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Admin
Yep, and if you need to take different time zones into account it can even be more interesting. Riyad had 3 hours and 7 minutes difference a couple of years in the 1980ies.
Admin
At least they don't have to deal with September 1752...
Admin
Historical dates are complicated - februari 30th did exist
Admin
I highly recommend this on youtube "The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile"
Admin
And then there's Lebanon today.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/25/middleeast/lebanon-daylight-savings-intl/index.html
Admin
Is it the 16th of Mei? Test if month == 4.
Is it the 1st of Mei? Test if month == 5.
Don't worry, I'm sure they're both correct.
Admin
I'm concerned that code of this quality is trying to handle precision to the second nearly a century ago. I don't know what was going on at the time that would have been tracked to that precision (and still matter today).
Admin
... or the fact that some people assume the change to the Gregorian calendar happened in the same year ... or century ... or all ... in different locations (which may or may not coincide with current countries).
Admin
If I encountered that code, the first thing I would do is start digging back through the source control history to see what earlier versions looked like. I would not be surprised if the code that set lenient mode was added when the code was written in terms of parsing and a later change removed the parsing but forgot to remove the lenient hacks.
Admin
for all the Dutch people here: "Do ist die Bahnhof." (RIP Wim de Bie)
Admin
Yea, watching Tom slowly summoning the Codethulu is entertaining :-)
Admin
Months in Java's Calendar system are 0-based (which makes absolutely no sense). The 5 is definitely an error. The 4 and 6 (May and July) are correct.
Admin
...or the assumption that every country made the change to the new calendar in a single year...
..or that the year(s) the change(s) happened is known today for every country...
Admin
I think what's going on is that it's setting lenient mode on those days where the strict mode might run into a time that doesn't exist and crash.
Admin
No, they have to deal with December 1582:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overgangskalender_van_1582_(Brabant,_Zeeland)
Admin
The Russian Olympic team reportedly missed part of the 1908 Olympics because they were still on the Julian calendar, and didn't switch to the Gregorian one until 1918.
Admin
"are 0-based (which makes absolutely no sense)."
Oh sure, but every programmer loves their arrays being 0 based.
Admin
Someone couldn't wait for Christmas?
Admin
"Given how much of this centers on Nazi occupation and also World War I, I wouldn't call this a fun history lesson, ..."
It is difficult for non-Europeans to correctly gauge how Europeans have come to terms with some of the nastinesses of our history. We've got enough problems handling the unpleasant things happening now than bearing grudges, or being triggered by cross-border snarks. To all intents and purposes, there are no "borders" as such between most of the nations of Western Europe.
Shame about the UK, but then they're drifting further and further into fascism every day.
Admin
England is nowhere close to fascism. No modern developed nation is. Unless you mean that word in the Orwellian sense of "anything we dislike".
As for the rest you are pretty much spot on. Over here in Europe we have such a long history of war crimes, atrocities and general tastiness that if were to start bearing grudges the whole thing would just implode into a newer ending war of eternal vengeance and wrath. So we just don't. It's just less of a bother for everyone that way.
Plus we are simply too busy playing american puppets imploding our economies and standards of living and generally sacrificing our present and future prosperity on the altar of supporting a non EU non OTAN nation that has nothing to offer us just so that we can spite Putin to worry about things like actual war crimes and atrocities. Have to keep those priorities strait after all.
Admin
*Edt on the last. That was supposed to be tastelessness. I blame autocomplete.
Admin
Begging is in the process of being made illegal, as has the use of laughing gas for recreational purposes. They are also in the process of banning political protest, and it is part and parcel of British politics that it is accepted and applauded to beat up those who would have preferred for the UK to be part of the EU.
IMO those who deny fascism are the worst kinds of fascist.
Admin
UTC drops microphone
Admin
And of course it won't ever get verified. This moderation thing is really, really annoying. How is one supposed to have any sort of discussion when it keeps pooping up?
And no, that is not a typo.
Admin
Wasn't aware of that. It's bad but not necessarily fascist.
Yes, because banning dangerous recreational drugs is a sign of fascism and no non fascist nation would ever do that. How's the cocaine industry in your country?
These first two are definitely in the category of "I disagree with it therefore it is fascist".
Citation needed. They are certainly trying to make it harder.
This I know to be false because I would have preferred to stay in the EU and I have not been beaten up. If I were beaten up, my political views would not be the thing that prevents the perpetrators from being brought to justice, more like the shocking state of our police forces.
It's likely, by the way, that the Tories will be booted out at the next general election. That's not an indication of movement towards fascism.
Addendum 2023-03-30 10:51: On the political protest one, they are trying to make it harder but not impossible was my point.
Admin
Since moderation won't let up I'll just make a shortened repost.
Fascism is not in fact a generic term for crappy authoritarian government. It's a very specific ideology that happens to be crappy and authoritarian. But it also has a lot of very specific and critical tenants that are too complex to TLDR them.
But the bottom line is that while all versions of Fascism are crappy and authoritarian not all crappy authoritarian systems are Fascist.
And modern England, or indeed Russia, America or any of the other nations people like to accuse of going Fascist are exhibiting none of those specialties. Therefore they are not Fascist, just crappy and potentially authoritarian.
Admin
Or if you prefer in math terms Fascism is a subset of crappy authoritarian regimes and not an equivalence.
Admin
I think the UK is certainly (under the Tories) heading towards fascism adjacent if not the full blown thing. Have a look at this list and see how many things we tick off nowadays.
https://www.boshemiamagazine.com/blog/the-uk-doesnt-have-a-fascism-problem
Admin
That article is wrong though. Even setting aside the fact it's a sensationalist clickbait piece.
Those "early warnings" are not signs of Fascism at all but a bunch of disjointed points that can, if we are generous, be said to belong to the general category of authoritarian government.
Indeed, not only is there nothing on that list that is exclusive to or indeed unique to Fascism but some points are actually contrary to the ideology of Fascism. And some others are not actually bad things per se unless taken into context with the rest.
Bottom line is that we circle back to my original complaint, and one that has existed at least since Orwell wrote it down almost a century ago, which is that people these days (and those days) use the word Fascism to mean any sort of vaguely authoritarian government they dislike.
And that is both factually incorrect and dangerous because it leaves the door open for actual Fascists to come in and say: "That's not what we believe in. Let me tell you the truth." And since they are right you listen. And that's how they get you.