What will we call the 2000-2009 decade?

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Richard87
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We have the 20s through the 90s for the decades 1920s to 1990s, but how will we refer back to this decade? We're in the last month of the decade and we still have no name for it.
 
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It was called the oughts in the previous century.

But don't get ahead of yourself, in spite of the media starting to talk about the best of the decade, we have 1 year left in this decade.

There are 10yrs in a decade right?

When you start counting how often do you start with zero rather then 1?
 


Every century people go through this. There should be a solution to this problem by now.
 
Yeah, 10 yrs ago I had to point out to nearly everybody I knew that there was NO year zero. So the first year of the first decade of the first century was year 1, not year 0. It all follows from there.

2000 was the last year of the 20th century, there seems to be some justice in that, No?
 
The naughty aughties has been suggested.
 
lisab said:
Time magazine called it the http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834-1,00.html" .

That's pretty accurate.
 
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lisab said:
Time magazine called it the http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834-1,00.html" .

It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for 9/11. That could ruin any decade.
 
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Basically the 90's without the decent music and minus the cynicism; I say our generation, people who grew up as young adults and into adulthood in this decade should appropriately be called the entitlement decade, where we think we are entitled to free things because many products are now easily available on the internet, where a decade a go they were not .
 
Jimmy is a nice name.
 
lisab said:
Time magazine called it the http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834-1,00.html" .
I saw that - I'm cancelling my subscription.
 
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Integral said:
When you start counting how often do you start with zero rather then 1?
All the time. I'm a programmer. :biggrin:


It'll be called The Naughties.
 
Integral said:
I think I saw a light come on in ONE person I talked to. Drives me crazy!
My proudest achievment in all my years of education was when I was awarded a can of Coke by my 7th grade math teacher for winning a bet with him that there was no zero year. I had happened to watch an episode of 3-2-1 Contact on the subject a few days before and called him out when he made an error about it. He never admitted being wrong*, but bought me the soda anyway. I'm counting it as a win.

*He goal-post shifted and said he really meant there was a zero point.
 
When we talked about "2000", we were (generally) referring to the "end of the 2nd millennium" and correctly it ended at the end of 2000. But we are NEVER going to fix this in the minds of people, especially ten years later (and Integral, when my kids were born, it took a whole year before we said they were "1." This perception dominates all other considerations, and is what makes the correction nearly impossible. We have to let it go!)

However,

When referring to decades, we are ONLY referring to how they are spoken. The "80s" were a ten year span in which the date included saying "eighty-___." This included 1980 itself. This past year, everyone said "two-thousand-four" or "two thousand and five" and such.

I predicted people would be saying "twenty-O-four" and "twenty-O-eight."

Nope.

But I do think that in a few decades, we will be saying the years as "twenty-thirteen" and "Twenty-twenty-five" etc. By that time, I am certain we will retro-activley refer to this ten year span in the manner of "twenty-O-seven" etc. Thus, I'm sticking with "Twenty-Os."

Give it time.
 
jimmysnyder said:
Jimmy is a nice name.

http://news-political.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/castrol-use-your-dipstick.jpg
 
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lisab said:
Time magazine called it the http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834-1,00.html" .
I think that's a reflection on 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, flare up between Israelis & Palesitinians, the hurricanes (Katrina, Rita, Ike) in US, Typhoon Ingrid (2005) in Australia, other Typhoons between 2001 and 2009 ravaging S.E. Asia and W. Pacific nations, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake & tsunamis (230,000 killed), earthquakes (Gujarat, 2001; Kashmir/N. Pakistan 2005; Sumatran & Saomoa, 2009), 2006 European floods, 2007 Australian floods, 2009 fires in Victoria, Australia (173 fatalities, 414 injured, 1.1 million acres burned, many structures destroyed) and numerous other bushfires in Australia 2001-2009, the global financial crisis, . . . . just to name a few events.
 
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Astronuc said:
just to name a few events.

Just a few. It's been a bit of a rough start to the century, I'd say.
 
GeorginaS said:
Just a few. It's been a bit of a rough start to the century, I'd say.

I agree, it's been rocky.

I remember talking with a woman who was about my age, just a few weeks before the Y2K "disaster"...she was one of those who was nearly hysterical about it.

I told her I wasn't so worried, every generation gets tested. There was the Great Depression, WWII, the turbulent events of the 60s...but those of us who came of age in the 70s and 80s, we haven't had our test yet. I was confident we'd do just fine.

Well, we all know Y2K was a bust!

But the last decade...wow. It's been a slog. Maybe that was our test...?
 

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