Number of the Day, Month, and Year

Displaying a hitherto unknown degree of marketing creativity, the CPA education website offers a "twelve"-themed sale just for today. Discounts are offered in multiples of 12% on such page-turners as the "IFRS: What's New This Quarter?" and "Interactive Tax Checklists." Tempting, but I think I'll pass.

I'm husbanding (oops--sorry about the sexist / pro-marriage language) deferring discretionary business expenses till 2013, when it will be important to keep one's adjusted gross income below certain thresholds to minimize both taxes and the reports that one is required file.

Speaking of "12", the predominance of binary and octal systems in the computer age has quieted discussion of duodecimal counting methods, but it's fun to think about "dozenal" mathematics. Many repeating decimals in our base-10 system, such as 1/3 = .3333...., become terminating decimals (1/3 = 4/12 = 0.4) in base-12. If we were to adopt a base 12 system, 10 inches will make a foot, and 30 inches will comprise a yard, perhaps reducing, slightly, the insults Americans have to endure for not switching to metric.

Most importantly, we will weigh much less: 200 pounds in base 10 becomes 148 pounds in base 12 (144+48+8). That's a discount most of us can get behind. © 2012 Stephen Yuen