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Cleanin waffle irons.

Something not mentioned.

[westrim]

Making the next thread early, because I really don't want to have to Liam Neeson anyone. I suppose the poll could have been about music, but I know nothing so you get antics instead.

[Pilchard123]

Romantic feelings will be expressed - but either inadvertently or not toward Marten. A terrible pun will be summoned to break the ensuing awkwardness, but serve only to make things worse. Marten being a (physically or emotionally) punching bag is a given.

[Method of Madness]

Liam Neeson anyone?

[Masterpiece]

Am I the only one who had to think of this:



when they read something coarse?

[westrim]

Liam Neeson anyone?

After the movie Taken, Liam Neeson's already memetic badassery could be summarized as "I don't want to hurt you, but if I have to I will annihilate you." In this instance, Is it cold in here?, Kugai, or anyone else that might ninja me on making the thread. Again.

[jwhouk]

Monday's edition (should there be one, due to the holiday) would be 2456, thanks to the guest strip - Just sayin'.

[Zebediah]

Alcohol will be consumed awkwardly.

[Method of Madness]

So the numbers are better now, back to ending weeks in 5/0. Hooray!

[Pilchard123]

I don't know if it's a holdover from what code-bashing I do, but I actually prefer it when the weeks start with 0/5.

[Zebediah]

And now you're going to have every OCD person on the forum having an internal war about whether it's better if the weeks begin or end on 0/5.

Well played. Well played. 

[Loki]

Can anyone think of a quotient ring/residue-class ring that would facilitate both versions? I am too tired to think of one right now. (But I am not too tired to think of the possibility.) Or, alternately, disprove that such a ring exists.

[Kugai]

*Cue Michael Buffer*

[Pilchard123]

No, though I can think of a way to make it work. But it uses cookies.

*glass breaks, scream*

[Is it cold in here?]

http://xkcd.com/163/

[GarandMarine]

I hope they have a long discussion about which plant harvesting method is most brutal, my vote is for wheat cause back in the day scythes were involved, now hugefuckamungous auto scythe doom machines are used and yearly slaughter millions of tiny critters like shrews and field mice as they harvest grain for our breakfast cereal. THAT my friends is fucking brutally awesome

[Pilchard123]

Have you ever read Reaper Man? (Yes, it's Discworld. Yes, I know I should get out more.)

[rschill]

I don't see Clair having a huge crush on Marten so far.  Some attraction yes, but not a huge crush like what's been shown with other characters. 

Have you ever read Reaper Man? (Yes, it's Discworld. Yes, I know I should get out more.)

Has anyone done a song for Pratchett's Reaper Man to the tune of  Cab Calloway's Reefer Man?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D44pyeEvhcQ

[Carl-E]

I hope they have a long discussion about which plant harvesting method is most brutal, my vote is for wheat cause back in the day scythes were involved, now hugefuckamungous auto scythe doom machines are used and yearly slaughter millions of tiny critters like shrews and field mice as they harvest grain for our breakfast cereal. THAT my friends is fucking brutally awesome

Field mice run from big and noisy.  But you know those people who promote eating insects? 


We already do.  More than you'd probably likr to think. 



By the way, anyone seen any cicadas yet? 

[bryntheskits]

I don't know if it's a holdover from what code-bashing I do, but I actually prefer it when the weeks start with 0/5.

I'm totally ok with array and the like starting at position 0, but with Date variables most of the systems lable January as the 0th month, how does that make sense.

(click to show/hide)

Screw you Java.

/rant

[Is it cold in here?]

I hope they have a long discussion about which plant harvesting method is most brutal, my vote is for wheat cause back in the day scythes were involved, now hugefuckamungous auto scythe doom machines are used and yearly slaughter millions of tiny critters like shrews and field mice as they harvest grain for our breakfast cereal. THAT my friends is fucking brutally awesome

Reaper Madness!

[Sidhekin]

If a week starts with day 0 and ends on day 6, I assume it's Sunday to Saturday, AKA a "traditional" week.

If a week starts with day 1 and ends on day 7, I assume it's Monday to Sunday, AKA a "standard" week (ISO, even).

Either way, 1 through 6 are Monday through Saturday, and both 0 and 7 are unambiguously Sunday.

January as month 0 is a whole lot older than Java, and it makes a certain measure of sense.  Actually, it makes great sense, old-style low-level programming wise.  But these days, most programmers never need touch the low-level stuff, and should instead use proper high-level packages that present an interface more accessible to humans.  (Where propriety and accessibility dictate January is the 1st month.  Anybody tell you differently, they're stuck-in-the-past programmers.  Or trolling.)

[Loki]

If a week starts with day 0 and ends on day 6, I assume it's Sunday to Saturday, AKA a "traditional" week.

It embarrasses me to say that, but I only just now understood why Sunday would be the first day. I blame my lack of Christian education and the fact that the country I grew up in uses the ISO standard.

[Method of Madness]

Except Christianity has Sunday as day 7.

[Akima]

Field mice run from big and noisy.

Like this!

[Sidhekin]

Except Christianity has Sunday as day 7.

Not universally.  The Sabbath is the seventh day (day 6 to old-style low-level programmers), and it's (usually?) recognized as Saturday.

Sunday is the Holy Day, though, but I think that is in reference to the Resurrection.  And why not?  It's the defining moment of Christianity.  Can't have any other day steal the limelight. 

[PintsizeForPresident]

About the date thingy: During an astronomy course we had to convert ordinary dates into julian dates. The julian date is simply a day count, with day 0 somewhere in prehistory; this dating system makes it easy to date astronomical phenomena in a consistent fashion.

To do this conversion we had a table which showed the julian date of the start of each month. But to simplify calculations the table showed the julian date of the 0th day of each month, defined as the day before the 1st day of the month (i.e., the last day of the previous month). For instance, the table would show that 0 january 2000 is JD 2451544, which means that 13 january is JD 2451544 + 13.

[pwhodges]

The pattern of the Gregorian calendar repeats every four thousand years.  I once gave as a programming exercise (to people I was teaching BCPL) to work out the differences in frequencies that each date in the month falls on each day of the week within a full cycle.  It turns out that

(click to show/hide)

the 13th day of the month falls more often on a Friday than any other day, and that this is the most marked deviation from the average of any date/day pairing.

[Skewbrow]

The pattern of the Gregorian calendar repeats every four thousand years. 

I think four hundred years is enough, if you only worry about which day of the week falls on which date. This is because in every span of 400 years there are exactly 97 leap years. On a regular year the calendar moves up one week day (because 365 is congruent to 1 modulo 7), and on a leap year the calendar moves up 2 week days (well, there will be one extra day). Therefore in a span of 400 years the calendar will have moved up 400+97=497 days, which is a multiple of seven, so the calendar repeats.

This, of course, ignores things like the location of the Easter which depends on the cycle of full moons. Because the length of the Moons period is (most likely) not a rational multiple of days (and it actually varies, as tidal forces and such affect the Moon's motion), that is unlikely to repeat exactly. At least not from here to eternity. Well, the Gregorian calendar itself will deviate from the "true" Solar calendar eventually, so this last point is kinda moot.

[Method of Madness]

The Sabbath is the seventh day (day 6 to old-style low-level programmers), and it's (usually?) recognized as Saturday.

Sunday is the Holy Day, though

I thought Sunday was the Sabbath (and therefore the holy day) in at least most branches of Christianity.

[Zebediah]

"Sabbath" refers specifically to the Jewish observance, which is from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. In most branches of Christianity Sunday is the "Lord's Day", which has taken on some of the functions and symbolism of the Jewish sabbath and which is therefore sometimes called the "Christian sabbath".

[Method of Madness]

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure Sabbath just refers to the holy day in general, not just the Jewish one.

[Sidhekin]

Well, in the Bible, the day between the Crucifixion (Good Friday) and the Resurrection (Easter Sunday) is repeatedly made clear to be the Sabbath.  If you read the account, you can't miss it.

In English dictionaries, however, the Sunday is also the Sabbath, among "most Christians".

Oh well.  Write that up to my non-native English: In Norwegian, the word "sabbat", when used, always refers to Saturday.

[Method of Madness]

If you read the account

I think it's clear that I haven't

[Carl-E]

As a non-christian, I find I've gotten great cultural benefits from reading the bible.  I've read some of the Q'oran as well, and some select sections of the Bhavagad Gita. 

[Sidhekin]

Yeah, the Bible is useful even for its cultural references.

Kinda like Shakespeare. 

[Kugai]

Well, Shakespeare is good for learning ancient Danish Politics   

[ankhtahr]

I think reading the Edda is pretty useful as well.

By the way, I just realised how serious Angus' desire to move is.

[Method of Madness]

I've always meant to read the major religious texts, just haven't gotten around to it.

[Sorflakne]

I've always meant to read the major religious texts, just haven't gotten around to it.

The world was created by a divine being or beings out of a formless void and some people extolled the god(s) they worshiped and were either accepted into some afterlife or were damned and then in the end, the divine being(s) destroys the world.

There you go.  Every religious text ever summarized in one sentence.

[KOK]

The pattern of the Gregorian calendar repeats every four thousand years. 

I think four hundred years is enough, if you only worry about which day of the week falls on which date. This is because in every span of 400 years there are exactly 97 leap years. On a regular year the calendar moves up one week day (because 365 is congruent to 1 modulo 7), and on a leap year the calendar moves up 2 week days (well, there will be one extra day). Therefore in a span of 400 years the calendar will have moved up 400+97=497 days, which is a multiple of seven, so the calendar repeats.

This, of course, ignores things like the location of the Easter which depends on the cycle of full moons. Because the length of the Moons period is (most likely) not a rational multiple of days (and it actually varies, as tidal forces and such affect the Moon's motion), that is unlikely to repeat exactly. At least not from here to eternity. Well, the Gregorian calendar itself will deviate from the "true" Solar calendar eventually, so this last point is kinda moot.

The Gregorian calendar actually does contain rules for calculating the exact date of easter. The official full moon dates repeat in a cycle of 19 years. Every time a leap year is skipped, the dates are moved one day to compensate. Since the 19 year cycle is not exact, the dates are moved one day every 300 years. Once every 2500 years, the period between adjustments is 400 years in stead of 300, giving a cycle of 2500 years. The dates were moved in 1700 and in 1800. In 1900 a leap year was skipped, but it was 300 years since the system was started, and the two adjustments canceled out. In 2000 the leap year was not skipped, so no adjustment.

This does not mean that the date of easter repeats in a cycle of 2500 years, only that the official date of the full moon does.  Easter is the first sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. How long the cycle is for this I don't know, and it is moot anyway since the system is not going to be in use for that long.

[Valdís]

The world was created by a divine being or beings out of a formless void and some people extolled the god(s) they worshiped and were either accepted into some afterlife or were damned and then in the end, the divine being(s) destroys the world.

There you go.  Every religious text ever summarized in one sentence.

..Only if by "Every religious text" you mean "The Abrahamic religious texts".

[Loki]

I think Church of Mormon, while arguably Abrahamic in nature, doesn't mention anything about the end of the world.

In fact, I think most religions don't have anything on end of the world. Three that I can think of right now (that don't) are Egyptian myths, Church of Satan and the World of Warcraft lore (okay, that probably shouldn't count in so far that it is more like history). I am also not sure that Scientology has anything on creation of the world.

I have a Koran somewhere. Got it handed for free, probably from salafists. I should get around to reading it at some point, but, quite frankly, it's rather boring (no offense intended).

[Masterpiece]

How could you! This is the sacred text of Islam and I take offen... nah couldn't keep a straight face, you go on.

[westrim]

I am also not sure that Scientology has anything on creation of the world.

Oh, it does, and it is hilarious. Or it would be, if millions of people weren't conned into believing bad scifi is the Truth. Link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_%28Scientology%29#Incident_I

[Loki]

I... see. I didn't know that.

I now long for my blissful ignorance of a few minutes ago.

[ankhtahr]

About the Scientology thing: Southpark actually had a rather accurate summary of this. Here is a video which compares a description with the South Park depiction:

The Edda is imho one of the more interesting books of religion. Also it's really just a collection of old poems and stories.

The Hávamál is a great read e.g. (which is where the quote from Valdís' signature originates). It's basically a loose collection of tips on how it's best to lead your life, but only tips, no requirements.

[Loki]

How come everyone knows more about Norse Mythology than me? I didn't know you need to be a friggin Norse Mythology major to read this comic!

Oh well. I can blame it on Ankh being further up north than me. 

[ankhtahr]

Well, that and I feel myself connected to Ásatrú (translates to "Asentreue" in German, or "Faith in the Ćsir"), which is basically the old Norse belief.

I wouldn't say that I believe in the Norse gods, it's just that I consider it to be the religion in which I would put the most trust. I might word it as not believing, but hoping.

Edit: also if you want to learn more about the Norse belief system, read the Edda. Start with the prosaic Edda. The best (and cheapest) translation available in German is by Arnulf Krause. The typical translations (Karl Simrock and Felix Genzmer) try too hard to keep the sound of the poems and stories, which makes them very hard to read. That might be wanted in the poetic Edda, but not for the prosaic. So if you want a good introduction buy "Die Edda des Snorri Sturluson" and "Die Götterlieder der Älteren Edda" in the "Reclam" edition. Cheap, but good. You miss about a third then (which is in a third book), but it's a very good introduction, and contains most of the important stuff. Read the prosaic Edda then and keep the poetic Edda at hand, as the prosaic Edda refers to the poetic Edda multiple times.

Oh, and by the way, skip the prologue of the prosaic Edda. It was written, when most of the Nordics were already christianised, so the prologue tries to fit the Norse myths into a Christian environment.

[pwhodges]

The pattern of the Gregorian calendar repeats every four thousand years. 

I think four hundred years is enough,

Oops - just a slip of the memory (not working it out or anything).

[Akima]

I've always meant to read the major religious texts, just haven't gotten around to it.

Here's a copy of the standard edition of the Pali Canon. Enjoy! When you have finished that, you can start on the hundred or so volumes of the Dŕzŕngjīng (大藏經 or Great Treasury of Sutras) regarded as canonical in East Asian Mahayana Buddhism. There won't be a test:
 
All composed things are like a dream,
a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning.
That is how to meditate on them,
that is how to observe them.