2,000-yr Old Sundial Changes Perception of Ancient Rome

Haaretz ^ | Nov 08, 2017 | Ruth Schuster

[HypatiaTaught]

One more thought...

Another reason to Hate Bush!

On Monday August 8, 2005 President Bush signed into law a broad energy bill (Energy Policy Act of 2005) that extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks beginning in 2007. ... Previously, Daylight Saving Time started on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October.

This is the reason we are off by one month.

BOOM!

[American Quilter]

My sister was once bitten by a tubula...

[Svartalfiar]

The net difference of the current setup is one month deficit.

You don’t get the hour back if the months are not balanced.

Tell me where I am wrong.

How do you not get the hour back? All the days in between are still 24 hours. You just have one 23 hour day in spring, and a 25 hour day in fall. The rest aren't losing or gaining anything.

Let's take a one-month paycheck, four weeks. $10 an hour for easy math. You would make $1600 for the month - $400 each week. BUT, let's say the first day, the boss takes out a $20 deposit, but gives it back at the start of week four. Now, the first week, you only make $380. Because the first day is -$20, but all the other days are your regular pay. Weeks two and three will still be $400, and your last week will be $420, because the first day you got $20 extra. Your total is still $1600.

[HypatiaTaught]

You just have one 23 hour day in spring, and a 25 hour day in fall.
______________________________________

Currently, the Spring Forward cycle lasts: 7 months
and The Fall Back Cycle lasts: 5 months

You don’t think this is an issue? Should it not be 6 months and 6 months?

Remember,

On Monday August 8, 2005 President Bush signed into law a broad energy bill that “extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks” beginning in 2007. Since 1986 the United States had observed Daylight Saving Time from the first Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October.

[colorado tanker]

That is a remarkable artifact, but I don’t know that it changes anyone’s views on ancient Rome.

[HandyDandy]

Did Bush then decree that smoke detectors must come with 5 month and 7 month batteries?

[NativeSon]

Paper is important but less important, IMO. I believe the Romans used was tablets as well.

What the Romans had was Latin and the alphabet to make known.

Many civilizations had a "written" language but not all of them could be widely learned and easily reproduced.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The Romans used wax tablets for things that were not important like jotting note to yourself or a child's lessons.

They even had paper menus which often were recycled by writing on the other side.

While an phonetic alphabet is important there are a number of civilizations who did just fine without it. China being one, Egypt being another.

But when you had paper was when you had wide spread literacy.

If there is nothing interesting to read there is no reason for people to care to learn. And while parchment has it's good points, it was way to expensive to use for writing the latest thriller on.

Expensive writing material, a very select few read or write and mostly only on religious or practical subject. Cheap writing material, lots of people read and there are all kinds of books including a great deal of fiction and poetry.

[NativeSon]

The fact that boring, regular writing were found, is demonstrative of use of The language.

China, Egypt, Aztecs, Myans - did not create a lasting empire to dominate the world.

Not saying that paper was/is not important but if what you put on it are glyphs & icons whose meaning are transient at times and difficult to effectively learn, it's still not that much of an advantage.

How about a manual typewriter with 50k keys for Chinese?

[Svartalfiar]

You don’t think this is an issue? Should it not be 6 months and 6 months?

I don't like doing DST at all. But the time periods don't really matter - they were extended to match the sunlight hours better. You don't lose any extra time there, the sun is just in a slightly different spot given any arbitrary time.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

China and Egypt did not create lasting empires to dominate the world?

You need to brush up on your history.

The Chinese Empire lasted for thousands of years and, at it's peak controlled more people and land then did Rome. Certainly in the invention area it dominated the world.

While the Egyptian Empire was not as large it also lasted for over a thousand years and certainly did dominate culturally.

The Roman Empire does not even make the top ten of empires that dominated the world.

It is just the one that we tend to study the most.

[NativeSon]

My point is more complex than that but I type painfully slow so took the lazy route...

Our world is the result of European achievement. It matters little what "empire" ruled more land/people or the longest; it's about today and tomorrow.

I do appreciate the dialog, your reasoning behind selecting paper as most important is the same reasoning for my candidate.