I would say it isn’t that stupid. The old humans picked one of the extremes, in this case the most complete absence of the sun (which includes the lowest point in the sky for some of the Vikings etc.) to mark this change. I think if they had picked midday we would have the same argument just about the daytime. And if they had picked any other time there would have to have been a “good” reason, like a religious one. It’s the time of day Mohammed went to Medina or the Buddha looked at nirvana. Otherwise the old humans wouldn’t have been onboard with that decision for centuries.
Time keeping is like the imperial system of measurements. It works but it doesn’t make a lot of fucking sense.
But 00:01 is clearly still night. Night is typically considered from dusk til dawn.
So if we say “the night of the 2nd” then that’s from dusk til 23:59:59 of the 2nd.
Which is then followed by night that isn’t the night of the 2nd nor night of the 3rd.
And I’d say “before dawn” or “early morning” of the 3rd would be problematically ambiguous.
“early morning of the 3rd” and “before dawn of the 3rd” definitely would not become 00:00—8:00 of the 2nd, and that’s all that matters imo for the practical utility of delineating borders between days in the first place. i also like organizing things but i see absolutely no way to define “organized” for this lol
I don’t understand what you mean here, why would “before dawn of the 3rd” become 00:00-08:00 of the 2nd?
I’m saying to shift what 00:00 is, to align with dawn(ish), so that a calendar day is comprised of a contiguous day followed by a contiguous night, which is how we typically intuit about days anyways when we aren’t talking about time.
I know there are practical modern issues with this, but this is a silly post about how unsatisfying it is for the day to start at midnight
You have a choice in life. You can accept certain things you cannot change. This one, you won’t change. Even if you spearheaded a popular movement I doubt you’ll get it changed. Everybody hates DLST and we still can’t get rid of it.
So I suggest you adapt your language. You don’t talk about the night of the fifth but the night from the fifth to the sixth. Three additional syllables in this case and the confusion evaporates quickly. You’re focusing on the perceived problem and not on the solution. If you do resolutions for the new year, maybe add that point to your list.
I would say it isn’t that stupid. The old humans picked one of the extremes, in this case the most complete absence of the sun (which includes the lowest point in the sky for some of the Vikings etc.) to mark this change. I think if they had picked midday we would have the same argument just about the daytime. And if they had picked any other time there would have to have been a “good” reason, like a religious one. It’s the time of day Mohammed went to Medina or the Buddha looked at nirvana. Otherwise the old humans wouldn’t have been onboard with that decision for centuries.
Time keeping is like the imperial system of measurements. It works but it doesn’t make a lot of fucking sense.
I hate it, because each calendar day has two half-nights.
Like… So if you say “the night of the 5th” is that before dawn or after dusk?
i’ve never seen someone who takes that as “before dawn”. night is after dusk, midnight’s before dawn
Right.
But 00:01 is clearly still night. Night is typically considered from dusk til dawn.
So if we say “the night of the 2nd” then that’s from dusk til 23:59:59 of the 2nd.
Which is then followed by night that isn’t the night of the 2nd nor night of the 3rd.
And I’d say “before dawn” or “early morning” of the 3rd would be problematically ambiguous.
“early morning of the 3rd” and “before dawn of the 3rd” definitely would not become 00:00—8:00 of the 2nd, and that’s all that matters imo for the practical utility of delineating borders between days in the first place. i also like organizing things but i see absolutely no way to define “organized” for this lol
I don’t understand what you mean here, why would “before dawn of the 3rd” become 00:00-08:00 of the 2nd?
I’m saying to shift what 00:00 is, to align with dawn(ish), so that a calendar day is comprised of a contiguous day followed by a contiguous night, which is how we typically intuit about days anyways when we aren’t talking about time.
I know there are practical modern issues with this, but this is a silly post about how unsatisfying it is for the day to start at midnight
The night of the 5th would be sometime after 4pm on the 5th.
What is confusing about this?
Right, but then how do you refer to before 5am on the 5th?
That’s not morning, and it’s not the night of the 4th. It’s awkward.
But more importantly, it’s ugly. It’s not how we intuit about days. It’s unsatisfying.
5 am is the morning. This isn’t negotiable. You’re wrong.
00:01 isn’t the morning. This isn’t negotiable. You’re wrong.
You have a choice in life. You can accept certain things you cannot change. This one, you won’t change. Even if you spearheaded a popular movement I doubt you’ll get it changed. Everybody hates DLST and we still can’t get rid of it.
So I suggest you adapt your language. You don’t talk about the night of the fifth but the night from the fifth to the sixth. Three additional syllables in this case and the confusion evaporates quickly. You’re focusing on the perceived problem and not on the solution. If you do resolutions for the new year, maybe add that point to your list.
I mean, I’m having fun arguing pedantics, but this is a pretty silly post. There is no room here for real practical solutions!