RE: 356 days till the millennium -Reply

["Busby, Bruce" <bab1303@doh.wa.gov>]

Hi all,

Y2K issues do come into to effect jan 1 2000 (and several other dates), 
though the millennium does begin 2001 (see below). We have put together 
some HP resources for Y2K issues, see:

  http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/hpy2k.htm

Bruce Busby
babusby@aol.com




COLOMBO (Jan. 7) - Arthur C. Clarke, author of ''2001: A Space Odyssey,''
feels so strongly about people calling next year a new millennium that he
issued a public statement this week to correct them.

''Because the Western calendar starts with Year 1, and not Year 0, the 
21st
Century and the Third Millennium do not begin until January 1, 2001,'' 
Clarke
said in a statement received by Reuters Thursday.

''Though some people have great difficulty in grasping this, there's a 
very
simple analogy which should appeal to everyone. If the scale on your 
grocer's
weighing machine began at 1 instead of 0, would you be happy when he 
claimed
he'd sold you 10 kg of tea?'' Clarke questioned.

''And it's exactly the same with time. We'll have had only 99 years of 
this
century by January 1, 2000: we'll have to wait until December 31 for the 
full
hundred.''

Clarke's view has long been held by people who doubt that anyone else can
count.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, for example, made the same point 
in
1997 -- only to be called the party pooper of the century in newspapers.

Clarke said the psychological effect of the three zeros and the Y2K bug 
that
will affect computers was much too powerful to be ignored.

''So everyone will start celebrating at midnight December 31, 1999,'' 
Clarke
said, adding that 2000 should be called the Centennial Year and 2001 the
Millennial Year.

British-born Clarke, who has lived in Colombo for more than 30 years, is 
the
author of scores of novels and science-fiction books and the creator of
several documentaries.

In the last half century, many of Clarke's predictions have come true,
including his then-controversial 1945 outline of a network of 
geo-stationary
communication satellites.



--------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce A. Busby    -     Radiation Health Physicist
W- bab1303@doh.wa.gov      H-babusby@aol.com
Rad Prot. Div. - Dept. of Health - Washington State
7171 Cleanwater Lane, Bldg. 5   Olympia, WA  98504

---------------------------------------------------------------

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