There are those two plaques and also the video disks on teh two Voyager spacecraft, which give the information on the Pioneer plaques , selections from the national Geographic and audio selections of greetings in various languages, music and whale songs
The date on those plaques is written incorrectly. The AD is written after the date. Done correctly it should be before the date. ex. AD 1976 as opposed to 1976 AD. William Safire lamented that he was the one that made the error, a cosmic mistake.
William Safire was a pretentious turd with a superb vocabulary. YYYY AD has been a widely-accepted usage, in English, for centuries. Deferring to the 2000-year-old Latin usage is extreme, even for a congenital Conservative.
Dmajor, I agree with you about Safire. I feel the same about William F. Buckley Jr., too. In education and history books, AD and BC are being replaced with CE and BCE. AD has been replaced by CE which stands for Common Era and BC has been replaced BCE which stands for Before Common Era…Needless to say this upsets some Christions who feel it is another example of them being persecuted, like the non-existent “War On Christmas”.
I wonder if the hungry aliens will see the rings around some of our neighboring planets as the Golden Arches.
BTW, I for one have no problem at all with CE/BCE. I don’t even mind if a certain movie is renamed One Million Years BCE, as long as we still get to see Raquel Welch in that prehistoric bikini. 8)
DMajor, one of the cords to my guitar shorted out so I needed a new one. I walked into a music store and said I needed a guitar cord, without skipping a beat, the guy asked “How ‘bout a B flat minor?.”..
AD YYYY is more correct. YYYY AD is commonly acceptable.
As far as the AD-BC/CE-BCE, I would call that a tempest in a teapot. The question would be “X number of years since or until what event?”
Maybe the question should be further refined as to define what the Common Era is. By who’s terms? The Romans? The Christians? The Jews? Why not leave things alone instead of mucking them up and making them less clear?
I’m with Al…if we’re referencing “common,” it implies that this era comes from a shared touchstone–and I’m afraid nobody is going to be in agreement as to what that is. Like Christianity or not, the timeline of BC/AD is at least targeted to one specific era. Otherwise…invention of gunpowder? The Magna Carta? Hadrian’s wall? Alexander the Great? What is the Common denominator?
Why tie the time line to a specific mythology? After all, Islam and the far east have provided far more useful tools to the world. Other cultures are thousands of years older than those of the western world. We need to adopt a universal method of measurement. We should be using the metric system, but instead cling to our archaic form. The times are changing.
Y’all are proving the heart of the problem. The reason why we don’t have a common frame of reference is that human beings, of themselves, can’t discover a common frame of reference. That’s the central fact of the human condition, even more than death is. We are notoriously unequipped to discover metaphysical truth (even in the philosophy of science, the foundation of this discussion) and notoriously unable and/or unwilling to admit it.
Light - the needed referent - has indeed has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil! And until that changes (thankfully, one day soon it will), even technical issues like this can’t and won’t be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.
Who’s been telling aliens that Brewster’s the guy to go to for finger food? Was he recorded saying “Eat me!” to someone and they made it into a commercial?
margueritem about 14 years ago
Oops…..
jmcenanly about 14 years ago
There are those two plaques and also the video disks on teh two Voyager spacecraft, which give the information on the Pioneer plaques , selections from the national Geographic and audio selections of greetings in various languages, music and whale songs
Edcole1961 about 14 years ago
Do you want French with that?
zero about 14 years ago
Any chance they could be convinced eating humans will make them stupid? too….
wndrwrthg about 14 years ago
The Kanamits are next on the scene.
wicky about 14 years ago
Just some spicy spleen nuggets.
Varnes about 14 years ago
The date on those plaques is written incorrectly. The AD is written after the date. Done correctly it should be before the date. ex. AD 1976 as opposed to 1976 AD. William Safire lamented that he was the one that made the error, a cosmic mistake.
Digital Frog about 14 years ago
You know, if they brushed their space probes once in a while, they wouldn’t have to worry about plaque…
Nighthawks Premium Member about 14 years ago
the digital frog scores from long range
ColoradoRider about 14 years ago
I’m still trying to understand the aversion to dining in…
Dmajor about 14 years ago
William Safire was a pretentious turd with a superb vocabulary. YYYY AD has been a widely-accepted usage, in English, for centuries. Deferring to the 2000-year-old Latin usage is extreme, even for a congenital Conservative.
Varnes about 14 years ago
Dmajor, I agree with you about Safire. I feel the same about William F. Buckley Jr., too. In education and history books, AD and BC are being replaced with CE and BCE. AD has been replaced by CE which stands for Common Era and BC has been replaced BCE which stands for Before Common Era…Needless to say this upsets some Christions who feel it is another example of them being persecuted, like the non-existent “War On Christmas”.
Sherlock Watson about 14 years ago
I wonder if the hungry aliens will see the rings around some of our neighboring planets as the Golden Arches.
BTW, I for one have no problem at all with CE/BCE. I don’t even mind if a certain movie is renamed One Million Years BCE, as long as we still get to see Raquel Welch in that prehistoric bikini. 8)
Varnes about 14 years ago
DMajor, one of the cords to my guitar shorted out so I needed a new one. I walked into a music store and said I needed a guitar cord, without skipping a beat, the guy asked “How ‘bout a B flat minor?.”..
robinafox about 14 years ago
Common Era my foot! It’s the Christian Era, and they know it!
POPPA1956 about 14 years ago
AD YYYY is more correct. YYYY AD is commonly acceptable. As far as the AD-BC/CE-BCE, I would call that a tempest in a teapot. The question would be “X number of years since or until what event?”
alan.gurka about 14 years ago
Maybe the question should be further refined as to define what the Common Era is. By who’s terms? The Romans? The Christians? The Jews? Why not leave things alone instead of mucking them up and making them less clear?
Kaero about 14 years ago
I’m with Al…if we’re referencing “common,” it implies that this era comes from a shared touchstone–and I’m afraid nobody is going to be in agreement as to what that is. Like Christianity or not, the timeline of BC/AD is at least targeted to one specific era. Otherwise…invention of gunpowder? The Magna Carta? Hadrian’s wall? Alexander the Great? What is the Common denominator?
wndrwrthg about 14 years ago
Why tie the time line to a specific mythology? After all, Islam and the far east have provided far more useful tools to the world. Other cultures are thousands of years older than those of the western world. We need to adopt a universal method of measurement. We should be using the metric system, but instead cling to our archaic form. The times are changing.
Rakkav about 14 years ago
Y’all are proving the heart of the problem. The reason why we don’t have a common frame of reference is that human beings, of themselves, can’t discover a common frame of reference. That’s the central fact of the human condition, even more than death is. We are notoriously unequipped to discover metaphysical truth (even in the philosophy of science, the foundation of this discussion) and notoriously unable and/or unwilling to admit it.
Light - the needed referent - has indeed has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil! And until that changes (thankfully, one day soon it will), even technical issues like this can’t and won’t be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.
Coyoty Premium Member about 14 years ago
Who’s been telling aliens that Brewster’s the guy to go to for finger food? Was he recorded saying “Eat me!” to someone and they made it into a commercial?
Trebor39 about 14 years ago
Eat them, not me.
pbarnrob about 14 years ago
The standard is how I and My Neighbors do it, and everybody else is just Wrong! So There!
If you use inches, or centimeters, and I use Cubits, still the fact!
See how easy that was? Divide and conquer - works every time!