Bookkeeping
You will note that I have been putting some of the files in this folder on the web server that is primarily dedicated to making blocking filters:
This folder has just been opened to the world. It does need some cleaning up. Basically it lets people see all the nuts and bolts that went into the making of those filters I created and I just used it for a parking point for the files that are used for this issue. It has even led to my blocking cookie filter list being made a part of the Cookie Safe add-on for Firefox. It is an optional portion of Cookie Safe. My only question is, who would want these tracking cookies? Now, does that mean people dedicated to doing away with DST have been given the boot? No. It just means they have been given their own folder that can be indexed into from the public folder which is just above it. Here is where the NoMoreDST folder is at:
It does contain some things that are not in the blog. Let me know if I have anything amiss. I will have most of the files not at the top level but in sub-folders that are in year-month in numerics from now on. I made it this way so if others have things of interest they can send them to me and I will add them into the folder. This especially holds if it is something that gets rid of DST.
I did have a chuckle while cleaning up the links in the old blog entries. The one for the bug in iPhone TZ (Time Zone) data-base for 2010 had disappeared. So when I went to find another one, the iPhone had yet another new TZ database problem in 2011. Here it is and maybe I better give them by date from now on to keep track of all of them:
If the people writing the TZ code at Apple can't get it right, then who can? The people writing the code aren't stupid. They may have a problem of thinking in local time instead of UTC time which make their lives more difficult but DST makes things infinitely more complicated than it should be. I will say this over and over until we get the point through. DST is way too complicated even for top tier computer scientists to write code to handle it. Why do you think I use UTC time for my computers and everything else I can? If you look in the folder you will see an entry for 2011-11 for my Opera Linux machine. DST is too complicated, even for highly intelligent computer programmers! If they can't handle it, then who can? What got me started on this was the fact that Microsoft set the hardware clock for local time but Unix time systems use UTC time and the TZ database. But every shift led to problems.
Circadian Rhythms
This blog is not dedicated to just random rambling. In the near future I will be coming up with ideas where we can take this to the people. What we want is some way of forcing a vote on the ballot to do away with DST. On my part I have informed all the US Congresss people in my state about this blog. I strongly urge others to do the same thing. We are not going to get rid of Daylight Saving Time unless we have a grass roots effort. Talk to your friends. Talk to your families. Just me writing a blog is not going to do it. We need a ground swell movement until we get something sensible.
I finally boiled down the major cause of why there are so many suicides and health problems associated with two things. The first is literally a loss of one hour of sleep. People today are over-worked, under-paid, and tired! Losing just one hour of sleep can be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. But that is just one part of it. The other part may be an even bigger problem. DST is throwing our Circadian rhythm off twice each year. Many studies have been done showing that people who have their work schedules constantly changing have lower life-time expectancy and far more health problems. Here are some URLs that will hopefully get us started:
The reason this blog entry has been so long in coming is because I have had a hard time getting a good handle on the issue of the health issues that are connected to DST. Latitude is easy to see. Even if the issues of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity and Quantum Physics are easier (at least for me) to understand than this issue which is terribly complicated. I will come back and write more later when I get what I feel is a fair look at the issues. I think what is making DST even worse now than it was 40 years ago from a health stand-point is because we have much more pressure now. The DST spring shift with a loss of just one hour of sleep is just too much for the human body to handle any more.
First, here is a major clearing house for the health effects of Daylight Saving Time:
Health Effects of DST - Index
Here is the Swedish study and despite all of it's negative information, Sweden does have DST and has had it since 1980. Before then the earlier period they had it was 1916.
Swedish Study
Here is an abstract of its effects on male suicide and it is highly technical:
Spring DST Effect on male suicide rates
I think something needs to be said here. Just because we shift to doing things an hour earlier in the spring does not mean that wouldn't also have an affect on suicidal rates. It is quite likely it would. The only way I see out of it is having a shift of 30 minutes around the first of April and then another 30 minutes the first of May. Would it be confusing? It probably would be confusing the first few times but it actually be less confusing than which direction to shift the clock. But it is obvious the lack of sleep is what is causing much of the problem Having it chopped into two half hour losses may be better. There is nothing wrong with the change of doing things an hour later in the fall.
Here are the affects it has on myocardial infaction (heart attacks) as published in the New England Journal of Medicine:
Heart Attacks
Here again, it is that spring time loss of one hour but in a way that tries to fool you that causes the problem. Again, splitting it up into two half hour losses may help considerably.
Here is a fairly clear ordinary summation of the problems as given by Carrie Mayes, a licensed Chiropractic:
DST Problem Summation
Here is what the LA Times has to say about this idiotic way of doing things:
LA Times - Effects of DST
With so much conclusive evidence that it has bad health effects, especially in the spring then why does the entire world use Daylight Saving Time? The answer is not blowing in the wind. It is no farther away than a Wiki article:
Who Uses DST
I have only two words to say to the people maintaining that page. Good luck. I have yet to not have at least 6-12 updates to my TZ database on Linux per year. Now, Russia has permanently shifted forward but with so many time zones (seven?) it must have been madness trying to keep it all in sync.
All that you can really say here is that there are very definite bad health effects of DST on people. I think what I would do if I was New Zealand is use UTC time at the South Pole. Can we have less bad effects by just shifting when people do things? There are two answers here but realize that it is the spring shift that causes the problems. The first is that if the shift is an entire hour at least by shifting it an hour you aren't messing with Circadian Rhythm except in an honest and open way. But by losing only half hour twice with the clock held the same I believe you can minimize the bad health effects considerably. Without trying it for say a three year time span we will never know. Next, TV schedules which I have already touched on.
Health Effects of DST - Index
Here is the Swedish study and despite all of it's negative information, Sweden does have DST and has had it since 1980. Before then the earlier period they had it was 1916.
Swedish Study
Here is an abstract of its effects on male suicide and it is highly technical:
Spring DST Effect on male suicide rates
I think something needs to be said here. Just because we shift to doing things an hour earlier in the spring does not mean that wouldn't also have an affect on suicidal rates. It is quite likely it would. The only way I see out of it is having a shift of 30 minutes around the first of April and then another 30 minutes the first of May. Would it be confusing? It probably would be confusing the first few times but it actually be less confusing than which direction to shift the clock. But it is obvious the lack of sleep is what is causing much of the problem Having it chopped into two half hour losses may be better. There is nothing wrong with the change of doing things an hour later in the fall.
Here are the affects it has on myocardial infaction (heart attacks) as published in the New England Journal of Medicine:
Heart Attacks
Here again, it is that spring time loss of one hour but in a way that tries to fool you that causes the problem. Again, splitting it up into two half hour losses may help considerably.
Here is a fairly clear ordinary summation of the problems as given by Carrie Mayes, a licensed Chiropractic:
DST Problem Summation
Here is what the LA Times has to say about this idiotic way of doing things:
LA Times - Effects of DST
With so much conclusive evidence that it has bad health effects, especially in the spring then why does the entire world use Daylight Saving Time? The answer is not blowing in the wind. It is no farther away than a Wiki article:
Who Uses DST
I have only two words to say to the people maintaining that page. Good luck. I have yet to not have at least 6-12 updates to my TZ database on Linux per year. Now, Russia has permanently shifted forward but with so many time zones (seven?) it must have been madness trying to keep it all in sync.
All that you can really say here is that there are very definite bad health effects of DST on people. I think what I would do if I was New Zealand is use UTC time at the South Pole. Can we have less bad effects by just shifting when people do things? There are two answers here but realize that it is the spring shift that causes the problems. The first is that if the shift is an entire hour at least by shifting it an hour you aren't messing with Circadian Rhythm except in an honest and open way. But by losing only half hour twice with the clock held the same I believe you can minimize the bad health effects considerably. Without trying it for say a three year time span we will never know. Next, TV schedules which I have already touched on.
