With a great fanfare on March 14th, the London 2012 Olympic Games organisers unveiled a clock counting down to the start of the games. The clock was supplied by Omega, who have been official timekeepers at the Olympics for 25 years, so they know their stuff, or do they? As I watched the countdown, I noticed something strange. It went something like this:
Days - Hours:Mins:Secs
500 - 00:00:03
500 - 00:00:02
500 - 00:00:01
500 - 00:00:00
500 - 23:59:59
500 - 23:59:58
500 - 23:59:57
The clock counted down to midnight when it got to 500 - 00:0:00 and rolled round to the next day, 500 days to the Olympics!
Now, am I being dense here? Surely 500-days-and-one-second "to go" is less than 500-days-23-hours-59-minutes-59-seconds "to go". 500 days is 499 days and 24 hours, so anything LESS than 500 days isn't 500 days plus some hours. Shouldn't the number of days decremented when the hours, minutes and seconds went through zero? I would have expected this:
Days - Hours:Mins:Secs
500 - 00:00:03
500 - 00:00:02
500 - 00:00:01
500 - 00:00:00
499 - 23:59:59
499 - 23:59:58
499 - 23:59:57
So how many days left should be shown on the clock now? The number on display, or one less than that?
What do you think?
Links:
London 2012 official news about the unveiling of the countdown clock
News report on the breakdown of the countdown clock the day after it was unveiled
Daily Telegraph's daily countdown to the London 2012 Olympics
22 March 2011
Word of the Day - Archive 2
More "words of the day" that I've tweeted in 2011 so far.
WEEKEND - A very small kend (Scottish expression).
CONCENTRATE - A deceit that makes you think hard, e.g. "Pure fruit juice (made from concentrate and added water)".
BEARING - what Mr Grizzly gave to Mrs Grizzly when they got married.
ANTELOPE - What insects do when they run away to get married.
DIAMETRIC - A Welsh form of measuring length.
PEER - A member of the British House of Lords who likes to examine intently the wording of new laws.
PERIOD - It's a stretch of time that brings things to a full stop.
STOCK - Collective name for a Vulcan farmer's animals.
SMOCK - An item of clothing that farmers on Planet Vulcan like to wear.
EPOCH - One of those little furry characters from Star Wars, who has lived for a LONG time.
HA-HA - A Victorian garden feature for keeping out animals that always made people laugh when they first saw it.
MUMBLING - How a son speaks when giving jewelry to his mother.
HEXAGON - Got rid of a six-sided magical spell.
FLOWER - An engineer who's job it is to ensure there are no blockages in pipes taking water to people's houses
ANDROID - A roid you can 'old in your 'and. It's a bit cockney, you see.
COCKSURE - an overly confident company that insures restaurant kitchens against bug infestation.
EUROPE - A new French/German standard for how farmers should catch cows, based on US cowboys.
BATE - Something used by fishermen, who wait for a catch with bated breath.
CHOCOLATE - a deadly substance. "Did you hear Colin died from over-eating Mars Bars?" "Yeah, he's chocolate."
SYNOPSIS - A summary of how much sex and violence there is in the plot of a story.
REVOLT - to charge the battery in an electric car, e.g., "My G-Wiz is revolting." "I've often thought that."
RECURSIVE - The urge to swear constantly when you find a program keeps calling itself in an endless loop.
EFFULGENT - A man who's eaten all his dinner. How brilliant is that!
PROCRASTINATE - I'll be giving the definition of this word later...
PRESTIDIGITATION - the technical name for a touch-screen smartphone. Some view them as magical finger toys.
REFUSE - Rubbish or trash that you refuse to keep any more.
BASQUE - A type of female undergarment that originates from north-eastern Spain. It borders on being French.
BARBIE - A plastic toy doll used to cook food in Australia. "Throw another prawn on the barbie."
PACIFIST - A Californian who keeps the peace by punching people who try to fight. Hang on, that's not quite right...
WEEKEND - A very small kend (Scottish expression).
CONCENTRATE - A deceit that makes you think hard, e.g. "Pure fruit juice (made from concentrate and added water)".
BEARING - what Mr Grizzly gave to Mrs Grizzly when they got married.
ANTELOPE - What insects do when they run away to get married.
DIAMETRIC - A Welsh form of measuring length.
PEER - A member of the British House of Lords who likes to examine intently the wording of new laws.
PERIOD - It's a stretch of time that brings things to a full stop.
STOCK - Collective name for a Vulcan farmer's animals.
SMOCK - An item of clothing that farmers on Planet Vulcan like to wear.
EPOCH - One of those little furry characters from Star Wars, who has lived for a LONG time.
HA-HA - A Victorian garden feature for keeping out animals that always made people laugh when they first saw it.
MUMBLING - How a son speaks when giving jewelry to his mother.
HEXAGON - Got rid of a six-sided magical spell.
FLOWER - An engineer who's job it is to ensure there are no blockages in pipes taking water to people's houses
ANDROID - A roid you can 'old in your 'and. It's a bit cockney, you see.
COCKSURE - an overly confident company that insures restaurant kitchens against bug infestation.
EUROPE - A new French/German standard for how farmers should catch cows, based on US cowboys.
BATE - Something used by fishermen, who wait for a catch with bated breath.
CHOCOLATE - a deadly substance. "Did you hear Colin died from over-eating Mars Bars?" "Yeah, he's chocolate."
SYNOPSIS - A summary of how much sex and violence there is in the plot of a story.
REVOLT - to charge the battery in an electric car, e.g., "My G-Wiz is revolting." "I've often thought that."
RECURSIVE - The urge to swear constantly when you find a program keeps calling itself in an endless loop.
EFFULGENT - A man who's eaten all his dinner. How brilliant is that!
PROCRASTINATE - I'll be giving the definition of this word later...
PRESTIDIGITATION - the technical name for a touch-screen smartphone. Some view them as magical finger toys.
REFUSE - Rubbish or trash that you refuse to keep any more.
BASQUE - A type of female undergarment that originates from north-eastern Spain. It borders on being French.
BARBIE - A plastic toy doll used to cook food in Australia. "Throw another prawn on the barbie."
PACIFIST - A Californian who keeps the peace by punching people who try to fight. Hang on, that's not quite right...
03 March 2011
The tourists from Europe
There was a tragic story about a party of tourists from Europe on a hiking holiday in the US that encountered a family of grizzly bears. All but one of the tourists managed to escape. When the park rangers investigated the incident, one of them reported, "The Czech is in the male".
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