Complex Numbers

080808

Just because it's too cool a date to pass up, here's a special 08/08/08 entry.

The number eight is binary 1000, octal 10, and in decimal, 2 raised to the power of 3, or 2*2*2. 8*8*8, taking this further, is 512 in decimal, or 1 000 000 000 binary.

August, of course, is named for Augustus Caesar, who might just be the greatest politician that ever lived. Yes, even greater than Barack Obama, and so much greater than Bush that they're not only not in the same ballpark, they're not even in the same sport.

I mention politics because, of course, 2008 is an election year; it's the 232nd year of American independence from silly British accents, except when we watch Bond movies or quote Monty Python. 232, of course, is 240 minus 8; and 240 hours makes 10 days, taking us back full circle.

Except that the whole 2008 thing is purely arbitrary; it measures passage of time from when someone 'way back when thought Jesus was born, and he turned out to be off by around four and a half years or so. Besides, more than half the world doesn't even consider Jesus' birth to be important enough to begin counting a calendar from, but they do it anyway, because when in Rome, y'know... don't piss off the Romans.

If it were up to me, I'd reset the calendar so that Day 0 of Year 0 took place on what would be 7/20/69 under that calendar. It was on that day that a human first set foot on a world other than our own, an accomplishment that should be self-evidently paradigm-shifting. Should be, but the number of people who think the space program is somehow a waste of resources - not to mention the number of people who think the whole thing was faked - continues to astound me. Well, I suppose that makes sense; I think religion is generally a waste of resources, and the whole Jesus' birth thing was faked, so I guess we're even.

So there you go - musings on a purely arbitrary date. Turn it on its side, though, and you have zero-infinity-zero-infinity-zero-infinity. Which is by itself pretty cool.