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Cake day: July 1st, 2024

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  • As a math nerd, this bothers me way more than it should. The reason we say “hundred” when we read a base-ten number that ends with two zeros is because that is the place value of the final non-zero digit–it is literally one hundred times the number you’ve already read aloud. But in the military time version, a) the hours are not hundreds of minutes, they’re groups of sixty minutes, and b) it’s groups of minutes, not hours, so the units also get messed up. If someone tells you it’s currently 0 hours and you should meet again at 800 hours, logic would suggest they’re asking you to go away for more than a month, but in fact they’re saying 8 hours, despite the difference being apparently 800 hours.

    I’m aware how pedantic this is, and I’m perfectly capable of understanding what they mean because I’ve heard it so often in movies and whatnot. But I swear these stupid games with units contribute to keeping us dumb.


  • Mitchell and Webb have a bit about this. Mitchell’s character gets annoyed that Webb’s character keeps talking about how “we beat you in the playoffs.” He eventually asks “Hey, do you remember that time WE defeated the nazis and recovered the Ark of the Covenant? That’s right, you see, I enjoyed watching the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so now I have decided that I was in it, and deserve credit for participation in the events of the story.”

    (Not exact quotes, I’m paraphrasing from memory)