Russia eliminates daylight saving time

Posted on 20.02.2011 by admin

Russia is doing away with daylight saving time, keeping the clocks unchanged starting this year, with President Dmitry Medvedev telling the Interfax news agency on Tuesday that the time adjustment put strain on the organism and caused stress.

‘Besides, it will allow us to have more daylight,’ he said.

Like many other countries, Russia had previously set its clocks back by one hour in October and forward by one hour in March. Medvedev had proposed getting rid of daylight saving time in late 2009 and instructed the Economy Ministry to explore the idea.

Last year, Russia had already lowered the number of time zones across its territory from 11 to nine to allow for better administration. Experts have suggested segmenting the country – the world’s largest – into only four time zones.

As it is well-known, daylight-saving is practiced all over Europe and North America, and in some countries of Mideast, i.e. in most countries Russia has regular air services with. Heretofore, Russia used standard time and daylight-saving time synchronously with them, and timetable for most international flights did not depend on time regimes. From this autumn international flights schedules will be modified and corrected.

Moreover, time lag between Russia and European countries will increase with one hour in the period from the last Sunday of October till the last Sunday of March. More precisely, time lag between Moscow and Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Baltic states will reach 2 hours, time lag between Moscow time and Great Britain, Ireland and Portugal will be 4 hours. Time lag with most European countries will amount to 3 hours. At the same time, time lags in winter will disappear for Trans-Caucasus and some countries of Gulf States.

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Committee hears support for changing daylight saving time

Posted on 31.01.2011 by admin

Many, many people have weighed in with senators in the past two weeks on whether the Legislature should address the issue of doing away with daylight saving time in Nebraska.

Only a few people, however, came to a hearing on the bill (LB101) in front of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee to give their views in person. And they all favored the bill that would do away with the time change in spring, summer and fall.

Nebraska already has two time zones. The Central time zone runs from the eastern border of the state to between Sutherland and Paxton, as the interstate runs. Mountain time takes over from there.

People living on either side of that time zone dividing line have to adapt. But there are no high population centers in the area, so the time zone borders area is limited to a small number of people and a bunch of cattle and corn.

Only two states — Arizona and Hawaii — have opted out of daylight saving time.

Sen. Ken Schilz of Ogallala, who introduced the bill, brought it for constituents in western Nebraska who think getting rid of daylight saving time would make it easier for people living in the Panhandle.

But the three people at the hearing who favored the bill were all from Lincoln.

LaVonne Dilla said she’s never found a farmer who loved daylight saving time — quite the opposite. And people who work in hospitals and nursing homes say it creates havoc with people’s medicine and sleep schedules, taxing people’s bodies.

It also puts children off balance, those testifying said.

Only people who work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. like it because they can have an extra hour at night for outdoor recreation, Dilla said.

“The rest of us really don’t like it,” she said. “You’re preparing your evening meal in the hottest part of the day. My house faces the west and I get sun all afternoon. … And if you want to do yard work, you have to wait an extra hour or more in the morning for the dew to get off of the grass so you can mow it.”

Margaret McGurk-Kramer, a former computer analyst, said changing the time causes families extra work. Some have told her they have to change the time on 40 to 50 devices in their homes — microwaves, DVD players, clocks.

It causes a loss of productivity on mainframe computers. Because of the way they log tasks, most have to stop processing for a time, she said.

McGurk-Kramer said most people can adjust to the time change in a couple of weeks. It takes her six to eight weeks.

“And there are a lot of people like me out there,” she said.

Her family considered moving to Indiana at one time because a certain area of that state on the dividing line between two time zones didn’t switch to daylight saving time. The town considered itself in the Eastern time zone half of the year and in the Central time zone the other half.

The committee did not make a decision Thursday on whether the bill would advance to the full Legislature for debate.

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Daylight Savings Poll?

Posted on 31.01.2011 by admin

It’s been in discussions for a long time in our province and now it’s getting closer to being solved.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has promised a referendum in the next provincial election on daylight savings time but a spokesman for Wall now says he wants an opinion poll done on the issue in mid-March.

Currently Saskatchewan is the only province that does not participate in daylight savings time. If it ever comes to a vote, it’s expected to be a close one.

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Is It Time to Ditch the Daylight Saving Time Switch?

Posted on 29.12.2010 by admin

Not turning the clocks back an hour in the fall would offer a simple way to improve people’s health and well-being, according to an English expert.

Keeping the time the same would increase the number of “accessible” daylight hours during the fall and winter and encourage more outdoor physical activity, according to Mayer Hillman, a senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute in London.

He estimated that eliminating the time change would provide “about 300 additional hours of daylight for adults each year and 200 more for children.”

Previous research has shown that people feel happier, more energetic and have lower rates of illness in the longer and brighter days of summer, while people’s moods tend to decline during the shorter, duller days of winter, Hillman explained in his report, published online Oct. 29 in BMJ.

This proposal “is an effective, practical and remarkably easily managed way of achieving a better alignment of our waking hours with the available daylight during the year,” he pointed out in a news release from the journal’s publisher.

Another expert, Dr. Robert E. Graham, an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said that he totally agrees with Hillman’s conclusions.

“Lessons learned by the explosion of research on the benefits of vitamin D add to the argument for ‘not putting the clocks back.’ Basic biochemistry has proved to us that sunlight helps your body convert a form of cholesterol that is present in your skin into vitamin D. Additionally, several epidemiological studies have documented the seasonality of depression and other mood disorders,” Graham stated.

“As a society we are always looking for ‘accessible, low cost, little-to-no harm interventions.’ By increasing the number of ‘accessible’ daylight hours we may have found the perfect intervention, definitely a ‘bright’ idea to consider,” he added.

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U.K. Lawmaker Calls for Trial Extension of Daylight Saving

Posted on 29.12.2010 by admin

The U.K. should try extending daylight saving time into autumn and spring months in order to save energy and cut the country’s emissions, Tim Yeo, chairman of Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee said.

Yeo’s panel yesterday heard evidence from National Grid Plc, which said about 1,300 megawatts of power could be slashed from peak evening usage if clocks aren’t put back an hour at the end of October. That’s the equivalent of a large power station or 100,000 homes. University of Cambridge researchers told the panel 447,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by putting clocks an hour forward all year.

“At a time when public finances are tight, making better use of the available daylight is a cheap and cheerful way for the U.K. to do its bit in reducing emissions,” Yeo said today in an e-mailed statement. “I am calling on the government to launch a full scale trial. Until we do this, we will all be in the dark about whether this idea really could help.”

The U.K. has a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent from 1990 levels to help fight climate change. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged his government will be the “greenest ever,” and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne plans to publish a draft law by year-end to help insulate 26 million homes and slash electricity use.

Daylight saving time this year began on March 28 and ends on Oct. 31. Yeo said Parliament is due to vote on extending daylight saving in December, though he didn’t specify how long he’d like to see it extended.

Alan Smart, operations manager for National Grid, told the committee yesterday that the change could cut peak power use in November, February and March. It would only have a marginal effect in December and January.

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When Is Daylight Savings Time 2010 in the US ends?

Posted on 06.10.2010 by admin

Autumn is now here and in the United States, daylight savings time is soon approaching. On November 7, 2010 at 2 am, 48 of the 50 states will be counting extra sheep as the clocks ‘fall back’ an hour.

There is often minor confusion in the spring when daylight savings time begins, as many people forget to set their clocks forward an hour before falling asleep the night before.

Daylight savings time began as an attempt to save energy by making the best use of time during the daylight hours. Although DST originally ran from March through October in the United States, it has since been extended into November.

Daylight savings time begins at different months in various countries. The states of Arizona and Hawaii, however, do not acknowledge DST.

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