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  From: mike andrew <mikero@norfolk.nf>
  To  : linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 02:33:26 +1130

Re: Daylight Savings Time

On Thu, 04 Nov 1999, lloy0076 wrote:
> Daylight Savings Time....if DST has caused this much discussion how much
> will the y2K bring? 

it's a date of almost no significance at all (but you were expecting that).

"Bungleware (tm) 2c history lesson for the unwashed masses."

(no applause please, just throw money)

Our current calendar was settled in western europe in AD 513 during an
alchoholics convention. Apart from lousy beer, a lot of wine, and much 
wenching, the honorable monks bounced and juggled a few numbers around and
came up with a solution that in fact leaves Christ's birthdate 3 years
PRIOR to AD1.  Even Xmas day is technically wrong, i don't remember the actual
number (think Jan 3rd).

In the 'good old days', the dates between 25th December until new year didn't
exist. You woke up each morning on december 25th for five straight days. Gives
new meaning to the film Warthog day, doesn't it. 

In any case it wasn't entirely the church's fault. The feudal warlords had
run out of money and armies fighting each other on this excuse for a land grab,
so called in the UN (church) to sort their mess out until they could lick their
wounds and conquer each other some time later. Fighting over the meaning of
time did not inspire awe and wonder in the troops, they needed a Troll, Gnome or
Celt to hate.

Second, the Gregorian calendar which we now temporarily subscribe to was so 
stuffed up they had to plug the errors by inserting two extra months in the
year (which is why oct, nov december) are decimal months on the Julian
calendar. It's hard enough for me to figure out why SEPTember isn't the seventh
month of the year when it says it is. 

Incidentally, we got the number 12
from the perfidious English. The decimal system was arabic in origin (after all
the arabs taught us all how to count and we still use arabic number
symbols in bastardised form). The Brits had fallen back to whimsical celtic
ways with druid magic numbers 7 and 12, and a lot of naked welsh girls running
around amazingly erect stone circles.  They have a lot to answer for their use
of the word dozen, i think it's Gross (sorry, couldn't resist). 

The last thing anyone wanted was Spanish Moor (read arab) decimal influence. 
Roll on a dozen months. (Who says not everything is politics?)

The more I look at Tolkien's Hobbit calendar the more sense it makes.

In any case everyone cheats like hell, atomic clocks are sped up and slowed
down by a second or two, twice a year to account for the earth's wobble. Yes,
folks, it is possible to travel thru time. Such is the craziness of humankind
that we have men in little white overcoats who spend their waking hours
counting ticks on the atomic clock so that they can untick it by one when they
think its a 'good idea'. Now, what was that song about counting holes in
Lancashire?

The chinese (and tibet) new year begins in march. And I will vote for the next
Mongol (or Ming) Warlord who decrees  'year of the fool'.

The maya don't recognise AD and BC anything, their current year is 3558 (from
memory) and, significantly, is more accurate than ours.

The Orthodox Christian (Constantinople et al)  year begins at Easter, prior to
AD513 (and had only 10 months in it). Many communities in Anatolia, Turkey
remain on that calendar. They basically never agreed that greasy Italians should
run equally greasy Constantinople so took their bat, ball, and calendar and hid
in underground citiies for 400 years.

Ignooks and Laplanders don't have a year as we know it, they begin each season
on a solstice. (which considering the total lack of daylight / night
respectively aint too stupid. How would YOU measure a day let alone a 'year' in
those regions?)

And, in case you didn't know it, a leap year is every four years, except when
it isn't. This takes the form of inserting and deleting
an extra day each century (depending on whim and politics), except on
milleniums  when we just plain forget all about it. So people born on Feb 29,
1996 will be eight years old on their first birthday (makes my head hurt).

Then of course, we have the Holi-days. Their modern form were invented in the
16th century to begin after each new year. A sort of labour day long
weekend: let's pause a little while until we get back in sync because we
stuffed last years date numbers up real bad. If you were alive and in good
health then, had no ticks, and weren't the subject of curiosity on a spanish
inquisitors rack, then basically you *enjoyed* the lottery of how many
holi-days ocurred before it was officially Jan 2nd. Many poor souls
(particularly ones owning property) became the subject of 'Spanish
curiosity' if questioning this unusual date system. Particularly when they
were quite sure the sun came up yesterday even though the priest
informed the assorted throng otherwise. "nope, yesterday didn't
exist, only the day before that"

All in all, we shouldn't be
blinded by our own enthusiasm for Celebrating a Franciscan monk called Gregory.
He probably couldn't care less since he invented the whole idea as a bet with
his German pope that the current papal court (moved from Cologne  to Spain) was
a stupid idea. The Italians certainly thought so, but kept the calendar and
poisoned the pope.


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