The discussion thread at the Facepalm subreddit suggests that this might be Australia, or that the orientation of the numerals doesn't really matter since nobody looks at them anyway.
Backstory and more details here, courtesy of an unknown reader.
This reminds me of Drew Gilpin Faust's lament that college students nowadays literally cannot read cursive writing.
I once worked in an office a long time ago where someone had taken an ordinary electric clock with arabic numerals and reversed the whole thing, making it run backwards. There used to be a problem if ever the clock had to be restarted as it would try to run in the normal clockwise direction so a bit of fiddling was needed to persuade it to go backwards again.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Mr. Gateau's clock in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
DeleteOr the Prague Jewish clock!
DeleteI had a slightly similar experience with an electric alarm clock. After power failures, when the electricity came back on, it would run backwards. A hard slap would get it to run correctly. The electric company could not figure it out. I suggested that when they were turning the power back on, they try connecting the phases in order. They did not believe me, but after that, the backwards clock did not occur.
DeleteCursive, I understand, but after 1500 years, we're still expected to be able to read Roman numerals?
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah. We have remembered Arabic numerals for 1300 years.
Deletehttps://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4029
ReplyDeleteThe clock is not merely turned 180 degrees. I think we're supposed to notice that the numerals are right-side-up at the top of the clock, even though the clock is supposed to be upside-down.
ReplyDeleteI took a screencap and rotated it. I think the clock is designed with the lower numbers inverted so they point toward the center of the clock.
DeleteLotsa pix of the clock in various configs: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7231455/Can-spot-whats-wrong-Instagram-photo-Tammy-Hembrows-sister-Emilee.html Can you spot what's wrong with this photo?
ReplyDeleteNo, guys, it's cool. This is Australia--you know, "Down Under." And so just as their summer is our winter, etc., so, too, is their 6 our 12.
ReplyDeleteYou have to look at this in context.
Our (in the US) supposedly most cherished influencer, Jesus, was a radical anti-materialist. We've since evolved and now influencers teach us how to flip houses and employ the "law of attraction" in the quest for mansions, private jets and as many faux-celebrity lifestyle elements as we can manage to acquire. (I blame Oprah for 90% of this psychosis.) Jesus would wonder about the clock, with the numerals of the oppressor. More so, he might wonder if the mother devotes even half the energy she puts into her "stunning" appearance into child rearing. If so, she's doing a swell job. After all, anyone with a $9000 baby swing...
ReplyDeleteIt's always been that way with Roman numerals on clocks. (Such clocks were common in the middle of the previous century.) BTW I think it should be noted when a picture posted here has been altered.
ReplyDeleteBTW it was more common to use IIII instead of IV to indicate four on clocks. I'm not sure why.
I've never needed numbers of any kind on an analog clock. The angles tell you what time it is.
ReplyDeleteSo someday you will pass your dementia screening test -
Deletehttps://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2012/02/is-clock-face-still-appropriate.html
- but the younger generation might not score as well...
I know exactly what you're talking about. I took a large brass antique steam pressure gage and put a battery clock mechanism in it. I didn't change the face and only used the longer minute hand mounted on the hour hand drive. I could decipher within 10 minutes of the right time at a glance.
DeletexoxoxoBruce
Out of curiosity I asked Google for a 24 hour clock using Roman numerals. It came up with a lot of them new and ancient. It also said the Romans used IIII rather than IV, not just on clocks but daily scribbles.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
In Australia sundial numbers have to be the opposite way over, but regular clocks not so much. We know how to read them standing on our heads as we do all the time.
ReplyDelete