Ha, ha, Rick. Everyone in Sweden (Europe) uses the superior ISO date standard. Every Swedish form uses it, and our personal ID numbers use it plus an algorithmic final code.
Besides I used to write/translate/work with scientists, and at one point in my and the (Swedish) computer's youth was a very, very, very minor reference for the Swedish institute for standards, SIS, that coined (and coins) new words and procedures as needed, such as
rullbräda (roll plank) for skateboard and
freestyle (yes, it's the Swedish term) for portable audio cassette, popularly known by the trademark Walkman (terms I was
not involved in) and
dator for computer (
-or as in motor + data, in inverse order) rather than the term datamachine which was gaining a foothold in the language.
Technical nomenclature is a fascinating subject. I digress.
For our (Swedish) date designations, one
logically starts with the highest number and proceeds downward the order of magnitude to the required precision: century (CE, Common Era), year, month, day, hour (24 hour designation, not a.m. & p.m.), minute, second.
Then comes the ISO metric designations for time less than a second: decisecond, centisecond, millisecond, microsecond, nanosecond, picosecond, attosecond, zeptosecond, yoctosecond.
ISO is so
logical. Unlike the confusing American system of pounds and miles, we use the easy metric systems for weight and distance so that even a child can quickly get a grasp on magnitude. Even me, a mathematical idiot.
Though I dispute the Jonathan Swift reference here, the article does give you an idea of how everybody's out of step but Charlie. (
)
http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...before-the-day
You
are a science/business writer, Rick. No?
PS What made you think I am a radical.
(Allotted smilies all used up now.)