WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW...this is a regular headline in the internet. Today's topic is what you need to know about the time change to daylight saving time this Sunday. There was nothing that I needed to know in the article on Daylight Saving Time from Globalnews.ca. But it got me to look at it. What if there is something important this year and this weekend?
When I think of a clock - I see one of those regulation school clocks. Isn't this such a familiar sight all through my generation's childhood and well into adulthood. We would see these clocks in schools, hospitals, industries. What does the ITC stand for on this clock?
It stands for independent transmit clock. Looking at pictures of classrooms, there is the electric clock high on the wall in most of them. I assume they are electromagnetic. It is interesting how little moI know about the time-keeping of clocks and yet they are so ingrained in everything we do today.
Remember the school bell in the classrooms? It signalled the end of class. It must have also signalled the beginning, but it is the end that seems more appealing to the memory. The move to Daylight Savings Time is a welcome one - it signals the end of winter approaches and the beginning of spring is here.
Today's image was taken at Vineland Research - one of its buildings has a wall of boston ivy that turns a beautiful red in the fall. The windows seem to be eyes reflecting the sky.
Daylight Saving Time will begin tomorrow Sunday March 11 at 3:00am. The question is regularly asked why don't we just stay with one timezone? The Washington Posts tells us that we like having later sunsets in the summer, and wouldn't be happy if the sun went down at 7:00pm.
Who first conceived of DST? It was Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s. Many countries went onto DST during World War I, following Germany's lead. Then in 1918, time zones and daylight saving were established. It got repealed in 1919, but continued to be recognized.
In Canada, DST was first observed in 1908, and has been observed for 106 years. Saskatchewan, some locations in Quebec, and some areas of British Columbia don't use DST. It is up to the legislation of each municipality in Canada to decide the use of DST. Can you imagine how complicated this is? So there are towns/cities such as Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson that do not follow the provincial norm.
Swedish researchers say there may be some health benefits to turning your clock back. They studied 20 years of records and found that the number of heart attacks dipped on the Monday after clocks moved back an hour.
Moving clocks ahead in the spring had the opposite effect. There were more heart attacks in the week after springing forward — especially during the first three days of the week.
Another milestone towards Spring will be achieved. We moved into Spring on March 1st according to the meteorological clock.
The Miltonia orchid I bought at the RBG orchid Show is almost ready to bloom. I can see it will be red, like this one. It is known as the Pansy Orchid, and is beautifully fragrant.