Word: y2k
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Andy Serwer Responds When I began the piece, I was well aware of the great when-does-the-decade-begin controversy, which I remembered from the days of Y2K. Back then, most folks seemed to consider the past decade over on Dec. 31, 1999, so it made sense to me to use that benchmark for this decade as well. The editors here agreed with me. Given the name of the magazine, don't they deserve a little license...
...Mounting Y2K hysteria overshadowed debate in the late '90s, as many worried less about what to call the next decade and more about whether there would be one. After the world failed to end at the stroke of midnight, linguistic experts promised that a nickname would bubble up over time. Despite creative attempts--including Ryan Guerra's decade-long quest to popularize the Unies via brochures and blog manifestos--none has. We've gotten by for so long calling this decade the 21st century--a term that will sound ridiculous in 50 years--that we might as well get started...
When I began the piece, I was well aware of the great when-does-the-decade-begin controversy, which I remembered from the days of Y2K. Back then, most folks seemed to consider the past decade over on Dec. 31, 1999, so it made sense to me to use that benchmark for this decade as well. The editors here agreed with me. Given the name of the magazine, don't they deserve a little license...
December 31, 1999: I was in New Zealand. I was one of the first to see the coming of the millennium. We were also among the first to know that disaster wasn’t going to strike because of the Y2K bug. I knew it was going to be a bunch of nothing. I could confirm—in fact I called my relatives to tell them that the planes didn’t fall out of the sky, the electricity didn’t fail, ATMs didn’t stop working...
...exactly two minutes after midnight on Jan. 1, 2000, an alarm sounded at a nuclear power plant in Onagawa, Japan. Government officials and computer scientists around the globe held their breath. Was this the beginning of a massive Y2K computer meltdown? Actually, no. It was an isolated event, one of a handful of glitches to occur (including the failure of 500 slot machines at two racetracks in Delaware) as the sun rose on the new decade. The dreaded millennial meltdown never happened...