[ale] [OT] Googlian Calendar

[Tim Watts]

hey, it's a unix world donchaknow: 1/1/1970 == 0.0000 AU.


On Fri, 2013-09-27 at 13:20 -0400, Sid Lane 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!
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 490 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20130927/629f29f8/attachment.sig>