Comments on: Morning Links

By: Gene Callahan

Gene Callahan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:07:20 +0000

“A couple things that might help are that the a.m./p.m switch should happen when the hour switches, otherwise 12:01 am and 12:00 am aren’t next to each other. Heck, 12:00:01 am isn’t near 12:00:00 am, or 12:00:00.1, etc.”

Aren’t you bothered that, in this system, 11:59.99999999999999999 pm is not near 12:00.00 pm?

It’s noon and midnight, mate — there ain’t no 12 pm!

By: Gene Callahan

Gene Callahan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:02:55 +0000

“I have always thought that distinguishing 12 am and 12 pm is far too confusing and ambiguous. People should use 12 noon or 12 midnight instead.”

It’s not simply “confusing” — calling noon “12 pm” is nonsense — 12 noon IS the meridian, not post the meridian.

By: David McElroy

David McElroy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:44:44 +0000

The confusion between 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. is why it’s always best to simply say “noon” or “midnight.” And if you still have Associated Press style burned into your brain from writing that way for years at newspapers, you’ll think it’s the ONLY way to do it.

By: Linda Morgan

Linda Morgan — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:00:35 +0000

Thanks, claude! It’s an amazing collection and quite a nicely done site.

By: claude

claude — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:00:03 +0000

Re: the 1939-69 photos. They r part of the Charles Cushman collection of approx. 14,500 slides he bequeathed to Indiana University. U can access them all from here:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp

By: Michael Pack

Michael Pack — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:25:43 +0000

One thing I’ve learned in my business.You can never make up lost income.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:08:30 +0000

Zeb: It’s true that a.m./p.m. are confusing. A couple things that might help are that the a.m./p.m switch should happen when the hour switches, otherwise 12:01 am and 12:00 am aren’t next to each other. Heck, 12:00:01 am isn’t near 12:00:00 am, or 12:00:00.1, etc.

But even going with “midnight” still has the ambiguity of the night before or the night after. 12:01 am and 11:59 pm work but, exclude a minute, which could be a problem when describing different regulatory regimes. One solution, if you’re not allergic to military time is to use 0:00 and 24:00 to distinguish.

By: David

David — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:33:40 +0000

I think it’s more likely that they wanted something to enforce, and this is what they came up with.

By: Mark J.

Mark J. — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:05:15 +0000

Fort Myers Story –

Perhaps it’s not a mistake but simply an attempt to give the appearance of doing something without accomplishing a thing. How many laws are passed simply because elected officials and their constituents want to ’send a message.’

By: ClubMedSux

ClubMedSux — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:33:56 +0000

The law was created in 1936, a time when religion and politics sometimes mixed.

Thank God we’ve progressed since then…

By: Zeb

Zeb — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:26:53 +0000

I have always thought that distinguishing 12 am and 12 pm is far too confusing and ambiguous. People should use 12 noon or 12 midnight instead. I always think that 12 pm should mean midnight, no matter how many times people try to tell me otherwise.

By: The International House of Bacon » Blog Archive » Friday Links

The International House of Bacon » Blog Archive » Friday Links — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:19:33 +0000

[...] Also, The New York Times sorta gets RickRolled. Hoaxes are fun. Radly Balko linked both of these earlier, always worth a [...]

By: Nando

Nando — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:31:02 +0000

Those pics are really nice. I wonder who went thru and colored them (they look like they were B&W, originally).

By: David

David — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:23:53 +0000

Problem is, “after 12am” on Sunday is actually Monday.

Couldn’t they just shift this plan to Saturday night and screw a lot of bars with the technicality? Actually, I think that the laws considers the hours of operation say (5pm-1am) to be one “day” for these purposes. I remember there always be a question of whether a person could legally drink in a bar at midnight on their birthday, and the general answer that was no, because the midnight to 2am was considered part of the previous day.

By: concernedcitizen

concernedcitizen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:18:26 +0000

From the Florida police article where they shut down a bar two hours early on Sunday:

“Hopefully they will regain their lost funds through spring break,” said Daniels.

Instead of what, suing the city? They can’t “make up” or “regain” those lost funds by doing normal business — that’s money they would have made anyway.

By: JT

JT — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:18:17 +0000

Police in Fort Meyers, Florida set out to the bars to catch establishments that violate the state’s law against serving liquor after 12am on Sunday. Problem is, “after 12am” on Sunday is actually Monday. And on Monday, there are no restrictions on serving alcohol.

So they’re just off by a day. They could go out on Saturday night @ 11:59pm and get ready to shut bars down, according to the letter of the law, right? Frivolous law - reminds me of those guys from Britain who went across the US breaking horribly frivolous and unnecessary state laws that were still on the books (can’t ride a bicycle in a swimming pool in Montana, can’t take a nap in a cheese factory somewhere else, etc. - the best was a law against whale-hunting in Utah).

By: The Darkness

The Darkness — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:14:26 +0000

I’d a appreciate an NSFW tag

By: Rebelleink

Rebelleink — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:51:49 +0000

You may want to put a NSFW tag by the Americana pics, due to ads that pop up on the right nav. Generally neat though.