Comments on: A little decadence

By: My Last Post of this decade | BlogHalt.com (Pre-Launch)

My Last Post of this decade | BlogHalt.com (Pre-Launch) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:27:03 +0000

[...] what do we call the 2010-19? The 10’s? Doesn’t sound right. Although Discoblog’s logic as to why a decade ends tonight and a new one starts tomorrow [...]

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:34:23 +0000

My 2 cents.

People talk about decades because they want some perspective on the world and their lives. It’s helpful to take stock of what happened, and what they’d like to happen in the future.

It’s also relevant that people live approx. 100 years (ooh! I’m doing it already with the imprecision!). Therefore a group of 10 or so decades is a nice way of thinking about your life and your world.

It is therefore a cultural and human perspective on time. Mathematical precision is not helpful and truly pedantic in this context. Decadal perspectives harken back to an agricultural past when what really mattered was when to plant, when to harvest.

As many others have pointed out, since when have most people needed precision in order to make a party?

And, since it’s a pleasant tradition, Happy New Year!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:39:21 +0000

It’s all arbitrary. A decade is simply a 10 year span. If you want to start counting at, say, the 1994 year, then a decade will have passed at the end of 2003. You’re all arguing over a calendar that is only recognized in parts of the world, which was arbitrarily divided by the supposed birth year of a supposed historical figure (and most biblical historians put Jesus’ birth somewhere between 6 and 4 BC, so it’s not even accurate by that account). The Jewish and Chinese calendars are completely different. So, what does that mean? It means that everyone is right. Or, perhaps more accurately, that no one is wrong. You want your decade to end on the zero year? Go ahead. You want it to end on the one year? Have a blast. You want it to end on the six year? Makes as much sense as the other 2 popular ways. It’ll become even more arbitrary, useless, even, when and if we start deep space exploration or colonizing other planets, because the planets will most likely have a longer or shorter solar orbit, not to mention axial rotation which would make the days longer or shorter.

By: occasional fish » Monday various

occasional fish » Monday various — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:32:28 +0000

[...] Ten. When people talk about the last decade, they’re including 2000-2001, not miscounting. As Bad Astronomy points out [via], the argument that 2010 isn’t the start of a new decade suggests that “people [...]

By: Troythulu’s Nu’z « The Call of Troythulu

Troythulu’s Nu’z « The Call of Troythulu — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:29:23 +0000

[...] A little decadence — Quite by accident, just the other day I found myself embroiled in a controversy on Twitter of my own making. I made an offhand mention that the decade would be ending in a few short days. That seemed obvious enough to me, but apparently not so to many others. What ensued was something of a firestorm of people, many of whom disagreed with me. However, I maintain that I was right all along. Here’s the scoop… [...]

By: Links for the New Year « Eric Gregory

Links for the New Year « Eric Gregory — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:50:23 +0000

[...] A little decadence. Why 2010 is the start of the new decade. [...]

By: Harry Tuttle

Harry Tuttle — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:57:08 +0000

A Year Zero in historical time is absurd. Was the day after New Years 0/0/10? No, it was 1/1/10. Because there is no not-day of the no-month to measure.

The best way to do this is measure elapsed years from a zero-point rather than current years from a zero point (our system) or elapsed years from a non-historical year-zero (like Buddhists do), but that adds two years (1 CE and 1 BCE are un-elapsed years) to our chronology. The astronomical system of a historical year zero is great for computation but a logical impossibility.

By: Thom

Thom — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:26:12 +0000

Absolutely correct. They are all arbitrary demarcations anyway.

I write the date every day (more or less). Every year, on January 1, I change one of the digits that I write. Every ten years, TWO of those digits change. It feels like the end of a minor era. I don’t care at all how many ten-year periods have elapsed since the arbitrarily chosen and generally accepted as incorrect birthdate of a person that may never have existed in the first place. I care that I am now writing “201x” instead of “200x.” It feels ever so slightly different.

By: GeneralMusings

GeneralMusings — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:06:23 +0000

I will give over and agree that it is the end of “A” decade ( depending upon what particular 10 year period you happen to be measuring). The end of “THE” decade will be December 31, 2010 by the currently accepted calendar.

**stumbles off to find a bottle of aspirin and an ice bag**

By: Jay Lake: [links] Link salad wants to be called Deacon Blues

Jay Lake: [links] Link salad wants to be called Deacon Blues — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:27:11 +0000

[...] A Little Decadence — Bad Astronomy pisses on the “when does the decade end” fire. [...]