61–70 of 164 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with do they know it's Christmas?
It was written in benefit of Ethiopia, a Christian country since before the Anglo-Saxon invasion…
> your name for the thirteenth month is questionable In my plan for twelve 30-day months, I intended to call the leftover 5/6 days "Etcember", for et cetera. :P (This submission appears to be a riff on the classic "Programming Language Checklist": https://www.famicol.in/language_checklist.html )
In fact it is based on the older spam checklist: https://craphound.com/spamsolutions.txt
Must a calendar only represent the physical positions of heavenly bodies? What happens after we propagate to other planets? Why should there be only one calendar? Why can’t we have, say, a Social Calendar alongside a Astronomical Calendar? We could have a sane, logical calendar with even and regular divisions for determining working days, holidays, financial calculations and political durations etc. And there could b…
I advocate a solution similar to proposals floated years ago on alt.pave.the.earth on UseNet. 1. Disintegrate the moon, anyone who has ever advocated for lunar calendars, and anyone who fails to convincingly support this Plan(tm), converting their mass to energy that we can use for productive purposes such as orbital adjustments. 2. Adjust the rotational period of the earth to an aesthetically pleasing multiple of th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with do they know it's Christmas?
It was written in benefit of Ethiopia, a Christian country since before the Anglo-Saxon invasion…
It was inspired by footage of and visits to (not sure on the chronology of Bob Geldof visiting) of thousands of dying children in tents - the idea was clearly the western idea of Christmas rather than the religious celebration.
Small anecdote: When the British song (aforementioned) was written, the musicians went out for fish and chips and got back to work, whereas the American equivalent (We are the world) was apparently catered with an enormous near-banquet for the stars.
If you are interested in calendar reform and enjoy world history, the French Revolutionary calendar is fascinating to read about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_calendar
I used to use a bastardized version of this on our team calendar on the whiteboard at work (just the month/year, ignoring the fact that French Republican months don't correspond neatly to Gregorian months). I was able to get away with it because the month/year were not really functional parts of the calendar. I doubt I could have gotten the team to fully adopt the French Republican calendar, although it would have be…
More seriously, what's wrong with Year-Week-Day? (I propose this having been in an industry where I regularly received swag calendars marked with week numbers, YMMV.)
I advocate a solution similar to proposals floated years ago on alt.pave.the.earth on UseNet. 1. Disintegrate the moon, anyone who has ever advocated for lunar calendars, and anyone who fails to convincingly support this Plan(tm), converting their mass to energy that we can use for productive purposes such as orbital adjustments. 2. Adjust the rotational period of the earth to an aesthetically pleasing multiple of th…
> Adjust the axial tilt and orbital eccentricity of the earth to eliminate "seasons". So you’re the guy who wants to kill summer?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate to scapegoat, but there are a bunch of odd things the US does because boomers like things the way they've always been. Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the…
What's wrong with do they know it's Christmas?
It is a condescending song, even without perhaps the worst line in charity history:
Well, tonight thank god it’s them, instead of you.
I had forgotten that line was in the song until I heard it again years later. What. The. Fuck.
Worse, this line is belted out by Bono, with an unusually tight closeup in his face. He is still trying to do work in Africa. Every time I think of this song, I wonder if he cringes remembering it.
Good bits by Boy George and George Micheal, but boy is the rest hard to listen to now.