Friday, January 08, 2010

Early Events


So is this the first year of the new decade or the last year of the first decade in the new millenium?

A friend of mine - list member Keith T. - believes 2010 ("twenty-ten," the correct pronunciation, he asserts) is the final year of the first decade. Why? Because there was no Year Zero. Calendar timekeeping began with the Year One. Therefore the "0" goes at the end of the decade, not the beginning.

Personally, I find that kind of logic hard to argue with. You're welcome to try, however. Click on "Comment" below and regale us with your reasoning. Facebook users - please click "View Original Post" to comment.

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BIG EVENTS BEFORE CHRIST

3050 B.C.
A Sumerian invents the wheel. Within a week, the idea is stolen and duplicated by other Sumerians, thus inventing the first business code of ethics.

2900 B.C.
Egyptians create the Sphinx and several other modern construction miracles. Pundits christen it all one big pyramid scheme.

1850 B.C.
Britons announce Operation Stonehenge a success after randomly placing stone slabs into a sufficiently meaningless pattern, thus securing centuries of employment for European historians.

1785 B.C.
First calendar introduced by Babylonian scientists.

1784 B.C.
Calendar concept tweaked after Babylonians experience winter in July.

776 B.C.
World's first known use of money occurs in Persia. The following day sees the world's first known use of counterfeit money.

525 B.C.
The first Olympics are held in Greece. Turkey enters a six footer with a moustache in women's shot put event.

410 B.C.
Rome ends the practice of enslaving debtors, removing single biggest obstacle to development of the credit card.

404 B.C.
The Peloponnesian War enters its 27th year because neither side can find a treaty writer who can spell "Peloponnesian."

214 B.C.
Tens of thousands of Chinese people complete the 1,500-mile long Great Wall. Neighbor's dog still gets through.

1 B.C.
Calendar manufacturers argue over what to call the next year.


[Wit and Wisdom; edits and additional material by Mark Raymond]

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Not much going on this weekend outside of work and union responsibilities. Oh, and quite a bit of shoveling. Durn snow.

I'll see you on Monday.

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WEB SITE of the WEEK: Contemplating a major purchase in 2010? You might benefit from knowing when the best time to make that purchase might be. Check out http://tinyurl.com/yazld6l. It's a post from LifeHacker that generates a timeline based on data and research for sales, discounts, and new product rollouts for, well, just about anything, including food.

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Mark's Musings is sent each weekday using Ezine Director and I pay a little more to make sure my posts are certified by Habeas to be a safe source of e-mail. That means no ads, no spam, and no worries. Subscribe, view past issues in my Archives, and do other things over at my web site. To contact me and someday get a reply, click here. Odd fact: April 4, June 6, August 8, October 10, December 12, and the last day of February all fall on the same weekday every year. This year it's Sunday. You can forward or reprint Mark's Musings freely but please keep the credits attached. I repeat, please keep the credits attached. I repeat, please.... Original material and musings © 2010 by Mark Raymond. I update this blog with a copy of my e-mail posts daily (plus I often add graphics) and very occasionally with "bonus material" whenever the mood or muse strikes. Look for the label that says "bonus" and you can bring all that extra material up with one click. My personal mission statement remains John 3:30. Find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/baldmark/. It's easy to remember that little calendar trick. Think 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, and 12/12.

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WORDS for YOUR WEEKEND: "Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of." (Charles Richards)

4 comments:

SusanB said...

Posting at 1:10 AM, tsk tsk tsk. And when are you getting your rest, Sir? You'd better not get yourself sick!! < =P

Mark said...

Susan, my friend, not to worry. I was in bed by 9:30. Blogger lets me schedule my posts in advance, as does Ezine Director, my list server. When this went up, I was happily in dreamville.

podraigh said...

Well, Keith is right of course. I have found, however, that people have such a strong (emotional ?) need to identify this year as the beginning of a new decade, that I can't convince a single soul of this fact. And just 10 years ago we went thru it with the year 2000 !

LeSpot said...

If the calender makers had wanted to make it easy for us they would have called the year of our Lord's birth "00" but they didn't. In fact, the last year before His birth was "1" BC and the year of His birth was "1" AD. So we had two year "1's" back to back. THEY DID NOT START COUNTING AT ZERO. They started at year one and that year couldn't be counted until it was over. At the END of year 10 we had ten years gone AD. Jumping forward to the year 2000--at midnight December 31st of that year we FINISHED the second millinum and the 20th century. On January 1, 2001 we started the third Millinum and the 21st century. At the END of 2010 we will have finished the first decade of the third millinum and of the 21st century. The new decade starts on January 1st, 2011.
To claim the start of the year 2010 as the first year of the next decade is claiming something before it has actually happened. I can see why Americans commonly make this mistake, after all the politicians make it all the time....but I really think the average American is much smarter than the average politician.