ForumGarden

I have it in mind that the calendar systems in common current use are all inefficient, arbitrary and impractical. ForumGarden intends to lead the way in calendar reform. Suggestions are invited.

At a fundamental level we might first like to decide which base ForumGarden Time should be expressed in. The obvious - indeed, the only rational - candidates are Base 2 and 10. I don't know how anyone else feels about it but I'd be more than happy to ditch Base 10 as a means of expressing numeric information, on the grounds that it's arbitrary and far too ethnocentric.

If we do favour Base 2 it might be considered convenient to express the system in Octal.

I only bring the thread up in the first place because I've been sat on this damned train now for four hours, London is still 90 minutes away (I express myself in Gregorian minutes here) and I still have to bat my way across the Underground as far as St Pancras before I can board the train I set out to catch in the first place.

Who'd like to kick off.

Will either of these systems lengthen my life ?

spot;1475625 wrote: I have it in mind that the calendar systems in common current use are all inefficient, arbitrary and impractical. ForumGarden intends to lead the way in calendar reform. Suggestions are invited.


I say we change the date of Christmas to some other month - when the shops aren't so bloody crowded!

Meh. Time is just a human construct to keep everything from happening at once.

Bruv;1475626 wrote: Will either of these systems lengthen my life ?


It might ease the stress. We could make that an objective if you like.

High Threshold;1475631 wrote: I say we change the date of Christmas to some other month - when the shops aren't so bloody crowded!


I have it in mind that part of the new Time system would be Staggering. We have to build in a Staggering protocol so all these peaks even out. Christmas is already obsolete but even so.

spot;1475649 wrote: ...... Christmas is already obsolete ......


Lovely!!!

Hexadecimal makes far more sense (Base 16 to those who are unfamiliar with Hexadecimal).

Can we go back to pounds, shillings and pence

spot;1475648 wrote: It might ease the stress. We could make that an objective if you like.


I like a bit of stress, keeps me on me toes.

spot;1475649 wrote: I have it in mind that part of the new Time system would be Staggering. We have to build in a Staggering protocol so all these peaks even out. Christmas is already obsolete but even so.


I thought Christmas was designed for staggering, staggering between public houses, works parties, family gatherings.

FourPart;1475656 wrote: Hexadecimal makes far more sense (Base 16 to those who are unfamiliar with Hexadecimal).
I think we might prefer eight-day weeks rather than sixteen-day weeks, that's all.

spot;1475696 wrote: I think we might prefer eight-day weeks rather than sixteen-day weeks, that's all.


How about 16 hour days?

FourPart;1475697 wrote: How about 16 hour days?


We'd need to decide on the basic unit of time. The most obvious would be the second.

That gives some initial units of time, like

8^0 seconds = 1 second (octal) = 1 second (decimal) = the current 1 second

8^1 seconds = 10 seconds (octal) = 8 seconds (decimal) = the current tick - "wait a tick"

8^2 seconds = 100 seconds (octal) = 64 seconds (decimal) = the current 1 minute 4 seconds

8^3 seconds = 1000 seconds (octal) = 512 seconds (decimal) = the current 8 minutes 32 seconds

8^4 seconds = 10000 seconds (octal) = 4096 seconds (decimal) = the current 1 hour 8 minutes 16 seconds ("hour")

8^5 seconds = 100000 seconds (octal) = 32768 seconds (decimal) = the current 9.1 hours ("shift")

8^6 seconds = 1000000 seconds (octal) = 262144 seconds (decimal) = the current 3.03 days

8^7 seconds = 10000000 seconds (octal) = 2096912 seconds (decimal) = the current 24.27 days ("month")

8^8 seconds = 100000000 seconds (octal) = 16775296 seconds (decimal) = the current 194 days, half a year.

The most obvious would be the second.


Whats so obvious about any of this ?

Time is far from Decimal, otherwise there would be 10 hours in the day.

Bruv;1475703 wrote: Whats so obvious about any of this ?


It's the International Standard measure of time, every other measure of time is derived from it.

FourPart;1475707 wrote: Time is far from Decimal, otherwise there would be 10 hours in the day.


Money wasn't decimal until we switched to decimal money. Time isn't decimal - or octal, in this case - but it would be if we switched the way we display it. It's solely a question of the display, nothing else is affected.

Time is linear not cyclical.

Bruv;1475712 wrote: Time is linear not cyclical.


The current system of display is cyclical. March the eleventh recurs each year, for example. Every day we have two minutes past two in the afternoon. All I've proposed is a revised display system.

spot;1475713 wrote: The current system of display is cyclical. March the eleventh recurs each year, for example. Every day we have two minutes past two in the afternoon. All I've proposed is a revised display system.


If a change is appropriate, then a clean start is what we need.

Lets start from 1.

Better decide what 'one' we should use, and what size they are, no more mention of seconds..........thank you.

Bruv;1475716 wrote: If a change is appropriate, then a clean start is what we need.

Lets start from 1.

Better decide what 'one' we should use, and what size they are, no more mention of seconds..........thank you.
If we're to reset the clock I'd much rather restart from Zero, if that's okay.

spot;1475721 wrote: If we're to reset the clock I'd much rather restart from Zero, if that's okay.


Pendant.......OK Zero............one, how do we measure the gap ?

Bruv;1475723 wrote: Pendant.......OK Zero............one, how do we measure the gap ?We could make the basic unit of time measurement The Eastender, being the duration between the start of the introductory theme tune of the first ever episode of Eastenders and the last note of the conclusion. It's measurable, reproducible and we could divide it into thousandths and have milliEnders if we want to count short periods. Or microEnders. And a MegaEnder would be how old you have to be to retire.

spot;1475725 wrote: We could make the basic unit of time measurement The Eastender, being the duration between the start of the introductory theme tune of the first ever episode of Eastenders and the last note of the conclusion. It's measurable, reproducible and we could divide it into thousandths and have milliEnders if we want to count short periods. Or microEnders. And a MegaEnder would be how old you have to be to retire.


We are a global community. That seems a bit regional to be the new standard.

FourPart;1475707 wrote: Time is far from Decimal, otherwise there would be 10 hours in the day.


If there were only 10 hours in the day then Christmas would come around too damn often !!!

LarsMac;1475726 wrote: We are a global community. That seems a bit regional to be the new standard.


You lot would opt out anyway, and set up your own measurement.

spot;1475725 wrote: We could make the basic unit of time measurement The Eastender, being the duration between the start of the introductory theme tune of the first ever episode of Eastenders and the last note of the conclusion. It's measurable, reproducible and we could divide it into thousandths and have milliEnders if we want to count short periods. Or microEnders. And a MegaEnder would be how old you have to be to retire.


Oh dear......and I thought this was a serious discussion.

Bruv;1475735 wrote: Oh dear......and I thought this was a serious discussion.


You asked for an alternative to the second as the basic unit and I offered one. So long as it's reproducible then it's fine, just like the second is. You can convert between them as 1.78 seconds = 1 milliEnder, just as if you take the day as the basic unit then 1 second = 11.6 microday, or 86400 seconds = 1 day. You may see a practical difference between these scales but I'm afraid I don't. Which basic unit would you like to adopt?

It has to be a heartbeat, all you have to do now is standardise it.

What about governing it by the vibrations of.......... a lolly stick?.......(twanged on the kitchen table)....................I don't know....... so many vibrations per beat ?



Hey.....this a lot harder than it first appears.

Probably need to leave the second alone.

There are far too many industries relying on the second as a base, these days.

The entire computer and communications world is based upon things happening so many times a second.

Mess with that and you would see far too many engineers' heads exploding.

Don't worry Lars, when it is sorted out, you can just call it a second, or an American Standard Second........so you are still different.

Bruv;1475755 wrote: Don't worry Lars, when it is sorted out, you can just call it a second, or an American Standard Second........so you are still different.


Well, the second is pretty much a global standard by now.

LarsMac;1475756 wrote: Well, the second is pretty much a global standard by now.


And so is the metric system.................when y'all gonna join us.

Bruv;1475761 wrote: And so is the metric system.................when y'all gonna join us.


You guys still drive miles. Get with the program, yerselves.

LarsMac;1475777 wrote: You guys still drive miles. Get with the program, yerselves.
My Jubbly measures distance in Kilomtres. It's just approaching its first 1000.

Bruv;1475752 wrote: It has to be a heartbeat, all you have to do now is standardise it.

What about governing it by the vibrations of.......... a lolly stick?.......(twanged on the kitchen table)....................I don't know....... so many vibrations per beat ?

Hey.....this a lot harder than it first appears.
The lolly stick is too variable, but the principle is sound. The Chinese have been using bells as measuring devices for volume of goods (eg Rice) for thousands of years, and they have been calibrated to the note of the different size bells. So, why note base everything on Middle C. 261.625565 hertz.

FourPart;1475801 wrote: My Jubbly measures distance in Kilomtres. It's just approaching its first 1000.


Yup. All vehicles sold in the US have a switchable Odometer/Speedometer that can be set to MPH or KPH.

Y'all still measure your distances in miles, though, and speed on the highway is MPH.