User:Wesley Ellis

TIME IS AN ABSTRACT CONCEPT APPLIED ARBITRARILY.

When I was a young school boy I was introduced to the confusion of time with the birthday of our first President of these United States. Old style was 11 February 1731. The New style and current rekoning is 22 February 1732. As a six year old boy that Fall of 1957 this was indeed a confusing time.

I knew that the world existed before I was born but was unsure of its rekoning. the "Big Bang" that started our Universe was I am told some fourteen billion years ago. Leap years included I suspect.

It was several years later in my scholastic endeavors that I learned to understand history. And herstory. Our story too. We as a nation are just teenagers in the realm of things.

And just whose New Year is the correct rekoning? Just a few here for "show and tell"; This is now 2002, or is it really the Hebrew Rosh hashanah 5962? Or TET 4700, the Year of the Horse? Maybe the year 2626 in Buddha(nese)? In November the Islam Ramadan for year or Hegira 1381 begins.

It was in 1752 that time was changed here. One night you would go to bed on the second of October and wake up the next day on the thirteenth and only have sleep eight to ten hours! 1752 would be the last year that would begin on the Vernal equinox in March. 1752 would be the first to end on December 31 and 1753 would be the first to begin on January 1.

Why? Our seasons were getting out of synchronization with the SUN. And so the Gregorian of 1582 was to replace the faulty Julian calendar used since the times of the Bible and Jesus.

Adjustments so we could live a better life. And the concept of Standard Time and DayLight Savings Time was introduced by Benj. Franklin to conserve the young nations supply of coal oil (energy).

Today we accept this for the sake and safety of school children and so the first Sunday of April we leap ahead one hour and then on the last Sunday in October we fall back one hour. It is the Law. Except for those whom are out of synchronization.

In 1883 the railroads introduced Time Zones to keep their trains on schedule. the world accepted these twenty-four hour increments as a practical solution to every fifteen degrees of longtitude.

All the major religions say these are the "end times" but I do not know. So will wait and see. Will I get to see the day Friday 21 December 2012 when the calendar of TONATIUH ends? My computer has WordPerfect which has a calendar that goes to April 19, 65493. Microsoft uses a calendar that begins January 1, 1980 and goes to December 31, 2099 unless you are using EXCEL spreadsheet which only goes to December 31, 2078. And Lotus 1-2-3 uses a calendar that reckons from Midnite on Sunday 31 December 1899 to 2099. Quattro Pro starts from Saturday 1 March 1800 through to Thursday 31 December 2099. Macintosh "Apple" uses a reckoning of January 2, 1904 to December 31, 2099. And I had a DOS program that uses a time reference of Saturday 1 January 1583 to Friday 31 December 9999.

In Washington, District of Columbia is a atomic clock that uses the element number fifty-five CESIUM that has a vibration rate of sixty million times a second. Global Position Satellites use it for reference. Accuracy has become very important.

And by the way do you know what time it is? Here in PDX at midnite it is 10PM in Honolulu. Standard time. No Day Light Savings in Hawaii needed, thankyou. And in Welington New Zealand it is only 8PM. But it is the next day there or twenty hours ahead of our clock in PDX. Oh well.

Semper Fidelis, Wesley Ellis Portland Oregon July 2003