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It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:56 am
by Gob
BuzzFeed News’ UK political editor Jim Waterson tweeted to say that he and his colleagues had been prevented from entering the White House because their birthdays, entered in a day/month/year format didn’t make sense to the US Secret Service agents admitting them.
Waterson was only admitted because he was born on 23 March, but journalists whose birthdays fell on a date between 1 and 12 were delayed getting access for the joint press conference from Trump and May.
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:59 am
by dales
day/month/year?
WTF?
We don't do the metric system either, so there!
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:18 am
by Gob
Smallest time span: Day
Middle time span: Month
Longest time span: Year.
You don't do much sensible stuff, agreed.
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:26 am
by Guinevere
Our method is more efficient, it narrows the exact date more quickly:
Month - 12 options
Day - 31 options
Year - thousands of options
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:55 am
by Bicycle Bill
dales wrote:day/month/year?
WTF?
We don't do the metric system either, so there!
Go try to repair any Schwinn (or other modern American bicycle) without a set of metric wrenches.
And a 2x4 is not a 2x4 any longer; it is 1.5" x 3.5" .... which is 39 mm x 89 mm.
Resistance is futile — you will be assimilated.
-"BB"-
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 5:03 am
by dales
Go try to repair any Schwinn (or other modern American bicycle) without a set of metric wrenches.
And a 2x4 is not a 2x4 any longer; it is 1.5" x 3.5" .... which is 39 mm x 89 mm.
Same is true with modern domestic automobiles.
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:14 am
by datsunaholic
There hasn't been an SAE mass production car made since the mid 1980s.
And finished 2X4s were never 2" by 4". 2x4 was the "rough sawn" size from the initial sawmill cut, then they were milled down to the smooth finish that dimensional lumber comes in. That wasn't particularly reliable, and if you've ever worked with buildings over 100 years old you'd find the studs/beams aren't the same size as ones today. I tore down a garage built in 1937 that used almost entirely rough-sawn lumber, and it was very close to an actual 2" x 4", as the wood had never been planed. Nowadays mill cutting is much more efficient, so 2x4s are consistently 1 1/2 x 3 1/2.
Re: It's a date
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:21 pm
by Econoline
I've lived in a couple of old (pre-1900) houses that had rough-sawn 2x4 studs that actually measured 2" by 4", and rough-sawn 2x10 floor joists and rafters that actually measured 2" by 10".
Re: It's a date
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 2:44 pm
by Long Run
Gob wrote:Smallest time span: Day
Middle time span: Month
Longest time span: Year.
You don't do much sensible stuff, agreed.
Well, the last sentence is generally correct, as is accurate for most countries.
Nearly everyone here will say it is "January 30th, 2017" (and will leave out the "th" if writing out the date), and the numbering system follows this. I know other English speakers typically say it either that way or will say it is 30 January 2017. Seems like this style is more in the category of choosing which side of the road to drive on.
Re: It's a date
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:41 am
by Gob
Guinevere wrote:Our method is more efficient, it narrows the exact date more quickly:
Month - 12 options
Day - 31 options
Year - thousands of options
Well if you need help with that, who am I to criticise....
Re: It's a date
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 2:02 pm
by Scooter
dales wrote:day/month/year?
WTF?
We don't do the metric system either, so there!
Actually metric dating is year/month/day, which is more logical than either of the other two.
Re: It's a date
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 2:54 pm
by Big RR
There is a "metric" dating convention? What is metric about it? I can understand that the metric system is called metric because it is based on the meter (at least in both length and volume measurements), but why would listing the year/day/date in that order be metric?
Re: It's a date
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 3:03 pm
by Scooter
It's a SI convention, actually, not technically "metric", following
ISO 8601
Re: It's a date
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:40 pm
by Big RR
That does make sense then; a single convention for stating dates can avoid problems (and that's why the SI exists).
When I was heading the IP department for a multinational company, we had this problem with notebook entries (which are sometimes needed to prove invention dates); to avoid confusion (is 12/8/2016 Dec 8 or Aug 12?), and knowing people often unconsciously revert to the standard they know, we implemented a policy to not use the number and to instead use the abbreviation for the month (e.g. Dec or Aug) whichever convention you used. There was some resistance, but it eventually caught on.
It's A Date
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:42 pm
by RayThom
Big RR wrote:... is 12/8/2016 Dec 8...
Lennon / John / Winston Ono