Category: History

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Daylight Savings Time Is A Joke

We “sprung forward” over the weekend, or at least most of us did. Daylight Savings Time went into effect Sunday morning, and as usual, my sleep cycle is screwed up.

Someone computed that the “opportunity” cost of changing the clocks twice a year (if you figure it takes 15 minutes to change all your clocks) was something like $1.7 billion. That’s the time it takes times an average hourly rate of $17 ish times the number of people in the US.

That’s one hidden cost. Another hidden cost is productivity. If you follow your circadian rhythm after DST goes into effect, you’ll end up going to sleep one hour later. So instead of going to sleep at 11 pm, you go to sleep at midnight. If you get up at 7 pm, you’ve lost an hour of sleep. You’re going to drive to work groggier, be less productive at work, and be more tired at the end of the day. And in this current economic situation, anything that reduces productivity should be done away with.

Ben Franklin is credited with coming up with Daylight Savings Time. But it seems he suggested it more as a joke than anything. He says that he woke up early one day in Paris, and found that the sun was already up (at 6 am). He then calculates how many pounds of candles would be saved if people used daylight instead of candlelight (kind of like the “early to bed, early to rise” saying).

No one took the idea seriously until the World War I. The Germans adopted it early in the war, and the US adopted it late. It was ultimately repealed in the US in 1919 because it was so unpopular.

I daresay it’s pretty unpopular now, especially after Congress added a few more weeks to DST. The kicker there is that they used numbers from the 1970’s that touted how much energy would be saved. The government entity that produced those numbers not only says they’re out of date, but they’re wrong. So Congress passes a law based on faulty or inaccurate information. What else is new?

We need to repeal this stupid law. Or at the very least, split the difference, and “spring ahead” a half hour one time, and be done with it.

H/T: Failed Success

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Help Save Nashville Speedway

A part of Nashville history is under attack. A “grassroots” group is out to get rid of the speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. Ostensibly they want to “relocate” the fairgrounds and the track. Realistically, there’s no way it can be feasible to build another race track in Davidson County. So in effect,they want to shut racing down in Nashville.

To counter one “grassroots” movement with a real one, I’ve created a web site called Save Nashville Speedway. There’s an online petition that you can sign to show your support. I’ll be updating the site often, so be sure to go and check it out. Over the next days and weeks I’ll be posting pictures and other historical data from the track.

If you’re a race fan and you don’t want to see this historic facility be pushed aside for “progress”, then I would appreciate it if you would go to Save Nashville Speedway and sign the petition.

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Save Nashville Speedway!

A few days ago, it was brought to my attention that a group (actually one guy) has started a drive to move the Tennessee State Fairgrounds and “redevelop” the property. He’s gone as far as creating a non-profit organization to raise money to this end.

Nowhere on his site does he mention anything about the Speedway. It’s obviously assumed that the “green” area that will replace the fairgrounds will also do away with the speedway (which I think is the real motive behind this movement). He also doesn’t mention that the house he owns in the neighborhood of the fairgrounds was purchased in 1999 for around $45,000, and that as of a couple of years ago, it was appraised at over $90,000, and that he’s complained about the noise from the track.

It just blows my mind how some people have the nerve to move next to an airport or race track or interstate and then complain about the noise. Uh, if you don’t like the noise, move. I live almost exactly two miles from the track (as the crow flies), and if the wind is blowing right, I can hear the cars during a race or practice. I live a lot closer to the interstate and can hear the trucks go by (despite the speed limit being lowered to 55 mph a couple of years ago, which was spearheaded by a lady who moved next to the interstate). I can also hear the trains occasionally at the CSX yard 3 miles away. Heck, I can even hear the Hillsboro High School band play on Friday nights. If these noises truly bothered me, I’d move away from them; it would never cross my mind to be one to complain about something that I knew full well was going to happen before I moved here.

To combat this, I’ve created a site that will hopefully counter this guy’s attempt at plowing under this historic site. It’s called SaveNashvilleSpeedway.com. The site just went live Sunday night with a placeholder page in order to begin getting indexed by the search engines. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be putting more info on the site, including historical information about past races there.

If Nashville put a tenth of the effort into saving this historic landmark as it did into saving the Predators NHL team, there wouldn’t be a problem.

So, take a look at SaveNashvilleSpeedway.com, and keep checking back over the next few weeks.

Oh, if you have any files or info regarding the track’s history, please feel free to send them to me at the email address on the site. I hope to make this an archive of race results, photos, and other mementos of the track.