No chance for writing these days, any time I have to spare (which isn't a lot) is spent studying and writing essays, and trying to maintain some kind of cleanliness in the pigsty I call home...
In about 6 weeks I have exams and then I will have a few months off study at least, so hopefully my little darling will sometimes spare me time to write a story or two.
I also look forward to catching up on all your blogs and escapades...I have not forgotten any of you, I'm just hibernating my writing-self.
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Friday, June 25, 2010
If we only invented certain things now
I wondered before what kind of world we would live in if time measurements were only invented now . Thinking about this some more, I wondered about other things and how they would be perceived if only just dreamed up today.
On the time thing again say, would the USA permit itself to be at the end of the day? It seems to me like they would want the International Date Line placed somewhere in the Atlantic so they would be the first to experience any new date - and the Europeans would be the last.
Something else which came to my mind though is not really anything to do with time.
In today's world, if someone came up with the idea of a public library, would they be denounced as promoting illegal file-sharing? Think about what a library is.
A library is: A building which houses many books. Many of the greatest books ever written. A mixture of everything from cookbooks to novels to poetry to textbooks as well as archives of old newspapers and access to various kinds of information about the locality. All available for people to borrow and read or partake of for FREE. (The library board pays a fee to compensate the authors of the books, but ultimately they make much less than they would were each person who reads the book courtesy of the library to instead purchase a copy).
Anyone who came up with this idea now would probably be denounced as a bleeding heart commie or something.
So I, personally, am very glad at least that libraries have been around for a long time, and hope they continue to be!
On the time thing again say, would the USA permit itself to be at the end of the day? It seems to me like they would want the International Date Line placed somewhere in the Atlantic so they would be the first to experience any new date - and the Europeans would be the last.
Something else which came to my mind though is not really anything to do with time.
In today's world, if someone came up with the idea of a public library, would they be denounced as promoting illegal file-sharing? Think about what a library is.
A library is: A building which houses many books. Many of the greatest books ever written. A mixture of everything from cookbooks to novels to poetry to textbooks as well as archives of old newspapers and access to various kinds of information about the locality. All available for people to borrow and read or partake of for FREE. (The library board pays a fee to compensate the authors of the books, but ultimately they make much less than they would were each person who reads the book courtesy of the library to instead purchase a copy).
Anyone who came up with this idea now would probably be denounced as a bleeding heart commie or something.
So I, personally, am very glad at least that libraries have been around for a long time, and hope they continue to be!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
If we only now started to measure time
If we only got around to measuring time in today's world, it would probably be measured in metric form of some sort. How long would a second last? The same as now? Or shorter, or longer? Would it change our conception of an instant? Would it be ten or a hundred seconds per hour? How many hours per day?
Would we be in a ten day working week? How many days off would be standard in that? Maybe three? Would three days weekend followed by seven days of work be better or worse than what we have now? What would the days of the week be called? Would they be boringly labelled as One, Two, etc?
Maybe there would only be ten months in the year? Would that play havoc with our notion of seasons? Maybe it shows how far removed we are from nature, if it did work like that?
However, the world can't be made to fit a system we come up with. Ever 4 years there's that extra day to add on - and no system could account for a quarter of a day. Some stuff was made up so we can organise ourselves and each other, but days and years exist, regardless of whether we pay them attention or not! And seeing as humanity seem to have a desire to measure everything and then create standardised measurements of everything, perhaps this is a good thing!
Would we be in a ten day working week? How many days off would be standard in that? Maybe three? Would three days weekend followed by seven days of work be better or worse than what we have now? What would the days of the week be called? Would they be boringly labelled as One, Two, etc?
Maybe there would only be ten months in the year? Would that play havoc with our notion of seasons? Maybe it shows how far removed we are from nature, if it did work like that?
However, the world can't be made to fit a system we come up with. Ever 4 years there's that extra day to add on - and no system could account for a quarter of a day. Some stuff was made up so we can organise ourselves and each other, but days and years exist, regardless of whether we pay them attention or not! And seeing as humanity seem to have a desire to measure everything and then create standardised measurements of everything, perhaps this is a good thing!
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