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It's the standard dating scheme used in archaeology and some areas of geology for material that is carbon dated. As mentioned on the wikipedia page that OP link
by whyenot 11y ago
It's the standard dating scheme used in archaeology and some areas of geology for material that is carbon dated. As mentioned on the wikipedia page that OP linked to, "present" is actually a standard date: January 1, 1950; chosen because material from later dates can not be reliably measured [using carbon dating] due to nuclear testing.
- javert 11y agoI'm aware of that. > "present" is actually a standard date: January 1, 1950 which is an abuse of the English langauge, since "present" actually means "now." Scientists should not overload pre-existing English words to mean other things.
- EdwardDiego 11y ago> Scientists should not overload pre-existing English words to mean other things Why not? Because it confuses the overly-pedantic?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Trombone12 11y agoBah! I say that the plebs outside the ivory towers should stop using overloading __scientific__ terminology! Have you ever used "dynamic" while not talking about physical forces? BOOM: you are an abuser! Repent! Repent!
- carbocation 11y agoI would state the argument as follows: We should use the term "before nuclear testing", abbreviated as BNT. It is more precise than "before present", which will become more inaccurate over time, whereas "before nuclear testing" will always have the same meaning.
- javert 11y agoThere is no need for a new time reference at all. That's the point. If someone actually needs to say "before nuclear testing," which is very rare, they should say "before nuclear testing."
- lotsofcows 11y agoComputer scientists should stop overloading phrases like "over load" to mean other things. Dark ages Europeans should stop overloading Latin words like "lingua" to mean other things. Modern humans should stop overloading words like "existing" to mean exactly the same thing...
- javert 11y agoYou are attacking a straw man.
- saalweachter 11y agoSo the present is January 1, 1950, and we're living in the future?
- k8tte 11y agowhat about BCE (as in "Before Common Era"), i thought this was the pc way of expressing this in our post-religious world of tomorrow!? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_era