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Health risks of daylight saving time
by Paul Eggert March 29, 2007

March 29, 2007

Since the subject of health risks is in the news.... The main health effects of DST that I know of are the following. * Extra afternoon daylight may encourage people to exercise more, which should be a big win. * Sunlight triggers vitamin D synthesis, but overexposure leads to skin cancer; so whether DST helps or hurts here depends on your latitude and daily schedule. * DST may be helpful in fighting some forms of depression: Henry Olders (2003-08-13). "Average sunrise time predicts depression prevalence". Journal of Psychosomatic Research 55 (2): 99-105. DOI:10.1016/S0022-3999(02)00479-8. Some argue the reverse, though. * DST can help night-blindness sufferers, though it can also hurt: it depends on their schedule. * DST's clock-changes temporarily disrupt the sleep cycle, which can lead to suboptimal decisions (e.g., while driving, or while trading stocks). There have been several studies of these secondary effects, but I know of no studies of any direct health risks. So the vast majority of this stuff is speculative and/or anecdotal; there's only one scientific study that I know of.

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Kemerovo region votes against DST
by Paul Eggert March 29, 2007

March 29, 2007

RIA Novosti reported yesterday that the Kemerovo Region parliamant has voted to appeal to the Russian government to abolish DST, and Nikolai Gerasimenko, Russia's deputy chair of the State Duma's Health Protection Committee, agrees with them. See <http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070328/62754276.html>. The MPs claim that DST is harmful to human health, as it may lead to chronic diseases, harm the immune system, increase mortality rate and risks for hypertensive patients. None of these reported health problems have been investigated scientifically as far as I know. Russia's electricity monopoly said that in 2007 DST saved Russia 2 GWh of electricity, but Gersimenko says the overall economic advantage of DST isn't proven. This reminds me of the successful compaign to abolish DST in Kazakhstan, which was based on the harmful health effects due to clock changes, including "insomnia, spikes in blood pressure, endocrinal deviations and the exacerbation of chronic diseases" <http://www.kazsociety.org.uk/news/2005/03/30.htm>.

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proposed tz change for Syria effective in about 3.5 hours
by Paul Eggert March 29, 2007

March 29, 2007

The AP reports that Syria is changing its clocks in about 3.5 hours. That's not much notice, but here is a proposed patch for this, along with a comment about the Kuwait situation. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/asia,v retrieving revision 2007.4 retrieving revision 2007.4.0.2 diff -pu -r2007.4 -r2007.4.0.2 --- asia 2007/03/20 12:48:12 2007.4 +++ asia 2007/03/29 18:29:37 2007.4.0.2 @@ -1161,6 +1161,14 @@ Zone Asia/Pyongyang 8:23:00 - LMT 1890 # Kuwait # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] +# From the Arab Times (2007-03-14): +# The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has approved a proposal forwarded +# by MP Ahmad Baqer on implementing the daylight saving time (DST) in +# Kuwait starting from April until the end of Sept this year, reports Al-Anba. +# <http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait/Viewdet.asp?ID=9950>. +# From Paul Eggert (2007-03-29): +# We don't know the details, or whether the approval means it'll happen, +# so for now we assume no DST. Zone Asia/Kuwait 3:11:56 - LMT 1950 3:00 - AST @@ -1710,11 +1718,17 @@ Rule Syria 1993 only - Sep 25 0:00 0 - Rule Syria 1994 1996 - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 S Rule Syria 1994 2005 - Oct 1 0:00 0 - Rule Syria 1997 1998 - Mar lastMon 0:00 1:00 S -Rule Syria 1999 max - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 S +Rule Syria 1999 2006 - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 S # From Stephen Colebourne (2006-09-18): # According to IATA data, Syria will change DST on 21st September [21:00 UTC] # this year [only].... This is probably related to Ramadan, like Egypt. Rule Syria 2006 only - Sep 22 0:00 0 - +# From Paul Eggert (2007-03-29): +# Today the AP reported "Syria will switch to summertime at midnight Thursday." +# http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/29/africa/ME-GEN-Syria-Time-Change.p… +# For lack of better info, assume the rule changed to "last Friday in March" +# this year. +Rule Syria 2007 max - Mar lastFri 0:00 1:00 S Rule Syria 2007 max - Oct 1 0:00 0 - # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Damascus 2:25:12 - LMT 1920 # Dimashq

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Time bobbles
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 29, 2007

March 29, 2007

Word from a Washington, DC-area AOL subscriber is that their outgoing electronic mail is still being marked with "EST" time stamps that are an hour behind wall clock time. Do folks know of other high-visibility bobbles of the change in US DST rules? --ado

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tz distribution
by Lue, Ian March 28, 2007

March 28, 2007

Is there any documentation regarding the differences between the current release '2007d' and the previous release '2007c' of the tzcode and tzdata distribution files? Thanks, Ian Lue This message and any attachment are confidential and may be privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please telephone or email the sender and delete this message and any attachment from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy this message or attachment or disclose the contents to any other person.

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FW: Daylight Saving in Western Australia
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 28, 2007

March 28, 2007

I'm forwarding this message from Jacob, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the time zone mailing list should direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Jacob [mailto:jacob@iinet.net.au] Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 8:31 AM To: Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] Subject: Daylight Saving in Western Australia Hi, I've been reading posts on the time zone page via the web for a while and just thought I would let you know on two daylight saving bills that are currently being debated in the Western Australian state parliament. The first is the Daylight Saving Amendment Bill 2007 http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/bills.nsf/BillProgressPopup?o penF orm&ParentUNID=713549006591B118C8257290002753CB Which calls for an early referendum to be held on 20th October, 2007 instead of 2009. The bill originates from the National Party, which are a rural party where Daylight Saving is strongly opposed. A referendum on the 20th October would mean only a week's notice if Daylight Saving gets the nod or not! The second is the Daylight Saving Amendment Bill (No.2) 2007 http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/bills.nsf/BillProgressPopup?o penF orm&ParentUNID=EFDF9EAD189C0FBDC82572A5000E949E This bill is being done by Matt Birney, who was one of the co-sponsors of the original bill that got up in November. He wants daylight saving to end 2 months earlier for the rest of the trial, ending on the last Sunday in January instead of the last Sunday in March. He is an MP of a country seat and is trying to get a compromise to appease voters. Both bills are unlikely to get up, as the Labor Government has stated that it will not allow its members to have a free vote on the issue. The second bill looks like it wont get support from anyone even from Birney's own Liberal Party. The Nationals may support it if their own bill does not get up. The Labor Party states that both sides had a free vote last year on the issue and that Parliament in the lower and upper houses agreed on a three year trial. The Liberal Party has obviously changed their mind and will force their members to vote for the National Party amendment. It will be interesting to see if Liberal Matt Birney crosses the floor to vote with the government on his own bill that he co-sponsored! Also, as a side note, Daylight Saving looks like it may increase in New Zealand next summer, for more information check out: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4002144a7693.html Jacob

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Timezones now in use
by Stuart Bishop March 27, 2007

March 27, 2007

Hi. In the pytz Python library, I provide a list of common time zones. This list can be used to generate lists of available time zones for a user to select from. I'm currently generating this list simply by taking all timezones and removing: - Those listed in the backwards file - Those that have a single path component except GMT and UTC - Those that start with Etc/ - Those that start with SystemV/ This still leaves some false positives though, such as US/Pacific-New. Is there a better way I should be generating this list? Or do I just need to blacklist irrelevant time zones as they are reported? -- Stuart Bishop <stuart(a)stuartbishop.net> http://www.stuartbishop.net/

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FW: Possibility of DST in Kuwait starting from April 2007
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 26, 2007

March 26, 2007

I'm forwarding this message from Alex Krivenyshev, who is not on the time zone mailing list (at least not at the address shown below). Those of you who are on the time zone mailing list should direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Alex Krivenyshev, WorldTimeZone.com [mailto:info@worldtimezone.com] Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 9:20 AM To: tz(a)lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Possibility of DST in Kuwait starting from April 2007 Media reports about implementing DST in Kuwait starting from April 2007 until the end of Sept 2007: http://www.worldtimezone.com/dst_news/dst_news_kuwait01.html http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait/Viewdet.asp?ID=9950&cat=a Civil Service nod to daylight savings time KUWAIT CITY: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has approved a proposal forwarded by MP Ahmad Baqer on implementing the daylight saving time (DST) in Kuwait starting from April until the end of Sept this year, reports Al-Anba. The CSC pointed out the system was enforced successfully in several countries around the world including England, France, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

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Symlink first step: variable renaming
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 26, 2007

March 26, 2007

As a first step in dealing with the zic symlink matter, I'm suggesting the variable renaming below. --ado ------- zic.c ------- *** /tmp/geta24885 Mon Mar 26 13:53:31 2007 --- /tmp/getb24885 Mon Mar 26 13:53:31 2007 *************** *** 3,9 **** ** 2006-07-17 by Arthur David Olson. */ ! static char elsieid[] = "@(#)zic.c 8.11"; #include "private.h" #include "locale.h" --- 3,9 ---- ** 2006-07-17 by Arthur David Olson. */ ! static char elsieid[] = "@(#)zic.c 8.12"; #include "private.h" #include "locale.h" *************** *** 114,120 **** static int ciequal P((const char * ap, const char * bp)); static void convert P((long val, char * buf)); static void convert64 P((zic_t val, char * buf)); ! static void dolink P((const char * fromfile, const char * tofile)); static void doabbr P((char * abbr, const char * format, const char * letters, int isdst, int doquotes)); static void eat P((const char * name, int num)); --- 114,120 ---- static int ciequal P((const char * ap, const char * bp)); static void convert P((long val, char * buf)); static void convert64 P((zic_t val, char * buf)); ! static void dolink P((const char * fromfield, const char * tofield)); static void doabbr P((char * abbr, const char * format, const char * letters, int isdst, int doquotes)); static void eat P((const char * name, int num)); *************** *** 628,653 **** } static void ! dolink(fromfile, tofile) ! const char * const fromfile; ! const char * const tofile; { register char * fromname; register char * toname; ! if (fromfile[0] == '/') ! fromname = ecpyalloc(fromfile); else { fromname = ecpyalloc(directory); fromname = ecatalloc(fromname, "/"); ! fromname = ecatalloc(fromname, fromfile); } ! if (tofile[0] == '/') ! toname = ecpyalloc(tofile); else { toname = ecpyalloc(directory); toname = ecatalloc(toname, "/"); ! toname = ecatalloc(toname, tofile); } /* ** We get to be careful here since --- 628,653 ---- } static void ! dolink(fromfield, tofield) ! const char * const fromfield; ! const char * const tofield; { register char * fromname; register char * toname; ! if (fromfield[0] == '/') ! fromname = ecpyalloc(fromfield); else { fromname = ecpyalloc(directory); fromname = ecatalloc(fromname, "/"); ! fromname = ecatalloc(fromname, fromfield); } ! if (tofield[0] == '/') ! toname = ecpyalloc(tofield); else { toname = ecpyalloc(directory); toname = ecatalloc(toname, "/"); ! toname = ecatalloc(toname, tofield); } /* ** We get to be careful here since *************** *** 666,672 **** if (result != 0 && access(fromname, F_OK) == 0 && !itsdir(fromname)) { ! const char *s = tofile; register char * symlinkcontents = NULL; while ((s = strchr(s+1, '/')) != NULL) --- 666,672 ---- if (result != 0 && access(fromname, F_OK) == 0 && !itsdir(fromname)) { ! const char *s = tofield; register char * symlinkcontents = NULL; while ((s = strchr(s+1, '/')) != NULL)

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FW: Iran's parliament and the government have not yet reached a consensus on the country's official clock
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] March 26, 2007

March 26, 2007

I'm (somewhat belatedly) forwarding this message from Alexander Krivenyshev, who is not on the time zone mailing list (at least not at the address shown below). Those of you who are on the time zone mailing list should direct replies appropriately. --ado -----Original Message----- From: Alexander Krivenyshev [mailto:info@worldtimezone.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:17 AM To: tz(a)lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Iran's parliament and the government have not yet reached a consensus on the country's official clock Media continue conflicting reports about DST in Iran: Article headline is "Iran will not observe DST" however one can read that: "....Majlis (Iran's parliament) may simply move ahead independently and seriously consider a recent parliamentary report in favor of the DST change... " and " ... a team of government representatives and members of the Majlis Research Center will hold meetings during the New Year holidays to make a final decision." http://www.worldtimezone.com/dst_news/dst_news_iran04.html http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=3243&sectionid=351020102

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