Genius behind resistors stripe code and electrolytic cap wire length? [rant]

It was alright when they had a gold or silver stripe, but these new ones I look at and can't work out which end I'm supposed to read from.

But I agree, in the olden days, you would look at the last colour and see the general range (eg. K, ohms, Meg) and then quickly see the other, eg. red/red would be 22.