FR uses javascript.
Prove it.
Did you ever notice how, when an FR page first loads, the times are all Pacific? Then they suddenly change to your computer's timezone and chosen date/time format? Here's the code:
// NG_Localize -- replace "date" class spans with localized date. // <span class="date">11/19/2006 02:17 PM PST</span> gets localized. function NG_Localize() { var tags = document.getElementsByTagName("span"); for (var i = 0; i < tags.length; i ++) { if (tags[i].className == "date") { var da = new Date(tags[i].innerHTML); if (da.getFullYear() > 1990) tags[i].innerHTML = da.toLocaleString(); //var dy = da.getFullYear(); if (dy < 1970) dy = dy + 100; //var dm = da.getMonth() + 1; if (dm < 10) dm = "0" + dm; //var dd = da.getDate(); if (dd < 10) dd = "0" + dd; //var tm = da.getMinutes(); if (tm < 10) tm = "0" + tm; //var th = da.getHours() % 12; if (th == 0) th = 12; if (th < 10) th = "0" + th; //var tf = da.getHours() < 12 ? "AM" : "PM"; //tags[i].innerHTML = dm + "/" + dd + "/" + dy + " " + th + ":" + tm + " " + tf; } } }
What does it do? It rifles through all of the <span> tags on the page and for each one tagged with class 'date' which appears to contain a date/time, it replaces the date/time with a version localized to your computer.
It's from http://freerepublic.com/l/common.js. Click the link and see for yourself. That file is brought in from line 50 of this page's html source:
<script type="text/javascript" src="/l/common.js"></script>
Here's another JavaScript invocation that may cause some tinfoil to arc-over (it's from the bottom of the page):
<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript">_uacct = "UA-2288668-1"; urchinTracker();</script>