On Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 3:50 PM, Paul Gilmartin < 0000000433f07816-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Mar 2017 15:18:03 -0600, Joel C. Ewing wrote: > > It's cultural. Consider how Europeans write dates. > https://xkcd.com/1179/ > > And significance is subjective. About 10 years ago, I asked an astronomer, > "When is the equinox on Saturn?" > "Nine fourteen." (orally) > > September 14th seemed too soon until I pondered and realized she > meant, "September, 2014." > > In Boulder, CO, in the '60s (some century), all local phone numbers > were (303)442-xxx or (303)443-xxxx. People routinely exchanged > phone numbers (orally) by only the last 5 digits. The first 5 were, > if not insignificant, inconsequential. > > Computer science professor W.M. Waite used to say, "Top of > memory," pointing to the floor, and "Bottom of memory", > pointing to the ceiling. > ​Same in other books I've seen. Why? Probably because we write from top to bottom. We write the lowest first, at the top, and the highest last, at the bottom. And then we confuse everybody by calling them "ascending" memory addresses while writing them in a descending pattern. English is a _stupid_ language. > > -- gil > > -- "Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." -- Michael McClary, in alt.fusion Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
