This is year 2514, not 2007

[three and four]

From Tokyo to Seattle, via Moscow and Pretoria, it’s mostly agreed that this is year 2007. Talk about cultural imperialism. Well, I like Jesus, he was a nice guy (turning the other cheek, not judging and all that) – but I really don’t agree with any of the fairytales about him being the son of the magical being who created this here earth we live on. Get real, please. So, why should the supposed date of his birth (which we’ve gotten wrong, anyway) be the basis for the whole planet’s calendar? Ridiculous. So I propose the following: why not take the birth of democracy as our starting point? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleisthenes In 507 or 508 (BC, sorry), the Ancient Greeks put a pretty good idea into practice, and suddenly, democracy was born. I think this would be a much, much better starting point for our calendars than some myth that not only a lot of people don’t believe, but that has nothing to do with most people on the planet. Any other suggestions for good starting points for our current calendar?

[Merlock]

Too much change for something not enough people care about. It's easier to leave it the way it is, no matter what the origin, really.

[three and four]

"something not enough people care about". Humm, do you really think that not that many people care about democracy? (or is it just you?)

[Jeff777]

First you cretons decide (after centuries) to take away pluto's planet status, then you get together and set our times back, and now you want to put us in the year 2514?! When it's my turn to do something drastic to the history of the earth...i'm going to add an extra month to the summer holiday so we can have 3 month vacations. p.s. 3 & 4, I think things should stay the way they are...too much change could throw us back into the dark ages.

[pj]

Democracy is mob rule. Fine for the majority of wolves, not so great for the minority of sheep, and certainly not more worthy of universal recognition than Jesus' slightly inaccurate birth year. It doesn't matter, so long as we all track things the same way. We do. I'd rather expend effort on fixing things that are really causing trouble, like corruption, tyranny, democracy, etc.

[Sornaensis]

Because Christians rule the world, unfortunatley. SO the rest of us must conform.

[Michael]

"something not enough people care about". Humm, do you really think that not that many people care about democracy? (or is it just you?) No. We don't care about what year it is. Year 2007 sounds good to me. Why not change it to year 4.5 billion since that's how long our planet has been around? Because nobody cares.

[Sornaensis]

No. We don't care about what year it is. Year 2007 sounds good to me. Why not change it to year 4.5 billion since that's how long our planet has been around? Because nobody cares. We wouldn't change it to 4.5 Billion yrs AD, because it is only 2514 AD. Duh.

[Siиdяed]

Just...no...

[Replicon]

So I propose the following: why not take the birth of democracy as our starting point? Too many software changes. end of discussion.

[♥Mark]

Who cares?

[Sornaensis]

Who cares? Oh, some 16,000,00 Programmers worldwide .

[♥Mark]

Oh, some 16,000,00 Programmers worldwide . I meant who cares enough to change it, but you probably knew that.

[Universal Mind]

From Tokyo to Seattle, via Moscow and Pretoria, it’s mostly agreed that this is year 2007. Talk about cultural imperialism. Well, I like Jesus, he was a nice guy (turning the other cheek, not judging and all that) – but I really don’t agree with any of the fairytales about him being the son of the magical being who created this here earth we live on. Get real, please. So, why should the supposed date of his birth (which we’ve gotten wrong, anyway) be the basis for the whole planet’s calendar? Ridiculous. So I propose the following: why not take the birth of democracy as our starting point? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleisthenes In 507 or 508 (BC, sorry), the Ancient Greeks put a pretty good idea into practice, and suddenly, democracy was born. I think this would be a much, much better starting point for our calendars than some myth that not only a lot of people don’t believe, but that has nothing to do with most people on the planet. Any other suggestions for good starting points for our current calendar? Oh no. My favorite decade is the 1970's, and I don't want to have to suddenly start calling it something else. But if we must... How about that day the god of pine trees shot that bolt of lightning at a village for being gay but stood in front of the lightning so he would get zapped to a crisp instead of them because he loved them so much?

[Siиdяed]

Wow. Where can I sign up for such a religion?

[♥Mark]

Right here! Become a Gold Member for only four low montly payments of $55.95!

[Siиdяed]

What's the Silver deal like? I'm tight on religious expenditure this year. My salvation comes after paying for the groceries.

[skysaw]

I agree that basing it on Jesus is a little silly, but after all, that's when we started counting. I prefer just to think of it as "2007 years since we started counting." Sure, there were other counting systems, but this one is pretty ingrained. There are billions of written records with this dating system on it. If we change the system, we'll have to also keep track of which system something was dated in... end result: we don't get to drop A.D. after all.

[♥Mark]

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[three and four]

Oh no. My favorite decade is the 1970's, and I don't want to have to suddenly start calling it something else. But if we must... How about that day the god of pine trees shot that bolt of lightning at a village for being gay but stood in front of the lightning so he would get zapped to a crisp instead of them because he loved them so much? Well, if we just added 500 years to the calendar, you could still call them the 70s (it's just that they really be the 2470s). How's that? Also, we could all claim to be 500 years older (and if that doesn't appeal to a bunch of spotty teenagers, what will?).

[Siиdяed]

(and if that doesn't appeal to a bunch of spotty teenagers, what will?) You just lost this target audience.

[Universal Mind]

Well, if we just added 500 years to the calendar, you could still call them the 70s (it's just that they really be the 2470s). How's that? But you were asking for 507 years, and that's completely different. I don't want to start calling the 70's "the 80's". That would be a huge insult to the decade of my birth and the great classic rock renaissance because what we have called "the 80's" up until now was a cheesy decade of parachute pants and silly Kajagoogoo type bands.

[Sornaensis]

I meant who cares enough to change it, but you probably knew that. Oh, i thought you were responding to Replicon's post, which was right above yours, but you probably knew that. std::

[grasshoppa]

democracy isnt that great...its just better than the others.

[pj]

My favorite decade is the 1970's (snip) That explains a whole lot.