Change Time or Not to Change Time

It’s been a week since the time change and finally I was able to adjust the timings for all the global meetings. Need to do this exercise again in March! The problem gets exacerbated because Australia changes time at a different time and so does most of Europe whereas China and India don’t change their times in Fall or Spring. Meeting times setup during Daylight Savings Time (DST) are inconvenient for the global participants when we fall back to Standard Time.

Inconvenience apart, twice a year time change causes confusion, both for the body and the brain, at least for the first few days. Confusion causes stress, sleep disturbances, increased accidents, workplace injuries and cardiovascular diseases (Effects of Time Change).

Naturally, many have suggested keeping the same time throughout the year. There are two schools of thought - one group wants to make the DST permanent while the others want permanent Standard Time. Both the proposals have merits on one side of the spectrum while demerits on the other side.

Keeping DST throughout the year, for example, means the latest sunrise during winter will be at 8:25am in San Francisco (refer to the tables below). Most schools start at 8am and school kids have to go to school during pitch darkness. Keeping permanent Standard Time has its own demerits as the earliest sunrise will be at 4:06am in Boston. We would lose the Energy saving advantage for which time change was proposed by Benjamin Franklin in the first place.

Can we devise an alternate scheme, a midway between permanent DST and permanent Standard Time? The year round time will be adjusted half an hour between DST and Standard Time. The tables below indicate how the sunrise and sunset times will stand with adoption of the midway time.

Boston (42.4 N, 71 W)

		Current	Standard	DST	Midway
Fall/Winter	Earliest Sunset	4:11pm	4:11pm	5:11pm	4:41pm
Fall/Winter	Latest sunrise	7:13am	7:13am	8:13am	7:43am
Spring/ Summer	Earliest sunrise	5:06am	4:06am	5:06am	4:36am
Spring/ Summer	Latest sunset	8:25pm	7:25pm	8:25pm	7:55pm

Miami (25.7 N, 80.2 West)

		Current	Standard	DST	Midway
Fall/Winter	Earliest Sunset	5:29pm	5:29pm	6:29pm	5:59pm
Fall/Winter	Latest sunrise	7:09am	7:09am	8:09am	7:39am
Spring/ Summer	Earliest sunrise	6:28am	5:28am	6:28am	5:58am
Spring/ Summer	Latest sunset	8:16pm	7:16pm	8:16pm	7:46pm

San Francisco (37.8 N, 122.4 W)

		Current	Standard	DST	Midway
Fall/Winter	Earliest Sunset	4:50pm	4:50pm	5:50pm	5:20pm
Fall/Winter	Latest sunrise	7:25am	7:25am	8:25am	7:55am
Spring/ Summer	Earliest sunrise	5:50am	4:50am	5:50am	5:20am
Spring/ Summer	Latest sunset	8:35pm	7:35pm	8:35pm	8:05pm

Comments

Hidden Taxes

It's tax planning season! You are trying to get all the exemptions and deductions that you can claim so that you are paying only the bare minimum tax requirement. At the end of the exercise, during filing the tax returns, you will know your effective tax rate . This rate can vary from 10% to 40%. Let's consider an average 30% Federal (including Social security and Medicare, don't forget these taxes!). In states like California, you are paying additional 10% State income tax . So your effective tax rate becomes 40% . It is definitely painful to shell out this much of your hard earned money. But it doesn't stop there. Add property tax on your house. Assuming $200K income and a $1MN home price, 1% property tax means $10,000 or 5% of the income. Your tax bill has already grown to 45% . If you are renting, your landlord will make sure to pass on the property tax they are paying, on to you. That's not enough either. Now let's assume that you are able to save 5% of...

How much is enough?

Last week, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person stepped down as CEO of Amazon, a company he had built grounds up and reaped the benefits for all these years. Was he intrigued by someone else, Elon Musk, now challenging him or eventually getting ahead at the top and hence he wants to focus his energy and passion in something equally jazzy or he is just too bored of being called the richest person? We will never know the answer! Unless you are Musk himself, who saw his net worth increase 7-fold last year or you have struck a multi-million dollar lottery, your net worth would have steadily increased over the past few years (if at all) and will grow gradually over time. Of course this is very relative; some people may call a few thousand dollars as gradual or other ultra rich will weigh it in millions? Regardless, as your net worth creeps up, you will find yourself in a different spot; your colleagues will change, your social structure will change. In order to keep up with these changes,...

My Florida Memoirs

“What did you expect about America that wasn’t true?” It was a loaded question; Brian wanted to ask me about the lifestyle, culture and the behavior of the people I met in my first 3-4 weeks of my stay in the USA. Brian was an employee of the client company that TCS deputed me to in Florida. I could not answer the question directly, but gave a political answer, “I expected skyscrapers in the USA, but here in Melbourne, I don't see structures taller than 2-3 stories”. Brian went on to become a good friend of mine. In fact, when my parents visited Niagara Falls, his father, a retired Buffalo city cop showed them around in his big Impala. Brian used to discuss how American history is bloody and how steak is the staple diet for all Americans during dinnertime. He had a couple of complaints about me, one that I can't truly pronounce a “w” and a “v” separately and that my English was more formal than his colloquial language. The day I landed in Melbourne was a cool winter day; yes ev...

Anish's Blogs

Search This Blog