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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: 0000 not 2400?
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2004 Oct 18, 16:46 -0400
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2004 Oct 18, 16:46 -0400
Gary, the terms "12AM" and "12PM" are (nothing personal) not times, but rather hallmarks of illiteracy. Noon is "midi" in French or "mid day" in English. While any other time can be referred to as apres-midi (AM, before noon) or post-midi (PM, after noon) "obviously" noon can neither come before or after itself. So the clock goes from 11:59:59 AM to NOON then 12:00:01 PM. And I note in passing that "AM" and "PM" are considered to be incorrect as well. proper typography and usage in the US requires that these letters be set in small capital letters, not full capitals and never with periods. ASCII email doesn't allow me that. Of course, since the schools can't bother teaching these things, and even the newspapers no longer bother to hire literate writers or editors, why should we expect anyone to be able to read the clocks. I actually know some kids who are in their late teens now, who ten years ago had problems reading analog clocks--the schools didn't use them any more!