Math is hard. Apparently

[madbaker]

2010 is the start of a new year. It is not the start of a new decade. Nor was 2000 the start of a new millennium. You start a new cycle with year 1, not year 0.

To pre-empt the "If that's how people use it, it's correct" argument, I offer this riddle:

Q: "How many legs does a dog have if you call a tail a leg?"
A: "Four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it one."

What I'm reading: Ken Scholes, Canticle

Comments

[aimeric.livejournal.com]

Then again, if one says "2009 is the last year of the decade", then the statement is ambiguous. However, while they could mean either "the last year of the 00's", or "the last year of the 1st decade of the 21st century", the phrasing suggests the latter (since the former doesn't even use the word decade). In which case, as originally stated, the statement is indeed incorrect.

(I'm sorry, I've been having too much fun with this thread)