Did It Just Happen Again?

Every day I check my Dictionary app to learn a new "Word for the Day". Today's word is ipso facto. It means "by the fact itself; by the very nature of the deed". It's a word I use frequently if not often.

That's not the interesting part. As part of explaining the word and its etymology, two examples in written literature or publication are shown. Today's examples were the following and were on my "read next" pile on my desk next to the computer. Eerie...

And from the Dictionary app...

How is ipso facto used?

... the notion that cars made in Germany would ipso facto be better crafted than others ... this would have seemed curious indeed just a generation before.TONY JUDT, POSTWAR: A HISTORY OF EUROPE SINCE 1945, 2005

I had, it seemed, defined myself as a "popular" writer, and if one is popular, then, ipso facto, one is not to be taken seriously.OLIVER SACKS, ON THE MOVE, 2015
 

Where Does the Time Go? Part 1

This morning at 2:00 am the clocks were set back an hour. We lost Daylight Savings Time. Until sometime this coming March when DST starts again and we move the clocks ahead an hour.

All this time change made me think about time; specifically, what do people do with the extra hour gained? I think most people use it to get another hour of sleep. I was up at 2:00. I was reading. So if I read for another hour did I get another hour of reading done, or did I get another hour of sleep once I went to bed?

And what about a person working a 12-hour or 24-hour shift over that 2:00 am clock change? How did they use their time? Did they end up with a 13-hour or 25-hour shift? Did they get paid for an extra hour? (I bet if they were union they might have!)

If you were awake during the time change, I hope you didn't waste it.

But I think the larger problem comes this March. On March 8, at 2:00 am, we will once again move our clocks ahead an hour. Now the question no longer is what you did during that hour (though we ask it nevertheless), but where did that hour GO? We can't get it back unless of course, you think it is the one we get back next November. But even it is, where did it go until that time?

A couple of years ago I read a very intriguing small book called "Einstein's Dreams" by Alan Lightman. While it didn't cover this question exactly, I was reminded of it today as thought about that missing hour. The book is about approximately 30 different dreams of Einstein about time and his special relativity theorem. It's a short book and relatively (excuse the pun) easy to read.

I'm going to re-read it and while I do, I am going to give this post some more thought. I want to know where that hour next March we will "lose" might go. And could it be related to the extra one we had earlier this morning? Hence, I will call this Part 1.