In the spirit of what Julie near Chicago said in a comment, at 11:33am, on this, which was this, …
I love Samizdata. You learn so much arcane stuff hereabouts!
(She then adds, by way of example, something about the Cloak of Invisibility, whatever that is. (I’m not asking.))
… I will add another little bit of arcane stuff here. Before today ends, because it concerns today. I refer to this:
02 02 2020
This is the first time in over 900 years (since 11/11/1111) the date is palindromic no matter the date format.
I learned this in a tweet, which I encountered because the noted military historian Peter Caddick-Adams, with whom I was once upon a time acquainted and whose twitterings I now follow (and more to the point whose books I also read with great pleasure), drew it to my attention.
Although, what if you just say 2/2/2020? Doesn’t that count as a “date format”? I think I just destroyed this posting.
Personally, I always try to put the name of the month and only use a number for the day, because once you get confused about the all-numbers way of identifying dates the confusion only ends with your death. (When trying to work out when a photo taken early in the month got taken, I tend to get brain-ache and have to work it out like a crossword clue.)
I notice that Samizdata also uses month names for all dates. Very wise, and further proof of why all should love Samizdata.
Actually, the rational way of writing the date would be: 2020 02 02. Start with the millennium, then the century, then the decade, then the year, then the month, and finally the day.
It’s still a palindrome.
@Snorri Godhi
… which is precisely how they do it in China.
There is perhaps a human tendency to see purpose in patterns, when there is none. I noticed the date yesterday only as I checked into a hotel. However, it was the first time in the post-Columbian history of the anglophone Americas that they have written the date correctly. 😀
What about Julian/Gregorian dates thing? Did you know in astrophysics Julian dates are still used? When I did my MSc at QMC (hey, that rhymes so I is also a poet even if you didn’t know it – bloody bell, I’m Byron!) I had to do a FORTRAN course!!! One of the tasks set was the Gregorian/Julian conversation. I thought this to be utterly trivial. It’s not rocket science but it’s not as simple as it seems at first blush. Also Julian dates in astrophysics form look like Trek stardates. I felt like a Picard – but with a fully upholstered pate. I am now twittering so, “Carry on Number One and make it so!”
“Why 02/02/2020 is the most palindromic date ever.”
It’s palindromic in all three usual formats – DD-MM-YYYY, MM-DD-YYYY, & YYYY-MM-DD – and it was the 33rd day of the year, with 333 days left to go.
“… which is precisely how they do it in China.”
Isn’t it the Year of the Mexican Beer or something?
A Julian Date has a lot of meanings, but a Julian Date _Format_ is YYYYDDD, which is just year and day number, you need to get to 20th July to be palindromic (2020202).
UNIX Epoch date (seconds since 1st January 1970, excluding leap seconds) is a ten digit number, I think the next palindromic would be on 6th February 2020 at 3:15pm and 15 seconds UTC (1581001815).
What of 12/12/1212 et seq.?
Also, now that Doug Adams’ mystical “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” number 42 has been resolved to the mathematically theorized sum of three cubes (qv), kabalistic reduction reduces 42 to 4 + 2 = 6, a rare “perfect number” defined as the sum of all its divisors plus one (1).
In medieval times, meditating on Perfect Number 6 was recommended for “the healing of souls”. Carroll’s Father William would understand: Of the making of arithmetic oddities, there is no end.
YYYY,separator,MM,separator,DD type formats will win because they are so easily sortable by computer.
Accepting the premise, in just over a century there will be another one. After that the frequency drops to slightly less than once a millennium.
[pedantic mode]
If we stick to DD MM YY or MM DD YY formats, but add the time of day, it was even better when it got to 20 minutes and 20 seconds past two in the morning.
DD MM YY – HH MM SS
02 02 20 – 02 20 20
[/pedantic mode]
20 02 2020 will be in 17 days time too
“Actually, the rational way of writing the date would be: 2020 02 02.”
You have been assessed by the Standards And Regulations Committee Assistant Standardisation Manager to be in non-compliance with international standard ISO 8601. Please report to Central for your mandatory remedial training and reprogramming on 2020-W11-5. Have a nice 1D!
So what about 10/02/2001?
Or does that not count because it only applies in European date format, not American ones?