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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

#811

Post by BuckRogers »

walrus01 wrote: post #461
behnamoh wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For what it's worth many early European cultures also considered the start of the year to be at the start of spring, generally the same idea as Nowruz, which is where we got Easter from as a conglomeration of "pagan" rituals and Christian religion. Unfortunately we ended up with this weird Dec. 31st at the end of a year in the middle of winter which doesn't make any logical sense.

There’s more similarities than just that. Iran was founded by Indo-Europeans.

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

#812

Post by rendall »

adastra22 wrote: post #792
rendall wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let us stop using Wikipedia to support our arguments.

Can you suggest a source that is more consistently correct?

Wikipedia should never be considered a "source", even per its own documentation.

If you must, to support an assertion found in Wikipedia, follow the article's citations and use them. If they even do support the assertion. Quite often, they do not.

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

#813

Post by Accacin »

gerdesj wrote: post #306
fimdomeio wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That sounds quite sensible. From memory, our (en_GB) weekdays are named like this: Monday -> Moon day Tuesday -> Tiw's day (Norse) Wednesday -> Woden's day (Norse - Odin - chief god, one eye, two ravens) Thursday -> Thor's day (Norse - god with a massive hammer) Friday -> Freya's day (Norse, rode a chariot drawn by cats) Saturday -> Saturn's day (Roman, also: Saturnalia is the winter festival that eventually became C…

Thurday would probably be 'Þunor's Day' instead of Thor as it's Old English :)

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

#814

Post by ClumsyPilot »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #620
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just because something has historical reasons does mean it makes sence today. There is no reason for the Moon to have any place in a modern calendar. You already have 2 values: year and day, and they do not divide nicely. But they serve a practical purpose in a modern society, so we have to deal with them. The moon does not, but adds a third factor.

I disagree. Moon is the closest celestial body to earth and we have historically been able to make very accurate observations and calculations based on its orbit and waxing and waning phases.

I need to know if it's day or night. for obvious reasons. I need to know if its summer or winter for temperature.

When was the last time you planned a holiday for the waning phase of the moon?

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

#815

Post by memoryleak »

allenu wrote: post #582
w10-1 wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, what you're suggesting is that even if it is broken, it's too costly to fix. Then you should ask: costly compared to what? If we fixed it, then innumerable generations after us would not have to deal with the problem. The idea of "historical reason" and "social custom" assumes what it tries to prove, that the past is more important than the future. The real problem is that we don't pay for the costs we impo…

> If we fixed it, then innumerable generations after us would not have to deal with the problem. In day to day use, I'd argue the date and time system works perfectly fine. I know when my birthday is, I know when Christmas is, I know when my next dentist appointment is. I'm not confused because months have different days or that the day is broken into 24 hours. Date and time systems for the most part are useful to us…

There is some stuff, that can be fixed. I do not know the day of week (planning the next dentis appointment) without looking into a calendar. Often I have to think for a bit how many days a month has.

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

#817

Post by otikik »

jelliclesfarm wrote: post #620
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just because something has historical reasons does mean it makes sence today. There is no reason for the Moon to have any place in a modern calendar. You already have 2 values: year and day, and they do not divide nicely. But they serve a practical purpose in a modern society, so we have to deal with them. The moon does not, but adds a third factor.

I disagree. Moon is the closest celestial body to earth and we have historically been able to make very accurate observations and calculations based on its orbit and waxing and waning phases.

But the Moon has no influence in modern everyday life. It did in the past, for scheduling fishing, to attack an enemy tribe when there’s no moon, or to hunt nocturnal animals when there is.

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

#818

Post by lagadu »

krageon wrote: post #760
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; In a few EU countries people have started implying Sunday could somehow be the start (even though they are protestant societies! Makes no sense), so I think the US is leaking lunacy to the rest of the world.

Not just the US, it's also present in at least part of catholic Europe: in Portugal Monday is explicitly called "Second Market" (Segunda-Feira).

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

#819

Post by azureel »

I think most people forget the most important aspect of calendars: farming.

Harvest and plant cycles are stable in this "sun oriented" calendar design.

Every year x type of seed is planted in the same month, and harvested in another. So every year, same months can be planned beforehand.

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

#820

Post by throwawayffffas »

robbrown451 wrote: post #682

Weeks aren't subdivisions of months, they are completely independent of months and years. There is good reason for this. Having months alternate between long and short (as they typically do) is a lot better than just having one short month. It would get weird with things like rent payments if you have one month that is way shorter than the others. (although I do wish they chose a 30 day month to occasionally add a 31…

A week is a quarter of a lunar month, we kept them around after months stopped being lunar, because they are kind of nice.
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