Friday, March 11, 2016

Strange DST History

"The Strange and Surprising History of Daylight Saving Time".

My favorite story:
[A]nother young American had better luck during the U.S. Selective Service System's Vietnam War draft lottery, according to Prerau.

Each birth date was randomly selected and assigned a draft order in which young men were called to service... “Based on the day this guy was born, he had a low number and was very likely to be drafted,” Prerau says. 

“But he was born just after midnight. So he went to court claiming that in his state he was born under standard time, which would have been an hour earlier. That would mean his birth occurred before midnight and on a different day—which just happened to have a much higher lottery number. The courts agreed that he was right and he actually managed to avoid the draft in that way.”
 And don't forget to watch the classic snarky CGP Grey video: