Things that have Changed Since You were in School

[Spot's Meow]

I believe she is a Librarian.

But why would a librarian need a pager?

Librarians can use pagers for everything. That said, most libraries use pagers for customers when an internet terminal is available.

Actually I've been working as an archivist for the past year, like a librarian but for unique historic documents. We have a card catalog of all of our collections in the research room. I use a pager when I am the back-up archivist on reference duty and they need me to go pull something out of the stacks for them or need help on the desk. I actually love our card catalog and prefer it over our online catalog!

 

[Amaris]

^ Neat!

Our library has both systems. The computers sit right on top of the old catalog, and you can use both, and I still do.

 

[scotpens]

Okay, now I'm even more confused. What's Common Era mean? What's so common about the last two thousand years, as opposed to the years before that.

I know it's just another way of saying “everything since 0” but it seems an odd phrase. We should just use a number line and everything before 0 is a negative number.

C.E. can also be interpreted as standing for Christian Era or Current Era. It's “common” in the sense that the Western Christian calendar is common throughout the world, and is the de facto global calendar.

And the dividing line is the year 1, not zero. There was never a year zero, except in an old Ray Milland movie.

 

[Amaris]

Okay, now I'm even more confused. What's Common Era mean? What's so common about the last two thousand years, as opposed to the years before that.

I know it's just another way of saying “everything since 0” but it seems an odd phrase. We should just use a number line and everything before 0 is a negative number.

C.E. can also be interpreted as standing for Christian Era or Current Era. It's “common” in the sense that the Western Christian calendar is common throughout the world, and is the de facto global calendar.

And the dividing line is the year 1, not zero. There was never a year zero, except in an old Ray Milland movie.

I like where that poster's going with the subject matter.

 

[scotpens]

I like where that poster's going with the subject matter.

Yep, nothing like an orgy of looting and lust to start the day off right!

 

[Amaris]

I like where that poster's going with the subject matter.

Yep, nothing like an orgy of looting and lust to start the day off right!

It's how Simon met Garfunkel.

 

[apenpaap]

What do BCE and CE stand for?

I've never come across them before. Or if I had I glossed over it and hadn't realised they replaced BC and AD.

Common Era
Before Common Era

I always thought it was Before Common Error. Good to know...

Since Jesus was actually born in 6 BC (IIRC), Common Error would fit too.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Where do you get the idea that it's easier that way? English is a phonetically written language. It's not Chinese. If kids are taught phonics, they'll be able to learn and sound out new words for themselves. If they're only taught to recognize whole words by sight, they'll have a very limited vocabulary and be unable to pronounce unfamiliar words -- which is exactly what has happened to the generation that was taught the “look-and-say” (more accurately, “look-and-guess”) method of reading.

Exactly. When I taught adult students 10-20 years ago, I was horrified by how few were able to sound out words.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

The Mont Blanc's elevation was still 4807m and not 4810.45m.

How does a mountain get three-and-a-half meters taller? Hormone injections?

Yeah, they tested growth hormone on mountains first, to make sure it was safe, before they they tried it on humans.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

No more Corvairs. No more records. No more mimeograph machines. No more film strips. No more dial phones. No more manual typewriters w/ a moving carriage (had to watch where you placed that cup of coffee).

Although I learned to type on an electric typewriter, I had a manual at home. Used it in high school through graduate school round 1. By the time I did round 2 of graduate school, I was using my first computer, a Tandy 2000 w/ a whopping 256K memory.

No more Kennedys of the famous generation. No more liberal Republicans. (Yes, kiddies, there used to be such a creature.)

No more Belgian Congo, no more... never mind, won't try to catalog all the changes in the names and boundaries of nations, especially in Eastern Europe and Africa.

And, ladies, no more girdles. (No they weren't anything like Spanx.)

 

[Goliath]

I believe she is a Librarian.

But why would a librarian need a pager?

Librarians can use pagers for everything. That said, most libraries use pagers for customers when an internet terminal is available.

When I first visited the Public Record Office in England, ten years ago, readers chose a table, and then were assigned a pager and a pigeonhole with the same letter and number. When you ordered a document, you waited for your pager to go off, and then you went to your pigeonhole to pick it up.

That's another thing that has changed since I was in school. On my first research trip after I got my PhD, I discovered that the pagers had been replaced with a web-based system. And the Public Record Office had been renamed the National Archives.

 

[Goliath]

^Common Era and Before Common Era. It's a bit silly considering they still use Jesus' supposed birth year as the point of differentiation.

Not necessarily. "BC" means "Before Christ," and not everybody believes that Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, Jesus Christ. Similarly, AD means "anno domini," or "year of the Lord," and not everybody believes that Jesus is Lord.

There's nothing wrong with using the traditional date of Jesus' birth as an epoch: considering the impact that his teachings and followers have had on Western and even world history, it's as good a date as any other. BCE and CE are just more inclusive terms than BC and AD.

Though personally, if we ever do reform our dating system, I would favour making the year 1543 CE the new year zero: that was the year in which Copernicus and Vesalius published their epoch-making works on astronomy and anatomy, and the traditional date for the beginning of the Scientific Revolution.

 

[RoJoHen]

Though personally, if we ever do reform our dating system, I would favour making the year 1543 CE the new year zero: that was the year in which Copernicus and Vesalius published their epoch-making works on astronomy and anatomy, and the traditional date for the beginning of the Scientific Revolution.

I'd be very surprised if we ever changed our dating system at this point. If you thought Y2K was bad, just imagine what would happen if we suddenly lost 1500 years!

 

[Goliath]

Though personally, if we ever do reform our dating system, I would favour making the year 1543 CE the new year zero: that was the year in which Copernicus and Vesalius published their epoch-making works on astronomy and anatomy, and the traditional date for the beginning of the Scientific Revolution.

I'd be very surprised if we ever changed our dating system at this point. If you thought Y2K was bad, just imagine what would happen if we suddenly lost 1500 years!

True. But, hey--I can dream, can't I?

 

[thestrangequark]

^Common Era and Before Common Era. It's a bit silly considering they still use Jesus' supposed birth year as the point of differentiation.

Not necessarily. "BC" means "Before Christ," and not everybody believes that Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, Jesus Christ. Similarly, AD means "anno domini," or "year of the Lord," and not everybody believes that Jesus is Lord.

Yes, I know.

There's nothing wrong with using the traditional date of Jesus' birth as an epoch: considering the impact that his teachings and followers have had on Western and even world history, it's as good a date as any other. BCE and CE are just more inclusive terms than BC and AD..

I don't disagree. My point wasn't about using Jesus' supposed birth year -- I've no problem with that. My point is that changing the terms to be "more inclusive" is a bit silly considering they are still referring to Jesus' supposed birth year.

 

[Mary Ann]

Highschool...I had no internet, we were still using guilders and it was always a pain in the proverbial ass when you went shopping in Germany (I live at the border) where everything was in Deutsche Marken ofc. I do miss the rijksdaalder though. As a dutch saying goes: "On the market your guilder is worth a dollar."

My aunt gave me a 1963 rijksdaalder made into a necklace for my 18th birthday, 24 years ago. Speaking of German borders, this aunt lives in Venlo. My parents are from Roermond.

Cool!So you're a Limburgian, I'm from a town near Nijmegen.
Have you been back to the Netherlands since you left?

Yes, quite a few times. My dad worked for C&A and was transferred to Canada by the company. Since our entire extended family lives in Nederland the company paid for us to travel there once a year. I still have fond memories of travelling everywhere on colourful trains during the 70s and 80s, and I regularly crave frietsaus.

 

[Goliath]

My point is that changing the terms to be "more inclusive" is a bit silly considering they are still referring to Jesus' supposed birth year.

Silly, how?

Do you think it's a trivial thing to compel people to profess the truth of someone else's religion?

 

[DanCPA]

...t would happen if we suddenly lost 1500 years!

Yay... I wouldn't have to make another payment on my mortgages for 1500 years!

I say we go with this idea!

 

[thestrangequark]

My point is that changing the terms to be "more inclusive" is a bit silly considering they are still referring to Jesus' supposed birth year.

Silly, how?

Do you think it's a trivial thing to compel people to profess the truth of someone else's religion?

What?

No, I am saying it is a matter of semantics.

 

[Goliath]

My point is that changing the terms to be "more inclusive" is a bit silly considering they are still referring to Jesus' supposed birth year.

Silly, how?

Do you think it's a trivial thing to compel people to profess the truth of someone else's religion?

What?

No, I am saying it is a matter of semantics.

Except it's not. I explained that it was something more substantial than mere semantics in my post.