15 Comments
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bnjd's avatar

I use DATE-MONTH-YEAR format when I am not submitting to journals. US dates are dumb. They slow down our brains. There's literally punctuation telling the reader to slow down: MONTH DAY, YEAR. No comma is necessary with DATE-MONTH-YEAR.

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David Perlmutter's avatar

22 July is my birthday, so this is another reason to celebrate.

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Lloyd Alter's avatar

Happy birthday!

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David Perlmutter's avatar

Thank you.

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GraniteGrok's avatar

Let me get these points out of the way first:

- Frankly, I prefer 2024-03-14 formatting; from most general to most specific. It's "orderly"

- In comparison, both of the other dating "customs" are "disorderly".

"...3.14 is irrational..."

Another American hill to die on, Lloyd? 3.14 vs 3.142857? And the actual value, rounded to only 12 digits to the right of the decimal point, is 3.141592653589?

No, it's not "irrational" - it is "culture and custom". Besides, who really cares? how many people can rattle off the actual value of Pi versus the "standard" 2-digit quick approximation? And how many people would look at you funny for asking if they know what the value of Pi is anyway?

And given the post's nuance ("America continues to be bad even over a date format"), isn't quoting Don McLean for the title of your post "cultural appropriation" by a Canadian? 'Jus asking fer a friend...

However, as I have said before, it is YOUR right to say what you want on your blog; it is a mere privilege for the rest of us.

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Lloyd Alter's avatar

Many people wonder why I have not blocked you. I haven't yet, but I am so tempted. You don't even let me have a little fun here.

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GraniteGrok's avatar

Every court needs its jester, sir - and you have "provocative" (as you have called me before) me.

Now a more serious response - for quite some time, you've been on an "America bashing" spree so I took you seriously even on Pi dating. After all, in addition to what you have written, there are a number of fellow American commenters here that don't seem to be too hep on the USA, so I tried to be a very small counterweight to their contrary.

I merely decided to stand up for my country just as you have for yours (and in our back channel messaging as well). Now I'm getting in trouble for disagreeing with you over customs/culture of mathematics and dates?

And I didn't even mention He-Who-Can't-Be-Named-By-Me!

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Anne Marie Bonneau's avatar

You sound fun GraniteGrok.

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GraniteGrok's avatar

I do try - but haven't been writing much (on my OWN SITE) lately as the children that DCYF sends to my wife and I (we are rated as General, Specialized, Emergency, and Crisis level) take up way too much time.

Posting here is easier and faster. But given that I save off most of my comments here, they'll eventually all be posted there (as I have been for years).

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Simon Woodside's avatar

A genuine and irrefutable advantage of the ISO date format: it sorts correctly. If you’ve ever been frustrated that carefully dated file names don’t sort into the right order, just use YYYY-MM-DD and watch your problems disappear

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Douglas J's avatar

I think that most commercial airliners are made in the USA, so perhaps that will mean that Lloyd will boycott them and thus save carbon emissions! :)

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Lloyd Alter's avatar

There's always Airbus, made in Toulouse, France. But I appreciate the complaints. I recognize that this is my biggest carbon failing. I am working up a response to this issue.

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CanDoo's avatar

I’m confused. If you ask a person what pi is (the number, not food) at best they’ll respond with 3.14 or maybe 3.1415. Since calendars are counted in months and days, how would it be more accurate to refer to 22/7 as the “true” pi day when the difference lies at the 3rd and 4th decimal place? Isn’t this about pi’s numerical value relative to the Gregorian calendar and not how it’s calculated?

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Mark Hambridge's avatar

On date formats: As an immigrant from a D-M-Y country and settled in a part of the country that can't decide on the (southern) M-D-Y or (northern) D-M-Y format, I have personally adopted the ISO format of Y-M-D-H-M-S (abbreviated as necessary). Seems to confuse everyone... The City of Calgary uses Y-Monthname-D format - most of the time...

On Pi: who really needs to know the specifics of the diameter of a circle (except GraniteGrok)? Personally, I enjoy a pie on 3.14. and a second helping on 22/7. And on many other random days...

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Anne Marie Bonneau's avatar

I bought too much fruit at the farmers' market on the weekend and thought about making a pie with some of it. Now I am morally obligated! I do what I must.

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