I've been intending to start a blog forever but just never got around to doing it. Well, today seemed like the perfect time. It is, after all:
- The last day of the year.
- Tonight will be a Blue Moon**
- But it is not, as the news media would have you believe, the end of the decade!
I find it totally baffling that 80% or better of the college graduates in the United States still don't grasp the concept of zero. Zero is a place holder for nothing. Zip. Nada. We don't have any. It's been a real handy digit this past year when balancing my check book. But with a calendar there is never a case when you have a year with no time in it. You never have a year zero. You always start with the year 1. And decades
always end with the year 10 (or a multiple thereof), centuries end with (century x 100), and millennium with (m x 1000). You can argue common and accepted usage until you're blue in the face but it doesn't change the mathematical fact that the first decade of the second millennium won't end for another year.
** Today the commonly accepted definition of a "Blue Moon" is when there are two Full Moons in the same calendar month. According to
SkyandTelescope.com this is historically inaccurate, and it's their fault.
