March 6, 2008

There were 2 posts published on March 6, 2008 (this is page 1 of 1).

Daylight No-savings Time?

WRAL Weathercenter’s Nate Johnson posted about daylight savings time, which goes into effect this Sunday. Ah, daylight savings time: one of my favorite whipping boys. If there’s one thing that raises my government-as-nanny hackles, daylight savings time is it.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with conceiving daylight savings time (DST) as a way to save on candles. While candles may have been all the rage in Poor Richard’s day, it may be safe to say that we use energy quite differently nowadays. The energy required to shift one’s biological clock to match clock time is quite expensive, too, but not so easily measured.
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‘Blink’ as applied to homebuying

Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink touts the wisdom of trusting one’s split-second decisions. As Hallie and I passed our new neighborhood this morning I can affirm this wisdom. Before I even saw our new house for the first time the deal was already done. I just knew when we turned onto our new street that this was where we would live.

With this in mind, I’ve decided that it is not necessarily a good sign when prospective homebuyers take their time viewing the house. While they may linger out of habit, in less than two minutes they should know if this is their new home. They may not know if this isn’t their new home (the two are not the same), but if its right they will know in an instant.

That’s all it takes: an instant. Anything longer and you’re just talking yourself into it.