Yeah, our system of weights and measures makes the currency denominations in Harry Potter’s world look logical by comparison. 
However, because the executive is inside the legislature, the executive tends to weild more power over members of the legislature, weakening its power to act as a balance. Westminster governments tend to see a lot more party unity than in the American system - although people think the two party system is bad in the U.S. now, it would be much worse if the U.S. adopted the Westminster form of government. In America, a member voting against his or her party’s legislation is fairly common; in some Commonwealth countries, it’s a major news event if politician crosses the floor.
Further, the Westminster system relies to much on the honor of its politicians (honor, politicians? Exactly - what were they thinking?). Ministers are expected to resign if they breach certain standards, but they don’t have to. In the U.S. system, the Senate can impeach a member of cabinet. And thus there is far less oversight on the Prime Minister. It may be fun watching Tony Blair get yelled at in British Parliament, but at the end of the day, he’s there so long as his party thinks he’ll win them elections. In the U.S. system, a bad president can be impeached, and because an entirely seperate branch of government is doing the impeaching, the President has a lot less influence on the outcome.
I salute the idea. Implementation is going to be damn near impossible, especially as the new dates will look just like the old ones when written down or (worst of all) entered into a computer. With dates being so fundamental to so many of our systems, a paradigm change that significant could bring about the end of civilisation. Well, probably not, but it could easily be a massive disaster.
All units of measuring length, weight, temperature, and volume are “quite arbitrary.”
We did. Those areas that need the benefits that the metric system gives have switched to the metric system. For the rest of us, familiarity and tradition are more important.
Straw man. Those are units that nobody uses and that’s a calculation no one ever has to do.
I’ve always used the method my dad taught me, which he called ‘the right-hand screw rule.’ Take your right hand and point your thumb up, then curve your fingers like you are grasping a pole. Keeping the same relative orientation of finger and thumb, point your thumb the direction you want the screw or nut to go, and to make it so, you simply turn it in the direction indicated by your fingers.
That’s not true. There are various systems of natural units, derived from fundamental physical constants. They’re not commonly used because they’re usually not on a human scale. For example, 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Planck lengths is about half a foot.
Hey, speak for your own Planck. Mine’s about half a foot all by itself. 
How about “Clocky locky, county outy?”
Farm subsidies.
Now I will be lynched by all the residents of my home state, but there you have it.
I think you’re looking for Great Debates. That’s two or three forums over. Oh, yeah, and grow a sense of humor.
That’s because they’re different things.
Politicians voting against their party is not uncommon in Westminster-style parliaments - some legislation is contentious and party discipline can’t always prevent the occasional backbench rebellion.
“Crossing the floor” is a rarity - it means resigning from your party to join the opposing party. That *is *newsworthy.
I’ve been pushing this one for years. Think of the efficiency you would gain in billing processing, payment processing, a whole bunch of financial schedule stuff.
IMHO the reason it never happened is the historical discomfort with the number 13. Why, you can’t have 13 months! That would be the work of the devil!
George Eastman, for one. He really pushed for basically the same idea, mostly to make business periods work out better. The tour guide at the Eastman House in Rochester, NY (here) said that Kodak followed his plan until they got sick of it in the 80’s, IIRC. Eastman’s 13th month was Sol (I think), but I like Smarch better.
I’m with you, too, robardin! Let’s make t-shirts!
OK, we’ll pick a month and repeat it twice so the superstitious won’t notice. (Since superstitious folks tend also to be kind of slow on the uptake.)
January, February, March, April, May, June, January, July, August, September, October, November, December. Cool!
You know, the idea just crossed my mind on the spot while reading the thread, and here it is all written up and implemented at a company by a major American industrialist!
Wikipedia calls it The International Fixed Calendar, which has a “League” promoting its adoption. Well whaddya know.
Maybe I’d read about it at some point in the past and it got buried in my unconscious mind. Or maybe it’s just so blindingly obvious as a perfectly consistent replacement for our current cockeyed calendar!
Or maybe, as the Wikipedia article points out, that under this scheme, every month contains a Friday the 13th. And the Simpsons episode about “Smarch” already told us what horrors could transpire on the 13th day of the 13th month… 
They are not different things. Wikipedia agrees with my definition, though mentions that yours is valid.
Whatever your quibbles about my terminology, the fact remains: representatives in Westminster systems vote less independently. In the U.S., it’s worth looking at a politician’s voting record. The voting record of a politician under a parliamentary government using the Westminster system is not very illuminating, because it sticks to the party line amost unerringly.
That would be “January II”.
I’m sure I’ve seen calendars that have two months with the same name, and pit “II” after the second one.
Sign language, created in the modern era we had an opportunity to have a universal language system…and blew it.
I am.
The Tranquility Calendar is the one I personally like best. It’s based on the date of the Moon landing. Today is the 6th of Archimedes, year 39 A. T.
In the version I remember hearing about the leap day (Aldrin Day) is the last day of the year–the day before Armstrong Day. This site has it between Hippocrates 27 and 28. Either way, neither of them is a day of the week.
The European method of counting floors in a building. Ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc. This is something I can never get used to.