GiqueCee
GiqueCee's JournalYEARS: NEW AND OTHERWISE
We are obsessed with time. We save time, make time, mark time, keep time, and wonder where the time goes. But our concept of the linear progression of time as something that absolutely, positively MUST be measured is a relatively recent phenomenon. We’ll save any discussion of the space-time continuum described in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity for another time. There! See how it’s nearly impossible to say anything without referencing some aspect of time?
Anyway, our ancient ancestors paid little attention to the passage of time. There was nothing they could do about it, so they figured, hey, just go with the flow, dude. They were hunter-gatherers who noted the cyclical change of the seasons, and the corresponding migratory patterns of the game that sustained them, but beyond that, systematically marking the passage of time held little interest for them.
When the basic clan and family ties that typified nomadic cultures began to evolve into the more complex social structures required of a developing agrarian society, keeping track of time took on a new urgency; gotta get those crops planted soon enough to harvest when the days grew shorter. Then, of course, there were all those religious festivals, birthdays, anniversaries, and little Grobbie’s hollow log recital. For goodness’ sake, how’s a busy Cro-Magnon mom supposed to keep track of all this? What you need, little lady, is a CALENDAR!
No one knows when the first calendar came into use, but the Sun’s position in the sky coincided with the change of seasons, providing an observable solar year, as well as the obvious day and night. The phases of the Moon followed a 28-day cycle that marked out a reliable month. Unfortunately, the movements of these two heavenly bodies are not synchronous, making the development of an accurate calendar a frustrating exercise, indeed. We still haven’t gotten it right, though it’s been said that the Mayans had it figured out. How they might have managed it without the concept of zero is a discussion for another day. Whatever. Our modern Grorian calendar has to be fudged with leap years, except when a leap year falls in a year with two zeroes, and… well, you get the idea. Since 1972, we’ve added a leap second since old Mother Earth wobble on her axis a little bit. Back when the Babylonians were the trendsetters in the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, they had to toss in an extra month now and then.
According to the Hebrew lunar calendar, this is the year 5785. Their 12-month cycle alternates months of 29 and 30 days. Over the course of 19 years, an embolism 29-day month, called a Veadar, is added seven times. So that’s what keeps all those Talmudic scholars out of the bingo parlors: Figuring out when to add a Veadar.
The Islamic calendar has a year of only 354 days – who did the math for that one? – and it skates backward through the seasons until it comes full circle after 321/2 years. This calendar periodically needs an extra day as well.
The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar cycle, and designates years in cycles of 60. Within that cycle is a cycle of 12 years named after animals, always in the same order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. 2026 its still the Year of the Snake, until February 17th when it’ll become the Year of the Horse until February 7th of 2027. In true Chinese fashion, there are complex cycles within cycles that are fascinating, but too complicated to go into here. The year in which you were born will always be the year in which you turn 60. This cycle was though to be the natural lifespan of a person back when Emperor HUangdi is said to have invented the Chinese calendar.
After consulting the astronomer Sosigenes, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 46 B.C. It served well for more than 1,500 years and closely resembled our calendar to day.However, it did not have any way of compensating for the discrepancies between the solar and lunar cycles, so over the course of the centuries, the dates that marked the beginning of the seasons drifted to the point where, in 1580, the spring equinox was 10 days earlier on the calendar than it was in the sky. The heavens resisted all of Pope Gregory XIII’s efforts to change them, so it was decided to change the calendar. The adjustment was made in October of 1582, and the Pope decreed that every year that was divisible by 400 would have an extra day in February, except, of course, for that double-zero thing. Now the discrepancy was down to about 26 seconds. Cool. Now the only problem is that every hundred years or so, we lose half a second because the solar year is gradually growing shorter. You might reasonably inquire, “Whut the hail you talkin’ bout, boy?” Well, because the Sun’s gravity is inexorably drawing the Earth closer, and eventually, we will all be burned to a crisp. “WHAT???” Don’t worry, you wont be here for the final dénouement; we’ll blow ourselves to smithereens long before that. “WHAT???” Or maybe we’ll all perish in a cataclysmic tsunami brought on by climate change. “WHAT???” Or… All right, all right! Jeez! Well, it could happen.
Anyway, most of Christendom adopted the new Gregorian calendar pretty quickly. Well, everyone except Great Britain and its far-flung empire. Remember that old saying, “The Sun never sets on the British Empire?” Neither did common sense, apparently. Seems Henry VIII got his ample pantaloons in a bunch when Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragorn just because she couldn’t give him a son. And we know what ol’ Hank did with wayward wives when he got in a snit. Not a good day to be the queen. Bottom line: Pronouncements from the Vatican were not greeted with joyous hosannas by those of the English persuasion for quite a while. Not until 1753, in fact.
So, we got all these calendars going at once, and not one of ‘em is dead nuts accurate even now; they’re still messin' with ‘em. One proposed revision is called the 13-Month Calendar. Each month and each year would begin on the same day the week, and each month would be exactly four weeks long. The extra month, Sol, would fall between June and July and there would be a Year Day at the end of each year that would belong to no week or month. There would still be a Leap Year Day every four years, between June 28th and July 1st. Do we get that day off with pay? Note to whomever dreamed this one up: Don’t quit your day job.
But all these calendars have one thing in common: They all have a New Year’s Day, and that means… they all have a NEW YEAR’S EVE! Ah, ah, ah, don’t pop the champagne just yet. New Year’s Day has jumped around the calendar quite a bit, too. The Chinese calendar is governed by the phases of the Moon, and even devout Muslims are never quite sure when the Islamic calendar’s New Yer might fall. The Hebrew New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is celebrated in early autumn. Festivities commence when the Rabbi lets loose a blast from the shofar. Betcha Winton Marsalis could really rip it up on a ram’s horn.
The Romans moved New Year’s Day from March to January. During the Middle Ages it was shifted back to March 25th, on Annunciation Day. The good times started on the 21st, and wound up on April 1st. Then the adoption of the Gregorian calendar kicked it back to January 1st again. Some folks resisted the change, preferring the old April 1st date. Their more progressive neighbors teased them, calling them “April Fools”. The dour Pilgrims in the New World disdained the switch because of the pagan beliefs associated with the Roman God, Janus, for whom the month is named. Too bad; a party just wasn’t the same without that crew to liven things up.
It was also the Romans who originated the idea of New Year’s resolutions. We’ve all made heartfelt promises to mend our wicked, wicked ways. Talking to Ralph on the porcelain telephone will do that to you. “Ralph! You there, Ralph? Oh, God, Ralph!” Sometimes we even stick to those resolutions for a few weeks.
I’m not a religious fellow, but the resolution that still gets my vote as the best one ever written was by the Methodist theologian, John Wesley. It goes like this:
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, for all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
And have a Happy New Year!
– An article I wrote a few years back for a local weekly paper. Thought y'all might enjoy it. A few dates have been adjusted to be current.
I find...
... bad grammar from people who should know better, especially professional writers, to be exasperating. I've seen journalists, novelists, and screenwriters succumb to this repeatedly. What, you may ask, has your bloomers in a bunch? It's this: The use of the non-word, ORIENTATE.
The word is a perversion of "orient", as in orienting one's self with a compass. "ATION" is a suffix, as in presentation. When you make a presentation, do you presentate it? God, I hope not. When you converse with someone, do you conversate? Please...
So if you were dropped on your head, you may very well suffer concussion, and when you stood up, you might be momentarily disoriented, but you would NOT be disorientated. It is worth noting that the algorithm that tried to correct me when I wrote "presentate" and "conversate" did not correct "ORIENTATE", or "disorientated". BAD algorithm.
I've found that the English seem to have a fetish for this grammatical irregularity. I read it in British novels, and hear it on British TV shows and movies with disturbing regularity. I mean, the English should be better than most, especially their colonial cousins, at speaking English, wouldn't you think?
Sigh... I guess it's just another sign of the inexorable decline of civilization. Or is that "civilizate"?
Oh, never mind. 
Talk about a tempest in a teapot...
... the MAGA room-temperature IQs wallowing in the malodorous squalor of their mother's basements are really scraping the bottom of the barrel – Cracker or otherwise – for something to get their bloomers in a bunch over, this IS the bottom, and I can pretty much guarantee you that not one these repulsive incels even knows the definition of WOKE.
For those MAGA-lumps that can actually read, I offer a little enlightenment:
"[To be] aware of, and actively attentive to, important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)"
– Merriam-Webster Dictionary
If THAT offends you, I recommend that you take a long walk off a short plank, as you offer nothing of value to the gene pool.
So we got a new baby today!
Honey is a 2-3 year-old rescue from Texas. She's about 40 pounds or so, sweet, calm, and curious. She's acclimating well, and is cool with the cats. She's a rich honey-colored mix of hound and shepherd we think, and we're really happy to have her join the family. The cats are a little more reserved, but then they're cats.
Regarding the 14th Amendment...
... There are specific procedures for amending the Constitution, and Trump issuing one of his asinine edicts via Executive Order ain’t one of ‘em. He is a pathological liar who considers himself the king of America. He isn’t. He’s just a loudmouthed asshole with delusions of grandeur. Not even the grotesquely corrupt Roberts Court can decree Birthright Citizenship null and void.
And shithead should consider the fact that half his spawn would be subject to deportation even if he could rescind Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, WHICH. HE. CANNOT. DO!
Make America a failure...
... is the prime directive that Vladimir Putin gave to Trump, the Republican assholes that visited him in Moscow on July 4th, 2018, and, by extension, ALL of those who commit treason on a daily basis by serving Trump – NOT America – because Trump's malignant narcissism means that consideration of others is not a concept that ever crosses his mind. And in that fevered mind, everyone and everything is supposed to exist to serve him, and when that doesn't happen, for whatever reason, he lashes out with malicious vengeance, because he is a psychotic monster.
Trump is evil, but he is Putin's puppet. A weakened America ruled by Trump will not be able stand in the way of Putin's objective of expanding his domain by the military invasion of neighboring countries once under Soviet control, and then the rest of Europe once he has control over the military forces of the newly subjugated former Soviet states. He will not stop until he dies, either naturally, or by defenestration, which would serve the fucker right.
Trump is key to Putin's plan, and must be stopped at any cost. Failure to do so WILL result in America becoming a Russian satellite totally dominated by Putin's ruthless psychopathy. Pol Pot's Cambodian killing fields will look like a rose garden in comparison to the horrors that Putin will visit upon us through Trump and his malignant minions. If you doubt it for a single second, then you're not paying attention. In only four months we have seen unspeakable crimes committed by the ICE Gestapo, and they're just getting warmed up.
With Trump, loyalty is a one-way street: you are loyal to him, NOT the other way around. Ever. Even his most slavishly devoted sycophants will be fed to the wood chipper as soon as they are no longer of any use to him. We've already seen it happen countless times, and those True Believers who refuse to believe their own eyes will be the next to be disappeared. After his critics are murdered, or sent to El Salvadoran prisons.
Trump voters, the death of America will be on YOU.
*Thanks to Irish Dem for suggesting that I make this an OP.
This IS the Republican Party...
... mindless malice, deliberate cruelty, blatant defiance of the rule of law, up to and including Trump's refusal to abide by Supreme Court decisions, Gestapo-like ICE raids on private homes with NO evidence, and NO warrants, while they steal property and cash.
Trump is THEIR monster; they own it. They started out lovin' it; they wanted to rule over the ashes of what was once a great nation, but then the consequences of Trump's self-serving greed and malice began to impact them, and now they're just too chickenshit to stop him.
Can't help but wonder why, when they know that light at the end of the tunnel is a train, they refuse to get off the tracks. Maybe they're more afraid of what Trump's brain-dead "base" might visit upon them, than they are of a certain, and very messy, death.
And then there's Vlad. That boy is nuts. And deadly. Ya gotta know that he's got his blood-soaked hands in this, probably up to his elbows. Would he Drop The Big One to see what happens? Definitely a possibility we should not discount.
On the flip side, a very dedicated and courageous few – TOO few – are standing up to that evil sonofabitch, but he's just itchin' for any excuse to declare martial law, 'cause then it's game over. Or so he thinks.
In the immortal words of Calvin and Hobbes, Updates As Events Warrant.
Here's a question...
... I've yet to hear anyone address: How are all the state-run unemployment agencies going to handle the tidal wave of claims from now-jobless skilled workers and functionaries that are descending on offices across the country? Add to that the inevitable slashing of federal funding to the states, and there just might be a bit of a problem, doncha think?
Hmmm... it'd be fun to watch Musk get tag-teamed in a cage match with an endless line of civil servants he fired. I'd definitely pay to see that!
I was told...
... by a helpful fellow Duer that I should use Imgur.com to upload images to DU, but Imgur doesn't appear to offer any guidance to achieve this. I'm also having a hard time uploading photos from my iPhone to my Mac (OS Ventura 13.7.4). I use a PC at work and have no difficulties whatsoever loading pix directly from my phone to Photoshop. Not so with my Mac. Many bad words were said.
Any advice will be immensely appreciated.
Our local bear has awakened from his nap...
... and he is HUNGRY! Our tenant forgot to bring in her brand new steel bird feeder the other night. Blackie crumpled it like tin foil. People forget just how monstrously strong bears are. A few years ago, some coworkers and I watched a bear nearly tip over a full-to-the-brim industrial dumpster. The garbage truck groans lifting that thing. The bear hoisted it like it was a box of cornflakes.
I got a picture of our bear early one morning as he sat on the wall of our stone patio not ten feet away from me, with only the French doors between us. Lord of all he surveyed. If I ever get around to figuring out how to do it, I'll post that photo.
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Member since: Thu Oct 19, 2023, 04:56 PMNumber of posts: 3,618