LAKE WALES | The Earth won't go into reverse at 2 a.m. Sunday. But 2 a.m. Sunday will come around twice as a result of the switch back to Eastern Standard Time from daylight saving time.
LAKE WALES | The Earth won't go into reverse at 2 a.m. Sunday.
But 2 a.m. Sunday will come around twice as a result of the switch back to Eastern Standard Time from daylight saving time.
All by act of Congress.
Most people will reset clocks before going to bed Saturday night, "falling back" one hour, but the official change comes at 2 a.m., which then becomes 1 a.m.
It is not a happy occasion for the technologically challenged. Most computers are programmed to reset themselves, but that's not the case with most clocks in such things as televisions, microwaves, VCRs, DVDs and the other necessities of modern life.
Those contraptions weren't an issue when Ben Franklin first proposed daylight saving time as a way to conserve energy by shortening the time between sunset and bedtime.
Daylight saving time was not actually implemented in the United States until World War I, and it was revived during World War II.
But it wasn't until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that it was implemented on a permanent basis, although some states still opt out - such as Arizona, which spends part of the year on the same time as California and the rest of year one hour ahead.
Originally, daylight saving time extended from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.
That changed in 1986, when Congress, which wanted to look like it was doing something about energy, shifted the start of daylight saving time to the first Sunday in April.
Congress changed the timing of daylight saving time again with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which took effect in 2007.
Under that act, daylight saving time is now in place from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
While daylight saving time is popular with many, some recent studies have indicated that it does little, if anything, to conserve electricity. Savings at night are offset by increased energy use in the morning.
But various groups have found that changing the clocks is a great way to remind people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors.
[ Bill Bair can be reached at email@example.com or 863-676-7118. ]