OT: Don't forget to change your clocks.

[jo4hn]

STarts a month earlier and ends a month later...

[Henry St.Pierre]

"Leon" wrote in news:qB31h.92$ [e-mail]:

Which ice age. There have been many. I guess you mean the last one.

[Dave Hall]

Personally I think we should never go off of DST and should double it in the spring/summer/fall.

I do not have any need for daylight in the mornings driving to work and being at work. The longer there is daylight in the evening the better. Of course within a month I will be driving to work in the dark and driving home in the dark, wasting the entire daytime in an office ;-(

[J.C.]

Heck, I have to go to the medicine cabinet and by the time I reset all my tiny time capsules, it's time to switch back again.

[Mark & Juanita]

I love living in AZ, no changing of clocks, the rest of the country changes around us, but our time stays constant. I used to hate the switch to DST, took me a week to get re-synced to the loss of the hour. Fall was better, but the change from driving home in daylight on Friday to driving home in the dark on the following Monday kind of sucked.

AZ, no DST, how civilized!

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Puckdropper]

Mark & Juanita wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I got a taste of it in IN before they decided to do as the others do. I didn't miss DST at all, except that my schedule would get messed up relative to TV. Stupid politians decided to go on ET rather than CT even though the half the state was already doing DST with CT...

One good thing about DST was that the volunteer firefighters in my area suggested checking your smoke alarm batteries when you change your clocks. So if you haven't checked them, now's a good time.

Puckdropper

[CW]

8 out of 10 people I have ever known say that daylight saving time should be abolished. Consequently, congress decides more is better. Every politician should have a Joe Average fallowing him around with a stick. If (when) the politician screws up, the stick should be applied liberally until he either A) does it right or B) is beaten to death.

[Tom Veatch]

Joe Average already has that stick. Problem is, it's not used properly. It's called a "ballot" and just about now is the time to use it.

It's almost gotten to the point that I refuse to cast my ballot for any incumbent!

[Doug Miller]

Unfortunately, far too few people share that sentiment. I remember reading an analysis that was done in the early 1980s showing that the turnover rate in the US House was *lower* at that time than in the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (where there were no opposition candidates in *any* "elections"), and that what little turnover there was, was more often the result of a member dying than losing an election.

I don't think it's quite that bad any more... but it sure seems hard to get rid of 'em.

[Chris Friesen]

I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. We also stay constant.

However, I work remotely for a company in Ottawa, so the delta between their time and mine changes twice a year and I have to reset my appointment calendar.

Chris

[Mark & Juanita]

I understand that issue. I have contacts out of state, sometimes they are one hour ahead, sometimes two hours. Others are on the same time for part of the year. Resetting appointment calendars is a heckof a lot easier than resetting your biological calendar. ;-)

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[CW]

[fredfighter]

Yeah but if we use enough heat pumps we can take all that extra heat out of the air.

[fredfighter]

Any particular reason why it can''t be both?

[fredfighter]

I daresay the leading cause of errors in astrological charts is astrologers.

[Lew Hodgett]

Been there, done that.

It was tried during the Nixon administration.

Failed then, will fail now.

Lew

[jo4hn]

NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists report this year's (2006) ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth.

The ozone layer acts to protect life on Earth by blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. The "ozone hole" is a severe depletion of the ozone layer high above Antarctica. It is primarily caused by human-produced compounds that release chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere.

It was first noticed by a research group from The British Antarctic Survey in the 1970's. Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin, are the BAS scientists who discovered the Antarctic ozone hole. In the 1980's the first measurements of this loss were actually documented. In 1984, when the British first reported their findings, October ozone levels were about 35 percent lower than the average for the 1960s. When the first measurements were taken the drop in ozone levels in the stratosphere was so dramatic that at first the scientists thought their instruments were faulty.

The U.S. satellite Nimbus-7 quickly confirmed the results, and the term Antarctic ozone hole entered popular language. More recently an ozone hole has appeared over the North Pole. The ozone hole appeared first over the colder Antarctic because the ozone-destroying chemical process works best in cold conditions. The Antarctic continent has colder conditions than the Arctic, which has no landmass. As the years have gone by the Ozone Hole has increased rapidly and is as large as the Antarctica continent. The hole lasts for only two months, but its timing could not be worse. Just as sunlight awakens activity in dormant plants and animals, it also delivers a dose of harmful ultraviolet radiation. After eight weeks, the hole leaves Antarctica, only to pass over more populated areas, including The Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the tip of South America. This biologically damaging, high-energy radiation can cause skin cancer, injure eyes, harm the immune system, and upset the fragile balance of an entire ecosystem. News about the ozone hole that forms over Antarctica each October has spread around the world. The ozone hole can be as big as 1.5 times larger than the United States.

Take a look at

for a good treatment of this phenomenon and for links to yet more information. To be sure, volcanism and other natural phenomena have some affect but we are our own worst enemies here.

mahalo, jo4hn