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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

#251

Post by j-bos »

comeonbro wrote: post #170

I didn't appreciate until recently that the calendar we live by today was personally designed by Julius Caesar. Like not by some forgotten technocrats incidentally during his time, but Julius Caesar himself as a subject matter expert, as a side-project. With consultation, certainly, but by his initiative, from long-standing engagement with the problem in one of his early jobs from long before he was a main character…

Well worth the watch, also shows that Ceasar's main character arc was bossted by his calendar knowledge and authority.

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

#252

Post by poisonarena »

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…

>Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week

Sunday is the first day of the week in much of the middle east

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

#254

Post by School-Cotton »

retrac wrote: post #110
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…

> Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week /Officially/ almost everyone has standardized on ISO 8601 where Monday = 1 and Sunday = 7. But unofficially, not really. The week is still popularly understood to start on Sunday in English Canada, and probably some other parts of the English-speaking world. A quick check of Wikipedia suggests…

> The week is still popularly understood to start on Sunday in English Canada

Interesting. How does software (e.g. Google Calendar) display weeks when in en_CA localization?

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

#255

Post by zakki »

less_less wrote: post #105
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…

> - Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week; It's not the only one. In Portuguese, the names of Monday .. Friday are literally "second .. sixth fair [day]", with Saturday and Sunday being "sábado" (sabbath) and "domingo" (lord's day). I'm not sure which other countries follow the convention, but it's the numbering used in the Bible so…

In Indonesia looks like Sunday is taken from Portuguese name with modifications: Domingo - Mingo - Minggu

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

#256

Post by mszmszmsz »

FastEatSlow wrote: post #208
retrac wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week /Officially/ almost everyone has standardized on ISO 8601 where Monday = 1 and Sunday = 7. But unofficially, not really. The week is still popularly understood to start on Sunday in English Canada, and probably some other parts of the English-speaking world. A quick check of Wikipedia suggests…

I thought that that in Slavic languages Sunday would be the first day of the week, since the Polish for 'monday' means 'after sunday'. EDIT: got 'monday' and 'sunday' the wrong way round

nope, monday is „after sunday”

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

#257

Post by School-Cotton »

stuartd wrote: post #248
retrac wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Per my knowledge US is the only country which stubbornly (and illogically) considers Sunday to be the first day of the week /Officially/ almost everyone has standardized on ISO 8601 where Monday = 1 and Sunday = 7. But unofficially, not really. The week is still popularly understood to start on Sunday in English Canada, and probably some other parts of the English-speaking world. A quick check of Wikipedia suggests…

> .. considers Sunday to be the first day of the week How can the first day of the week happen in the middle of the weekend !?!

The same way all the other illogical things happened: random cultural legacy.

Why would you expect the week start day to be any different?

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

#258

Post by dontlaugh »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #130
vlunkr wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author mentions this as well. I don’t know how I’ve never connected those dots.

There’s no going back. I routinely mess up 8 with October now.

That happens especially if you speak a Latin language. Very annoying.

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

#259

Post by Ensorceled »

gerdesj wrote: post #245
Ensorceled wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Why is it unacceptable to you for someone to explain why they do not find something funny? We are really not all the same. HN is a big old forum and there is no such thing as a normal response. That person was describing their personal reaction to ... something. I don't think that proscribing dogma is helpful in response.

> Why is it unacceptable to you for someone to explain why they do not find something funny?

I mean, it's not "unacceptable", free speech and all. It's just silly to jump in and "well actually" a joke, especially when the explanation is kind of why the joke was funny.

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

#260

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

narag wrote: post #133
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…

Honestly I didn't find it funny, maybe because it ignores the reasons of the inconsistencies, that by the way are perfectly understandable looking at space. Months are related to Moon's orbit, weeks to its phases. Months have other gods's names: Janus, Phoebe, Mars, Aphrodite, Maya, Juno... Julius and Augustus were emperors and from that point are just numerals, starting at March. It was associated with Mars because…

> Julius and Augustus were emperors and from that point are just numerals, starting at March

It used to be numbers earlier, Quintilis and Sextilis were renamed for them.

Apparently the Romans did not find hard naming even persons - they just went by numbers, as in Secundus, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, etc.

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