Time zones and why they change so damned often

[Bob Martin]

in 714281 20140110 090409 Alister <alister.ware at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 10 Jan 2014 07:31:11 +0000, Bob Martin wrote:
>
>> in 714232 20140109 120741 Alister <alister.ware at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>>>On Thu, 09 Jan 2014 07:17:25 +0000, Mark Lawrence wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 09/01/2014 04:14, Chris Angelico wrote:
>>>>> On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 2:54 PM, Ben Finney
>>>>> <ben+python at benfinney.id.au>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> I'm approaching it with the goal of knowing better what I'm talking
>>>>>> about when I advocate scrapping the whole DST system :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> I would definitely support the scrapping of DST. I'm less sure that
>>>>> we need exactly 24 timezones around the world, though. It's not
>>>>> nearly as big a problem to have the half-hour and quarter-hour
>>>>> timezones - though it would be easier if timezone were strictly an
>>>>> integer number of hours. But DST is the real pain.
>>>>>
>>>>> What I find, most of the time, is that it's Americans who can't
>>>>> handle DST. I run an international Dungeons and Dragons campaign (we
>>>>> play online, and new players are most welcome, as are people
>>>>> watching!), and the Aussies (myself included) know to check UTC time,
>>>>> the Brits and Europeans check UTC or just know what UTC is, and the
>>>>> Americans say "Doesn't that happen at 8 o'clock Eastern time?" and
>>>>> get confused.
>>>>> I don't understand this. Are my players drawn exclusively from the
>>>>> pool of people who've never worked with anyone in Arizona [1]? Yes,
>>>>> I'm stereotyping a bit here, and not every US player has had problems
>>>>> with this, but it's the occasional US player who knows to check, and
>>>>> the rare European, British, or Aussie player who doesn't.
>>>>>
>>>>> In any case, the world-wide abolition of DST would eliminate the
>>>>> problem. The only remaining problem would be reminding people to
>>>>> change the batteries in their smoke detectors.
>>>>>
>>>>> ChrisA
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] For those who aren't right up on timezone trivia, AZ has no DST.
>>>>> Similarly the Australian state of Queensland does not shift its
>>>>> clocks.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> I remember this "From February 1968 to November 1971 the UK kept
>>>> daylight saving time throughout the year mainly for commercial
>>>> reasons, especially regarding time conformity with other European
>>>> countries".  My source
>>>> http://www.timeanddate.com/time/uk/time-zone-background.html
>>>
>>>we dont have "Daylight saving time" we switch between GMT (Greenwich
>>>Mean Time) and BST (British Summer Time) at some point in the past we
>>>have also used DST (Double Summer Time).
>>
>> British Summer Time *is* Daylight Saving Time.
>
>My point is in the UK we have never refered to it as Daylight saving Time
>that is an Americanism :-)

Sorry, but you are wrong again!  
Just Google it.