0 SO WHY NOT CALL IT BLUEBERRY INSTEAD OF BLACKBERRY?

Because an American marketing firm with an equally catchy name:  LEXICON Branding, Inc. - said so!

You'd think they'd ask the general public or came up with the name themselves, (actually they tried to do the latter as you'll read further below), but noooo!  Formerly RIM, (Research in Motion) now called BlackBerry Limited, instead, paid money to the well-known marketing firm - Lexicon Branding, Inc. - a firm whose sole purpose is to invent names for products (gosh I wish I had that job), to do just that!

BlackBerry Limited, (or RIM as I like to remember them being Canadian and all), is a telecommunication and wireless equipment company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and is best known, as you all know by now, as the developer of the BlackBerry smartphone and tablet.

So as the story goes and to make a long story short:

It was the summer of 1998, when a bunch of executives from a tiny technology company then known as RIM arrived in California, USA at the offices of Lexicon Branding Inc.  They brought with them, of course, a prototype of the little gadget they had just invented, some sort of email/pager device that could send and receive e-mail wirelessly, and now wanted a name to go along with it!  They originally tried themselves to come up with a name, (they had names such as the RIM 950, RIM 960, RIM 970 . . . and so on) and eventually settled on the name “PocketLink,” but the public still wasn't 'biting' it.  Actually, according to author Alastair Sweeny of the book BlackBerry Planet - The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device That Took the World by Storm, RIM was frustrated that customers still used it as a pager and didn’t take advantage of its emailing strengths and realized the name was possibly the problem and that's when they decide to turn to the 'professionals'.

So why not Blueberry instead of Blackberry?

Original Blackberry
Wiki source

Well, I'll let the professionals explain it themselves.  From the words of David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding:

“We wanted to give them a great name, which could really help them. At that time, they were going up against the pagers, and everybody had a pager . . . . You need to have a really distinctive name. And let the operating companies, like AT&T, let them have the more conservative and descriptive names. But I had a sense that this was going to be a really good product.”

“We looked at the form,” says Placek, “and, with all the little buttons on there, began to create metaphors. We looked at the world of fruit because it does, from a distance, look like it could be some kind of fruit. Also, BlackBerry is a very friendly, approachable name.


Some of the Lexicon team were struck by the little keyboard buttons, which resembled nothing so much as the tiny seeds covering a strawberry. Several suggest “Strawberry.” “No, ‘strawberry is a slowww syllable,” said Stanford university professor Will Leben, director of linguistics at Lexicon. “That’s just the opposite of the zippy connotation Research in Motion wants. But ‘-berry’ is good.”

“Lexicon research had shown that people associated the b sound with reliability,” said David Placek, “while the short e evoked speed. Another syllable with a short vowel would nail it. “Within seconds the Lexicon team had picked its fruit, and it was BlackBerry.”

blueberries

So why BLACKberry instead of BLUEberry? After all, those keyboard buttons looked more like little blueberries to me! Well, it's simply because the device, at the time, was black, so says Mr. Placek.








It was pretty cool too how "Mike" Lazaridis, the Greek Canadian businessman, and founder and Vice Chairman of BlackBerry remembered the occasion well:

Mike Lazaridis
Wiki source

The Lexicon team came in with “boxes of white cardboard sheets, forty of them, each one had a single word. They set them up on an easel.” As Lazaridis remembers, “after about twenty-five of them I thought, Gosh, I’ve made a big mistake . . . they put up name after name . . . there were some strange ones . . .you might have heard of the HipTop.”

“At that point,” he says, “I knew I was being set up because the last one was so much better than all the others . . . What I decided to do was have some fun with them. I leaned back in my chair, crossed my arms, and told them, ‘I don’t like any of them! — You should have seen the look on their faces.” And then he paused for effect . . . “except the last one.’ And we all burst out laughing.”

Back home, the RIM engineers weren’t sure they like their baby being named after a fruit. Gary Mousseau was “just floored” by the choice of the California marketing pros. “But we didn’t have the branding, marketing and sales experience of these guys. We just couldn’t appreciate their skill set.”

Mike liked it. The name stuck.


And as they say, the rest is history!




Did You Know?

• While RIM got incredible word-of-mouth advertising when the U.S. Congress invested millions in its device after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the company has also promoted the device through special events, like giving BlackBerries to people attending last year's Academy Awards.
• In March 2012, it was announced that RIM was awarded a patent for placing fuel cells behind mobile phone keyboards. Through the system, for which RIM had applied for a patent in 2009, a mobile phone would be able to recharge itself.
• On January 30, 2013, During the official launch event for BlackBerry 10, the company also announced that it would immediately change its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry. The name change was made to "put the BlackBerry brand at the centre" of the company's diverse brands, and because customers in some markets "already know the company as BlackBerry". A legal name change must still be approved by shareholders at the company's next annual general meeting.

Lexicon Branding is famous for other brand names such as:

• When Toyota was considering the launch of a new automotive division tailored to younger Generation Y drivers, they partnered with us to develop the Scion® brand.
• When processor companies were marketing chips by numbers, we worked with Intel to help them understand how branding could affect their business and then created the Pentium® brand for them.
• When sales were declining for Subaru's station wagons, we showed Subaru that launching another American West-themed car would not give them a competitive advantage. We then created the Outback® brand for them.
• When Procter & Gamble reinvented the mop, we invented the Swiffer® brand, helping them to create a new category. When they revolutionized the fabric freshener business, we created the Febreze® brand so that they could tell their story.
• When Verizon developed a state-of-the-art fiber optic network to market to consumers they partnered with Lexicon to create Fios®, an approachable name that also supports idea of a new level of performance.
• When the Coca-Cola Company decided to enter the bottled water business we coined a new word, Dasani®, to deliver a unique personality and positioning. The Dasani brand is now the fourth largest bottled water in the United States. 
• When Apple developed a computer that was truly portable in size and weight, Lexicon named it the PowerBook®, a simple and elegant name. 

And these are just the more famous ones!

So there you have it.  I guess if you want something done right - you have to do it yourself, go to the professionals!!

Source(s):  Wikipedia, lexiconbranding.com/, wikipedia, canada.com/, 

0 WHY DO WE BOIL LOBSTERS ALIVE AND DO THEY FEEL PAIN?

Because we have to and no-one truly knows!
(Warning: some not-so-nice stuff ahead)

I know, I know... everyone must have asked these questions - whether they eat lobsters or not - at least one time or another in their lifetime and believe it or not, I can't really find a solid 'yes or no' answer to the second question.

"Free the lobster"
by Flickr user yooperann

We all know animal activists (such as the Lobster Liberation Front-(LLF) and PETA) and possibly even vegetarians, have been fighting for lobsters' rights for eons in regards to the cruelness and inhumane way of killing them.  (The video way below shows chef Eric Ripert saying the best way to kill them is to "take a big knife, and go through the head, and split the head in half..") before cooking them.  Ouch!  I don't like the sounds of that either.

Another popular question is - do they scream?  Say what? Scream?  I've boiled lobsters a few times before (now I can't do it anymore - getting softer as I grow older), and I don't remember hearing them 'scream' (thank God), otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat them for sure.  But back to the questions - why do we have to boil lobsters alive and do they feel pain?



Why DO We Boil Lobsters Alive?
Anyone?

"July birthday boiling pot feed at Abueloville"
by Flickr user marioanima

Well, it seems the simple answer for this one is taste, texture and safety.  The lobster must be cooked alive because the meat will spoil otherwise. The bacteria enters the meat quickly after death. Ehow explains that the lobster releases 'self-digestive' fluids that can spoil the meat.

I guess it's like finding a fish floating about when you go out fishing.  You wouldn't eat that would you?  You don't know how long it has been dead.  It could cause sicknes through food poisoning and probably taste like crap anyways!  So unfortunately for the lobster, it is best cooked alive.  Some have tryied hypnotizing or freezing it slightly or as I've said earlier - splitting their head in half! (I cringe everytime I have to type that or even think about it).

But The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine says the lobsters will stop 'squriming around' after 30 seconds if you place them on ice or freeze them prior to boiling. So maybe that's the best 'humane' way since THEY ARE the experts. Even the Gulf of Main Research Institue backed this up scientifically:



What is the best (humane) way to cook a lobster?
How to cook a lobster in the most humane manner has been a concern of guilt-ridden chefs for generations. In order to put the matter to a rest scientifically, one researcher instructed his graduate students to boil lobsters after having subjected them to various relaxation techniques. The students determined which method of dispatching them was the kindest by counting the number of tails flicks heard in the kettle before each lobster succumbed to the boiling water. They tried hyponotizing the subjects (see how to do this further below under 'Did You Know'..), soaking them in fresh water, heating them slowly from room temperature to boiling, and other accepted strategies. They found that putting them in the fridge before cooking to numb them up, (as happens naturally in winter), resulted in the lowest number of tail twitches. So, according to modern science, a few minutes in the freezer means less agony in the kettle.




So, now for the REAL question....



Do They Feel Pain?

Wouldn't you?  Ok, I know, they are NOT humans.

However, there are so many conflicting reports and expert opinions from scientific studies, professional chefs and the likes that I really don't know what to believe anymore.  Some say they CANNOT feel pain:

The nervous system of a lobster is very simple – not unlike that of an insect. Neither insects nor lobsters have brains. For an organism to perceive pain it must have a more complex nervous system. Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain. - The Lobster Institue

The invertebrates have such primitive nervous systems (they have no brain and 100,000 neurons versus a human’s 100 billion) that they don’t feel pain. A 2005 study financed by the Norwegian government reinforced this view. - Chow

While lobsters react to different stimuli, such as boiling water, the reactions are escape mechanisms, not a conscious response or an indication of pain, they say. - Lobster biologists in Maine aka The Lobster Institute

Then there is Mike Loughlin, who studied the boiling of lobsters when he was a University of Maine graduate student, said lobsters simply lack the brain capacity to feel pain.
"It's a semantic thing: No brain, no pain," said Loughlin, who now works as a biologist at the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission. - cbsnews

Close up of head of live lobster  shipped for consumption in the United States.
Source wikipedia

The Lobster Institue also explained the 'twitching' of a lobster's tail when dropped in water, as just a reflex known as the "escape response".   It is a reflex action to any sudden stimulus - a reaction that was first identified by George Johnson in 1924. The lobster is reacting to an external factor, such as an elevated water temperature.

So what are they trying to say here?  Would it be akin to like the doc tapping your knee and your knee jerking?  No pain - just a reflex?  I mean, you can cut up an earthworm and it still continues on with its business - so maybe they have something here.  And remember that study financed by the Norwegian government mentioned above?  What's that all about?  Apparently it was a study released in 2005, which suggested that lobsters cannot feel pain due to their diminished nervous capacity.  In other words, the report assumes that the violent reaction of lobsters to boiling water is a reflex to noxious stimuli.  This all came about when their government was considering a ban on live worms as fish bait under revisions to its animal protection laws - but only if it hurt. Norwegian scientists were asked to investigate pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates and Wenche Farstad of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in Oslo claimed that the answer is no.

Well, I was ready to believe all this until PETA's Karin Robertson called the Norwegian study biased, saying the government doesn't want to hurt the country's fishing industry and when a review by the Scottish animal welfare group Advocate for Animals released in the same year reported that "scientific evidence ... strongly suggests that there is a potential for [lobsters] to experience pain and suffering". This is primarily because lobsters (and other decapod crustaceans) "have opioid receptors and respond to opioids (analgesics such as morphine) in a similar way to vertebrates", indicating that lobsters' reaction to injury changes when painkillers are applied. The similarities in lobsters' and vertebrates' stress systems and behavioral responses to noxious stimuli were given as additional evidence for their capacity for pain..
Also, the fact that even the Norwegian study stated themselves that while saying it's unlikely that crustaceans feel pain, that we must be aware that "more research is needed because there is a scarcity of scientific knowledge on the subject" makes me doubt even more.

And to make me feel even more guilty - a recent 2007 British study contradicted the Norwegian study by suggesting that crustaceans DO feel pain, and that pain responses are crucial to any organism's survival.  Well, not only do I feel guilty but I don't know who or what to believe anymore.

This tanner crab was quickly cut in half before cooking
Source wikipedia

In the experiment, at Queen's University, Belfast, when the antennae of prawns were rubbed with sodium hydroxide or acetic acid, the animals showed increased grooming of the afflicted area and rubbed it more against the side of the tank. Moreover, this reaction was inhibited by a local anesthetic, even though control prawns treated with only anesthetic did not show reduced activity. Robert Elwood, who headed the study, argues that sensing pain is crucial to prawn survival, because it encourages them to avoid damaging behaviors. Some scientists responded, saying the rubbing may reflect an attempt to clean the affected area.

An even more recent study in 2009, Elwood and Mirjam Appel showed that hermit crabs make motivational tradeoffs between electric shocks and the quality of the shells they inhabit. In particular, as hermit crabs are shocked more intensely, they become increasingly willing to leave their current shells for new shells, and they spend less time deciding whether to enter those new shells. Moreover, because the researchers did not offer the new shells until after the electrical stimulation had ended, the change in motivational behavior was the result of memory of the noxious event, not an immediate reflex.

"Poor Lobsters"
Pic by Flickr user pixthree

So that's it my curious readers!  I'm so sorry I can't give you a definite answer to the last question.  Deep down I want to believe that they can't fell any pain. But unless you've crawled a mile in their shoes, we'll never know the true answer.  As far as I'm concerned, anything that is 'alive' can feel some sort of pain - maybe not pain the way as we know it, but pain nevertheless. Maybe it's just the 'humane' side of us that can't distinguish scientific facts from feelings. Who knows.

Will this stop me from eating lobsters?  Sigh, probably not because I really love lobster meat. But it has surely stopped me from cooking them myself.  I can't gather up enough courage to do so anymore...





Video

Some Other Interesting Lobster-related Facts...

Did You Know?

• You should never eat a cooked lobster with it's tail uncurled?  This means the lobster died before it was cooked.
• Although lobsters are considered by many to be 'scavengers of the sea', they are actually quite good for you?  It has less calories, less total fat and less cholesterol (based on 100 grams of cooked product) than lean beef; whole poached eggs; and even roasted, skinless chicken breast. Lobster is also high in amino acids; potassium and magnesium; Vitamins A, B12, B6, B3 (niacin) and B2 (riboflavin); calcium and phosphorus; iron; and zinc.
• True albino lobsters (the white ones), don't turn red when cooked?
• Among other things, lobsters eat crabs, sea stars, sea urchins. They are not by nature cannibalistic, except when held in crowded conditions (traps, pounds, etc.). Even with banded claws, it's still not unusual to find partially eaten animals in the live-tank when it's emptied.  As for those Lobster bands. They are not only small but strong. Lobster harvesters use a special tool that resembles a pair of pliers to open the rubber band to slip it over the lobster's claw
• To hypnotize a lobster, stand it on its head with its claws laid out in front of it and its tail curled inward. Rub your hand up and down the carapace making sure to rub between the eyes. Eventually it may stand by itself. (Whoever thought of this must have been really starved for excitement.)
• Lobster and lobster dishes are considered delicacies these days and can be quite expensive yet ironically, it was first considered a poor man's food since they were so in abundance.

Top Lobster pic "Boiled For Dinner" by Flickr user Brian U

Source(s):  ehow.com/, lobsterinstitute.org/, chow.com/, wikipedia, lobstermanspage.net/, wikipedia,  cbsnews.com/, theguardian.co.uk/, Gulf of Main Research Institute

0 SO WHAT'S THE MOST WATCHED VIDEO ON YOUTUBE FOR 2012?

No, it's no longer The Bieb's video as first posted last year back in September 2011.

At that time, as you can see, he had hits of over 600 million!!  That's alot of hits.  Now the last time we checked, a few days ago, it was over 800 million. (It also seems to be the most 'hated' video of all time with 3,241,869 dislikes compared to 1,460,359 likes!)

And no, it's not

• Charlie bit my finger - again !

Click on pic to watch video

or

• Eminem's - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna 

Click on pic to watch video

or even

• Jennifer Lopez's - On The Floor ft. Pitbull 

Click on pic to watch video

The most watched video of 2012 (as if you didn't know already) is non other than 

• PSY's - Gangnam Style

Bieber's video picked up the designation in July of 2010, when the then-rising star himself passed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". Though it was posted in February of 2010, "Baby" remains popular, continuing to garner between 350k and 500k views per day.

PSY's video first spread from South Korea to the rest of the world in early August. It's been a massive hit at a global level unlike anything we've ever seen before. Each day, "Gangnam Style" is still being watched between 7 and 10 million times.

To give you a sense of how quickly "Gangnam Style" has reached this milestone, here's a chart that shows the viewership path each video took as they each approach 1 billion views. The velocity of popularity for PSY's outlandish video is unprecedented:

"Gangnam Style" and "PSY", respectively, have been the top rising searches on YouTube over the past six months. And these searches are coming from all over the world.

Searches first spiked in South Korea in late July when the video was posted. We began to see search interest rise in the U.S. and other English-speaking nations over the next month until it began to peak in September in North America and Brazil. "Gangnam Style" searches and viewing began to spike more broadly and in places like Europe and India in October.

PSY's official channel now has over 1 billion views, a considerable number. Views on Bieber's VEVO channel alone, however, still total over 3 billion... (3,168,923,650 to be exact).




Could it reach a billion views - just this one video before the year is out?  Could it even set a record as the most watched video of all time?  I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Source(s): youtube-trends, youtube-charts

0 WHY DO WE OFTEN SAY Y'KNOW.. WORDS LIKE 'YOU KNOW'?

Well, apparently its universal and it's called a 'filler' word.

In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that he/she has paused to think but is not yet finished speaking.  The "ums", "ers", and “ahs” are among the easiest sounds to make and contain what linguists call "neutral vowel sounds".

It may be that they can be said without a great deal of thought too. "Fillers" help conversations continue smoothly.

Different languages have different characteristic filler sounds; in English, the most common filler sounds are uh and um. Among youths, the fillers "like", "y'know", "so", "actually", "literally", "basically", "right", "I'm tellin' ya" and "you know what I mean?" are among the more prevalent.


In Afrikaans, ah, em, and eh are common fillers.
In Arabic, يعني yaʿni ("I mean") and وﷲ wallāh(i) ("by God") are common fillers.
In American Sign Language, UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).
In Bengali, mane ("it means") is a common filler.
In Catalan, eh /ə/, doncs ("so"), llavors ("therefore"), and o sigui ("it means") are common fillers.
In Czech, fillers are called "slovní vata", meaning "word cotton/padding". The most frequent fillers are čili or takže ("so"), prostě ("simply"), jako ("like"). Overuse of jako and prostě becomes a bad habit among youth and could be viewed as simple-minded.
In Danish, øh is one of the most common fillers.
In Dutch, eh, ehm, and dus are some of the more common fillers.

As Stephen Juan, Ph.D., an anthropologist at the University of Sydney explains.. "Although we may not consciously realise it, in a two-person conversation, people speak by taking turns. When someone thinks it is their turn to talk, they do. Otherwise, they listen. A two-person conversation becomes like a tennis match. Inevitably there are short periods of silence as people pause to let the other person take over the speaking. But sometimes a speaker doesn’t want to give up their turn and instead wants a little extra time to think about what they’re going to say next. They use a “filler” to signal this.

When a listener hears the “filler”, they continue listening rather than start talking. “Um”, “er”, and “ah” are examples of phonemes. In linguistics, phonemes are the smallest meaningless speech sounds humans make. The smallest meaningful speech sounds humans make are called “morphemes”. Everything we humans say is either meaningless or meaningful. A lot of people never learn the difference.




More Filler words in different languages...

• In Esperanto, do ("therefore") is the most common filler.
• In Filipino, ah, eh, ay, and ano are the most common fillers.
• In Finnish, niinku ("like"), tota, and öö are the most common fillers.
• In French, euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi ("what"), bah, ben ("well"), tu vois ("you see"), t』vois c』que j'veux dire? ("you see what I mean?"), tu sais, t'sais ("you know"), and eh bien (roughly "well", as in "Well, I'm not sure"). Outside of France, other expressions are t'sais veux dire? ("you know what I mean?"), or allez une fois ("go one time"). Additional filler words used by youngsters include genre ("kind"), comme ("like"), and style ("style"; "kind").
• In German, a more extensive series of filler words, called modal particles, exists, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh /ɛː/, hm, so /zoː/, tja, and eigentlich ("actually").
• In Hebrew, eh is the most common filler. Em is also quite common. Young speakers commonly use "Ke'ilu" (the Hebrew version of "like").
• In Hindi, matlab ("it means") and "Mah" are fillers.
• In Hungarian, filler sound is ő, common filler words include hát, nos (well...) and asszongya (a variant of azt mondja, which means "it says here..."). Among intellectuals, ha úgy tetszik (if you like) is used as filler.
• In Icelandic, a common filler is hérna ("here"). Þúst, a contraction of þú veist ("you know"), is popular among younger speakers.
• In Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), anu is one of the most common fillers.
• In Italian, common fillers include "tipo" ("like"), "ecco" ("there") and "cioè" ("actually")
• In Irish Gaelic, abair /ˈabˠəɾʲ/ ("say"), bhoil /wɛlʲ/ ("well"), and era /ˈɛɾˠə/ are common fillers, along with emm as in Hiberno-English.
• In Japanese, common fillers include eetto, ano, sono, and ee.
• In Kannada,Matte for also,Enappa andre for the matter is are the common fillers.
• In Korean, eung, eo, ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.
• In Lithuanian, nu, am and žinai ("you know") are common fillers.
• In Maltese and Maltese English, mela ("then"), or just la, is a common filler.
• In Mandarin Chinese, speakers often say 這個 zhège/zhèige ("this") or 那個 nàge/nèige ("that"). Other common fillers are 就 jìu ("just") and 好像 "very like/"kinda like"}}.
• In Norwegian, common fillers are øh, altså, på en måte ("in a way"), ikke sant (literally "not true?", "no kidding", or "exactly"), vel ("well"), and liksom ("like"). In Bergen, sant ("true") is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, skjø' ("see?" or "understand?") is also a common filler.
• In Persian, bebin ("you see"), چیز "chiz" ("thing"), and مثلا masalan ("for instance") are commonly-used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu, يعني yaʿni ("I mean") is also used in Persian. Also, eh is a common filler in Persian.
• In Portuguese, é, hum, então ("so") and tipo ("like") are the most common fillers.
• In Punjabi, matlab ("it means") is a common filler.
• In Romanian, deci /detʃʲ/ ("therefore") is common, especially in school, and ă /ə/ is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ăăă), whereas păi /pəj/ is widely used by almost anyone.
• In Russian, fillers are called слова-паразиты ("vermin words"); the most common are Э-э ("eh"), это ("this"), того ("that"), ну ("well"), значит ("it means"), так ("so"), как его ("what's it [called]"), типа ("like"), and как бы ("[just] like").
• In Serbian, znači ("means") and ovaj ("this") are common fillers.
• In Slovak, oné ("that"), tento ("this"), proste ("simply"), or akože ("it's like…") are used as fillers. The Hungarian izé (or izí in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. Ta is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.
• In Slovene, pač ("but", although it has lost that meaning in colloquial, and it is used as a means of explanation), a ne? ("right?"), and no ("well") are some of the fillers common in central Slovenia, including Ljubljana.
• In Spanish, fillers are called muletillas. Some of the most common in American Spanish are e /e/, este ("this"), and o sea (roughly means "I mean", literally means "it means"), in Spain the previous fillers are also used, but ¿Vale? ("right?") and ¿no? are very common too.
• In Swedish, fillers are called utfyllningsord; some of the most common are öhm, ja ("yes"), ba (comes from "bara", which means "just"), asså or alltså ("therefore", "thus"), va (comes from "vad", which means "what"), and liksom and typ (both similar to the English "like").
• In Ukrainian, е ("eh", similar to "um"), ну ("Nu (well)"), і ("and"), цей ("this"), той-во ("this one") are common fillers.
• In Urdu, yani ("meaning..."), flana flana ("this and that"; "blah blah"), haan haan ("yeah yeah") and acha ("ok") are also common fillers.
• In Telugu, ikkada entante ("Whats here is...") and tarwatha ("then...") are common and there are numerous like this.
• In Tamil, paatheenga-na ("if you see...") and apparam ("then...") are common.
• In Turkish, yani ("meaning..."), şey ("thing"), "işte" ("that is"), and falan ("as such", "so on") are common fillers.
• In Welsh, de or ynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of "You know?" or "Isn't it?"). Ym... and Y... are used similarly to the English "um...".

Among language learners, a common pitfall is using fillers from their native tongue. For example, "Quiero una umm.... quesadilla". While less of a shibboleth, knowing the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) of a language (e.g. the equivalent of "thingy") can also be useful to attain fluency, such as the French truc: "Je cherche le truc qu'on utilise pour ouvrir une boîte" ("I'm looking for the thingy that you use to open up a can").

Some Observations:

"Perhaps no profession has uttered more 'ums' or 'uhs' than the legal profession. Such words are a clear indication that the speaker's style is halting and uncertain. Eliminate these filler words. The lack of 'ums' and 'uhs' alone can make you sound more confident.

"And it's not hard to do. Just pause. Every time you feel that you're about to use a filler word, pause instead."

(Joey Asher, Selling and Communication Skills for Lawyers. ALM Publishing, 2005)


Hesitation Forms
"Modern linguists led by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933 call these 'hesitation forms'--the sounds of stammering (uh), stuttering (um, um), throat-clearing (ahem!), stalling (well, um, that is), interjected when the speaker is groping for words or at a loss for the next thought.

"You know that y'know is among the most common of these hesitation forms. Its meaning is not the imperious 'you understand' or even the old interrogatory 'do you get it?' It is given as, and taken to be, merely a filler phrase, intended to fill a beat in the flow of sound, not unlike like, in its new sense of, like, a filler word. . . .

"[T]hese staples of modern filler communication--I mean, y'know, like--can also be used as 'tee-up words.' In olden times, pointer phrases or tee-up words were get this, would you believe? and are you ready? The function of these rib-nudging phrases was--are you ready?--to make the point, to focus the listener's attention on what was to follow. . . .

"If the purpose is to tee up a point, we should accept y'know and its friends as a mildly annoying spoken punctuation, the articulated colon that signals 'focus on this.' . . . If the purpose is to grab a moment to think, we should allow ourselves to wonder: Why are filler phrases needed at all? What motivates the speaker to fill the moment of silence with any sound at all?"
(William Safire, Watching My Language: Adventures in the Word Trade. Random House, 1997)



Filler Words Across Disciplines

"Why do some people fill the air with non-words and sounds? For some, it is a sign of nervousness; they fear silence and experience speaker anxiety. Recent research at Columbia University suggests another reason. Columbia psychologists speculated that speakers fill pauses when searching for the next word. To investigate this idea, they counted the use of filler words used by lecturers in biology, chemistry, and mathematics, where the subject matter uses scientific definitions that limit the variety of word choices available to the speaker. They then compared the number of filler words used by teachers in English, art history, and philosophy, where the subject matter is less well-defined and more open to word choices.

"Twenty science lecturers used an average of 1.39 uh's a minute, compared with 4.85 uh's a minute by 13 humanities teachers. Their conclusion: subject matter and breadth of vocabulary may determine use of filler words more than habit or anxiety.

"Whatever the reason, the cure for filler words is preparation. You reduce nervousness and pre-select the right ways to say ideas through preparation and practice."
(Paul R. Timm and Sherron Bienvenu, Straight Talk: Oral Communication for Career Success. Routledge, 2011)




Personally, I don't use 'you know' often.  I mean I use it, just not often.  However, I know about 8 friends I can count that uses it a lot... and I mean A LOT!  Having said that, it doesn't bother me in the least bit that they do this because it seems to make them feel comfortable saying this and they each say it in their own unique way whether it's said with an accent or said fast/slow etc.  It makes them who they are and after awhile you just ignore it as it becomes part of their speech.  So instead of trying to stop people from saying these words, I think we should all learn to accept it (as annoying as it may be to you) and move on... you know, just get over it!







Source(s): wikipedia, theregister.com/, about.com/,
Original cartoon character by Flickr user  dogwelder

0 WHEN DOES 'DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME' BEGINS AND ENDS FOR 2012?

Well, that depends on where you live.

Most of the United States and Canada begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time.

In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

Today, approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. Most areas of North America and Europe observe daylight saving time (DST), while most areas of Africa and Asia do not.  Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.

South America is mixed, with most countries in the warmer north of the continent near the equator not observing DST, while Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay and southern parts of Brazil do.  Oceania is also mixed, with New Zealand and parts of southern Australia observing DST, while most other areas do not.

What is Daylight Saving Time?

Daylight Saving Time (DST)—also "summer time" in several countries including in British English and European official terminology (see Terminology)—is the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summer time so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.  Modern DST was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson.  Many countries have used it since then; details vary by location and change occasionally. When DST is not observed, it is called standard time, normal time or winter time.

Daylight Saving Time Around the World

Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) generally do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Since the daylight hours are similar during every season, there is no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer. China has had a single time zone since May 1, 1980, observing summer Daylight Saving Time from 1986 through 1991; they do not observe DST now.

A

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Afghanistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Albania	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Algeria	All locations	No DST in 2012
Andorra	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Angola	All locations	No DST in 2012
Anguilla	All locations	No DST in 2012
Antarctica	Most locations (Ex. Mawson) Some locations (Ex. South Pole)	No DST in 2012 START:Sunday, September 30 END:Sunday, April 1
Antigua and Barbuda	All locations	No DST in 2012
Argentina	All locations	No DST in 2012
Armenia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Aruba	All locations	No DST in 2012
Australia	Most locations (Ex. Melbourne) Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia,Christmas Island (Ex. Brisbane) Lord Howe Island Other (Ex. Macquarie Island)	START:Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, April 1 No DST in 2012 START:Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, April 1 DST All Year in 2012.
Austria	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Azerbaijan	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28

B

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Bahrain	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bangladesh	All locations	No DST in 2012
Barbados	All locations	No DST in 2012
Belarus	All locations	No DST in 2012
Belgium	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Belize	All locations	No DST in 2012
Benin	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bermuda	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11. END: Sunday, November 4
Bhutan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bolivia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bosnia and Herzegovina	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Botswana	All locations	No DST in 2012
Brazil	Most locations (Ex. Rio de Janeiro) Amazonas, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Para,Paraíba, Ceará, Amapá, Alagoas, Rondônia, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí, Maranhão, Acre, Roraima, Tocantins (Ex. Manaus) Bahia Tocantins	START:Sunday, October 21 END:Sunday, February 26 No DST in 2012 DOES NOT START THIS YEAR END: Sunday, February 26 START: Sunday, October 21 END:Does NOT END THIS YEAR
Britische Jungferninseln	All locations	No DST in 2012
British Indian Ocean Territory	All locations	No DST in 2012
Brunei	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bulgaria	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Burkina Faso	All locations	No DST in 2012
Burundi	All locations	No DST in 2012

C

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Cambodia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cameroon	All locations	No DST in 2012
Canada	Most locations (Ex.Montreal) Much of Saskatchewan, small region of British Columbia, small region of Nunavut Territory, small region of Quebec, small region of Ontario	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
Cape Verde	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cayman Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Central African Republic	All locations	No DST in 2012
Chad	All locations	No DST in 2012
Chile	Most locations(Ex. Santiago) Other (Ex. Easter Island)	START: Sunday, September 2 END:Sunday, April 29 START: Saturday, September 1 END: Saturday, April 28
China	All locations	No DST in 2012
Colombia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Commonwealth of the Norther Mariana Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Comoros	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cook Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Costa Rica	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cote d'lvoire	All locations	No DST in 2012
Croatia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Cuba	All locations	START: Sunday, April 1 END: Sunday, November 11
Curaçao	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cyprus	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Czech Republic	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

D

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Democratic Republic of the Congo	All locations	No DST in 2012
Denmark	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Departmental Collectivity of Mayotte	All locations	No DST in 2012
Dijibouti	All locations	No DST in 2012
Dominica	All locations	No DST in 2012
Dominican Republic	All locations	No DST in 2012

E

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
East Timor	All locations	No DST in 2012
Ecuador	All locations	No DST in 2012
Egypt	All locations	No DST in 2012
El Salvador	All locations	No DST in 2012
Equatorial Guinea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Eritrea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Estonia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Ethiopia	All locations	No DST in 2012

F

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Falkland Islands	All locations	DST All Year in 2012
Färöer	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Fiji	All locations	START: Sunday, October 21 END: Sunday, Janurary 22
Finland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
France	Most locations (Ex. Paris) Tahiti, New Caledonia, Marquesas Islands	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28 No DST in 2012
Französisch-Guayana	All locations	No DST in 2012
Französisch-Polynesien	All locations	No DST in 2012

G

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Gabon	All locations	No DST in 2012
Gaza Strip	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END:  Friday, September 21
Georgia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Germany	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Ghana	All locations	No DST in 2012
Gibraltar	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Greece	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Greenland	Most locations(Ex. Nuuk) Ittoqqortoormiit Qaanaaq Danmarkshavn	START: Saturday, March 24 END: Saturday, October 27 START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28 START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
Grenada	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guadeloupe	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guatemala	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guinea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guinea-Bissau	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guyana	All locations	No DST in 2012

H

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Haiti	All locations	START:  Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4
Holy See (Vatican City)	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Honduras	All locations	No DST in 2012
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region	All locations	No DST in 2012
Hungary	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

I

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Iceland	All locations	No DST in 2012
India	All locations	No DST in 2012
Indonesia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Iran	All locations	START: Wednesday, March 21 END:  Friday, September 21
Iraq	All locations	No DST in 2012
Ireland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Isle of Man	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Israel	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Sunday, September 23
Italy	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

J, K, L

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Jamaica	All locations	No DST in 2012
Japan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Jordan	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: DOES NOT END THIS YEAR
Kazakhstan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kenya	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kerguelen	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kiribati	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kosovo	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Kuwait	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kyrgyzstan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Laos	All locations	No DST in 2012
Latvia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Lebanon	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Lesotho	All locations	No DST in 2012
Liberia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Libya	All locations	No DST in 2012
Liechtenstein	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Lithuania	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Luxembourg	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

M, N, O

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Macau Special Administrative Region	All locations	No DST in 2012
Madagascar	All locations	No DST in 2012
Malawi	All locations	No DST in 2012
Malaysia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Maldives	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mali	All locations	No DST in 2012
Malta	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Marshall Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Martinique	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mauritania	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mauritius	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mexico	Most locations (Ex. Mexico City) Baja California, much of Chihuahua,Tamaulipas, Sonora (Ex. Hermosillo)	START: Sunday, April 1 END: Sunday, October 28 START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
Micronesia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Moldova	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Monaco	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Mongolia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Montenegro	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Montserrat	All locations	No DST in 2012
Morocco	All locations	START: Sunday, April 29 END: Sunday, September 30
Mozambique	All locations	No DST in 2012
Myanmar	All locations	No DST in 2012
Namibia	All locations	START: Sunday, September 2 END: Sunday, April 1
Nauru	All locations	No DST in 2012
Nepal	All locations	No DST in 2012
Netherlands	Most locations (Ex. Amsterdam) Saint Martin	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28 No DST in 2012
New Zealand	All locations	START: Sunday, September 30 END: Sunday, April 1
Nicaragua	All locations	No DST in 2012
Niger	All locations	No DST in 2012
Nigeria	All locations	No DST in 2012
Niue	All locations	No DST in 2012
Norfokinsel	All locations	No DST in 2012
North Korea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Norway	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Oman	All locations	No DST in 2012

P, Q, R

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Pakistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Palau	All locations	No DST in 2012
Panama	All locations	No DST in 2012
Papua New Guinea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Paraguay	All locations	START: Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, April 8
Peru	All locations	No DST in 2012
Philippines	All locations	No DST in 2012
Pitcairninseln	All locations	No DST in 2012
Poland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Portugal	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Puerto Rico	All locations	No DST in 2012
Qatar	All locations	No DST in 2012
Republic of Macedonia	All locations	START: N/A END:  N/A
Republic of South Sudan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Republic of the Congo	All locations	No DST in 2012
Reunion	All locations	No DST in 2012
Romania	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Russia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Rwanda	All locations	No DST in 2012

S

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Saint Kitts and Nevis	All locations	No DST in 2012
Saint Lucia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	All locations	No DST in 2012
Samoa	All locations	START: Sunday, September 30 END: Saturday, April 1
San Marino	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Sao Tome and Principe	All locations	No DST in 2012
Saudi Arabia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Senegal	All locations	No DST in 2012
Serbia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Seychelles	All locations	No DST in 2012
Sierra Leone	All locations	No DST in 2012
Singapore	All locations	No DST in 2012
Slovakia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Slovenia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Solomon Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Somalia	All locations	No DST in 2012
South Africa	All locations	No DST in 2012
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
South Korea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Spain	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Sri Lanka	All locations	No DST in 2012
St. Helena	All locations	No DST in 2012
Sudan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Suriname	All locations	No DST in 2012
Swaziland	All locations	No DST in 2012
Sweden	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Switzerland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Syria	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Friday, October 26

T, U

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Taiwan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tajikistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tanzania	All locations	No DST in 2012
Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon	All locations	N/A
Territory of American Samoa	All locations	No DST in 2012
Territory of Cocos (Keeling)Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Territory of Guam	All locations	No DST in 201
Thailand	All locations	No DST in 2012
The Bahamas	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4
The Gambia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Togo	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tokelau	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tonga	All locations	No DST in 2012
Trinidad and Tobago	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tunisia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Turkey	All locations	START: Monday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Turkmenistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Turks and Caicos Islands	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4
Tuvalu	All locations	No DST in 2012
Uganda	All locations	No DST in 2012
Ukraine	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END:  Sunday, October 28
United Arab Emirates	All locations	No DST in 2012
United Kingdom	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
United States	Most locations (Ex. Washington, D.C.) Hawaii, Arizona, Midway Islands, Wake Island (Ex. Honolulu)	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
United States Virgin Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Uruguay	All locations	START: Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, March 11
Uzbekistan	All locations	No DST in 2012

V, W, Y and Z

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Vanuatu	All locations	No DST in 2012
Venezuela	All locations	No DST in 2012
Vietnam	All locations	No DST in 2012
Wallis und Futuna	All locations	No DST in 2012
West Bank	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Friday, September 21
Western Sahara	All locations	START: Sunday, April 29* END: Sunday, September 30*
Yemen	All locations	No DST in 2012
Zambia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Zimbabwe	All locations	No DST in 2012

There are many oddities. For example, some parts of the U.S. and Canada do not observe Daylight Saving Time, such as the state of Arizona (U.S.) and the province Saskatchewan (Canada).

Observance can also be erratic. For example, Chile delayed its changeover date for the Pope's visit in 1987, as well as for a presidential inauguration in 1990.

Europe

In general, all countries in Europe except Belarus, Iceland, Russia and Ukraine observe DST, and most change on the same date and time, starting on the last Sunday in March and ending on the last Sunday in October.

Before 1996, DST ended on the last Sunday in September in most European countries; however in the United Kingdom and Ireland DST ended on the fourth (which some years is not the last) Sunday in October.

European Countries Without DST
These countries or regions do not use daylight saving time:

• Belarus, ended its last DST switching after moving the clocks forward in Spring 2011, and is now observing UTC + 03:00 all year round.

• Iceland, observing UTC all year round despite being at a longitude which would indicate UTC-1, the country may be thought of as being on continuous DST. Iceland's high latitude means that sunset and sunrise times change by many hours over the year, and the effect of changing the clock by one hour would, in comparison, be small.

• Russia, ended its last DST switching after moving the clocks forward in Spring 2011, and is now observing the time that formerly was DST, all year round. Many areas have its time two hours ahead of the mean solar time. Moscow has UTC + 04:00.

• Ukraine, ended its last DST switching after moving the clocks forward in Spring 2011, and is now observing UTC + 03:00 all year round.

Canada
In Canada, time is under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, not federal. Since at least the 1970s, all provinces and territories have matched their DST start and end dates to those used in the United States, and when the U.S. Congress changed the rules effective 2007 the provinces and territories (except Saskatchewan) changed their time legislation to match. Since 2007, DST in Canada starts on the second Sunday in March, and returns to standard time on the first Sunday of November, to coincide with the U.S. dates.  Most of Saskatchewan does not technically observe DST but rather observes a skewed 'standard time' that has been advanced one hour forward permanently (that is, observing what is sometimes known as 'year-round DST').


United States
Most areas of the United States currently observe daylight saving time. The exceptions are Arizona, Hawaii, and the territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. In Arizona, the Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time.
From 1987 to 2006, daylight saving time in the United States began on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. The time is adjusted at 2:00 a.m. (02:00) local time.
By the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time (DST) was extended in the United States beginning in 2007. DST currently starts on the second Sunday of March, which is three or four weeks earlier than in the past, and it ends on the first Sunday of November, one week later than in years past. The time is adjusted at 2:00 a.m. (02:00) local time. This change resulted in a new DST period that is four weeks (five in years when March has five Sundays) longer than in previous years.


Finally...
The practice has been both praised and criticized.  Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.  Its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited or contradictory.

DST clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns.  Software can often adjust computer clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST protocols are changed.


Source(s):  wikipedia, timeanddate.com, webexhibits.org, wikipedia, nationalgeographic.com