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Map of which countries post dates in the right way or the wrong way

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by hkmb, Dec 16, 2013.

  1. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Chuck hasn't posted one of his excellent map threads in a while, and I came across this today. It shows which countries post dates in a logical way (small-to-medium-to-big - dd-mm-yyyy - or big-to-medium-to-small - yyyy-mm-dd), and which countries post them in an illogical way (medium-to-small-to-big).

    Not that I'm judging.

    [​IMG]

    So.... Any idea why the Americans do it the way they do? Is there some historical thing that led to this?
     
  2. jdk2

    jdk2 Active Member

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    I guess for the same reason we drive on the right. It's the right way to do things :ROFLMAO:
     
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  3. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Ah, yes, that'd be it.

    Driving on the right makes sense: you choose one side or the other and stick with it (unless you're Burma or a couple of other countries). Either left or right is a logical choice.

    The odd thing with this is that there isn't a logical progression. YYYY-MM-DD and DD-MM-YYYY both have logical progressions.
     
  4. jdk2

    jdk2 Active Member

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    It only makes sense to me because we've always done it this way. All of our government forms are formatted the same way. I don't know who came up with the idea, but it's been around for a very long time. I used to have some very old railroad timetables from the early 1900's. The dates posted on the bottom were always in the same format.
     
  5. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Perhaps, but only one of them is correct. Unless you think proper numerical order is reversible. ;)
     
  6. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    So the Canadians are most confused, because they use all the formats.

    I personally prefer YYYY-MM-DD because it very easily sorts into correct order in my file system. When this is not allowed, I put MM into alphabetic form wherever possible, not numeric form, to avoid confusion across international lines.
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    the funny thing is, numericaly, we use mm-dd-yyyy, but when i use the day of the week, it's dd-mm-dd-yyyy as in monday, december 16, 2013.
     
  8. JoeS

    JoeS Member

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    Yes YYYY-MM-DD for all computer files. Since we revise drawings/models a lot(architecture) using a date in this format allows us to order drawings correctly.
     
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  9. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Sigh. That's just so yesterday.
     
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it's not easy living in the past.:cool:
     
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  11. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    I think either makes sense. With one you're working from the here and now to work out where you stand in the broader scheme of things. With the other, you start out from infinity and narrow down your position.

    It's the same with addresses. The British version, for example, goes:

    Apartment number, Street number, Street name​
    Town name​
    County name​
    Country name​

    ...while the Chinese version goes:

    Country name, province name, city name, district name, street name, street number, apartment number.​

    In the same way that we covered with the dates, each of these has a logical progression. The British version starts at the location, and steadily works its way out to show where it is in the broader scheme of things; the Chinese version starts out from infinity and works out where you stand. And I suppose it's even the same with names: in Britain the personal name comes first and the surname second: what it says is who you are, and then where you stand in society; in China, it's the other way round. I'm sure it's possible to make an argument on the date, address and name thing about the place of individualism in society or something.

    But the American dates, lurching back and forth instead of progressing naturally, make no sense. And nor do German addresses.

    It's cool living in the future. Tuesday afternoon is, you'll be pleased to know, quite nice.

    We do not yet all wear silver onesies and get our nutrition from tablets.

    But there is this amazing new kind of car. It's got an internal combustion engine, like the ones you had on Monday, but it's got an electric motor that augments the ICE. And you can go up to a kilometre on the electric motor without even using the ICE. It's amazing. The future is soooo cool.

    Yes. And they almost sound American, but they have pictures of the Queen on their money.

    That's a sensible way to avoid confusion. I know some people who use Roman numerals for the month too, so today would be 17.xii.2013.
     
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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i can't wait for tuesday, since monday is 9 degrees f and snowing.(n)
     
  13. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Could it be a linguistic thing? Before shorthand written dates were common, maybe more British people said "the 17th of December 2013" and more Americans said "December 17th, 2013". (Except they wouldn't say that, because before shorthand written dates were common, it wasn't yet 2013. But you know what I mean.)
     
  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i do hope my car will still go 20km in ev tho.;)
     
  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    What kind of ticks me off are expiration dates like:

    03/06/11 (who knows...)

    or:

    ma/06/11 (same story, plus: is this march or may)
     
  16. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Ah, well you're in luck. Tuesday afternoon is 79F and sunny, with a gentle sea breeze.

    And they say global warming isn't real.

    Aaagh! You must be from one of those parallel universes!

    Just open it and sniff it. It's probably OK.
     
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  17. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Re: Canadians
    They almost sound American to you only because your local dialect is closer to the Queen's English than anything in North America. To us, they sound slightly British.
     
  18. Feri

    Feri Active Member

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    But not the correct way!:D
     
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  19. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    I haven't seen that address format, but I like it. :)

    A difference with YYYY MM DD is how well it fits with the rest of the chronometric expression. HH MM SS follow quite naturally, while they look just plain weird from left to right, as SS MM HH. Of course, that's from the perspective of someone used to reading left to right... ;)

    I apply the same logic to chronometers and odometers. Just as numbers have proper place values, so do the units of time. And, as one 'digit' reaches its maximum, it bumps up the one beside it and resets. Agreed, getting them out of order doesn't make any sense at all.
     
  20. Feri

    Feri Active Member

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    Here It's 34 degrees (93.2 F) and sunning!