Editing 1340: Unique Date
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | In this comic [[Cueball]] | + | In this comic [[Cueball]] is excited about the current date and he states this date (the date the comic was released) as 2014-03-10, with year first then month and date. This follows the international standard as defined in the {{W|ISO 8601}} standard. He then continues to points out, to [[Megan]] and her Cueball-like friend, that this date will never happen again! |
− | The | + | The {{W|Gregorian calendar}} is the current way to count time in years, months and days. Since time moves only forward, dates will never repeat. Every date is thus equally unique, even when the digits aren't in a pattern. |
− | + | Many people do, however, make a big deal about dates when the digits follow an interesting pattern, such as 2000-01-01 or 2012-12-12. They might plan special events on these "unique" days. For instance, [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/08/nation/na-weddings8 2007-07-07] was considered a "lucky" day and had a record number of weddings. This is because humans in general are superstitious and like (and recognize) patterns in every day life, also including patterns in the numbers used for stating dates. But this does not make these dates more unique than any other dates. | |
− | + | Nevertheless, Cueball has made it into [[:Category:My Hobby|his hobby]] to point this daily uniqueness out, and having to listen to him, stating this fact everyday, would be incredibly annoying to his friends. | |
− | The title text refers to the {{ | + | The title text refers to the {{W|Long Now Foundation}}, who uses [http://blog.longnow.org/02013/12/31/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ five-digit years] (e.g. this comic's date would be written "02014-03-10"). This is an effort to encourage people to think in terms of long-term benefits, rather than only the coming years or decades. The {{w|Y2K problem}} was due to using only two digits to store the year, which would have made dates ambiguous when it rolled from 99 back to 00. Similarly, the {{w|Maya calendar}} had a repeating cycle of 52 years, and even their "long count" rolled over after 7885 years. As we currently use four-digit years this may cause a {{w|Year 10,000 problem|Y10K problem}}. |
− | The Long Now Foundation designs a [http://longnow.org/clock/ 10,000-year clock] that should be able to run for this long — and in principle | + | The Long Now Foundation designs a [http://longnow.org/clock/ 10,000-year clock] that should be able to run for this long — and in principle it could display every date up to 9999-12-31. [[Randall]] remarks that by coming close to the year 10,000, our civilization probably will follow this recommendation, unless our civilization is already extinct. |
A previous comic on date formats was [[1179: ISO 8601]]. Randall addresses date formatting confusion again in the title text of [[1467: Email]]. | A previous comic on date formats was [[1179: ISO 8601]]. Randall addresses date formatting confusion again in the title text of [[1467: Email]]. | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] | [[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] | ||
[[Category:My Hobby]] | [[Category:My Hobby]] | ||
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