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Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

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Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#121

Post by obtu »

Too wrote: post #106
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…

Removing time zones would break any kind of cultural joke and reference to time. "omg, i woke up at 4am today!"... Especially in todays internet connected world. Swatch tried to intruduce timezone-free time many many years ago called "swatch internet time", Ericsson even had it as default on some of their cell phones to promote it. Needless to say it didn't work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time

IRC time is pretty convenient: Greet with good morning when joining, good night when leaving.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#125

Post by Sorpigal »

For people who are apparently enlightened enough to realize that no calendar, however rational and perfect, will be accepted if it violates a certain religious rule (the sabbath), they are apparently quite ignorant in their advocacy of UTC for all purposes.

It's all well and good to eliminate time zones as such and have each region operate on a fixed clock, but to suggest that people will simply stop paying attention to the sun is insane. If you want wide adoption you can't expect people to make radical change in their lives. Most people prefer to wake with the sun and sleep when it's dark; some studies suggest that we are biologically predisposed to want or need this. Whether it's 05:00 when I wake or 16:00 when I wake is immaterial to me (that's just a number, just what you call it) but whether it's daylight when I'm out and about just plain matters.

In effect you'll probably always need a way to divide the world by when the sun is up, even if the clock doesn't change.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#126

Post by Sorpigal »

uiri wrote: post #49

All I can think of is xkcd 927 ( http://xkcd.com/927/ ) There are already lots of calendars if one cares to look. Why bother with a 7 day week other than the biblical mandate? Why not use a lunar calendar? It would certainly simplify 'calculating' Easter. Having a leap day is a lot less intrusive than a leap week and does anyone actually bother to memorize the Metonic cycle? Is it because lunisolar calendars are unco…

Compliance with biblical mandates is a popularity hack. You need popularity if you want a new calendar to be adopted (or you need massive power on the level of an emperor^Wdictator.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#127

Post by Sorpigal »

ars wrote: post #95
Navarr wrote: post #54

I just pointed this out to a friend and she gladly brought up the Shire calendar from Tolkien's works, which according to her has 12 months, 30 days a month, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with the date of each month staying the same weekday due to the separation of the five other days as holidays that are separate from the months (including leap-day, which doesn't belong to any day of the week). Which actually solve…

No it doesn't. Making a day not be part of any week breaks the strict 7 day cycle, and will be rejected be the vast majority of the world.

The real innovation in this calendar, which I don't rememebr seeing in previous perpetual calendar proposals, is the system for 7-day-week seasonal drift adjustment. Adding an "extra" 5 days to every year is much more common, but not popular.

What I can't figure out is what algorithm they use to calculate when to add an extra week. It seems slightly irregular, but I asssume there must be a simple formula I could use in a date library to account for it.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#128

Post by jstclair »

Could someeone who is advocating for no time zones please explain how a normal work "day" that crossed actual days work in practice? So you want to wake up at 8 Utc and some else wakes up at 20 Utc. Ok, then they start work on Friday at 21 Utc and work until Sat 4:30. I'd imagine that you'd have to redefine weekend to mean Sun-Mon?

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#129

Post by mooism2 »

vacri wrote: post #118
mooism2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, it breaks the assumption that quarters are a whole number of months. 12 is a handy number of months to have in the year. 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6. Not by 5, but you can't have everything (unless we had 60 months of 6 or 7 days each... let's not go there). 13 is prime. I think not bothering with months at all would be better than having a 13 month year.

I like New York in weeks 22 to 25, how about you?

I prefer late twenties London.

Re: Scientists' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days

#130

Post by gahahaha »

lambda wrote: post #73

Have they come up with any estimate of the global cost of the switch, and compared that to the benefit of the new calendar? It seems to change a bunch of stuff, and add a complicated new "leap week", for no particularly good reason. Yeah, it might reduce the cost of printing calendars slightly, though a lot of people use new calendars yearly so they can write on them, and a lot more just use their computer. The cost…

"""Have they come up with any estimate of the global cost of the switch, and compared that to the benefit of the new calendar?"""

If there are ANY benefits at all from switching, then that benefit can be enjoyed every year forever, dwarfing the one-time cost of switching no matter how big that cost is.

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