It's Daylight Savings Time in the US
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I was thinking about school as well, not about a flexible schedule, but going to school year round with 3 week breaks between quarters.
I know how much of a hassle child care is already for parents during the summer months, so I'm not sure how to handle the four breaks of three weeks.... Most people don't have 12 weeks of yearly vacation to stay home with their kids.It would be great to see, in the US at least, the states agree to not all take the same time off also. i.e. Nebraska could start their year on the first Monday of the year after Jan 1, Iowa start a week or two later, etc.
Of course this destroys cheap summertime employment so I have no idea how that would effect our ecomony.
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@Dashrender said:
Now as to the UK gov't wanting to match central Europe you have to ask yourself why they want this. I'm guessing because it would allow their workers to be online and active at the same time as those people in central Europe.
I don't think so. I think it's mainly that we should all get up a bit earlier, and hence go to bed a bit earlier, so that we make the best use of available daylight. By maximising daylight we use less electricity. At the moment, we sleep when it's light and are awake when it's dark.
Of course, we don't have to change the time zone to go to bed earlier. I've recently changed my work hours so I now start an hour earlier at 7.30, so I'm already making better use of daylight, as sunrise is currently 6.30am and sunset 6pm. There's nothing to stop other people doing this - it's just our stupid fixed ways and inflexible employers.
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@Dashrender said:
Of course this destroys cheap summertime employment so I have no idea how that would effect our ecomony.
But it increases cheap, year round employment. So it might help a lot. Cheap summer employment is pretty worthless, overall. Very few businesses can leverage it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Of course this destroys cheap summertime employment so I have no idea how that would effect our ecomony.
But it increases cheap, year round employment. So it might help a lot. Cheap summer employment is pretty worthless, overall. Very few businesses can leverage it.
Few businesses can leverage it? Lawn care businesses, amusement parks, mall stores, etc.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@Dashrender said:
Now as to the UK gov't wanting to match central Europe you have to ask yourself why they want this. I'm guessing because it would allow their workers to be online and active at the same time as those people in central Europe.
I don't think so. I think it's mainly that we should all get up a bit earlier, and hence go to bed a bit earlier, so that we make the best use of available daylight. By maximizing daylight we use less electricity. At the moment, we sleep when it's light and are awake when it's dark.
Of course, we don't have to change the time zone to go to bed earlier. I've recently changed my work hours so I now start an hour earlier at 7.30, so I'm already making better use of daylight, as sunrise is currently 6.30am and sunset 6pm. There's nothing to stop other people doing this - it's just our stupid fixed ways and inflexible employers.
I don't know about Europe, but in the winter we get around 9 hours of sunlight. The sun rises around 8 AM and sets around 5 PM. I work M-Th 7 AM - 5 PM. In the winter I don't see daylight unless I go outside to eat lunch. I suppose if I leave at 5, I get the great luck of driving home in the western sunset blinding my drive home.
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@Dashrender said:
Few businesses can leverage it? Lawn care businesses, amusement parks, mall stores, etc.
Most malls, parks, lawn care, etc. don't operate only during the summer, so extra help only during the non-school window helps very little. A little, but nothing compared to more flexible year round help.
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@Dashrender said:
I don't know about Europe, but in the winter we get around 9 hours of sunlight. The sun rises around 8 AM and sets around 5 PM. I work M-Th 7 AM - 5 PM. In the winter I don't see daylight unless I go outside to eat lunch. I suppose if I leave at 5, I get the great luck of driving home in the western sunset blinding my drive home.
Europe gets far less. FAR less. Just going from NY (a bit north of you) to Ireland is a staggering difference in the sunlight.
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Well it depends how far north you are There's a big difference between southern Spain and northern Scotland. I believe here in England we're roughly in line with Canada.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Well it depends how far north you are There's a big difference between southern Spain and northern Scotland. I believe here in England we're roughly in line with Canada.
Rather north in Canada. Madrid is in line with Washington, DC.
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To give it some perspective, Montreal is the northernmost major city on the east coast of either the US or Canada. It is north of Toronto and Halifax. It is really far north. Five hours north of New York.
Montreal is right in line with..... Milan, Italy and the French Riviera!! Places like Switzerland and Austria lie completely north of the populated portions of the North America Eastern Seaboard. Places like England, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, etc. are so far north that it's actually confusing for Americans to picture people living so far north.
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And while the Pacific Coast is shifted much farther north than the Atlantic Coast is, even Vancouver, the farthest northern major city on the continent, is only in line with Paris, which is about the middle of Europe.
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@dashrender is in Nebraska which is identical in latitude to Pennsylvania. He lives right in line with Barcelona.
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And just out of interest, here in Houston we line up with Cairo and the southern border of Morocco.
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Yeah, I'm really not looking forward to global warming screwing up the Gulf Stream. <shivers>
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Yeah, Europe risks a rather chilling future.
