31 Dec
2010
31 Dec
'10
3:37 p.m.
On 2010 Dec 31, at 2:40 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
Happy new decade to all members of this list and their
families.
[Yes, I do start counting from 0 normally. But the calendar doesn't
:-(,
and thus I think that new centrieies, decades, etc start with years
ending in '1'.]
New year, yes; but (for the other opinion) the decade started last year.
The calendar doesn't really denote an absolute time lapse, it just
provides labels to points in time. The epoch is arbitrary (who knows
what really happened in year 1).
As such, the absolute year or decade or century is meaningless. For
what it matters at all, it's all about fun and it's more fun to give
special celebration to 9's rolling over into 0's, rather than a
solitary 1 showing up on the right. Does anyone watch for the car
odometer to roll from 10000 to 10001? No, they watch for 9999 to roll
into 10000. Is it exciting because it starts or completes 10000 miles
or kilometres? No, it's just fun to see all the 9's rolling into 0's.
Similarly, for general comprehension it makes more sense to group 2010
with 2011..2019 rather than with 2001..2009; or to associate 2020..2029
together rather than 2011..2020 together, etc.