ANST - New Millenium

[Paul Mitchell]

cougar17 at swbell.net wrote:
> 
> I'm gonna have to disagree with this. 0-99 A.D. was counted as the first
> century. 100-199 was considered the second century, hence 1900-1999 is
> considered the 20th Century. The 21st Century begins at midnight, right
> after the expiration of the 24 hour period of December 31, 1999. You'd
> have to look up the site for the U.S. Naval Atomic Clock, to get the
> exact time within milliseconds. Hmmmm....I wonder if the Real Estate
> company, Century 21 has plans in the works to change their name? :)

I'm sorry to dispute with you, but the year 1 B.C. was followed by the
year 1 A.D.  There was no "zero year".  The first 100 years of the
"Christian era" are the years 1-100, inclusive.  The second century
A.D. was therefore 101-200, and the 21st century will start on the
first of January, 2001.

At the end of the year 2000, I suspect we may have a number of people
feeling themselves made fools of, as the press, anxious to repeat
the high ratings of the "New Millenium Celebration", do it on two
successive New Year's Eves.  It'll be like when Texans realized that
the lottery revenues weren't dedicated to education after all.  I
knew that before the election, but most people thought they were
voting in a windfall for education.

I am aware, as Wolf pointed out, that millions of people think that
the millenium will begin with the year 2000.  Millions also thought
that the world was flat, but the educated people of those times 
didn't defer to them based solely on their numbers.  You can't decide
matters of fact by popular vote.
 
> Check out information on a project called YR2000. or YR2 for short. Most
> computer mainframes built before a certain time, do not have a bios that
> will recognize the date of 2000. We got a statement from Ford Motor
<snip of excellent description of the year 2000 computer problem>

I'm not a programmer, but I know enough about computers to know that
they are even more stupid than people, and know only what they've been
taught.  And if short-sighted programmers taught them that time itself
re-starts at the end of 1999, that also fails to define reality.


>                                                 Cougar!!
> RoBert Knaus wrote:
> 
> > Well that would be a good plan, except that the "new Millenium" won't >be for another year after that....  New century doesn't start until the
> >year 1  (after all most people start counting 1, 2, 3... instead of 0,
> >1, 2....)
> >
> > Bob
> > Sine Nomine

- Galen of Bristol
pmitchel at flash.net
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