Yes...and even fewer people care. lol --Mike
On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 1:51 AM, Mike Palij <m...@nyu.edu> wrote: > I think that few people actually think about why the calendar is > structured the way it is and even fewer think about how to make > the calendar more "rational" (e.g., each month having a fixed > number of days, thus making the month an interval scale of time > measurement) or consistent with the astronomical and seasonal > events that were originally set up to reflect but, with the passage > of hundreds of years, small errors accumulate to distort the calendar > (e.g., making spring come weeks earlier in the calendar). A news > article in the Wall Street Journal reviews these issues as well as > some of the proposed solutions; see: > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126212850216209527.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTInDepthCarousel > > Because of the intimate connection between the calendar and > religious activites (e.g., December 25 is celebrated as Christmas > by people who follow the Gregorian calendar while those who > still follow the Julian or "old" calendar celebrate on January 7; > I believe that Armenians traditionally celebrate Christmass on > January 6 according to their reckoning based on the oldest > gospels in Christianity -- perhaps it would be easier to simply > make the fourth Thursday in December Christmas Day). > > This raises a question that has been highlighted recently by > Norad's following "Santa Claus" around world as Christmas > crept across the globe as well as video showing celebrations > in China and Australia and elsewhere as New Year's Day > crept across the globe: > > Given that Christmass/New Year's Day has arrived somewhere > on the planet should we: > > (a) have a simultaneous celebration around the world given > that the planet has achieved that event > > or > > (b) continue to have local celebrations and ignore that fact > that what is being celebrated has already occured elsewhere > (for the North and South America, they are really late to the > celebration). > > What should it be? Think globally or think locally? > > -Mike Palij > New York University > m...@nyu.edu > > P.S. To make this relevant to teaching, which should be preferred: > the traditional semester system or the quarter system? > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
