Happy New Year

[g5man]

Happy New Year to all.

I will give macrumors a rest for a while I will post sometime next year.:)

Don't you all scream for joy at once.:D

[Macmaniac]

Happy New Year, another wonderful year to yell at each other, LET THE SCANDALS BEGIN!

[pseudobrit]

Originally posted by g5man
I will give macrumors a rest for a while I will post sometime next year.:)

What name will you be using next year?

[Doctor Q]

I agree that "Happy New Year" belongs in the "Political Discussions" forum since some cultures don't agree that January 1st is the start of the year!

Happy New Year to those who do from Doctor Q!

[jefhatfield]

happy new year and i will come back as saddam hussein next year

[Ugg]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
I agree that "Happy New Year" belongs in the "Political Discussions" forum since some cultures don't agree that January 1st is the start of the year!

Happy New Year to those who do from Doctor Q!

You're correct. The New Year began about a week ago with the Winter Solstice.

Happy belated New Years! :D

Edited to add smirk :D

[manitoubalck]

And the Chinise NY is still to come.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by manitoubalck
And the Chinise NY is still to come. For those who like "calendar studies" like me, here's some info:

The Chinese New Year 4702 will start January 22 this year. It is a Yang year (they alternate with Yin years). In the 60-year sexagesimal cycle, 4702 is at the start of the 10-year "heavenly stems" cycle, symbolized by wood, and the 9th year of the 12-year "earthly branches" cycle, corresponding to it being the year of the monkey.

Here is is my favorite Chinese calendar site (http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/calendar/chinese.shtml).

I make family calendars for my relatives every year, and I like doing a little extra research on a new topic every year, such as Chinese New Year, little-known federal and state holidays, anniversaries of historic events, etc.

[mactastic]

Nice info. Thank you, Doctor.

[Sayhey]

I'm all for starting the New Year with the Spring Equinox. It was what many of the ancients did. It makes sense that the New Year should start when the cycle of the rebirth of nature starts. Of course that would show our Northern Hemisphere bias, wouldn't it? We are too tradition bound by these newer calendars to make any change. Oh well, whatever the tradition - Happy New Year to all.

[amnesiac1984]

I think we should somehow calculate the exact date when the big bang started and that should be new year! I mean, it doesn't really mean anything. Just an increase by 1. oh and an excuse to get really really wasted :)

[zimv20]

hey kids, i'm back from new york. happy new year, all.

[Neserk]

Originally posted by Sayhey
I'm all for starting the New Year with the Spring Equinox. It was what many of the ancients did. It makes sense that the New Year should start when the cycle of the rebirth of nature starts. Of course that would show our Northern Hemisphere bias, wouldn't it?

I was just discussing with my husband that I don't understand why the new year doesn't start on one of the equinoxes or solstices or the day after. Wouldn't that make more sense?

[Doctor Q]

Historically, March 1 was considered to be the beginning of the year. This is why February, the last month of the year, was the month with the variable number of days, depending on how many were "leftover" after the other months.

See how it makes sense? It even has a nice repeating pattern of 31-30-31-30-31:

01 - 31 days - March
02 - 30 days - April
03 - 31 days - May
04 - 30 days - June
05 - 31 days - July

06 - 31 days - August
07 - 30 days - September
08 - 31 days - October
09 - 30 days - November
10 - 31 days - December

11 - 31 days - January
12 - 28 or 29 days - February

Note how the names indicate the numbers: September=7, October=8, November=9, and December=10. Preceding them were Quintilis=5 and Sextilis=6, later renamed July and August (after themselves) by Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar.

The Romans shifted the start of the year to January 1 in about 153BC. But Italy stuck with March 1, France based the start of the year on Easter, and other countries used Christmas as the start of the year. Rome did not rule the world.

Julius Caesar reorganized the calendar, setting our current lengths of months in 46BC. That's why it was called the Julian calendar.

Scotland didn't change to January 1 until 1602 and England, Wales, Ireland, and the American colonies used March 25 until 1752, when they too switched to January 1.

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Historically, March 1 was considered to be the beginning of the year. This is why February, the last month of the year, was the month with the variable number of days, depending on how many were "leftover" after the other months.

See how it makes sense? It even has a nice repeating pattern of 31-30-31-30-31:

01 - 31 days - March
02 - 30 days - April
03 - 31 days - May
04 - 30 days - June
05 - 31 days - July

06 - 31 days - August
07 - 30 days - September
08 - 31 days - October
09 - 30 days - November
10 - 31 days - December

11 - 31 days - January
12 - 28 or 29 days - February

Note how the names indicate the numbers: September=7, October=8, November=9, and December=10. Preceding them were Quintilis=5 and Sextilis=6, later renamed July and August (after themselves) by Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar.

The Romans shifted the start of the year to January 1 in about 153BC. But Italy stuck with March 1, France based the start of the year on Easter, and other countries used Christmas as the start of the year. Rome did not rule the world.

Julius Caesar reorganized the calendar, setting our current lengths of months in 46BC. That's why it was called the Julian calendar.

Scotland didn't change to January 1 until 1602 and England, Wales, Ireland, and the American colonies used March 25 until 1752, when they too switched to January 1.

It seems odd that Italy did something different to the Romans, wasn't Italy at the heart of the empire? Hence Rome!

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by amnesiac1984
It seems odd that Italy did something different to the Romans, wasn't Italy at the heart of the empire? Hence Rome! You are right. Something had to be fishy in my research results. So I read up on it some more and figured out that I was confusing two calendar changes. First of all, the changes made by Julius Caesar were indeed adopted in the Roman Empire, but the idea that March was the start of the year spread slowly. It was not until the 9th century that southern Europe established that March 25 was the first day of the year and it took until the 12th century for it to become accepted in Britain. Then the change from March to January 1st occurred: in Italy in 1522, in Spain in 1556, in France in 1579, in Scotland in 1600, in Russia in 1725, and in the rest of the British Isles in 1752.

The other calendar change was from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar (the one we use today) in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII established the rule of leap years every 4 years except every 100 years except every 400 years, and decreed that 10 days be skipped to catch up with the drift that had developed under the Julian system. It was THIS change that was slow to be adopted by countries not loyal to the Pope. Religious loyalties determined early or late adoption of what was essentially a scientific improvement. It was this change that I was recalling. Italy, Portugal, and Spain switched immediately in 1582, Catholic sections of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland soon afterwards, Hungary in 1587, in the British Isles and the American colonies in 1752, and Russia not until 1918!

Here's a site with a chart (http://www.astrodatabank.com/DCH/55calendarchanges.htm).

Can I have my grade raised back from FLUNK to PASSING now?

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Can I have my grade raised back from FLUNK to PASSING now?

Sorry I can only accept your first answer! :D

seriously this is all interesting stuff, thankyou Doc Q! :)

slightly off topic, but, I was listening to a program on BBC Radio 4 this morning about the Romans, I only caught the end but it was an interesting view of how in fact the empire was built and expanded because of the paranoia of its people and in self defense. They got so worried that they would "Pre-emptively strike" any country/province that did not give them absolute respect, meanwhile there diplomats were bully's and scoundrels. Sounds like PNAC, but I don't want this to get too political (otherwise it might get moved). If it does though I say what the heck!

[Neserk]

"Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that," Britney Spears, Biggest Dumbass on Earth!

I just saw this... I'm not sure where to put it but it warrants a comment. Sadly, this is the sentiment I've seen from a lot of people.

Perhaps I need to change who I hang out with on the internet?

[Doctor Q]

I don't know why anybody would question the intelligence of Britney Spears. News story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=2&u=/nm/20040105/en_nm/people_spears_dc). OK, maybe I know.

[Neserk]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
I don't know why anybody would question the intelligence of Britney Spears. News story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=2&u=/nm/20040105/en_nm/people_spears_dc). OK, maybe I know.

LOL in her defense, she is young ;) Okay, that is the best defense I could muster up for her.

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by Neserk
"Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that," Britney Spears, Biggest Dumbass on Earth!

I just saw this... I'm not sure where to put it but it warrants a comment. Sadly, this is the sentiment I've seen from a lot of people.

Perhaps I need to change who I hang out with on the internet?


I'm not calling her a dumbass because she supports Bush, I'm calling her a dumbass because she thinks politics is meant to be left to the people in power cos they know better. Thats not a democracy!

edit: or were you talking about her comment rather than mine?

:p

[Neserk]

Originally posted by amnesiac1984
I'm not calling her a dumbass because she supports Bush, I'm calling her a dumbass because she thinks politics is meant to be left to the people in power cos they know better. Thats not a democracy!

edit: or were you talking about her comment rather than mine?

:p

I was commenting on the fact that a lot of people have a "stick their head in the sand, let the powers that be do whatever they want, I support them 100%, no questions asked" attitude.

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by Neserk
I was commenting on the fact that a lot of people have a "stick their head in the sand, let the powers that be do whatever they want, I support them 100%, no questions asked" attitude.

Oh thank god for that. It's easy for people to see that and think it's a fair comment but not realise how it completely undermines the system of democracy! She's a roll model to so many too, I know her political views aren't going to be the most responsible ever, but she could at least promote the idea of getting involved in politics. It's an example of how american popular culture is destroying and has been destroying the system from the inside. Be it intentional or not I think it's an incredibly irresponsible thing to say.

[zimv20]

i have to wonder if ms. spears' statement was simply an off the cuff remark, or a management-suggested position intended to keep her in fan favor.

iirc, she said that shortly after the dixie chicks' snafu.

[Neserk]

Theodore Roosevelt
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. (1918)


This is my favorite quote :D