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Palindrome Day 20200202

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Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#171

Post by School-Cotton »

mrcarrot wrote: post #170
lucideer wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, with the addition of the newest element to that format — the postcode — to the end, this format also becomes less "logical", postcode being very specific. Of course that's arguable, as postcode shouldn't really be considered a component of-, rather an alternative to- other sections of the address.

A postcode (or local equivalent) isn't necessarily particularly specific. For example, here in Austria the equivalent of a postcode might cover a whole city district.

Yes, similar to the US. But British post codes (or at least the ones I’ve seen in London) are in fact very specific.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#172

Post by iso947 »

dcuthbertson wrote: post #131
Lio wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, I always imagined that you said “4th of July” because up to that point you were Brits and that’s how we say it. ...and then the very next day, without adult supervision, you started saying your dates weirdly and dropping the “u”s out of words, stuff like that.* * DISCLAIMER: May not be an accurate representation of history. :P

> I always imagined that you said “4th of July” because up to that point you were Brits True, but nowadays we say "Independence Day" :-)

Macy’s call it 4th of July

https://www.macys.com/shop/4th-of-july-sale

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#173

Post by dajon »

School-Cotton wrote: post #171
mrcarrot wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A postcode (or local equivalent) isn't necessarily particularly specific. For example, here in Austria the equivalent of a postcode might cover a whole city district.

Yes, similar to the US. But British post codes (or at least the ones I’ve seen in London) are in fact very specific.

Indeed, a single postcode in the UK will contain (on average) about 20 addresses and (usually) only refer to a single street.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#174

Post by iso947 »

gmac wrote: post #63
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

Chicken and egg. I (in British English) say the second of February.

British English? Which part of the UK is that from.

I speak English English.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#175

Post by cfallin »

School-Cotton wrote: post #171
mrcarrot wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A postcode (or local equivalent) isn't necessarily particularly specific. For example, here in Austria the equivalent of a postcode might cover a whole city district.

Yes, similar to the US. But British post codes (or at least the ones I’ve seen in London) are in fact very specific.

ZIP+4 in the US is quite specific, though. E.g., my ZIP code is probably > 50k people but the ZIP+4 is just my apartment building.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#176

Post by nkrisc »

Thorrez wrote: post #161
iso947 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

D/m/y is little endian. In a base 10,000 system there would be 3 symbols, each unique.

Sure, but humans would have a hard time memorizing 10,000 symbols.

If each unique symbol for a number was made up of smaller symbols arranged using a simple algorithm you wouldn't necessarily need to memorize them all. Kind of like Roman numerals, but much a bit more complex.

I don't have to remember the exact symbol for 2,020 in Roman numerals, because I can figure it out. In fact, I have no idea what it would be without sitting down and doing so.

I'm not saying it would be a good system, but it could be usable by mere mortals. I guess you could debate if this would really be "10,000 unique symbols" or just something akin to our current writing system for numbers.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#177

Post by Wowfunhappy »

hibbelig wrote: post #52
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

That middle-endianness is spoken doesn’t make it better. It’s still crazy. Starting with the most general and ending with the most specific is a logical order. Doing it the other way round is also logical. But starting with the middle makes no sense. It doesn’t seem unusual to you because you use it often. That said I’m German and I realize that German postal addresses are crazy for the same reason. I wish we‘d adopt…

> That middle-endianness is spoken doesn’t make it better. It’s still crazy.

The english language—and every other real-world spoken language—is full of rules and exceptions that make absolutely zero logical sense. How far down this road do you want to go?

As long as we speak in a specific order, I don't think it's crazy at all to write in that same order. After all, normal written sentences follow the spoken order of words, too.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#178

Post by loco5niner »

rags2riches wrote: post #44
thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American date notation is simply a direct reflection of the spoken language. We say "February second, 2020" and we write "2/2/2020". (Contra the root comment, I can't agree that 2/2/2020 is a palindrome.) I don't see this as being crazy or even unusual. When order matters, you invariably want big-endian notation, which is why that notation is acceptable everywhere regardless of the usual native notation. But by t…

What about the Fourth of July then?

As in everything else in American English, there are exceptions.

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#179

Post by loco5niner »

Kaiyou wrote: post #157
thaumasiotes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about it? It's the name of a holiday. 12/25 is often called Christmas, and yet 9/29 is never called Michaelmas. Same thing.

Huh, where I'm from the 24th of December is Christmas. The 25th is the day after Christmas.

Really? Where are you from?

This might help explain how Santa delivers all those presents in "one night".

Re: Palindrome Day 20200202

#180

Post by jgwil2 »

Kaiyou wrote: post #169
jgwil2 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Street and house number are certainly two different things. It's more like series of movies (Die Hard 1, Die Hard 2, etc. are different movies but part of the same series. In the same way, a street could be seen as a series of houses or addresses. So the smallest unit is the house, then the street.

Yes, it's like a movie series. It's Die Hard 2. That's one name, not two, "2" and "Die Hard", but one: "Die Hard 2".

I didn't say it was two names, I said there are two different movies within the Die Hard series. Just like two different houses on the same street.
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