I like that idea and wished the entire world would just go to an international date and time. Forget about the sunrise and sunset as a standard of time of day (the old farmer's time legacy).

When I was in the Navy a lifetime ago, not only did we have DST, but aboard the ship I was on we had "summer hours" which meant reporting to duty an hour earlier. That meant I got off around 3 PM for the rest of the day, unless it was my duty day.

I prefer using international time, whether Zulu or GMT and adjust our work day, school day, appointments accordingly. I know this would confuse most people on how to set their clocks, but once done, it would be like eating cake.

Midnight is the same no matter where on earth you are. Seven AM is the same no matter where you are. The only difference is the arbitrary time you set for a schedule. If you are in EST and you had to be at work at 8 for example, now you would have to be there at 8 + time offset from GMT which in the east would be 8 + 5 = 13:00 or 1 PM GMT. Sounds hard to begin with, but over time, it would be simple to get with the program.

When communicating with folks in different time zones, we have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get our schedules to coordinate with theirs. We had a vendor from Israel and had to interface with them at times so it was important to agree on time and time zone.

The same could be said for international travel. Thailand is around 12 hours apart from us but they are on the west side of the international date line. This is important when returning from Bangkok around midnight (Thailand time) to know what date you need to be there for your flight (this happened to one of our relatives who missed her flight as she showed up a day late). Similarly, Okinawa is one of the last time zones of the new day, so it was easier to NOT miss your flight if you didn't keep up with the local time and date.

I have to ask. What would you prefer in terms of our clocks? The current system, in my opinion, is absolutely ridiculous. Politicians are trying to decide when and if they should do something, but they don't know what to do. They seem to be leaning toward year-round DST.

This is not something that should be determined by public opinion. According to science and medical studies, permanent DST would be a bad idea. The best approach would be to live on "Normal Time." I don't think we'll be seeing that in my lifetime, though.

Opinions?

I have to ask. What would you prefer in terms of our clocks? The current system, in my opinion, is absolutely ridiculous. Politicians are trying to decide when and if they should do something, but they don't know what to do. They seem to be leaning toward year-round DST.

This is not something that should be determined by public opinion. According to science and medical studies, permanent DST would be a bad idea. The best approach would be to live on "Normal Time." I don't think we'll be seeing that in my lifetime, though.

Opinions?