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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

#491

Post by thaumasiotes »

lolinder wrote: post #371
superjan wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in that calender, February is the last month, which makes it the logical month for adjusting leap years.

It looks like there's a legend that this was the case, but January has been the first month of the year through all of recorded history, and Julius Caesar's version was no different. EDIT: Because there's a lot of confusion in several replies I thought I'd clarify: February was the second month in Julius Caesar's calendar. Romans in the Republic describe the month as being at some point the last month in the calendar…

> but January has been the first month of the year through all of recorded history

Are you kidding? Not only are September through December literally named "Month 7" through "Month 10", but the year began in late March as recently as AD 1751. That is not a period where we're suffering from a lack of recorded history.

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

#492

Post by allenu »

avgcorrection wrote: post #210
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.

Sure, if “rational” means that you only do that one thing (science/tech) and have no quirks, personality traits, faiths, etc. outside of that.

Agreed. This makes me wonder if a purely rational species is something that can even survive evolution. A lot of irrational behaviors we exhibit are likely the result of traits that have helped us survive in the wild.

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

#493

Post by thaumasiotes »

behnamoh wrote: post #451
lolinder wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like there's a legend that this was the case, but January has been the first month of the year through all of recorded history, and Julius Caesar's version was no different. EDIT: Because there's a lot of confusion in several replies I thought I'd clarify: February was the second month in Julius Caesar's calendar. Romans in the Republic describe the month as being at some point the last month in the calendar…

As a Persian, I always found the Gregorian calendar weird. In Iran and some other countries, Jalali calendar is used which is much more straightforward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalali_calendar The Iranian calendar (also known as Persian calendar or the Jalaali Calendar) is a solar calendar currently used in Iran and Afghanistan. It is observation-based, rather than rule-based, beginning each year on the vernal…

> It's also precisely set to follow seasons. For example, the first day of Fall is actually the first day of "Mehr" (the 7th month). For some reason, the Gregorian calendar has it on Sep. 22.

This doesn't really work; the first day of Fall differs from place to place according to the specifics of the local climate.

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

#494

Post by narag »

simonh wrote: post #262
narag wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The point of comical absurdities like this is precisely that they appear comical or absurd if you don’t know the reasons for them being the way they are. That doesn’t mean there are no reasons, it’s just that those reasons aren’t necessary or even relevant to appreciating the apparent absurdity.

FWIW, I wasn't trying to explain why it isn't funny, but why I don't find it funny. YMMV.

Nobody needs to know all those annoying details, but once you know, the joke doesn't work so well, at least it didn't for me.

Also I believe that the Moon deserves some respect. It makes nights less scary, inspires whimsical humans and provided a convenient way to measure middle-length periods of time when a precise calendar hadn't been developed... many moons ago.

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

#495

Post by bananamerica »

mcv wrote: post #450
bananamerica wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 12h and 24h system is essentially the same thing, no? In my country we use a 24h system in writing, but mainly a 12h system in speech.

I think most of the world does that. I don't believe the claims that almost nobody uses the 12h format. At least not without a very thorough survey of the many ways many cultures use time.

In Brazil we'll say things like "The party is at 8 da noite", where "da noite" means "at night". When context is obvious, we often ommit that, so I might say "We will have lunch at 1 one clock" meaning 13h because it is obvious that no one has lunch at 1am. We will generally use 24h time in writing because we cannot control context, and in other situations where ambiguity cannot be avoided otherwise.

To me the main advantage of 24h time is that it is easier to mentally calculate time, so for example 3 hours after 11:00 is just 11+3, which is 14:00h.

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

#496

Post by qbrass »

fimdomeio wrote: post #232
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…

Portuguese name weekdays by numbers ex Monday, Segunda-feira (Second Market), but I don't think anyone assumes Sunday as the first day. And I leave the "market" for someone who still didn't have enough of this rabbit hole.

Segunda-feria supposedly comes from Church Latin where it means 'second weekday'.

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

#497

Post by thaumasiotes »

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…

> Months have other gods's names: Janus, Phoebe, Mars, Aphrodite, Maya, Juno...

January, March, and June are named for Janus, Mars, and Juno. February, April, and May are not known to be named for any god, nor is there any particular reason to believe they are.

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

#498

Post by dogmatism »

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…

>despite being long form, fits Twitter format very well

It actually reminded me of, and made me sad for the days of the old internet. I don't think this should be on twitter but it's own site

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

#500

Post by smegger001 »

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…

just think if he had to explain how the date for easter is calculated
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