I was going to run this story yesterday but never got around to it.
Daylight Saving in Canberra will be extended by a month, starting next year, according to a press release from Chief Turnip Stanhope (I reserve the right to dislike him).
Next year Daylight Saving will start on the first Sunday in October and end on the first Sunday in April the following year, which is an extension of about about a month (although the difference would be slightly different each year) over the current system where it starts on the last Sunday in October and ends on the last Sunday in March.
This will make Daylight Saving a bit more sensible as it will be closer to having an equal amount on both sides of the summer solstice.
I do have to wonder how much further it will be extended though. Will it eventually grow to the point where it exceeds half a year? Which would effectively cause our official timezone to be an hour ahead of its current location, and the non-Daylight Saving period to be called “Daylight Wasting?”
I hope it doesn’t grow again, although I fear that it is inevitable, and we will see it happen some time in the next decade.
Samuel
June 14th, 2007 at 11:31am
Good Morning Lawsie,
Just thought you might like to know that it's raining down here in Canberra and has been since about 4:30, and the weather radar shows the rain stretching from about half way between Yass and Cootamundra, all the way to Bega through Cooma, and up the coast to Wollongong. Hopefully this nice level of rain continues and spreads out even further across the state.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
June 14th, 2007 at 09:26am
I sent the following email to Simon Marnie, who is filling in for Adam Spencer on ABC 702 Sydney's breakfast show. (In case you're wondering, I don't have my radio with me and I'm exploring various webstreams…it's given me an idea for the next round of radio reviews, after I finish the current set!)
Good morning Simon,
Just flicking around the various Sydney radio station webstreams to see what each station is talking about, and I happened to stumble on your conversation about cars. So far, the only sensible thing I've heard is the car sharing scheme.
The limited registration idea is absolutely stupid, if you have two cars, the chances are that you need both of them. What happens if one car breaks down on a day when the other car isn't allowed to be used because of the limited registration? If you're willing to pay a reduced registration fee in exchange for non-use days then obviously it's your own fault if you happen to need the car on a non-use day…but it's a silly idea all-the-same because the fact of the matter is, if you have two cars, you have them because you have a use for them…if not, you sell them, and that is much more sensible than some limited-use system.
How about, instead of limited-use, you share the car with others on days when you don't need it. Preferably this would be people you know and trust…this would have the same effect on pollution as the limited-use scheme by reducing the overall number of cars required, but would be much more practical.
Apart from that, your scare-mongering about Climate Change is, in my view, unfounded, but you're more than welcome to your own opinion, and I'm sure the Climate Change debate is one we can save for another day.
Enjoy your day in Sydney!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Update: Due to a peculiarity in the timing of my changes of webstream, almost every time I switched to 2GB, Alan Jones was reading the weather report and sounding quite alarmed by the fact that the Bureau of Meteorology are forecasting “possible small hail” for Sydney today. It was also amusing when at one stage I switched from 2GB to 2UE during a sport report segment of the breakfast show (not the news), 2GB mentioned a sports person and their sport, and a second later, so did 2UE! It was rather amusing to hear actually. End Update
June 14th, 2007 at 07:26am