November 19th
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A long time ago, the magazine of a society I’m a member of went: issue 68, issue 69, issue 80, issue 71, issue 72 … issue 78, issue 79, issue 80 (now for real!), issue 81 …
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@gurth I'm fascinated by how it's even possible to get a calendar wrong in the digital age. Did they format the entire thing manually in Microsoft Word?
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@ben_lubar said in November 19th:
Did they format the entire thing manually in Microsoft
WordExcel?
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So why is there a miniature calendar for December on the top corner?
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@zecc said in November 19th:
So why is there a miniature calendar for December on the top corner?
Why wouldn't there be?
That said, it's normally the previous month in that location, the next month is usually top right:
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Weeks starting on Sunday is the real
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@coldandtired Why would that be a ? Much of the world considers Sunday the first day. Although it's not universal (e.g., China, Eastern (Slavic) Europe, and ISO 8601 consider Monday the first day of the week), many cultures throughout human history have considered Sunday as the first day of the week, including ancient Egypt, Rome, and Western Europe. In Jewish tradition since ancient times, the seventh day of the week, the Shabbat or Sabbath, is Saturday (starting at sunset Friday until sunset Saturday). Most or all of the Americas retain the influence of the Western European colonizers, including the calendrical convention of having Sunday the first day. And even though ISO adopted Monday, the vast majority of the world goes merrily along neither knowing nor caring about any ISO standard. So not universal, but not a , either.
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@hardwaregeek said in November 19th:
@coldandtired Why would that be a ? Much of the world considers Sunday the first day. Although it's not universal (e.g., China, Eastern (Slavic) Europe, and ISO 8601 consider Monday the first day of the week), many cultures throughout human history have considered Sunday as the first day of the week, including ancient Egypt, Rome, and Western Europe.
Nowadays, all of Europe does. Neither the ancient Egyptians nor the pre-Christian Romans even had a 7-day week.
And even though ISO adopted Monday, the vast majority of the world goes merrily along neither knowing nor caring about any ISO standard. So not universal, but not a , either.
True, but "the vast majority" looks different
Edith: even more because from the comments it seems China belong in the Monday camp
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@laoc said in November 19th:
Edith: even more because from the comments it seems China belong in the Monday camp
I already said that; you even quoted it. And who's Edith?
@laoc said in November 19th:
Neither the ancient Egyptians nor the pre-Christian Romans even had a 7-day week.
Yes and no. The Romans didn't officially adopt a 7-day week until AD 321, but it was in widespread use some 300 years before that:
The ancient Romans traditionally used the eight-day nundinum but, after the Julian calendar had come into effect in 45 BC, the seven-day week came into increasing use.
The continuous seven-day cycle of the days of the week can be traced back to the reign of Augustus; the first identifiable date cited complete with day of the week is 6 February AD 60,
AD 60 was, of course, after Christ, but long before Christianity had significant influence in the Empire.
It appears the source I used in reference to days of the week was wrong. The Egyptians may, at one point, have divided the lunar cycle into 7(-ish) day weeks, but from what little "research" I've done, this is only a possibility and not a certainty.
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@hardwaregeek said in November 19th:
@coldandtired Why would that be a ?
Because then the weekend spans to the first day of week.
Unless you're Muslim/Jewish, then it's fine.
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@gąska said in November 19th:
@hardwaregeek said in November 19th:
@coldandtired Why would that be a ?
Because then the weekend spans to the first day of week.
Is that why bookends are only on one side of the shelf?
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@luhmann said in November 19th:
@ben_lubar said in November 19th:
Did they format the entire thing manually in Microsoft
WordExcel?I'm pretty sure it was Word.
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@dragnslcr said in November 19th:
Is that why bookends are only on one side of the shelf?
One bookend is.
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@dragnslcr said in November 19th:
@gąska said in November 19th:
@hardwaregeek said in November 19th:
@coldandtired Why would that be a ?
Because then the weekend spans to the first day of week.
Is that why bookends are only on one side of the shelf?
No, silly. The bookend goes on one side and it includes the closest book to it. That identical-looking thing on the other side is a Monday.
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@laoc said in November 19th:
Nowadays, all of Europe does. Neither the ancient Egyptians nor the pre-Christian Romans even had a 7-day week.
Even so, seven-day-long units of time are fairly common throughout the world on the grounds that it is the best split of about that long given that many cultures liked to use lunar months (about 28 days long, which is 4×7 days) for synchronisation. 14 days would have worked too, or 4 days, but 14 is a bit too long and 4 is too short.
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@dkf said in November 19th:
lunar months (about 28 days long
In Dwarf Fortress, there are twelve 28-day months and the full moons are on these dates:
01-25
02-23
03-21
04-19
05-17
06-15
07-13
08-10
09-08
10-06
11-04
12-02
12-28(The first month in a Dwarf Fortress year is equivalent to March in the northern hemisphere or September in the southern hemisphere.)
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@hardwaregeek said in November 19th:
who's Edith?
https://www.gunaxin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/edith.jpg
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@dkf said in November 19th:
@laoc said in November 19th:
Nowadays, all of Europe does. Neither the ancient Egyptians nor the pre-Christian Romans even had a 7-day week.
Even so, seven-day-long units of time are fairly common throughout the world on the grounds that it is the best split of about that long given that many cultures liked to use lunar months (about 28 days long, which is 4×7 days) for synchronisation. 14 days would have worked too, or 4 days, but 14 is a bit too long and 4 is too short.
I have a better theory: European colonialism spreading its ways of life everywhere.
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@gąska said in November 19th:
I have a better theory: European colonialism spreading its ways of life everywhere.
Babylonian, with modifications due to Judaism. Well, probably.
Also, it seems that the Europeans had very little to do with the spread of the 7 day week in at least much the old world, reaching China by the 4th Century and India by the 6th Century. Arab traders are far more likely to have been involved given the origin and trading routes of the time.
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@dkf wow, even better theory! So cool! I love learning stuff!
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@gurth I recognized that picture.
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@hardwaregeek Those were the days.
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@greybeard I'd forgotten the theme song, though, at least until I looked it up on YouTube and heard the beginning of it.
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@hardwaregeek You meathead.
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@boomzilla In my defense, I probably hadn't watched an episode in 20 or 30 years.
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@hardwaregeek I just wanted to throw that reference in there.