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We still use the Roman Calender.

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davepoobond said:
except it is totally irrational because everyone around the world would be on different days and they would be fluctuating all of the time. time zones wouldn't be easy to calculate and would be cut in half horizontally, and days would end minutes earlier every week and then all of a sudden start going back the other way.

you may as well say it is a 10 hour cycle
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I don't think there's a way we can effectively deviate from our circadian rhythm without implementing two methods of keeping time. It's a biological limitation that would likely have to be preserved for it to not be dissonant with how we instinctively perceive time. Acting on the basis of instinct isn't rational per se, but recognizing it as more or less nonnegotiable feature of our every day experience and organizing life accordingly arguably is.
 
davepoobond said:
this makes me angry. that's the kind of horse shit the meter based on?

a foot/yard is way more practical and not stupid.
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Dem's sound like Engineer's words.

But really, it's better in the sense that a meter will always be a meter, and not be subject to change due to the speed of light being a constant.
 
Why not have four well-placed days that can work for the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox, as well as the Summer and the Winter Solstice.

I guess the fifth can be the end of the year?

Each particular day covers its own "week", and we start over on Sunday for the next month.

I really haven't thought this out at all and have absolutely no idea how it would work out, nor have I considered the many things that could go wrong, but it sounds nice for now.
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Math is hard for most people. 12 x 30 + 5 should be easy enough for the proletariat.
 
davepoobond said:
this makes me angry. that's the kind of horse shit the meter based on?

a foot/yard is way more practical and not stupid.
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Feet and Yards are officially defined in terms of meters, where 1 yard = 0.9144. As such, the foot/yard is also defined by the speed of light. Before they were defined as conversions of metric units (which the US science, medicine, and government make use of. It's really just regular people and commercial products that use imperial units), most countries (and sometimes cities) had their own feet which were all different lengths. Hence the metric system.
 
davepoobond said:
this makes me angry. that's the kind of horse shit the meter based on?

a foot/yard is way more practical and not stupid.
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The foot (or rather the inch) makes me even angrier. Why not simply 25 mm and be done with it? The surveyor's inch (original imperial, ~25.400002 mm) still exists anyway.

The meter was meant to be 1/50,000 the distance from North Pole to Equator passing through Paris. They really should have redefined it as 1/300,000 c and kept the original meter as a survey meter, but retooling everything takes time and effort.
 
Aiko Heiwa said:
Get rid of months and weeks.

Just days.
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But I think it's neat how the days of the week are named after various mythological figures (Saturn's day, Sun's day, Moon's day, Tyr's day, Odin's day, Thor's day, Freyja's day), that's not really a good reason but I guess coincidentally in this case mythology shows that clinging to the past can be fun or something.
 
Don't let this kind of stuff bother you too much. Our species will not last a whole lot longer, and the next dominant intelligent species will likely have a better system.
 
As soon as we actually start going into space, we will develop something more logical and less connected to the intricacies of Earth. Besides, the length of the day isn't constant either - when the dinosaurs were around the day was about 35 minutes shorter than it is now.

Personally, I am partial to using seasons as a unit, like in the Redwall books.
 
umop_3pisdn said:
But I think it's neat how the days of the week are named after various mythological figures (Saturn's day, Sun's day, Moon's day, Tyr's day, Odin's day, Thor's day, Freyja's day), that's not really a good reason but I guess coincidentally in this case mythology shows that clinging to the past can be fun or something.
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The origin of the monthly names are sort of funny:

January: named after the Roman god Janus who was the god of beginnings (and doors)

February: Came from the word purify because Romans had a festival of forgiveness that happened in Feb.

March: Named after Mars/Aries

April: Uncertain. Could be derived from the latin verb for "to open" because flowers bloom in April.

June: Named after Juno/Hera

July: Named after Julius Caesar

August: Named after Augustus

After this point the Romans were lazy:

Before July/August were added, September was the seventh month, October was the eighth, November the ninth, and December the tenth. Hence the names.

Foolworm said:
Personally, I am partial to using seasons as a unit, like in the Redwall books.
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Seasons are entirely dependent on your latitude and therefore make poor standard units.
 
Foolworm said:
As soon as we actually start going into space, we will develop something more logical and less connected to the intricacies of Earth. Besides, the length of the day isn't constant either - when the dinosaurs were around the day was about 35 minutes shorter than it is now.

Personally, I am partial to using seasons as a unit, like in the Redwall books.
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Whats wrong with our time keeping methods?
 
Aiko Heiwa said:
Get rid of months and weeks.

Just days.
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People will always try to group the days for simplicity sake. Maybe someone will say 'hey lets split 365 into 10 groups, and within these groups we should have days where we get a break from work.' And then someone will say 'ok but which groups get the extra days' and then next thing you know we got months again except its completely arbitrary and not based on the lunar cycle.
 
kswiston said:
The origin of the monthly names are sort of funny:

January: named after the Roman god Janus who was the god of beginnings (and doors)

February: Came from the word purify because Romans had a festival of forgiveness that happened in Feb.

March: Named after Mars/Aries

April: Uncertain. Could be derived from the latin verb for "to open" because flowers bloom in April.

June: Named after Juno/Hera

July: Named after Julius Caesar

August: Named after Augustus

After this point the Romans were lazy:

Before July/August were added, September was the seventh month, October was the eighth, November the ninth, and December the tenth. Hence the names.



Seasons are entirely dependent on your latitude and therefore make poor standard units.
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I'll help them out

September = Septimus Severus, a Roman general

October = Octavius (a ghost ship). it is fitting that October is the "halloween month"

November = Novum (Latin for "new thing"). Everybody gets down in November at their local ancient disco club

December = "The day of Cem" which is a very long day that consists of 31 days and nights which ends with the beginning of the new year
 
kswiston said:
Before July/August were added, September was the seventh month, October was the eighth, November the ninth, and December the tenth. Hence the names.
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July and August where never added. They were renamed from Quintilis and Sextilis. December is called that way because it used to be the 10th month. The year started in March.
 
NysGAF said:
The proposal I've heard that I like is the solar/lunar calendar. 13 months in a year, each month has 28 days, and there is one "day out of time." The day out of time could be used as a global holiday to celebrate peace, love, and beauty. Or use it like a New Years Day and live a day full of debauchery.
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"the purge"?
 
Escape Goat said:
Whats wrong with our time keeping methods?
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They are tailored specifically towards Earth's idiosyncrasies. No need to add in leap seconds if you're living on a space station with a set rotation. Decimal time would actually be implementable and desirable since we would have control over our environment in such a scenario.
 
Foolworm said:
They are tailored specifically towards Earth's idiosyncrasies. No need to add in leap seconds if you're living on a space station with a set rotation. Decimal time would actually be implementable- and desirable - since we would have control over our environment.
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Our biological clock would still exist, even in the depths of space. Following Earth time or some sort of time scale based on the Earth day would be preferable anyway.
 
Mr. Serious Business said:
There has to be a name for this kind of argument and why it's a bad one.

Can't think of it though.
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Argument from antiquity.

lastplayed said:
And why do we use Roman months but English days.
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The English/Saxon days were originally derived from the Roman days. The Germanic tribes in contact with the Romans just took the Roman gods' names and replaced them with the closest equivalent in their own pantheon at the time.
 
7 days x 4 weeks x 13 months = 364 days, you would have 1 month with 29 days. For an entire year, the 9th of the month would always fall on the same day of the week. Fuck Triskaidekaphobia! I say we have 13 months!
 
Won't change till humans colonize other planets. Basically, it won't change until there is a need to do so.
 
kswiston said:
After this point the Romans were lazy:

Before July/August were added, September was the seventh month, October was the eighth, November the ninth, and December the tenth. Hence the names.
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Nitpick: the 'numbered' months were that way because the Roman calendar started the 15th of March, not the 1st of January.

Lunar phases are 29.5 days, so we should probably alternate 30 and 29 day months:
That makes 12 'normal' months and one 11-day month, which we could fit in Christmas to new-years', eg. Holiday month.
 
There's no good reason to change it. That's why. What would possibly be gained?
 
There was a system suggested once that would have a set number of weeks a year, so each day would fall on the same day of the week each year. Then the difference would be made up with 'leap weeks' when needed.

It sounds good for banks but imagine if your birthday was a Monday every day for the rest of your life. Fuck that.
 
A study was done where they started with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, they hung a banana on a string and placed a set of stairs under it. Before long, one monkey went up to the stairs and started to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touched the stairs, they sprayed all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

After it is evident that none of the monkeys will attempt to go up the stairs to get the bananas, the researchers put away the cold water. they begin to remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.


Each time they do this the new monkey sees the banana and tries to climb the stairs. To his dismay, all the other monkeys attack him, preventing him from going up the stairs. After another unsuccessful and painful attempt, he knows if he touches the stairs he will be assaulted, without ever knowing why.

The researchers continue by removing another of the original five monkeys and replacing it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.


The previous newcomer joins in the punishment with enthusiasm!


This is done again by replacing a third monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time a newcomer takes to the stairs, he is attacked, with no understanding of why.

Keep in mind eventually none of the monkeys beating the newcomer have no idea why they are not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
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"That's the way we've always done it!"
 
Maybe we can start thinking about this in earnest after the metrification project is complete in another hundred+ years (the United States and United Kingdom being the only resistance).

Heck, even Canada hasn't completed the whole process. You'll somehow confused people if you ask for a plank of wood 100cm in length instead of 39 and 3/8 inches.
 
No one is forcing you to use the traditional time system if you don't want to. I've devised a new system that fits how I think, and my weird schedule. Writing apps for this can be a pain though. Luckily I am well versed enough in traditional time when someone says 7:30pm friday, I have some concept of what that means. If it's really important I can input it into a complex algorithm that uses AI components that replicate the way my own brain compartmentalizes time, and get a usually fairly accurate conversion. I've never been more than 5 minutes late using this algorithm.
 
And yet "the other half of the world" uses a completely different calender that is hundreds of years older. I suppose it's more convenient to ignore it until Chinese New Year pops around.
 
speedpop said:
And yet "the other half of the world" uses a completely different calender that is hundreds of years older. It's always convenient when people ignore it until Chinese New Year pops around.
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Do they really though? Sure, maybe to celebrate some holidays like the Chinese New Year but business and everyday life is pretty much the western calender.
 
The dumbest part is the month names getting out of order due to changing the start month and the addition of July and August to the calendar.

Now we have the 'seven' month as the ninth month, the 'eight' month as the tenth month etc.

How are we supposed to teach kids how many legs an octopus has when October is the 10th month?
 
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