The perpetual calendar
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From: Peter Moylan on 21 Feb 2010 20:57 Andrew Usher wrote: > And I moved the start of the week numbering to August from Nov. 1 so > that the academic year and the US football season would be on the > fixed schedule, and I think there can be no objection to that. Aha. Now I understand an aspect of your proposal that hadn't been clear to me. You're proposing different calendars for different countries, right? An interesting idea. While you're at it, though, why not have the academic year line up with the calendar year, the way we do it here? Making an academic year straddle two calendar years sounds just plain silly. True, there are good historical reasons for it, but if you're going to modify the calendar anyway you might as well fix the glaring problems too. -- Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org For an e-mail address, see my web page.
From: Peter Moylan on 21 Feb 2010 21:00 Andrew Usher wrote: > I chose the Christian holidays because they are international, ??? -- Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org For an e-mail address, see my web page.
From: Androcles on 21 Feb 2010 21:04 "Peter Moylan" <gro.nalyomp(a)retep> wrote in message news:G8SdnVc2sMl3fBzWnZ2dnUVZ8k9i4p2d(a)westnet.com.au... > Cheryl wrote: >> Andrew Usher wrote: > >>> The reason I fix Christmas to a Sunday has been my observation that >>> arranging a family Christmas is substantially more convenient when it >>> falls on a weekend than in the middle of the week. Given that >>> Christmas is the most important holiday in the year, should we not all >>> get at least a 3-day weekend, which we have for lesser holidays? >> >> The thing is that depending on your job, local holidays (eg whether >> Boxing Day is included) and the fact that New Year's Day comes so >> closely after Christmas Day, judicious use of annual leave days can give >> much more than three days in a row off if Christmas Day itself is >> mid-week. > > For that and related reasons, many businesses in Australia close down in > the week between Christmas and New Year. So many employees are missing > that they might as well save their running costs. > >> I would have thought that the summer holidays were far more important > > Well, of course, and that's the whole point of Christmas. It would be no > fun if you had it in the winter. > > -- > Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org > For an e-mail address, see my web page. Yeah, I can understand that. Crazy Yanks have their fireworks display on the 4th of July instead of the 5th of November, too. That means they have to keep the kids up late because it doesn't get dark early and a firework display in broad daylight is no fun at all. I dunno how they expect to get a decent day's work out of them helping with the farm if they don't get to bed early. Small wonder they get three months off school and miss out on an education.
From: Androcles on 21 Feb 2010 21:11 "Peter Moylan" <gro.nalyomp(a)retep> wrote in message news:AZudnSOLw8exeBzWnZ2dnUVZ8j1i4p2d(a)westnet.com.au... > Andrew Usher wrote: > >> I chose the Christian holidays because they are international, > > ??? > > -- > Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org > For an e-mail address, see my web page. Yeah, Merry Hanukkah and a Happy New Year of the Tiger.
From: Evan Kirshenbaum on 21 Feb 2010 21:15
"Mike Dworetsky" <platinum198(a)pants.btinternet.com> writes: > It all sounds wonderful if you are living in the USA, but how are > you going to get other countries with their own agendas (such as > real football--what you dismiss as "soccer") Your "real" football, association football, which we (and others) call by the English nickname of "soccer", is just one football code, and only dates back to 1863 (based on earlier sets of rules going back to the 1840s), with rules that included If a player makes a fair catch, he shall be entitled to a free kick, providing he claims it by making a mark with his heel at once; and in order to take such kick he may go back as far as he pleases, and no player on the opposite side shall advance beyond his mark until he has kicked. the committee having decided, after much debate to drop IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the ball on the first bound; but in case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark he shall not run. X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal, any player on the opposite side shall be at liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at the same time. (the latter having been voted out over the objection of one member who said "hacking is the true football"). According to the Wikipedia article on "Football", Australian Rules football dates back a few years earlier, to the 1850s. Rugby was first played in the 1820s and first codified in 1871. American football appears to have been codified in the 1870s, Canadian football in the 1860s or so, and Gaelic football in the 1880s. They all derived from English games that involved kicking the ball, catching the ball, and (often) running with the ball, batting the ball, and throwing the ball. All of the codes are pretty much about as old (and all have changed a lot since that time). None is more "real" than any other. And, by and large, all are called (in English) "football" in the places where they're the most popular code. And, I believe that your "real football" is "soccer" most of the places where it isn't the most popular (or by people for whom it isn't). -- Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |The vast majority of humans have 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |more than the average number of Palo Alto, CA 94304 |legs. kirshenbaum(a)hpl.hp.com (650)857-7572 http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |