Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Thoughts on Daylight Saving

Now that Daylight Saving has finished the days seem so much shorter. But they are same length regardless. One of my neighbours said she rides her bike every morning but stops when Daylight Saving comes in. My first response is ‘Ignore Daylight Saving. So if we ignore Daylight Saving why bother having it all.

I still undecided on what I’ll vote in the referendum. When in the city I could see the advantages to business dealing with the Eastern States. In the bush I hated the long hot days and longed for the bushfire-orange sun to sink behind the scorched hills. Now at the beach I go for a swim late afternoon and my body is refreshed and cooled before the sun even sinks.

Time is a human construct after all. Perhaps we would be better off arranging our lives around the rising and setting of the sun. Imagine the chaos and what about our TV programs...are we civilised or what?

Having written this spiel has helped me decide. I shall voted against Daylight Saving, help the farmers and ignore mechanical time apart from The Bill and Gardening Australia.

A 365-day calendar based on the moon’s cycles commenced about 4236 B.C. when it was noted that Sirius rose next to the sun every 365 days. in Iraq, a year of 12 alternating 29-day and 30-day lunar months was observed before 2000 B.C., giving a 354-day year. Obelisks were built as early as 3500 B.C. Their moving shadows formed a kind of sundial. Sundials came into use around 1500 B.C. to measure hours by dividing a day into 10 parts plus two twilight hours twice a day. Water clocks didn’t depend on the observation of celestial bodies. The Egyptians- 1500 B.C., then the Greeks - 325 B.C. used vessels allowing water to drip into or out of a small hole at a fairly constant rate. By the 10th Century, several types of pocket sundials were used.
One English model identified tides. By the14th century, large mechanical clocks appear Italian cities and so on.