Research links of the week, and daylight 'savings'

Of all the boneheaded things done by Congress in the last few years, this one really annoys me: Daylight Savings Time arrives tonight. This actually went into effect last year, when the change came on March 11, although I don't remember it seeming so bad then.

It's not even spring yet. The increasing daylight is lasting til about 6:30 or so around here now, just fine. It's light between 6 and 7 am, just fine too.

Now what do we get? Light outside later in the evening when it's still too cool to stay outside then; heating will still be necessary. Sunlight warming the house later in the morning, making it necessary to run heat longer.

It's still causing a stir, lots of news stories. The Australian study got a lot of press last year and is still referred to, but stories are now highlighting the latest study, on Indiana, out of UC Santa Barbara. Wall St. Journal story, information from UCSB.

At Ars Technica, No Savings, No Point. In USA Today, Daylight Savings Boosts Energy Use. Slate questioned the value of this bill before it passed in Congress. The California Energy Commission has a good history of Daylight Savings Time.

(Well, not the only boneheaded thing our government is doing...
But then, Fox News has a list of terrorist attacks that happen because of our government's competence, so does it even out? Via J-Walk.)

More things found this week:

Reference:

SoundComparisons.com from the University of Edinburgh, listen to words as pronounced in various English dialects around the world. Here's North Carolina (trad).

Statistics:

The Numbrary, a searchable depository for statistics, and The Numbrary Blog, news of new stats releases.

Health Data Tools and Statistics, from Partners in Information Access in the Public Health Workforce.

News:

NewsNow Xtended from the UK-based news aggregator, more news faster, with better searching.

People:

Omnibiography claims biographies of over 110,000 people. You can submit your own.

Governments, politics:

Statescape Billfinder finds bills in state legislatures by topic.