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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

#191

Post by nyokodo »

DemocracyFTW2 wrote: post #46
ecshafer wrote: post #9

This would be better written in a short story format but I digress. This is precisely the type of thing that would probably happen in almost any society. There are many standards that pop up that are vestiges of one thing or another. The fact we get base 60 from Sumeria but use Base 12 or Base 24 for hours is not a big deal, weird things happen. I doubt any advanced alien would be just so flabbergasted over this. We…

the historical record of someone named Jesus existing isn't debated by any historical scholar It is debated by people like Richard Carrier https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEB&search_query=richard... who says that (IIRC) while it's not unlikely that one or several people with similar messages preached in Judea 2000 years ago, the Jesus of the Bible looks like a literary invention when you go back to all the earlie…

> It is debated by people like Richard Carrier

Yes, but there’s little debate amongst scholars that aren’t atheist activists. For instance, it’s extremely difficult to explain the historical facts of the early Christian movement without a historical Jesus due to those events being so recent and broadly falsifiable via living memory let alone records extant at the time and there being no evidence of the Romans using a lack of historical evidence for Jesus as an argument against Christianity.

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

#192

Post by lloeki »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

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…

> May be the author got tired (or whatever he took started to wear off)

Reading through to the last bits I was foreseeing the launch of a specific space faring vehicle except it would have failed in some way because of non-metric units (purposefully not saying of which kind) thus closing by leaving a loose thread up another level of insanity.

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

#193

Post by rspeed »

octobus2021 wrote: post #63

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…

I had a hell of a time trying to find a pill planner that didn't start on Sunday. I was ready to 3D print one when I found one that's circular.

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

#194

Post by bombcar »

nyokodo wrote: post #116
rocqua wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one defining difference between us, and aliens that visit earth. They managed interstellar travel, we did not. That inherently puts them at an advantage to us. Definitely a technological advantage. Hence it makes sense to assume (with medium confidence) that such aliens will be better at science than us. Assuming that they will therefore be more rational than us is not much of a leap.

> They managed interstellar travel, we did not. That inherently puts them at an advantage to us. It means some species that is/ was out there has an advantage. The species that actually visits us could be less intelligent than us but just intelligent enough to operate the equipment they dug up.

I mean most people can drive a car but few can build one, and the majority of both groups can drive pretty badly at times.

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

#195

Post by kevinmchugh »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #70
kevinmchugh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's very strange that the English measure their weight in stone and pounds and their beer in pints.

In NZ, all legal weights and measures are metric, yet for some stubbornly cultural reason we still tend to discuss height in feet and inches (ladies on dating apps who are discriminating on height will specify that you need to be 6 foot, not 183cm) the weight of a newborn baby in pounds (but only for newborn babies!), and order our beer in pints, which generally means "a large glass of beer somewhere between 400 and…

The "above six foot" rule seems like it's just a round number, but in the US at least:

* height is normally distributed for men.

* The average height of a man is 5'9".

* The standard deviation for men's height is 3".

So six foot is one standard deviation above average. I am sure one or more of the above does not hold for NZ. I just think this is neat, that the commonly stated preference happens to be for one standard deviation above the average.

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

#197

Post by silvestrov »

Someone wrote: post #7

> "At the start of the year?" > "nah. The end of the second month" > "WHY WOULD IT BE THE SECOND MONTH?" Because leap day is at the end of the year, but at some time we moved the start of the year two months back (same reason why September through December now are the ninth through twelfth month of the year, not the seventh through tenth) (Historically, I think it was slightly different. February, the last month of t…

He didn't mention LEAP-SECONDS which are at THE END OF THE YEAR.

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

#198

Post by bombcar »

bluecalm wrote: post #45

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…

Tolkien’s Hobbit calendar did just that - which had the good or bad effect of your birthday always being on the same weekday. Which could be annoying.

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

#199

Post by avgcorrection »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #70
kevinmchugh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's very strange that the English measure their weight in stone and pounds and their beer in pints.

In NZ, all legal weights and measures are metric, yet for some stubbornly cultural reason we still tend to discuss height in feet and inches (ladies on dating apps who are discriminating on height will specify that you need to be 6 foot, not 183cm) the weight of a newborn baby in pounds (but only for newborn babies!), and order our beer in pints, which generally means "a large glass of beer somewhere between 400 and…

Imagine if the imperial foot was one centimeter longer. Then men on dating apps would need to be minimum 188cm (because round number).

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

#200

Post by kevinpet »

dave4420 wrote: post #146
philsnow wrote: post #68

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.

It might actually have been easier. Our current time system is regular enough that you can get away with skipping many irregularities (leap year is pretty much the one that matters). If you were forced to regularly deal with time conversions, you would just accept that different people have different times and you just need to convert.
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