Daylight Saving and Australian Idol

Daylight saving. Does it make sense for you? I think it's a good idea, give us more sun, it's good for us. The only thing that's weird about it is that not the whole country is in synch anymore. The eastern states are not all in one timezone during this time of year. Is this such a problem? You wouldnt think so. C'mon, you just have to remember that Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland don't recognise daylight savings. Well, come to think of it, it might be a bit hard to follow if you're a business that has business in multiple states. So that made me think, who thought up of this idea anyway? Is there any scientific reasoning behind daylight saving? Why isn't the whole world intrested in getting some extra sun? I found this intresting website (cited after this post) that had some intresting information that answered alot of my questions. Apparently the founder of the idea of Daylight Saving came from Benjamin Franklin. Whilst staying in a hotel in Paris he was woken up by the sun earlier than he thought. Six O'clock to be exact. He found it really strange that the sun is up that early. He devloped the early stages of daylight saving for the Parisians. His proposed new changes were a bit weird though. Some "new" regulations To answer skeptics who cried that old habits are hard to change, and it would be difficult to induce the population of Paris to rise before noon, Franklin proposed the following regulations: A tax be laid on every window built with shutters to keep out the light of the sun. Candles rationed to one pound per family per week, and the regulation enforced by the constabulary. Guards posted to stop the passage of all coaches, etc. upon the streets after sunset except those of physicians, surgeons and midwives. Every morning as soon as the sun shall rise, church bells and, if necessary, cannon shall inform the citizenry of the advent of light and "awaken the sluggards effectually and make them open their eyes to see their true interests ... All the difficulty will be in the first two or three days; after which the reformation will be as natural and easy as the present irregularity. ... Oblige a man to rise at four in the morning, and it is probable he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening. Sounds a bit extreme doesn't it? Franklin wrote those changes as a joke. The stupid French took it seriously and VOILA. The world saved some sun. Shops weren't closed in the middle of the day and the population didnt waste the day. By the way, the French did use cannons and bells to wake the population, it wasn't until 20 yeas after this act that the idea of changing the time on the clocks was invented. Currently there are 70 countries around the world that adopt Daylight Saving. Equatorial countries do not need to adopt Daylight Saving Time (DST) for daylight in these countries does not change all that much near the equator. However, the further we go from the equator, the more daylight changes with the seasons. thats why the north and south pole are in perpetual nightime for 24 hours during the winter months. Other northern European countries experience long nights as well. All what Daylight saving does is allow us to adapt to the varying degrees of sunlight through the seasons rather than finish the day when clearly the sun is still up. Daylight saving SAVES. It conserves fuels because we have more sun with us, therefore less lights being used compared to winter and that means less pressure on power plants. Generally it means that less fossil fuels is being used. In fact, it was used during both World Wars for this very fact in Australia. Because Queensland, the NT and the northern part of WA are close to the equator, the sunlight doesnt change that much. So the state governments haven't seen any need to change their time. However the non DST states/territories argue every year about this whole debate only to get nowhere. They want to be on par with the rest of Australia. But do they reall need to change? Do we sacrifice practicallity for convinience? The 21st Century motto, THERE HAS TO BE AN EASIER WAY... Meanwhile, whilst governments debate about DST, the popluation of Australia is SUFFERING! Dan from Australian Idol was VOTED OUT by just 27 votes! Beacuse, oh my God, he had like, the totally best voice. Whateverrrr. Dan was like totally cool and nice man. Yeah, 27 votes, that's all that it came down to. You probably heard about this, it made Queenslander and national headlines (how sad is that). Dan England, from Australian Idol, a Queenslander was apparently robbed because Queenslander's had one hour less to vote than the rest of the nation. This example was actually referenced by Liberal MLA Michael Caltabiano in Queensland State Parliament the next day. "This Government and their attitude towards not acknowledging the benefits of daylight savings - particularly for the south-east corner and completely ruling it out - has resulted in another casualty, that of dread-locked Dan England," he said. "If the Labor Government kept in sync and kept up with the rest of the country, this disappointing situation would very much not have occurred." Queensland Premier Peter Beattie is turning the heat on to the show's producers, calling for a recount. "Look, we were robbed. Dan was robbed," he said. "I'm asking Channel 10 to wake up to themselves, to turn back the clock to Monday and give him a fair go, they should reopen the voting in Queensland for an hour and it's time that Queensland had a winner on Australian Idol. Now if they do, I'm sure I can find 27 votes within an hour." Hear that? THEY WERE ROBBED! Politicans will use anything to pick apart the opposite side. Make Dan England the state agenda why don't you. Other strange DST events include: "In California, a Chevrolet Blazer packed with teenagers struck the median of a street and flipped over, tragically killing one teen and injuring several others. The teen driver, fighting charges of felony vehicular manslaughter, claimed that the street was dangerously wet and unsafe due a lawn sprinkler system. The landscaper responsible for the computerized sprinklers testified that the sprinklers were set to come on more than fifteen minutes after the fatal accident. The outcome hinged on whether the sprinklers' timer had been adjusted for a recent Daylight Saving Time change, for without the DST adjustment, the sprinklers had close to 45 minutes to make the road slick." "Patrons of bars that stay open past 2:00 a.m. lose one hour of drinking time on the day when Daylight Saving Time springs forward one hour. This has led to annual problems in numerous locations, and sometimes even to riots. For example, at a "time disturbance" in Athens, Ohio, site of Ohio University, over 1,000 students and other late night partiers chanted "Freedom," as they threw liquor bottles at the police attempting to control the riot." My favourite.... "In September 1999, the Palestinian West Bank was on daylight saving time while Israel had just switched back to standard time. West Bank Palestinians prepared time bombs and smuggled them to Arab Israelis, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded—one hour too early—killing three terrorists instead of the intended victims—two busloads of people." The idiots It's a sad sad world sometimes. Related Links Web Exhibits: Daylight Saving Info. about DST States deabte about DST Idol and DST