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From: mikes@forte.com (Mike Schilling)
Subject: Re: Arabic numbering system
Message-ID: <1995Sep22.151812.6166@forte.com>
Organization: Forte Software Inc.
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Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 15:18:12 GMT
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Lawrence E. McKnight (mcknighl@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: gusty@clark.net (Harlan Messinger) wrote:
: 
: >Ken Moore (Ken@hpsl.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: >: 
: >: I got used to what I believe is the common German time convention in the
: >: Netherlands, where, once again, IIRC, 0425 is "vijf voor half vijf".
: >: Also "een-en-twintig", etc.
: >: 
: >
: >The Dutch convention for the half hour is not quite the same as the German
: >one. German "halb sechs" = "half six" is half past 6, or 6:30.  Dutch
: >"half zes" is half of the sixth hour, i.e., halfway from five until six,
: >therefore 5:30.
: >
: 
: Well, many. many years ago, my German instructor told us that there
: were, in fact, regional variations.  In some areas, 'halb sechs' would
: be 6:30, in others 5:30.  He related a personal anectdote: during WW
: II, his mother and the officer billeted in their house had different
: interpretations, and the officer was awakened an hour late.  (I
: personally think the instructor was an unreconstructed Nazi, and was
: trying to say that they would have won the war if there had not been
: this misunderstanding.)

This is frighteningly similar to a screwup during the Bay of Pigs 
invasion.   (One of the many ...) CIA planes stationed in Nicaragua 
were to provide air cover
for an attack scheduled at, say 8:00 AM.  (I don't know the real time.)
The planes arrived at 8:00 AM Nicaraguan time, which is 9:00 AM Cuban 
time, long after Castro's air force had routed the invaders.
