Re: 2001
From: Efrain Ramirez MD (eramirez@icepr.com)
Sun Dec 27 14:52:37 1998
Luis...with the solution in your hands for the 2000 bug in the computers
and you did not tell the secret..shame on you..
At Sun, 27 Dec 1998, Deborah J. Wage FNP, CNM wrote:
>
>Here's a good explanation......and solution.
>
>Year Zero Proposal
>
> (Published in the Oregonian Newspaper
>on May 20, 1996)
>
>In an unofficial survey, recently, I discovered that most people think
>that the year 2000 will be the beginning of the next millennium (also,
>for that
>matter, the beginning of the next century and the beginning of the next
>decade).
>
>Not so. Because our calendar began with the year one, the first decade
>includes the years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The next decade
>began with
>the year 11. The first century includes years 1 through the year 100.
>So, the second century began with the year 101. The first millennium
>includes
>the years 1 through 1000, so, the second millennium began with the year
>1001..... and so forth.
>
>This numbering system has been an endless source of confusion. People
>are forever referring to, for example, the "decade of the '80s" as if it
>included the year 1980. If fact, the ninth decade of the 20th century
>includes 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990.
>Notice
>1980 NOT included--it was in the previous decade. Another example:
>people think that the year 1900 is in the same century (the 20th) as our
>current
>year (1996). Nooooo! 1899 and 1900 are the last two years of the
>nineteenth century, 1901 is the beginning of the twentieth. And so
>forth.
>
>As we approach the year 2000, we have an unprecedented opportunity to
>rectify the situation. Proposal: Let's start the calendar over and call
>it the
>YEAR ZERO instead of the year 2000! Then, the numbering system will be
>more intuitive--more like the way everyone has always thought it should
>be. The next "turn-of-the-century" will happen on midnight of December
>31st in the year 99. Then on January 1, 100 we'll be in the next
>century--just
>the way it SHOULD BE.
>
>And, we need to start over anyway. We could have essay contests like "if
>we reset the calendar to zero, what would THAT mean?"... and stuff like
>that.
>
>Plus, this will give us another two thousand years to figure out what to
>do with the year 10,000.
>
>GO2ZERO Committee
>c/o go2zero@aol.com
--
Efrain Ramirez MD FACOG
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