Tag: Time

Semi-annual time changes are a pointless, disruptive, and expensive annual ritual

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/semi-annual-time-changes-are-a-pointless-disruptive-and-expensive-2021-3

Excerpt:

And this is why our semi-annual time changes need to end. It disrupts coordination, which is the whole point of keeping time. Most of the world does not observe DST. And countries that do adopt it do so on different days. 

This means for a few weeks each year there is total time chaos. People on the East Coast can’t remember if Europe is five or six hours ahead anymore. It wreaks havoc on the airline industry, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in non-pandemic times. JP Morgan estimates consumer spending drops 3.5% every year we return to Standard Time. There are also more heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, and depression. 

And for what benefit? None I can think of. 

Author(s): Allison Schrager

Publication Date: 13 March 2021

Publication Site: Business Insider

2020 Will End as One of America’s Most Violent Years in Decades

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://time.com/5922082/2020-gun-violence-homicides-record-year/

Excerpt:

This year, many Americans have experienced significantly higher levels of violence both wrought on and within their communities. Gun violence and gun crime has, in particular, risen drastically, with over 19,000 people killed in shootings and firearm-related incidents in 2020. That’s the highest death toll in over 20 years, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), an online site that collects gun violence data, and the Britannia Group’s non-partisan site procon.org.

This total includes victims of homicides and unintentional deaths but does not include gun suicides. And despite there being no “large-scale” shootings in 2020, the number of mass shootings—which are classified as an incident in which four or more people are shot and injured or killed—has actually risen, drastically, to over 600, the most in the past 5 years and a nearly 50% increase in 2019’s total.

Author(s): Josiah Bates

Publication Date: 30 December 2020

Publication Site: Time