daylight-saving news from UCEI, WA, NZ, WY, TERiX

[Paul Eggert]

Some recent news about daylight saving time:

Ryan Kellogg and Hendrik Wolff of the University of California Energy
Institute have published a paper "Does Extending Daylight Saving Time
Save Energy?  Evidence from an Australian Experiment", CSEM WP 163
(January 2007) <http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/PDF/csemwp163.pdf>.
Their brief answer is "no".  They report that the Australian
experiment with DST during the 2000 Olympics did not decrease overall
electrical consumption, but it did change usage patterns leading to a
higher morning peak load.

Western Australian Nationals leader Brendon Gryllis says his party
will submit a private member's bill next month, calling for a
referendum before October 31 to repeal daylight saving time in Western
Australia.

Nelson, NZ city councillor Mark Holmes and United Future Party leader
Peter Dunne have gathered a petition with 10,000 signatures to extend
daylight saving time in New Zealand by three weeks.
<http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=110957>

The Wyoming Senate's Corporations, Elections and Political
Subdivisions Committee voted 3-2 against exempting Wyoming from
daylight saving time.  In a recent poll 41% of Wyoming's inhabitants
want to repeal daylight saving, and 44% want to keep it.
<http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/18/news/wyoming/55-time.txt>
<http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/01/17/news/wyoming/38-time.txt>

Various companies have announced support for the US daylight-saving
time changes in their software, or in older versions of other people's
software.  My favorite was TERiX, which announced free patches for
Solaris 2.5.1 through 2.7, for customers who don't want to bother to
run 'zic' themselves.