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Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

edition.cnn.com

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Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#11

Post by k-mcgrady »

Swizec wrote: post #7

Here's a revolutionary thought - the calendar is already fixed. Sporting events (etc.) don't have to happen on the same weekday, they can just always happen on the same date. Voila, predictable time planning that doesn't have to be redone every year. And I love the idea of eliminating timezones, especially the example that pilots already use UTC. Ever considered this might be because the concept of "day" doesn't real…

In the UK there have been discussions about stopping DST. The main problem is that in places Scotland it would be darker for longer in the morning which could lead to more traffic accidents.

The affects on crime and traffic accidents would be huge. And it would never be possible to get half of the planet to agree that they will forever work while it's dark and sleep while it is light.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#12

Post by jerf »

Swizec wrote: post #7

Here's a revolutionary thought - the calendar is already fixed. Sporting events (etc.) don't have to happen on the same weekday, they can just always happen on the same date. Voila, predictable time planning that doesn't have to be redone every year. And I love the idea of eliminating timezones, especially the example that pilots already use UTC. Ever considered this might be because the concept of "day" doesn't real…

What's the difference between needing to know what timezone some place is in, vs. needing to know about where their day falls?

What particularly annoys me about timezones is that times are already useless. When does the day start? (And I mean the normal cultural day, not your personal day.) Be it 7am, 8am, 9am, or whatever your answer may be, it sure isn't anything sensible like 0 or 1. If those are anything, that's when the day ends. If the sun rises at 03:00 in one place, 10:00 in another, and 22:00 in another (presumably we'd stop using "am" and "pm" as the a & p would become useless), who really cares? It's not like we're taking away the 00:00 sunrise that you can set your watch by from anybody.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#13

Post by function_seven »

Swizec wrote: post #7

Here's a revolutionary thought - the calendar is already fixed. Sporting events (etc.) don't have to happen on the same weekday, they can just always happen on the same date. Voila, predictable time planning that doesn't have to be redone every year. And I love the idea of eliminating timezones, especially the example that pilots already use UTC. Ever considered this might be because the concept of "day" doesn't real…

In all seriousness, it would be easier to adopt this proposed calendar than it would be to:

  - Not have football on Sundays
  - Tell students that they have to go to school Thursday
    through Monday this year (But church is still on Sundays!).
  - a bunch of other weekday/weekend-aligned activities.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#15

Post by eternalban »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #5

Happy Thermidor!

My thoughts, exactly. Those magical ("happy") days of The Terror were indeed too short. And UTC -- practically a symbol of British Naval prowess and Empire -- is really a nice touch, specially for the "brown/yellow" ones who get to toil happily at "midnight".

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#16

Post by vineel »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #11
Swizec wrote: post #7

Here's a revolutionary thought - the calendar is already fixed. Sporting events (etc.) don't have to happen on the same weekday, they can just always happen on the same date. Voila, predictable time planning that doesn't have to be redone every year. And I love the idea of eliminating timezones, especially the example that pilots already use UTC. Ever considered this might be because the concept of "day" doesn't real…

In the UK there have been discussions about stopping DST. The main problem is that in places Scotland it would be darker for longer in the morning which could lead to more traffic accidents. The affects on crime and traffic accidents would be huge. And it would never be possible to get half of the planet to agree that they will forever work while it's dark and sleep while it is light.

I don't think the suggestion is that the working day everywhere should start at X:00. The idea is that 4:00 in California is 4:00 in Britain and 4:00 in China. When the day starts would vary from place to place; perhaps 1:00 somewhere and 12:00 somewhere else. The point is to eliminate the confusion caused by timezones, especially those like Nepal's which are 15 minutes off other time zones for no good reason.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#17

Post by jimrandomh »

I like this idea. Unfortunately, it can't coexist with the Gregorian calendar in its current form; if a small fraction of the world switched to it, they'd always have to wonder which calendar someone writing "Jan 1" was referring to.

When a date is written down, it needs to be immediately obvious which calendar it's referring to. It needs a special notation that doesn't overlap with any of the currently-used notations for dates, so that it will be unambiguous (and so that the old calendar will remain unambiguous). I propose doing this by giving each month a letter, A-L, and writing dates like this:

  2012-A01 = New calendar, first day of first month of 2012  
  2012-L30 = New calendar, thirtieth day of twelfth month of 2012  
  2012-01-01 = Gregorian calendar, first day of first month of 2012
  C30 = New calendar, thirtieth day of third month of whatever year this is
With the notations neatly separated, you could then print calendars with the two schemes side by side, and let people convert back and forth for awhile while the new system is adopted. We could give the months fanciful names, too, as long as they start with the right letters. But the important thing is, the two schemes must be unambiguous and distinct.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#19

Post by tokenadult »

From another point of view, a given date gradually occurring on every day of the week is a feature, not a bug. I see that the proposed calendar puts my birthday on a weekend, every year year after year, but I kind of like my birthday (and my wedding anniversary, and other important dates) occurring on a new day of the week each year, for variety.

I note too that the calendar would not "make it easy to plan annual activities" for any of the dates in the "extra week" proposed for the calendar, if by annual activities we mean activities that occur in every calendar year. The extra week occurs "at the end of December every five or six years," and the new memory load everyone would have to bear is remembering which years--2015, 2020, 2026, 2032, 2037, 2043, 2048, 2054, 2060, 2065, 2071, 2076, 2082, 2088, 2093, 2099, 2105, "et cetera" are the extra week years.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#20

Post by jaylevitt »

jimrandomh wrote: post #17

I like this idea. Unfortunately, it can't coexist with the Gregorian calendar in its current form; if a small fraction of the world switched to it, they'd always have to wonder which calendar someone writing "Jan 1" was referring to. When a date is written down, it needs to be immediately obvious which calendar it's referring to. It needs a special notation that doesn't overlap with any of the currently-used notation…

Obviously, the calendar ambiguity can be resolved by some sort of calendar NAT.
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