[ale] [OT] Googlian Calendar

Pete Hardie pete.hardie at gmail.com
Fri Sep 27 13:50:16 EDT 2013


Or more soberly (pun intended) start the calendar on the date of the
Trinity test - Jul 16 1945


On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> I much prefer a truly momentous occasion in human history to mark a new
> calendar epoch, The year of the first moon landing should be Year 0. The
> start of the year should be either the aphelion or perihelion point.
>
> Go then for a 12 month calendar of 30 days each plus 5 international
> holidays separating the 4 quarters, first and last day of the year plus one
> between each of the other three. On leap year, we get an extra holiday at
> the opposite helial event.
>
> Also there should be free beer on all those international holidays. For
> the people who live where alcohol is illegal, you will have an incentive to
> move someplace better.
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Sid Lane <jakes.dad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> being in an interfaith marriage my frighteningly precocious daughter
>> recently asked me why we have two New Years as well as how we can go from
>> the year 2013 in January to 5774 a couple of weeks ago which got me to
>> thinking that Google’s 15th birthday today seems like the perfect
>> opportunity to separate that most deeply rooted of all church/state
>> violations: the Gregorian Calendar! what does that have to do with Google?
>> glad you asked! let me answer in three parts:
>>
>> 1. any calendar requires an epoch (this is self-evident)
>> 2. most (if not all) alternatives’ epochs are tied to respective
>> religion’s creation stories (still violating separation just in different
>> flavors)
>> 3. name a more secularly significant event than google launching*
>>
>> think about it - how often do you wonder: “how did the world work before
>> Google?” when Googling obscure error messages or edge case symptoms we
>> often quip at work: “isn’t it weird to think there was a time when you used
>> to have to actually KNOW stuff?”. the fact that “Googling”, the present
>> tense of the verb “to Google”, is recognized by spell check (at least mine)
>> just underscores my point (though admittedly I’ve yet to see a full
>> conjugation)! honestly, I am convinced that Google is the new library of
>> Alexandria and when they eventually crash it will plunge humanity into
>> another dark age though that’s a topic for another time…
>>
>> anyway, in conclusion I encourage everyone to write your congress critter
>> (enclosing the obligatory campaign contribution - another topic for another
>> time), MP, Ayatollah (well, maybe not him), etc to petition that September
>> 27, 2013 be internationally recognized as 15.000, the 0th day of the 15th**
>> year A.G. (Anno Googli). at a minimum I hope we can get formal adoption
>> from the Pastafarians…
>>
>> Happy New Year!
>>
>> *which can be identified with any precision - I’m not keen on a Kelvin
>> calendar based on a big bang SWAG, not to mention the relativistic effects
>> get really nasty as you approach absolute zero (though an argument can be
>> made that does seem appropriate given what quantum mechanics does
>> approaching 0K temp).
>>
>> **unlike Pope Gregory Googlers are smart enough to realize that days and
>> years should start with ZERO instead of one! not to mention that we don’t
>> even need a B.G.! we just go negative - September 26, 1998 becomes -1.364
>> (though this admittedly requires signed variables). we can figure out the
>> subdivisions (“months”, “weeks”, etc) later but it seems like an
>> opportunity to standardize & bring sanity while we’re at it!
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> *
> *Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
> gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own
> tail. It won't fatten the dog.
> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
> *
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> *
>
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-- 
Pete Hardie
--------
Better Living Through Bitmaps
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