Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systems fromconlangs)

On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 05:46:39PM -0500, Nik Taylor wrote:
> Now, that's a bit much, in my opinion.  :-)  Daylight savings is silly,
> I agree, but time zones, in one form or another, are essential.  I
> suppose you could have the same "time" everywhere, but that would be
> even more inconvenient than time zones.  For example, in some places,
> normal working hours would be 9-17, in others they'd be 4-12, in still
> others they'd be 20-04, so that halfway thru your day you have to change
> the date!  As long as people live on the surface of the Earth, they're
> going to be awake at different times in different parts.  :-)
So the date and day of the week change halfway through the workday; so
what?  That's already the case for people who work overnight shifts.
Does it really matter whether it happens when you're awake or when you're
asleep?

There would be some adjustment issues, of course.  Imagine the whole
world celebrating New Year's at the same moment - pretty cool, eh?
Now imagine that the New Year starts in the middle of your work day -
so much for getting drunk on champagne. :)

> Tho, I have a similar view about the calendar.  Get rid of leap years,
> and just have a 365-day year every year, and don't worry about the slow
> procession of the seasons.
Ah, now you've gone and got me started on calendar reform.  Foolish,
foolish man. :) I'd rather see a 364-day calendar, since that's a
whole number of weeks.  Then we could either ignore the difference
between the calendar and tropical years, as you suggest, or have
a leap week every 5 or 6 years to make up the difference.

-Mark

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