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Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

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Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#141
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, since Saturday and Sunday are called "weekEND", so it logically follows that Monday is a "week start". Most people think about it like this: Monday is a start of a new work-week, and then you get two days of rest at the end of the week.

But there are two ends of any line, one on each side. Not two ends, both of which are on the same side.

In a ring buffer, you have a start and an end pointer, not two end pointers.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#143
post #14

That's a very funny dialog. But ... the sexagesimal system made sense and I guess that, in ancient times, time periods that don't have patterns would always be divided arbitrarily (years can be marked with seasons, days with night, but how to divide the time between, say, mid-day and sunset?).

I suppose they could say stuff like let's meet at shortest shadow or middle shadow, etc. to indicate the feel of when generally you should be there.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#144

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

Israel (where I spend several months/year) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week. The workweek is Sunday through Thursday. Weekend is Friday and Saturday. I suspect many Islamic countries are the same way.

I had no clue, if the work week is Sunday though Thursday, it makes perfect sense. Learned something new today :)

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear the logic of why Monday should be the first day of the week.

I'd love to hear the logic of why Monday should NOT be the first day of the week.

Because then the middle of the week is Thursday instead of Wednesday. ;)

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#146

Don't tell the aliens about the missing 12 days in 1752: https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/lifestyle/columns/201...

Or the 11 missing days in 1582.

I mean, programmers love to bitch about time zones, but that’s nothing compared to the stink we’d have raised if we’d been coding in a time when the date depended on which country you were in.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#147
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear the logic of why Monday should be the first day of the week.

Because Saturday and Sunday are the weekend.

Correct. Sunday is the starting end of the week and Saturday is then stopping end of the week.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#148

I always thought it would make sense to have 52 weeks (364 days) and then a special New Years day and then repeat 52 weeks. This way every year is the same. It's always the same day of the week on April's 13th. No moving holidays. Easier to plan. No adjusting schedules. No problem with leap seconds/days (just as them to the special day whenever). It just seems like a simple and superior solution. What were those guys…

I’ve always loved that idea. So did Kodak

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fixed_Calendar

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#149

This is absolutely hilarious, and despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well, with each chunk funnier than the last :) A few notes: - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; - US (and maybe one or two English-speaking countries) are the only ones using 12h time, the rest of the world uses 24hrs, however 12h _sometimes_ is…

Israel (where I spend several months/year) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week. The workweek is Sunday through Thursday. Weekend is Friday and Saturday. I suspect many Islamic countries are the same way.

Saudi Arabia used to have Thursday and Friday as weekend. They changed that recently (2013) to Friday and Saturday, because that gives them a bigger overlap with the rest of the world, which is good for business.

Re: Someday aliens will land and all will be fine until we explain our calendar

#150

I saw when i was in Japan a various billboards marking a 25 hour service I thought it was some kind of mistake but apparently they call 1 am the hour 25...I think I saw it in Okinawa

It's called 30-hour clock.

This convention is also used by some TV ratings measurement organizations - a show ending Tue 02:00 will be recorded as Mon 26:00, since it logically belonged to the day that ended, not the one that started.

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