BBC News (UK) presentation - Reith launch onwards

Why is it "sad"? It's a confusing and arbitrary convention. The day rolls over at midnight, but the hour number doesn't roll over to 1 until an hour later. "am" means before midday, "pm" means after midday - midnight is both and midday is neither.

In the US they "solve" this by using 12:01am and 12:01pm, which is, at least, unambiguous without prior agreement to an arbitrary convention.

Not really - 12am and 12pm are notoriously ambiguous - noon and midnight are better on-screen if you must use 12 hour clock.

The UK moved from 12 hour to 24 hour clock more slowly than many other countries - and still uses 12 hour clock informally, though almost everyone here has no problems reading 24 hour clocks and timetables etc. these days.

If you ask someone the time they'll almost always reply in 12 hour clock, even if looking at a 24 hour watch, though the am and pm is almost always taken as a given (you wouldn't conversationally say it's 3pm, you'd just say 3 o'clock and know that someone knew whether it was 3 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon).

Personally I HATE 12 hour digital clocks around the house and only have 24 hour clocks. Ditto on-screen clocks.

The thing I find REALLY weird is US TV control rooms not having their digital clocks in 24 hour format.

I always get really confused when something goes out of date e.g. A chocolate bar goes out of date on 30th April. Does that mean 00:00 on 30th April or 23:59 on 30th April?

I doubt you'd notice a difference if you eat a chocolate bar at 23:59 on 30 April or 0:00 on 1 May.

The one that always baffles me is how the Americans measure quantities in baking by cups. I mean, wtf? Is this actually standardised? Imagine the faff of having to have a set of cups to measure ingredients, rather than just using a scale! It's hardly precise either - by using a digital scale to weigh, say 150g, you can get a very accurate measurement. But a cupful could potentially have slightly more or less inside as it's purely visual!



Well my take on that differs if it's a 'best before' or 'use by' date. If a product said it was best before 30th April, then I would try and eat it on or before 29th April (although, it's not exactly life threatening if it goes past the 30th for a little while). I have sometimes seen a 'best before end' date - so a best before end date of 30th April would mean up to 23:59 on the 30th.

Use by dates I always try to stick to as theoretically it shouldn't be eaten after that date. So, I would eat a product with a use by date of 30th April on or before 30th April. Although, common sense does come into this because if a pint of milk smelled fine the day after, or a piece of cheese didn't exhibit any mould, then I'd probably risk it.

I feel like I've spent far too much of my life trying to persuade bookings departments to start or finish things at 2359 or 0001 so there's no ambiguity about what day they mean.

I obtained a council parking permit from the owner of an AirBnB in Cheltenham a couple of years ago.

That was weird, Expiry 00:00hrs May 10th , in reality meant it expired at 23:59:59 on May 11th !

I questioned it with the owner, he said, yep it's mad, but trust me I've sold on enough of them !,

Can I ask what these posts have got to do with TV presentation?

Nothing especially. But it's a conversation that developed from a screen-grab of a clock on the BBC News Channel.

I’m really confused now - why would it in reality expire nearly 2 days later?

Yes and in these socially distance times it keeps us sane to keep talking to each other as friends.

I see. I have to admit I try and live by a 12 hr clock. To me a 24 hour clock smacks of military, international business etc, really high flown, complicated aspects of life which can add pressure to lives and right now that's not what we need.