No. Not the last post of the decade. Seeing as the Gregorian Calendar started with the year 1 AD, the end of the 1st decade was the year 10 AD. Yes, fools, this also means the start of the current millenium was January 1st 2001. So let's just call this the last post of the year 2009.
What a year though, eh? MPs expenses surely tops the list in terms of politics, but what other stories did we have the delight of reading this year? In entertainment, Michael Jackson died. In literature we had our first female Poet Laureate. In international affairs we saw the Gaza Conflict and the inauguration of Obamarama. In science, that damn proton accelerator got back on track. In sport, Murray lost again. In blogging there was another list of top political bloggers that I didn't reach! And finally in personal affairs, my elder brother got engaged today.
I can't help but get all sentimental about this year, and wonder if next year will be as good... Will we have more strikes? Will the economy get on the road to recovery? Will the incoming Conservative government get off their pseudo-New Labour arses and do something useful? Will Obnoxio stop using the word "cunt"?
But what about the next 100 years? The next 1000? Will we find life on other planets? Will we communicate with them? How powerful will computers be? Will Europe be one country? Will China be the new America? What will happen to the human race?
These are big questions. I often dread the answers. For 100 years ago we didn't know what do with an atom, or really know what the damned thing was. Now we have the power to recreate the big bang. 100 years ago it would have taken weeks to get from New York to London. Now it takes a few hours. What will we be able to do in 1000 years? Can anyone answer that?
I have my own ambitions for 2010. Take up photography, lay off the coffee and write a novel are on the list. However I have ambitions beyond my control. I want laws repealed, such as the Anti-Terrorism Act. I want a Bill of Rights. I want a leader in the sense that Thatcher was. I want the right to take pictures of policemen goddammit. I want people to lay the hell off Israel. I want Boatang and D to admit that they are social democrats.
What do you want? World peace? An end to terrorism? Or for someone to tell you whether 2010 will be pronounced "twenty-ten" or "two-thousand-ten"?
Anyway, think of this as you get rat-arsed tonight. And tomorrow. And most nights of the year.
Happy new year to all.
JP.
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Last Post of the Decade by JP?
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20 comments:
I wish you all that you wish for you and yours.
Reading your blog has been great for me, and I have learned much.
Especially about those vicious cow attacks. Unprovoked and unwarranted.
Terrifying. And I have eight bullocks not 10 yards from my back door.
Lecheim! To Life!
CR.
Hopefully the 'youf ' culture will disappear.
Modern music will attract a carbon tax.
children will be seen and not heard.
It will dawn on the public that might is right and they will do something about it.
And something unfortunate but permanent will happen to the occupants of parliament.
Phew!
JP, "I want a Bill of Rights. I want a leader in the sense that Thatcher was."
1. We've got a perfectly serviceable Bill of Rights from 1688, it's most of the crap enacted since then that needs repealing.
2. Thatcher had a few good ideas in the first five years or so, but the rest was shallow populism. She was not a 'leader' in the positive sense of the word, she just happened to be ahead of the pack (or thought that she was) for most of the time.
CR, be afraid, be very afraid...
What do you want?
Personally? Getting a bit better at unarmed fighting might be useful, as would writing a book.
Anyway, I hope that you have a good evening, and following year.
Happy New Year !
I always thought the millenium was on 1st Jan 2,000.
ie
One thousand, nine hundred and 99 yrs, 11 months and 31 days from the year dot
or 1999 + 11 months + 31 days from 0
Oh and the gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 and trying to backdate it is seen as unreliable.
By your reckoning if I was born in 1970 then I'd be 9 in 1980. Shurely shome mistake.
I am very worried about where space ends. And if it doesn't.....
Take up photography
The main thing with photography is time and a little reading about technique.
Spend out on a dSLR, but don't spend much more than £500. Megapixels are pretty much irrelevant now. 12MP is more than you need.
And buy a dSLR, not one of these things that are "sorta" dSLRs. They don't save you much and don't give you the option to change lenses.
Bob, the 1st Jan 2000 was not one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine yrs, 11 months and 31 days from the year zero, because there was no year zero. The Julian calendar and its predecessor the Gregorian calendar both do not recognise the existence of a year zero.
Year 1 AD - 1st year
Year 1000 AD - 1000th year, the last year of the 1st millenium, which means that the first year of the new millenium is 1001. Same goes for 2000/2001.
http://www.astronomyboy.com/millennium/
As for your age in 1980, you would be 10, as you did have a 'year zero' in terms of age. After all, you are not 1 year old as soon as you are born, are you? The calendar started on Year 1, you started on Year 0.
I said 'predecessor'. I meant 'successor'.
The Gregorian Calendar is the Julian Calendar's successor
JP
The calendar starts from when jesus was born ( that's why it's AD - after christ was born )
Why are you discounting the first year of jesus's life ? Or the first 11months and 31 days ?
Why am I allowed to enjoy my first year ?
There was BC, then jesus born at age 0 months so 1stJan 2000 is exactly 2,000 yrs from the birth of jesus ( 1999 + 11 months and 31 days ) and is the millenium.
You can't just ignore a year that existed. Did it fall down a black hole or something ?
Bob, Bob, year zero is not used in the widely used Gregorian calendar, nor in its predecessor, the Julian calendar. Under those systems, the year 1 BC is followed by AD 1.
There is no evidence as to the exact date Jesus was born. Some place is at 4 BC, some at 3 AD. I don't know why they done it, but there was never a year zero. I am not ignoring a year that existed - it never existed under the name '0 AD'. They simply went from 1 BC to 1 AD. I don't know why this was, but it is what happened, and if you go by what happened the new millenium started on 1st Jan 2001.
(Year 1 + 2000 = 2001)
Just read this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero
Bob, as much as I am enjoying this spat, JP happens to be correct (in a pedantic sort of way).
I could add fuel to the fire by pointing out that if we assume Jesus was born on 25 December AD 1, the new millennium didn't actually start until 25 December AD 2001, so JP will have to wait until 23:59 on 24 December AD 2011 to do the last post of the decade!
JP / Mark
Ok technically and by convention you may be right with your millenium. I wouldn't use Wiki - full of liars and scammers -AGW scam etc.
But my celebrations on Jan 1st 2,000 could also be correct if we look at the reality.
Ok the calendar starts at 1AD ( I suppose it's not possible to have a 3/4 year etc.) This means the calendar starts one year after jesus was born. So that means that Jan 1st 2,000 must be 2,000 years after Jesus was born ( by your own AD convention).
So people were celebrating 2,000 AD. The second millenium of jesus birth. I'm not religious or anything and don't even believe he existed but it's what is used.
I think he's right about millenniums but not decades, after all they are just 10 year spans, and the convention is to name them as 1930s, 1940s, 1960s, 1990s etc. And there's no way the decade called the 1990s started in 1991 or ended in 2000. So the decade 2010s started two days ago and the hard-to-name 2000s, noughties etc ended.
@matthew
We do that because it's easier. I still go by all that '70s', '80s' and '90s' stuff, even though it's wrong, it's easier.
However the same stuff goes for decades. You can't have a system of counting millenia and a different one for decades. After all, decades are 1/100th of a millenium. Officially, the next decade (either the 200th decade or the 201st decade - I can't be bothered doing the maths!) starts on Jan 1st 2011
"You can't have a system of counting millenia and a different one for decades."
I don't really see why. The 1970s is understood by everyone as a ten-year period even though it spans three 'proper' decades.
Sorry 'two' proper decades. Three would be weird.
To be honest, I don't go by calendar decades, I go by pop music hexades, i.e. six year periods, i.e.
1953 - 58
1959 - 64
1965 - 70
1971 - 76
1977 - 82
1983 - 88
1989 - 94
1995 - 00
2001 - 06
2007 - 12
So there were three hexades in the calendar 1980s: up to 1982 (end of punk, new wave, ska era), from 1983 - 88 (New Romantics, electro, rap & Madonna era) and 1989 onwards (rave, Britpop era).
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