Tis the season -- the season when once again, meteorologists and others exhort us to "spring forward" by turning our clocks ahead an hour to get on Daylight Saving Time. In the fall, we'll be told to "fall back" to help us remember once again which way to adjust the hour hand on our timekeeping devices.
Too bad the mnemonic is the opposite of what it means in real terms. To go on DST is a step backward, a needless and not altogether harmless mass drill for a Nation of Sheep, something like those public displays on holidays in North Korea. Needless, because it saves us nothing - not any measurable amount of energy, and certainly not any daylight.
Also, not harmless, because it disturbs our biorhythms, our circadian patterns, in measurable ways. One concrete example of the harm is the statistics on the increased number of people who suffer heart attacks on the morning after our "spring forward," thanks (it is thought) to the hour's less sleep people get.
In short: Let's put an end to this silliness. In commonsense terms, our watchword should be "Spring Back, Fall Forward," and not the other way around.
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