ASTUC MANIFESTO

Now is the time. This is the place. We are the ones.

A Save The Universe Club (ASTUC) is a pseudo cult where a person can regrove their mind.

Time does not exist. There is no past, only evidence of a past. There is no future unless we make it. All we have is the present. If we choose to live by a clock this is the time to use as it will set your mind free from all the presets in civil time.

The circular time of indigenous cultures combines with the more linear time of the dominant culture to create a spiral of time and space. Startime reflects the nature of the solar system while providing a potentially appropriate tool for building a humane community. The Earth's daily cycle contains four distinct periods. Since the number four is naturally indicated, it is used to divide the morning, day, evening and night into four useful units of time. During the development of Startime, it became apparent that a new system of counting was also required. A Base, which uses the numerals one through eight, was invented to complement and reflect Startime.

Using Startime and A Base, the day is divided into 18 Stars. This is a similar operation to dividing the day into twenty-four hours. Technically it would be impossible to build an accurate clock that mimics the nuances of true solar time. Changes in the earth's angular velocity cause changes in aperent solar time apart from the seasonal differences. A Startime clock simply measures an average of apparent solar time. This is rationalized through the use of the ana lama. The ana lema calculates the discrepancies between average solar time and apparent solar time. This is useful information because the clock is synchronized with the solar meridian - it is set to the time when the sun is at the highest point in the sky.

At eight Stars, the short Star hand points straight up at the numeral eight. This indicates the average time that the sun reaches its highest point at our longitude. When the shorter Star hand indicates eighteen Stars, at the bottom of the clock face, the sun is at approximately the opposite meridian on the other side of the earth ie. it would be midnight here. The Star hand follows the sun in a mechanized way throughout the daily cycle.

The longer Egg hand divides each star into eighteen Eggs. They are presently called eggs because the sun warms the earth as a bird incubates an egg. (Perhaps life on earth will follow the transformation of egg to a chick.) The egg hand rotates once for each star.

The dominant calendar developed by western civilization has a profound function in society as a regulator of ritualized social interaction. In this way, the calendar exerts control on inherent human needs and desires through the linear time divisions of weeks, weekends, and holidays.We are intent upon developing an alternative calendar that will allow the human community to develop more naturally suitable rhythms of social interaction.

As the number four naturally divides the year into seasons, We have chosen to divide each of these seasons into four Quarts. The length of each quart varies by one day around the average so that each of the fourth, eighth, fourteenth, and eighteenth quarts begins on a solstice or equinox. The result is a calendar describing a relationship between the Earth and the Sun. This relationship is determined by the earth's elliptical revolution around the Sun. Each part of the ellipse has specific characteristics which determine the four seasons.

These seasons regularly begin midway between the Solstice and Equinox. The astronomic conditions are being described as opposed to the incidental changes in more local climates. For this reason the calendar is appropriate for members of all communities throughout the world. Numbers and symbols identify each quart, thereby permitting each community to develop proper nouns or names that serve it's particular language needs.

The days are named using the naturally selected number four. The days are then either sequentially numbered: Oneday, Twoday, Threeday, Fourday, or named: Sunday, Airday, Waterday and Grounday. These names are ment for convienience and do not form a sacred week. Each quart starts on a Sunday no matter what day the last quart was. more on A bioregional Calendar

A thermometer scale is determined by concepts related to the earth and human conditions: the freezing or thawing of water, and the average temperature of our own blood. Almost any person in any place can draw this scale by calibrating a thermometer on these two standard temperatures. No scientific consultation is required. This is an important egalitarian concept. Sequentially dividing the distance between the two temperature extremes produces what I call "degrees A." Temperature may be defined arbitrarily or scientifically as in previous models. In this case the upper and lower limits that define the scale are relevant to our common experience.

To actually attempt to live in Startime and A Base is profound, not subtle at all. Submission becomes apparent in common social intercourse. We have become conscious of the terms of our existence. Now our submission to this culture of dominance is voluntary. We know we can do anything we like.