Date Modified of folders & aliases changing by themselves

Hi,
I have the same problem described by Craig_D in
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2191472
where I get the Date Modified of folders changing by themselves. Aliases too. I recently upgraded from OS 9 to 10.4. I think I've narrowed the scenario down somewhat:
Say I have a finder window open in list view, and it contains a folder called Enclosing Folder. Enclosing Folder contains two folders called SubfolderA and SubfolderB. If I click the carrot to see the contents of SubfolderA, the modification date of Enclosing Folder changes to the current date & time even though I haven't changed anything. But if I wait a few minutes and then click the carrot to see the contents of SubfolderB, or if I do that a second time for SubfolderA, the modification date/time of Enclosing Folder DOES NOT change. So the pattern seems to be that the Date Modified of a folder changes the first time you open a subfolder inside it, and never again? The silver lining is that it only happens once (I hope), but why does it happen at all and can it be prevented?.
Similarly, I get the Date Modified of aliases changing by themselves when I do a Get Info on them. I'm not changing anything, just looking at the get-info window of the alias. Why should that change the mod date? Similarly to what I described w/ the mod date on the folders, if I wait a few minutes and then do another get-info on the alias the mod time does not change. BUT: I just did a get-info on an alias that I had done a get-info on several hours ago, and the mod time DID change again on that one. The only difference I can think of is that my puter had been shut down during those interim hours.
Finally, if I do a find (command-F) for folders modified today, I get folders that I did modify today plus some folders that I haven't even gone near any time recently.
What is going on w/ modification date/time in OS X?
Thanks
longjump

Just today struggling with something that may be related; looking forward to some solution.
New to discussion boards; does this reply to an existing message get seen by Mac staffers or do I need to post a new question?
We have multiple users on the imac, and the problem is ONLY affecting one of them.
The problem is: if a Word (Word 2004) document is opened and closed, no changes made, no Save command, the "date modified" changes to the current date and time. Not true for other apps we have tried (Powerpoint, Photoshop, imovie). Was not fixed by trashing Word preferences. Very annoying as we use the date modified to help keep track of versions.
imac Intel Core duo Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1 GB RAM

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Date Modified of folders & aliases changing by themselves

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