A DAY: The Earth turns at a reasonably steady speed about the imaginary line running between the North and South Poles named the Earth’s Axis. The time it takes to spin once is called a ‘rotation’ and this takes just under twenty-four hours. Nevertheless, because the Earth is constantly travelling around the Sun, the precise time from noon one day to noon the next is 3 minutes 56 seconds longer and this makes a day almost precisely twenty-four hours in length.

The actual time from noon to noon differs depending where the Earth is on its celestial course around the Sun, but if you average the days in a year out, it comes to precisely twenty-four hours.

A YEAR: All nine planets in our solar system move around the Sun in almost perfectly circular routes called orbits. Each journey around the Sun is called a revolution and all the planets revolve around the Sun in the same direction. The course the Earth takes can be verified by noting its location against the background stars.

Given that you cannot see the Sun and the stars at the same time, it is obligatory to note the position of the Sun in the morning and the see which stars come out there in the night. You will see that the Sun seems to pass through the twelve constellations of the zodiac during a year.

Earth’s journey around the Sun, which seems like the Sun travelling through the zodiac takes about 365.25 days. This is different from year to year, so astronomers add or delete a second in some years to keep their time accurate with the Earth’s motion.

THE SEASONS: The seasons mark the variation in the pattern of daylight over the course of a year. Because the Earth is tilted off centre, different parts of it receive different quantities of sunlight on different stages of its path around the Sun, a path that we call a year. So, between about the 21st September and late March, the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, which produces Autumn and Winter, giving less than twelve hours of daylight per day.

From April to the 20th September, the Northern Hemisphere receives more than twelve hours of daylight a day, producing Spring and Summer. The exact opposite happens in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Equinoxes take place at the points in the year when there is exactly twelve hours of sunlight and darkness in the day. So, the vernal or Spring equinox is on or around the 21st March and the autumnal equinox is on or around the 21st September. Summer officially commences on the day with the greatest amount of daylight, the 21st June or summer solstice.

The winter solstice occurs on the shortest day, the 21st December. ‘Solstice’ is a combination of two words meaning ’sun standing still’ and the days are so called because they are the days when the apparent movement of the Sun reaches its limits and reverses course again.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

This odd movement of the planet is due to a couple of factors, the most important of which is something called ‘precession’. Precession arises from the fact that the Earth is not a perfect sphere. It is in fact about twenty-seven miles longer around the Equator that it is around the Poles. The Earth then is oblate, or fat around the middle like middle-aged spread, but it is due to the rotation not to its age.

If you imagine the Earth with its Poles off centre. Then rotate that image and you will find that any point, except the very centre of the axis, will move in a circle. But very, very slowly. So slowly that it takes 26,000 years to go full circle and get back to where it started from.

This point then, any point you want, is very slowly shifting its position in relation to the stars because the axis is gyrating too. The result of this is that, what we call the North Star (formally called Polaris, which is in fact one degree off true North) will not be above our North Pole one day. In fact, by about 15,000 AD, Vega will be almost above the North Pole, although it will be about four degrees off true North. But even this will not endure, and by 28,000 AD, Polaris will be back above where it is today.

One of the effects of the precession is that seasons vary. They modify the dates that they occur, so that Summer could come earlier or later. The remarkable thing about our calendar is that it is corrected for that (with the leap year). If it were not, the vernal or Spring equinox would shift over 13,000 years from March 21st to September 21st., which is the date of the autumnal equinox, exactly half a year later.

It is for this reason that the precession of the Earth is generally referred to as the “Precession of the Equinoxes”. Although the precession of the equinoxes is very lengthy, it can be easily observed. The correct year of 325.25 days is the length of time from one vernal equinox to the next vernal equinox, however, it takes 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer for the Sun to appear in exactly the same position in relation to the stars behind it over the same period. It is for this reason that accurate star maps have to be stamped with the exact time and date to which they relate.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

What is it that compels people to try to forecast disasters? Is it because they are attempting to warn people or because they wish to frighten people? Scare people, I think and thereby gain advantage over the gullible.

These apocalyptic prophesies go back thousands of years and even happen in the Bible. Their only raison d’etre is to frighten people and so gain money, power and influence over them.

Even the millennium bug turned out not to be a problem with computers working perfectly well after midnight in spite of claims by ‘computer experts’ that there would be a worldwide crash of stupendous importance. The computer industry made a fortune out of scaring businesses and individuals with their lies. That was the scam of the Nineties to end all swindles!

So why all the hype? Was it just the arrival of a new millennium, which gave rise to so many to make predictions on this date rather than stick to their usual common sense? Yes, I think. People saw the chance of a lifetime to rip others off and they jumped at it.

Needless to say there were thousands of prophesies made ranging from the arrival of aliens and the Second Coming of Christ to plane crashes. None of which came true. Here are a couple of those less than accurate prophesies:

May 5th was the day upon which all the planets lined up. The prediction was that the gravitational force of all these heavenly bodies in alignment would cause massive earthquakes, huge tides and volcanic eruptions.

A lot of people also prophesied that the shifting of the poles would take place during 2000 and that this would cause catastrophic events such as high tides, widespread electrical failure and computer failures, which would mean economic disaster for the larger countries and insurance companies.

I do not know what you think, but perhaps instead of worrying about the demise of the world (most doom-mongers have decided on the year 2012 for the destruction of the world) we should work together to make the best of the time we have left on this planet, as well as ensuring that we pass the planet on to the next generation in the same condition as we received it.

If we behave in this way, we may hold off the apocalypse for a long while yet. We are far more likely to undergo apocalypse through nuclear war, global warming and events which are avoidable and within our control, than cosmic events which we have little control over such as asteroids or the Sun’s turning into a red dwarf and eventually exploding.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with custom wall calendars If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

The US Patents Office has issued thousands patents for items that never made it and many of those did not make it, not because they were not excellent concepts, but because their inventors did not know what to do with them. A business is more or less the same as a new invention. It has to be marketed, unless it is situated in the middle of the only street in town.

Having already started the business, it is to be expected that, you have already worked out your target market and evaluated the need for your products or services. Now you have to convert those potential customers into satisfied customers and this is where your promotional strategy comes in.

A promotional strategy is nothing more than a for reaching your intended market, which is of course the people most likely to require your services or products. At its simplest, your promotional strategy might consist of just hanging a sign over your door and relying on word of mouth from satisfied customers to circulate, thereby doing your advertising for you.

In some cases, this is indeed all the advertising a business requires, but the cases are not that widespread really. It works, if you are operating in a very small town or if your product or service is unique or very specialized or if you enjoy a long-standing good reputation. However, usually, customers require more details to go on before they will be attracted to your business.

Therefore, the objective of your promotional strategy should be to get in touch with the greatest quantity of potential customers by the most economical use of your means, which may include money, personnel and facilities. This means that you have to divine the channels of communication most used by your potential customers and try to get a message to them through those. This is normally constrained by a budget.

Advertising involves the purchasing of time or space in the media you have selected in order to publicize your business to your intended market. You then have to come to a decision which form of advertising you are going to use: institutional or product advertising. Institutional advertising markets the firm’s name as in: ‘Larry’s Boot Shop – The Best In Town’, whereas product advertising is more specific and might read: ‘Nike Walking Boots – 30% off at Larry’s. Offer Finishes Friday!’

Both forms of advertising can be successful and lend themselves better to some media than to others. Institutional advertising is better carried out on shop signs, sign-written vans or windows or promotional calendars, that is, static, long-term, business name advertising and product advertising is better done by newspaper, magazine, radio and TV, where one-off special offers can be promoted.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching promotional wall calendars. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

However, it is the predictions of Nostradamus that are the most well-known and most copious. Some biographical accounts of Nostradamus’ life assert that he was afraid of being victimized for heresy by the Inquisition, although neither prophecy nor astrology fell under their jurisdiction. He would have been in danger only if he had practiced magic to back up his predictions.

In fact, his contact with the Church as a prophet and a healer were always excellent. His brief imprisonment at Marignane in late 1561 came about purely because he had published his 1562 Almanac without the previous consent of a bishop, contravening a recent royal decree.

Here then are a couple of the prophesies of the ending of the world and the annihilation of mankind.

December 21st, 22nd or 23rd 2012 are all possible dates for the ending of the world according to the ancient Mayan Calendar.

2012 has been determined by some to be the first possible date for the passing by of Planet X (Wormwood) and the demise of the world, as mentioned in Revelations, although this is hotly debated by Biblical experts and astronomers alike.

2012 is also the year given by Nostradamus as the likely end. He gave three possible years for the apocalypse: 1994 and 1998 so this is his last opportunity to be correct.

2010 is the year so says the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn.

In 1143 St Malachy prophesied that there would be only another 112 more Popes. The current Pope Benedict is the 111th. He further predicted that the final Pope would be known as Peter of Rome, so we will have to wait and see for this one.

2017 is the year specified to the Sword of God Brotherhood by the Angel Gabriel.

November 13th 2026 is the day according to a 1960 copy of ‘Science’ magazine. The writer said that this would be the day that the planet’s human population would ‘reach infinity’.

2033 is held by many to be the 2000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ and a possible date for his return, which would signal the end of our Earthly period.

4,500,000,000 AD is the approximate date at which the Sun is expected to explode and in so doing, destroy the inner solar system including our Earth. Nobody knows, but unless we destroy ourselves first, this latter date is probably the most accurate and scientific date for the destruction of the planet.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with custom wall calendars If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

Easter – is the most important day in the Christian calendar, because it celebrates Christ’s Resurrection, which gave / gives Christians the hope of salvation and eternal life. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (Spring) equinox, which is on 21st March.

Shrove Tuesday – (Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday) was originally a day of penance, but is now marked by merrymaking. It is the day before the beginning of Lent.

Ash Wednesday – is derived from the marking of a cross on the forehead of believers with the ashes from the burnt palms used on Palm Sunday.

Lent – 40 days of penance and fasting

Palm Sunday – the Sunday before Easter, celebrates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, where palms were strewn on the road before him.

Maundy (Holy) Thursday – the day of the Last supper.

Good Friday – is the day of Christ’s crucifixion.

Holy Saturday – is the day before the Resurrection.

The Annunciation – March 25th is celebrated by Catholics as the day that Archangel Gabriel told Mary about her impending pregnancy.

Trinity Sunday – is celebrated by some denominations in honour of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. It was confirmed part of the holy calendar in 1334 by Pope John XII.

Corpus Christi – Catholics remembers the presence of the body of Christ on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

All Saints Day – this mainly Catholic celebration is on November 1 and honours all Christian saints.

Advent – a religious season that starts on the Sunday nearest to November 30 and lasts until Christmas Day. It celebrates the birth of Jesus and anticipates his Second Coming. It was once a period of fasting, but now no longer.

Holy Days Of Obligation – are feast days in the Catholic calendar marked by attendance at mass and the avoidance of unnecessary work. There are six in the USA: Solemnity of Mary – January 1: Christ’s circumcision, ie his first shedding of blood Ascension – 40 days after Easter Assumption – August 15: Mary is accepted into Heaven All Saints’ Day – November 1 Mary’s Immaculate Conception – December 8 Christmas Day – December 25.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Franklin Covey planner refillss If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

However, many other Europeans give gifts at Christmas on Saint Nicholas’ Day or December 6th. Non-Christian countries usually give gifts at New Year.

Whatever you do in your country, giving a gift takes thought. The stores are frequently full of rubbish at these present-giving times of the year, but there is also a lot of excellent stuff about, at a cost. The alternatives are twofold on the whole.

You can either make something which will be one of a kind, I imagine that this includes personalizing a shop-bought gift or you can think outside of the box, which many people find quite difficult. Personally, I find it hard, but it does get easier the more often you try it and the better you know the person you are going to give the gift to.

Here then are a few ideas which you may decide to take on board ‘as is’, or they may motivate you on to better ideas. As I write, Christmas is coming up and then it is Saint Valentine’s day before you know it. We certainly get plenty of opportunity to practice buying gifts in the West!

A Plot Of Your Own: I come from Wales in the UK (is there any other?) and up the way from me a local plot of green-belt land was in trouble. Experts said that it should be planted with trees, but the authorities did not have the funds, so they advertised six feet square plots of land for sale with a sapling of your preference on it.

You also got a title deed, directions and a photo. Furthermore, the tree would be taken care of for five years until it was established. I know that this is not the only place that did this and it was probably not the first either, but it makes a good gift for a teenager who is thinking about what he or she can do to help the environment.

The Key To Success: some children and their parents will appreciate this one. Scour the second-hand shops for an older or even an unusual money box. Fill the money box up to a certain level with various coins that bring that level up to the value that you want to give, but leave plenty of room for the child to put money in too. Who do you give the key to? That depends on how well you know the child.

Starting A Collection: this is a brave, but good one. If you know the child well or are prepared to take on a commitment (such as a godparent should), you could select a set of collectables, like plates, glasses or coins and buy two or three pieces to start the collection off. You can add to it every year. Others will be thankful to you too because they will jump on the band wagon.

In The Bag: if your friend is an invalid or just is temporarily in hospital, it is helpful to give a wicker basket or a nice bag full of handy items. Select the items to suit your friend, but everyone might like a writing pad, a pen, a comb or brush, wet wipes or tissues, a small book of verse, a miniature radio with ear plugs, a mirror, straws, a bottle opener, only you know, but you get the idea, I’m sure.

Stamp It: you can buy a large packet of literally thousands of foreign stamps for very little. Buy a stamp album and hinges and you could start a lasting obsession. It also gives you gift ideas for years to come too.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Fanklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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However, this does not only happen in China, it also happens in most other Eastern countries, like Thailand, and most Arabic countries.

A lunar month is calculated by measuring the period of time required for the moon to complete its full cycle of 29 and a half days, a standard that makes the lunar year a whole eleven days shorter than its solar counterpart. This difference is made up every 19 years by the addition of seven lunar months.

The 12 lunar months are further divided into 24 solar divisions characterized by the four seasons and times of heat and cold, all of which bear a close relationship to the annual cycle of agricultural work.

The Chinese calendar – very much like the Hebrew calendar- is a combination of the solar and lunar calendars in that it strives to have its years concur with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar.

For instance, an average year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When working out what a Chinese year will be like, one needs to make a number of astronomical calculations.

First of all, you have to work out the dates for the new moons. In these instances, a new Moon is the completely black Moon (that is to say, when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun), not the first visible crescent, as is used by the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is then the first day of a new month.

The reason why the majority of countries which had their own calendars had to dump them in favour of the Western, Julian calendar that we use today, is business. First the British and then the Americans ran international business and they used the Gregorian calendar. Anyone who sought to work with them had to follow suit. This is why national policy often varies from local custom in Third World countries.

The government desires to deal on the International markets, but the ordinary family in the country can not. So, the government took up the Gregorian calendar but the people only pay lip service to it. I live in Thailand and people here do not even use the 24 hour day divided into two halves. Their day has four sections of six hours each and the first part starts at 6AM, not midnight. Therefore, they have four 4 o’clocks a day, for instance but no 7 o’clocks. They are also 543 years ahead of us, although this is more common, for instance in Muslim countries.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our web site now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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But that does not mean to say that people do not still use those old-fashioned, defunct calendars. Oh, no! Governments have given up their old, traditional national calendars, but in general, country folk still use to them, even if they can no longer obtain a printed version. I cannot go into all the calendars here, but I will mention five or six of them.

Lunar Calendar – There is some indication that early man used marks on bone to record or indicate the passage of time 25,000 years ago, almost certainly calibrated by the Moon’s phases. A calendar can be created based on the lunar cycles; it creates a year of twelve months (the word ‘month’ is from the word ‘moon’), but only 354 days, which is, eleven short of the time it takes the Earth to revolve around the Sun. The Chinese still use a variety of the lunar calendar but they resolve this issue by inserting extra moths every now and then to bring ‘time’ back into alignment with the Sun.

Solar Calendar – The ancient Egyptians were the first people to employ a Solar Calendar, although it could justifiably be called a cosmological calendar. The new year began for them when Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest star in the night sky, rose in the same place as the Sun. This usually coincided with the flooding of the Nile. This calendar was of 365 days; twelve months of thirty days and five holy days. Therefore, it was only one quarter of a day off the true year. However, that meant that slowly but surely, the new year did not concur with the flood. Scientists have worked out that this calendar was taken up in either 4241 BC or 2773 BC.

Julian Calendar – In 46 BC , Julius Caesar realized that various provinces of the empire were using different calendars, so he instructed the dating system to be unified. Sosigenes came up with a calendar of 365 days with an extra day every four years. Therefore, in 46 BC, the longest year on record, Caesar added days to the year to bring it back into alignment with the seasons. 46 BC was 445 days long! The vastness of the Roman Empire ensured that this calendar was the defacto calendar of the Western world.

Julian Day Count – In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII instituted a new calendar, but the year after that Joseph Justus Scaliger developed a system of counting days, not years. It starts with 1 on January 1st 4713 BC. On this date the Julian and the lunar calendars and the Roman tax dating system all coincided; something that will next happen in 3267. January 1st 2001 was Julian day 2,451,913

Gregorian Calendar – from at least 730 AD, it was noticed that the year from vernal equinox to vernal equinox was short of the 365.25 days in a year. This had the consequence that the date of Easter was slipping. So he dropped 10 days from 1582 by jumping from October 4th to October 15th and proclaiming that century years would only be leap years if they were divisible by 400. Consequently, 1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was. This is the calendar we still use today.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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The main thing you have to think about when you are considering drawing up a fly fishing calendar is: when will the water be at the optimum temperature? That is, the temperature that is best for catching fish. The right time to go fishing will depend on the region that you are looking at for your fly fishing trip.

In some places, like California, the fishing is pretty good all the year round. Whereas in other locations, such as Washington, you will have to stay away from the water in the winter as the freezing temperatures will stress the fish and they will not be as plenteous.

Generally speaking, the fly fishing calendar shows that the best fly fishing is in the spring and summer periods. Early fall will also find some places seeing good fishing as well. Almanacs can be useful to steer you towards the best fishing times and places as can constantly updating Internet web sites that are run by dedicated local fishermen.

Many locations will give weekly, and sometimes even daily fishing reports on their websites. They can tell you where the fish are biting and where the best places in the river are to cast your line. They generally keep these areas of their web sites up-to-date fairly regularly. So you can get excellent reports just by looking at what other anglers have to say about their fishing experiences.

Usually, fish like warmer water, although, there are other species like salmon and steelhead that thrive in colder water. However, in general, warm water will attract more fish. Nonetheless, if the water is too warm, the fish will be sluggish and will swim to places where the water is cooler.

The fly fishing calendar used most often by experienced fishermen has been compiled over a long period of time. They expend a considerable quantity of effort to estimate where and when the best fishing will take place. Then they share it with others. That is one of the best things about fly fishing – the camaraderie and the sharing that can come about because of a mutual affection for the sport of fly fishing.

You can create your own fly fishing calendar with a little time and effort. Just do your homework and keep plenty of notes. When you see a trend, you will know that it is time to go fishing! Then you should be certain to help your fellow anglers by passing on the information via a local club or the Internet, if you are proficient at it, because others will be trying to work out what you already know. You know that most fly fishermen would do the same for you, do you not?

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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