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on ?official time? till they?re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won?t be ready for milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    Even 60 years ago when I was but a young lad growing up in farm country
    the milk went into holding tanks so the cows couldn't care less when the
    truck shows up.



    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From James Nicoll@3:633/10 to All on Fri Jul 24 13:38:34 2026
    In article <113uepe$asss$1@epsilon3.eternal-september.org>,
    Jay Morris <morrisj@epsilon3.me> wrote:
    On 7/23/2026 6:12 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:

    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time.

    Somehow, I don?t think that works. If the milk-trucks are going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on ?official time? till they?re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won?t be ready for milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    Even 60 years ago when I was but a young lad growing up in farm country
    the milk went into holding tanks so the cows couldn't care less when the >truck shows up.



    People's ideas about how farming works seems to be frozen at about the
    era of Lassie Come Home.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Lurndal@3:633/10 to All on Fri Jul 24 14:44:55 2026
    Jay Morris <morrisj@epsilon3.me> writes:
    On 7/23/2026 6:12 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:

    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time.

    Somehow, I don?t think that works. If the milk-trucks are going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on ?official time? till they?re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won?t be ready for milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    Even 60 years ago when I was but a young lad growing up in farm country
    the milk went into holding tanks so the cows couldn't care less when the >truck shows up.

    When I was growing up, my grandfathers didn't have a holding tank, just
    milk cans. Which were stored in a pool of spring/well water until they
    could be transported to the creamery. My Uncle (who drove a milk
    truck[*] before purchasing a farm after getting out of the USAF in the 50s) eventually
    got a bulk tank in the 1970s along with a piped milking system where I no longer
    needed to carry the milk buckets from the stall back to the milkhouse.

    [*] https://www.marten.com/about/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Fri Jul 24 09:24:06 2026
    On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:44:55 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
    wrote:

    Jay Morris <morrisj@epsilon3.me> writes:
    On 7/23/2026 6:12 PM, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:

    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time.

    Somehow, I don?t think that works. If the milk-trucks are
    going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on ?official
    time?? till they?re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won?t be ready for
    milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    Even 60 years ago when I was but a young lad growing up in farm country

    the milk went into holding tanks so the cows couldn't care less when
    the
    truck shows up.

    When I was growing up, my grandfathers didn't have a holding tank, just
    milk cans. Which were stored in a pool of spring/well water until they
    could be transported to the creamery. My Uncle (who drove a milk
    truck[*] before purchasing a farm after getting out of the USAF in the
    50s) eventually
    got a bulk tank in the 1970s along with a piped milking system where I
    no longer
    needed to carry the milk buckets from the stall back to the milkhouse.

    Which shows that progress and innovation are not limited to computers.

    IIRC, there are (or were, pre-DOGE) trying to teach cows to go to the
    bathroom. The point, of course, was to capture the methane. As each
    major source of pollution is controlled (as much as is practicable),
    the next-most-major is promoted to top of the list.

    Climate-change deniers, of course, use this as ammunition. But, hey,
    better they throw words than ... other stuff.

    [*] https://www.marten.com/about/
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Lurndal@3:633/10 to All on Fri Jul 24 17:29:58 2026
    Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:
    On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:44:55 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
    wrote:

    Jay Morris <morrisj@epsilon3.me> writes:
    On 7/23/2026 6:12 PM, Lawrence D=E2=80=99Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:
    =20
    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the markets >>>>> in which they sell their goods all run on official time.
    =20
    Somehow, I don=E2=80=99t think that works. If the milk-trucks are =
    going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on =E2=80=9Cofficial =
    time=E2=80? till they=E2=80=99re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won=E2=80=99t be ready for =
    milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    Even 60 years ago when I was but a young lad growing up in farm country= >=20
    the milk went into holding tanks so the cows couldn't care less when = >the=20
    truck shows up.

    When I was growing up, my grandfathers didn't have a holding tank, just >>milk cans. Which were stored in a pool of spring/well water until they >>could be transported to the creamery. My Uncle (who drove a milk >>truck[*] before purchasing a farm after getting out of the USAF in the = >50s) eventually
    got a bulk tank in the 1970s along with a piped milking system where I =
    no longer
    needed to carry the milk buckets from the stall back to the milkhouse.

    Which shows that progress and innovation are not limited to computers.

    IIRC, there are (or were, pre-DOGE) trying to teach cows to go to the >bathroom. The point, of course, was to capture the methane.

    Not sure I follow. Most of the methane emitted by cattle
    production is from the digestive system and is emitted by belching
    (a very small percentage is emitted via flatulence).

    Neither urine or fecal emission produce methane directly,
    although some small amount may be produced as the manure decays.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Garrett Wollman@3:633/10 to All on Fri Jul 24 20:24:54 2026
    In article <qiN8S.98356$lvt7.90696@fx22.iad>,
    Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:

    Not sure I follow. Most of the methane emitted by cattle
    production is from the digestive system and is emitted by belching
    (a very small percentage is emitted via flatulence).

    Neither urine or fecal emission produce methane directly,
    although some small amount may be produced as the manure decays.

    The bigger GHG issue for the back side of a cow (common with many
    other species of livestock) is nitrogen oxides. The GWP of nitrous
    oxide (N2O) is about nine times that of methane, 260 times that of
    carbon dioxide. N2O occurs as a result of microbial breakdown of
    urea and other nitrogen-containing waste products.

    -GAWollman
    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 25 02:13:00 2026
    On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:38:34 -0000 (UTC), James Nicoll wrote:

    People's ideas about how farming works seems to be frozen at about
    the era of Lassie Come Home.

    A minute?s silence for June ?Maureen Robinson? Lockhart.

    (OK, that should probably be better in rec.arts.sf.tv, but at least
    it?s relevant to rec.arts.sf.*something* ...)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul S Person@3:633/10 to All on Sat Jul 25 08:00:36 2026
    On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 17:29:58 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
    wrote:

    Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:
    On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:44:55 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) >>wrote:

    Jay Morris <morrisj@epsilon3.me> writes:
    On 7/23/2026 6:12 PM, Lawrence D=E2=80=99Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:30:06 -0000 (UTC), Garrett Wollman wrote:
    =20
    Livestock farmers care because of coordination. They run on their
    animals' schedules, but their suppliers, their help, and the
    markets
    in which they sell their goods all run on official time.
    =20
    Somehow, I don=E2=80=99t think that works. If the milk-trucks
    are =
    going to
    turn up an hour early, they can insist on =E2=80=9Cofficial = >>time=E2=80? till they=E2=80=99re
    blue in the face, but the cows still won=E2=80=99t be ready
    for =
    milking an
    hour earlier than their usual time.

    Even 60 years ago when I was but a young lad growing up in farm
    country=
    =20
    the milk went into holding tanks so the cows couldn't care less when
    =
    the=20
    truck shows up.

    When I was growing up, my grandfathers didn't have a holding tank,
    just
    milk cans. Which were stored in a pool of spring/well water until
    they
    could be transported to the creamery. My Uncle (who drove a milk >>>truck[*] before purchasing a farm after getting out of the USAF in the
    =
    50s) eventually
    got a bulk tank in the 1970s along with a piped milking system where
    I =
    no longer
    needed to carry the milk buckets from the stall back to the milkhouse.

    Which shows that progress and innovation are not limited to computers.

    IIRC, there are (or were, pre-DOGE) trying to teach cows to go to the >>bathroom. The point, of course, was to capture the methane.

    Not sure I follow. Most of the methane emitted by cattle
    production is from the digestive system and is emitted by belching
    (a very small percentage is emitted via flatulence).

    Neither urine or fecal emission produce methane directly,
    although some small amount may be produced as the manure decays.

    I will concede that, having read several articles over the past, say,
    five years, on the general topic of cows as pollutors, I may have
    conflated things a bit.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Gary R. Schmidt@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 26 22:18:37 2026
    On 24/07/2026 07:09, Scott Lurndal wrote:
    [SNIP]

    Dairy cattle like to get milked twice a day. They don't much
    care about whether it is light or dark out - which actually
    argues against a time change. My Uncle milked at 5 and 5 ST
    (6 and 6 during DST).

    You omitted the ObSF: "The Man Too Lazy To Fail", in "Time Enough for
    Love" by RAH.

    (Any dairy farmer will tell you the same.)

    Cheers,
    Gary B-)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)