One of the things I always felt was stupid and out-dated was daylight savings time (or "summer time"), as it is called in some countries. I've heard explanations that DST was created because of convenience to farming, and yet the wikipedia article on the topic actually states the opposite, instead noting that it was created to reduce energy consumption - something it's not even clearly effective at. Whatever the reason, it's a hassle to all involved every time the clock changes, and when the rules themselves change, it becomes more of a hassle to update computer systems, etc. Many international clocks I have seen also fail to take daylight savings time into account, resulting in the time being off by an hour in some cases. I am not against saving energy, or even against modifying our working hours to be closer to the daylight hours, but instead of "lying" and changing the time itself, why not simply adust our schedules. For example, any company could simply say, "Work 8-4 in the summer instead of 9-5". How hard is that? In fact, that's what they do in Hokkaido. Luckily, Japan hasn't had daylight saving's time since 1952 (When the US Army occupation was in full effect). Every once in a while, some politician makes a rumble about it, and it booed down. Still, although we don't have to deal with it directly, we do have to deal with it indirectly, as anyone who deals with Europe or North America knows. For example, the time difference between Japan and New York is either 13 or 14 hours, depending what time of the year it is. |
Editorials >