My Date of Birth Is Closer to the End of World War II Than to the Present Day

Here's a neat little article from the Financial Times (though I'm not sure what it has to do with finances). An excerpt:

Time may slow down from hour to hour, but from year to year it has a uniform tendency to accelerate. We can demonstrate this with a little game. We are now in the year 2010. Measure the number of years back to a certain event in your life – say, your entry into university, if you attended one. Then measure the same number of years back from there. Invariably, the event in the middle will seem closer to this year than to the older date, even though it is equidistant from the two.

The article adds that the release of The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks is closer to World War II than to 2010. (For that matter, so is my date of birth.) The Beatles' first single, released in 1962, is closer to World War I.

My high school graduation is now closer to the Carter administration than to the current day. (My parents' high school graduations are closer to the Wilson administration.) My grandmother's birthday is significantly closer to the Mexican-American War than to 2010. The 1986 Challenger explosion is closer to the Kennedy assassination.