Posted on 04/04/2006 9:24:04 PM PDT by presidio9
Call it a coincidental sign of our digital times or a reason to stay up late and stare at the clock. Either way, early Wednesday morning the time and date will be 01-02-03-04-05-06.
At 1:02 a.m. and three seconds on Wednesday, April 5, 2006, it will be the first hour of the day, the second minute of the hour, the third second of that precious minute in the fourth month of the fifth year of ... uh oh. It's not really the sixth year.
It's actually 2006 — only in our shorthand is it '06.
"It just happens to be a chronological oddity," said Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory, an official world atomic clock timekeeper. "If you were to use the full year, that would screw things up completely. You do have to bend it a little if you want to make it work. That's what you call 'Finagle's Law of Best Fit'."
Even numerologists, such as Rob Ragozzine, who runs the SimplyNumbers.com web site, dismiss the 1-2-3-4-5-6 moment as merely "a neat coincidence" because of that pesky 2006 thing.
"People are interested in numbers," said Jack Horkheimer, 67-year-old host of the Star Gazer public television show and executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium. "Would I stay up all night waiting for it? Ten years ago, I would have had a party. Now, I will probably be deep in the arms of sleep."
There are less bleary-eyed alternatives. There's 1:02 p.m., but Horkheimer said that's really 13:02 p.m. and doesn't really count.
Chester recommends celebrating universal time, the standard scientific time, which is four hours ahead of eastern daylight time. So 01-02-03-04-05-06 can be celebrated at 9:02 p.m. EDT by calling up the U.S. Naval Observatory's "master clock" then and waiting for the universal time pronouncement, he said. That number is 202-762-1401.
The clock is also on the web at: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/what1.html.
For much of the world, especially Europe, this odd line-up of numbers doesn't really happen until next month. That's because many countries put the number of the day first, then the number of the month. So for many places, 01-02-03-04-05-06 happens at 1:02 a.m. May 4.
Wow, 11:11 and 12:34 have always been my "witching hour" times, so to speak. They're really my "God time" when I say "thank you" or "please" depending on which is appropos.
Obviously, I don't notice them every day, but do usually catch one or the other or both at their various appearances on the clock. I didn't know either one was noticeable to anyone else. Cool! Can't say as how I've ever paid attention to 10:08, tho. (Bet I will now, without wanting to!)
My dad took a pic of a "time/temperature" sign on a bank building in Anchorage one afternoon that said "33° 3:33". Being from S. TX, he thought that was pretty unusual, lol.
Damn! I missed it.
You and the others on this thread aren't the only ones. It seems like every other day I'll just happen to look up at the clock and its 11:11 or 1:11. Weird, huh?
Note that it took me 2 minutes to write that post!
Hey, if I didn't know better I'd say you were trying to invade Geoff freaking Chester, greatest clock watcher, bar none's turf. :-)
123456
123456
HAPPY CHRONOLOGICAL ODDITY!
lol. I need to get a life. I can't believe I stayed up for this.
Naw. If I were, I would have timed it to 12:34:56, dontcha know?
HAPPY CHRONOLOGICAL ODDITY!!
I did a print screen and got it with my clock right on top of the FR Headline about it! But my calendar part isn't digital - kinda spoils the effect.
Me too. I've been trying to pull myself away from this machine for the last hour, but as a fellow FReepaholic, I just can't.
Please....just one more post.....that's all I need.....one more......just one more post and I'll be good.......c'mon....
LOL - it happened hours ago on my side of the world and I slept right through it.
Did I miss anything like a slight tremble in the time-space continuum? ;-)
presidio9 in post #57 said it was the best minute ever. I'm definitely jealous.
Awwww. A father-daughter moment.
HAHA yeah we know ;-)
just wait til May
I'm pretty sure that my clothes dryer shut off at that exact moment. I'm heading to the basement with a roll of tinfoil...I have some MRE's and "duck" tape leftover from a few years back.
Stay safe!
There are three 6's in my birthday and three in a row in my SS number.
I was born on the night a comet passed by the earth and that night was picked for the end of the world by a certain sect...
I am so the daughter of Satan. :-)
I had "12:34" syndrome for a couple of years. Every other day it seems I'd look at the clock at 12:34. It began to freak me out.
It hasn't happened in a while now. Weird.
I had it with 9:11 for about a year after 9/11.
I still see 3:33 a lot. I just happen to look a the lower right on my computer monitor at 3:33 regularly. Don't know why...
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