The Decade is Not Over

[Bill Thompson]

We went through this when 2000 rolled around and idiots were claiming that it was the start of a new millinium.

The decade is not over.

I have seen this mistake on People magazine. I have heard Michael Medvet claim it and now the AP makes this mistake: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/...us/us_new_year

[tyr_13]

Already a thread on this.

[daredelvis]

Did you know that the U.S. is Republic, not a Democracy?

Daredelvis

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

We went through this when 2000 rolled around and idiots were claiming that it was the start of a new millinium.

The decade is not over.

I have seen this mistake on People magazine. I have heard Michael Medvet claim it and now the AP makes this mistake: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/...us/us_new_year

The decade is over.

Deal with it.

[The Atheist]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

We went through this when 2000 rolled around and idiots were claiming that it was the start of a new millinium.

The decade is not over.

Yeah it is.

Just because some pedants try to insist on some kind of mathematical purity has no bearing on the fact that the decade is as dead as the 20th century was on 1/1/00.

Pluto's not a planet either.

[Idiot Wind]

A new decade is over every year... that decade being the ten years preceding the new one.
Trying to retcon naming conventions by saying that we started counting at 1, not 0 isn't very useful.

Modern concensus seems to be a decade begins at -0 and ends at the end of -9.
Which makes more sense to me, because having 'the nineties' end in 2001 is just confusing.

[Molinaro]

A decade is any period of ten years. It does not have any fixed assignment to a particular set of 10 years built into the definition of the word. The normal convention is to group them as NNa0 to NNa9. Saying that it's wrong is quite simply wrong.

[commandlinegamer]

People use decimate incorrectly as well - I think we should take every tenth person out who gets it wrong and have them shot.

[KingMerv00]

...and I still don't care.

[New Ager]

Actually, it did just end. The explanation is that the first decade only had nine years.

[Skeptic Ginger]

Don't mind Scrut, simple people like round numbers.

[Bill Thompson]

It breaks my heart. We human beings, it seems, cannot:

1. Count
2. Learn
3. Listen
4. Remember

Here is an email I just sent to our local news:

Dear King 5 News,

Tonight your local news broadcast talked about twins that were born in Florida where "one was born in one decade and another was born in another". This was the teaser before commercial and then you came back to explain that one was born before midnight New Years night and the other baby was born after midnight. It is a cute story. Too bad the decade does not end until New Years 2011.

There were no year zero. The first decade ended on New Years day 11 AD.

Years are not denoted with whole numbers like hours or seconds. Years are irregular because of leap years and are denoted by natural numbers. There is no year zero AD. The year prior to 1 AD was 1 BC.

As a news service, you should tell the truth.

We went through this nonsense when on New Years 2000 and I thought we all learned our lesson on New Years 2001. It is sad that human beings can not count and also have poor memory.

Thanks,
Bill Thompson

Ten years ago I had a heated email exchange with the Australian promoter of a marathon that was called "the first marathon of the new millinium". I told him it was "the first marathon of the new millinium for people who cannot count". He was pissed. He was more pissed when he figured out I was right and he sunked hundreds of thousands of dollars and a lot of time promoting something that was off by one year.

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by The Atheist

Yeah it is.

Just because some pedants try to insist on some kind of mathematical purity has no bearing on the fact that the decade is as dead as the 20th century was on 1/1/00.

Pluto's not a planet either.

People got it right in 1991 on New Years Day. We are getting stupider.

[Hokulele]

So I get to party two years in a row. How is this bad?

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by The Central Scrutinizer

The decade is over.

Deal with it.

You cannot count. Deal with it.

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by tyr_13

Already a thread on this.

Let's merge then

[lionking]

I'm with you Bill, but it's a losing battle.

[Sledge]

Bill is fine with the idea of the military discriminating against homosexuals, but can't cope with a decade's final year ending in a 9 instead of a 0. Good grief, get a sense of perspective!

[Alan]

A decade is a ten year period.

The beginning of January 1st, 2010, through to the end of December 31st, 2019, is a decade. Just like any other period of ten years.

It is a custom to refer to years as being in the same decade, in this base 10 system, if the only number in the year's name that is different is the last one. It's not the only type of decade. But it's the popular one. And it is one correct one.

[TokenMac]

I agree with you on the new millinium, but not the decade.

[Molinaro]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

You cannot count. Deal with it.

You are wrong, deal with it. The only thing you need to count is ANY period of ten years, and that's a decade. It is 100% arbitrary which group of 10 you pick. Hence, it's impossible for any given set of 10 to be wrong.

You are trying to assign a fixed definition to something that is arbitrary. Where the calender started is completely irrelevant to the definition of a decade.

It is a convention that we say a new one starts on the xxx0 date. Calling a convention wrong is just silly.

[Infoexcavator]

We went through this when 2000 rolled around and idiots were claiming that it was not the start of a new millinium.

The decade is over.

I have seen this truth on People magazine. I have heard Michael Medvet claim it and now the AP tells this truth: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/...us/us_new_year


Do you have any idea how silly you look by fuming about this?

[Redtail]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

People got it right in 1991 on New Years Day. We are getting stupider.

On 12/31/99, My friends and I went to a club in Davidson NC. At midnight the ball in Times Square dropped. I jumped into the air and screamed "happy new year." I also managed to get my foot tangled in the vid cord and pulled it out. When the screen went to static 400+ dropped to their knees and prayed... According to Prince, this makes me God.

[Bill Thompson]

The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001. If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by Sledge

Bill is fine with the idea of the military discriminating against homosexuals, but can't cope with a decade's final year ending in a 9 instead of a 0. Good grief, get a sense of perspective!

What the hell are you talking about? There is no year zero. The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001. If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by Infoexcavator

We went through this when 2000 rolled around and idiots were claiming that it was not the start of a new millinium.

The decade is over.

I have seen this truth on People magazine. I have heard Michael Medvet claim it and now the AP tells this truth: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/...us/us_new_year


Do you have any idea how silly you look by fuming about this?

Dude, the first 100 years ended at the end of the year 100. ok, kiddo, lets talk about a dozen. the 12th egg in a dozen is still in the dozen. The next dozen does not start until the 11th egg.

The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001. If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by TokenMac

I agree with you on the new millinium, but not the decade.

My sister-in-law pulled this on me but in reverse. He disgareed with me on the millennium but agreed on the millinium.

If you are serious (I hope you are not) then you can see that the year 2001 would be the first year of the first decade of the millennium. And so what would be the last year of the millennium? If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by Sledge

Bill is fine with the idea of the military discriminating against homosexuals, but can't cope with a decade's final year ending in a 9 instead of a 0. Good grief, get a sense of perspective!

It must be hell for you to have uneducated and unread and unknowing opinions. I have nothing against homosexuals, stupid. Here is some advice. Go back and actually read my posts in the other thread. And why don't you keep things on topic here.

[HarryKeogh]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

It breaks my heart. We human beings, it seems, cannot:

1. Count
2. Learn
3. Listen
4. Remember

and 5. Use spellcheck. It's "millennium". Not "millinium".

Yeah, I hate it when people correct other people's spelling but in silly, pedantic threads like this it makes me laugh.

Oh, and this...

dec⋅ade  /ˈdɛkeɪd; Brit. also dəˈkeɪd/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [dek-eyd; Brit. also duh-keyd] Show IPA

Use decade in a Sentence


See web results for decade


See images of decade

–noun 1.a period of ten years: the three decades from 1776 to 1806. 2.a period of ten years beginning with a year whose last digit is zero: the decade of the 1980s. 3.a group, set, or series of ten.


The above is from Dictionary.com's entry for "decade".

[Bill Thompson]

Originally Posted by HarryKeogh

–noun 1.a period of ten years: the three decades from 1776 to 1806. 2.a period of ten years beginning with a year whose last digit is zero: the decade of the 1980s. 3.a group, set, or series of ten.


The above is from Dictionary.com's entry for "decade".

I can do bold too.


I am sure in this context they mean the first decade of this millennium.
The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001.

[Alan]

Wherever I see it used, they mean the decade that is 2000-2009.

You can tell that it's what they mean because it's what they're saying.

[Ladewig]

So when referring to the 1920s, you would exclude 1920 and include 1930. How does this reduce confusion in any way?

[Molinaro]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

Dude, the first 100 years ended at the end of the year 100. ok, kiddo, lets talk about a dozen. the 12th egg in a dozen is still in the dozen. The next dozen does not start until the 11th egg.

The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001. If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

There is no such thing as 'the first 100 years' as far as determining what is a century or what is a decade now. You keep referring to it, yet it has nothing to do with the definition of the current decade or the current century or the current millennium.

You have this bizarre fixation on decades being this immutable sequence of decades and yet it is in fact nothing like that.

You cry education while demonstration the worst kind of ignorance, namely willful.

Furthermore, your argument would make sense if there was no year, heck no time, before year 1. However, there was! And that year just before year 1, no matter how you label it, is part of the same decade as years 1 to 9.

I dare you to say that if 2010 is part of the new decade that means the 1st decade had only 9 years.. I dare you to say that! Because that is just about the stupidest possible thing you could say in this discussion.

[soylent]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

What the hell are you talking about? There is no year zero. The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001. If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

It has nothing to do with counting and everything to do with defining; there really is nothing more to it.

You are bending over backwards to justify having no year zero and choose your definition accordingly.

I choose to define the transition from one millenium to another as when the thousands' place flips over. One span of 1000 years is just as good as any and it is more appealing to have a big round number.

[JihadJane]

What's Jesus got to do with it anyway?

[Alareth]

The Earth is not a sphere, it's an oblate spheroid.

[Towlie]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

Dear King 5 News,

Tonight your local news broadcast talked about twins that were born in Florida where "one was born in one decade and another was born in another".

That's not as bad as this article about the same twins, titled Identical twins born in US 'a decade apart'

[Dorian Gray]

Bill. You're wrong. The "first" decade after "Christ" was "born" was arbitrary. It's all arbitrary. The decade that ended with the year 9 began with the year 1BC. If that isn't the case, then you have to be arguing that the first "decade" had 9 years in it?

Speaking of counting?

[Sledge]

I remember Douglas Adams wrote about the millennium nonsense, pointing out that because of how the modern calendar was arrived at it was all arbitrary and that the moaners were missing out on a good party. Probably wouldn't have surprised him that ten years later, someone would be still bleating on about the same thing. Really, where does it end? Why not argue that New Year's Eve isn't REALLY New Year's Eve?

Anyhoo, the "edit" button exists so you can add to a post later, Bill. It's allowing me to respond to everything you've said in one go instead of cluttering the thread with multiple posts. For example:

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

What the hell are you talking about? There is no year zero. The millennium started on New Year’s Day 2001. If you can’t count, you should go repeat the first grade.

Your millennium might have. Everyone else disagrees. Guess you missed out on a good party.

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

It must be hell for you to have uneducated and unread and unknowing opinions. I have nothing against homosexuals, stupid. Here is some advice. Go back and actually read my posts in the other thread. And why don't you keep things on topic here.

Oh the irony! It burns! I didn't say you had anything about homosexuals. I said you were fine with the military discriminating against them. Maybe you should read what I said instead of seeing the world "homosexual" and assuming that people are calling you out on your disgusting bigotry.

[The Atheist]

Originally Posted by Bill Thompson

People got it right in 1991 on New Years Day. We are getting stupider.

More pedantic, I'd have thought.

There's no counting involved - I've been able to count to 100 since I was two years old and haven't forgotten yet.

What the pedants who insist on the -01 miss is that the first millennium started in -1BC.

Some, hundreds of years ago, made a simple error, but convention has well and truly overcome that problem.

Hey, you can stick your head in the sand and pretend that daylight saving doesn't exist, or that the world is still flat, but you'll not manage to convince anyone.

Originally Posted by TokenMac

I agree with you on the new millinium, but not the decade.

A dollar each way!

You do realise a decade ends at the same time a century ends and a millennium ends, don't you?