The arrival of December heralds the beginning of “the Drinking Season.” BACtrack, a company that makes smartphone-enabled breathalyzers, compiled data on 300,000 blood-alcohol content (BAC) tests in the U.S. to come up with this graph of the results over the calendar year. The graph is interactive at the site.
The results show a definite difference in how drunk people get on Super Bowl Sunday, Valentines Day, and St. Patricks Day compared to non-holidays. Strangely, New Years Eve shows lower BAC results than the other holidays. Although the differences in the days are quite believable, the raw data doesn’t tell us anything about the average American. You must keep in mind that people who test themselves from a portable breathalyzer are already disposed to drink more than the average person. -via The Washington Post
Comments (0)
I would prefer just to end this daylight saving folly all over the planet...
He does bring up many good arguments of stopping the practice.
Another version of the same myth claims that road accidents in Scotland are reduced by DST since it is lighter in the mornings in winter. Again this fails to work for two reasons; firstly in that the days are so short in the north of the country that the morning and evening rush hours happen in the dark in winter anyway; and secondly again the clocks are changed for summer not for winter.
Quite why these myths exist I don't know, but they do.
My personal gripe is that DST messes with my surfing. Often depending on the swell and the state of the tide the best surf of the day might come before work. There are times of the year in spring and autumn when there isn't enough daylight in the morning to get in a session before work when there would be if we stayed on winter time all summer. What I want is a window before and after work so I can get more chance to benefit from the optimum swell/tide conditions to give the best surf.