psmv6: A curiosity of intelligence

[An Election Entertainment (c. 1755), a painting by William Hogarth, set during the election controversy which followed the change. See reference 5]

That is to say, the intelligence of the artificial variety.

For reasons which I shall go into fully in due course, I was wondering how much it would take to disturb the orderly procession of days, with Monday following Sunday, and so on, ad infinitum. I then remembered that there had been a lot of fuss about losing some days in the middle of the eighteenth century, an early example of our falling in with European practise, our fat leader and our thin wannabee leader not having been invented. Did that involve messing around with the days of the week?

To save time, I asked Gemini and the answer, snapped above, was a clear no. But what was odd was the two sources he gave, references 1 and 2.

Reference 1 appears to be from a Newcastle University website and is primarily about an old burial ground in Newcastle. The connection being possible confusion arising from the dates on memorials from 1750 and 1751. It looks to be perfectly respectable, if an odd place to be digging up general knowledge.

Reference 2 appears to be a hotel booking site masquerading as a history website. Very badly infested with rather intrusive and ugly advertisements.

What was wrong with Wikipedia at reference 5, or the legislative archive - for the truly nosey - at reference 6?

My first thought that this was a weakness, that Gemini should not be relying on such odd sources, unknown to the average punter. But now I am not so sure. The fact that, with his help, I was easily able to turn up more regular sources which agreed with his two sources, made the edifice as a whole pretty solid. Reference 1 had got it right: 'People famously went to bed Wednesday, 2 September, and awoke the following morning on Thursday, 14 September.'. The procession of days was undisturbed.

But, as Wikipedia explains, plenty of other things were disturbed. The lawyers, as ever, did well out of it.

PS 1: one of the things that was disturbed was Michaelmas Day, an important day in the agricultural year, aka my birthday. The cheek of it.

PS 2: in the margins, MSN and the Independent between them tell me that our new leader has moved to a neutral stance for the purposes of the renewed debate on assisted dying.

Which is something. But it continues to amaze me that, as a country, we have so much difficulty with what to me is an elementary bit of social and welfare reform. Whatever is the matter with us? But for a more careful view, see reference 7.

PS 3: a little later I had a supplementary for Gemini about the days of the week in China - which is a big place and not very Christian at all. It seems that in the olden days, their lunar months were divided into three ten day periods, corresponding functionally more or less to our weeks. Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, they switched over to our solar calendar with its seven day weeks. Perhaps being the same as the Christian world had its points, was convenient. But it is all dressed up a bit in Chinese clothes, for which see reference 8.

From a further supplementary, I learned that what I had thought was our Biblical week was just a gloss on a pre-existing Middle Eastern astrological week built around the solar system. The key term being 'Babylonian/Hellenistic planetary week'.

Maybe Reaktion books of reference 9 do, or should do, one about all this sort of thing. We shall see if they respond to my suggestion.

References

Reference 1: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/ballast-hills/2025/07/15/why-the-calendar-changed-in-1752-and-why-it-matters.

Reference 2: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Give-us-our-eleven-days/.

Reference 3: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/ballast-hills/.

Reference 4: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(New_Style)_Act_1750.

Reference 6: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo2/24/23/introduction.

Reference 7: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/. I now have a nice little lapel badge with which I can advertise my newly minted life membership.

Reference 8: https://www.cjvlang.com/Dow/official.html.

Reference 9: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/.

Reference 10: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-disappointment.html. The first notice for Reaktion Books in these pages.