APOD: Four Billion BCE: Battered Earth (2014 Aug 05)

[Chris Peterson]

If (as I assume it is) the main audience that APODs are aimed at is the interested but non-scientific public (like me) then It would have been useful if the definition of BCE had been given. According to a source that I found it stated "BCE is the abbreviation for Before the Common/Current/Christian Era". Which BCE is meant in the APOD title?

BCE is synonymous with BC, regardless of which root meaning you prefer. It is normally used without concern for that. Scholarly publications tend to use BCE and CE to avoid any possible religious bias, since those terms are seen as purely secular in derivation. I'm pretty sure that when the editors used "BCE" the meaning they were referring to was "BCE".

[neufer]

BCE is synonymous with BC, regardless of which root meaning you prefer. It is normally used without concern for that. Scholarly publications tend to use BCE and CE to avoid any possible religious bias, since those terms are seen as purely secular in derivation. I'm pretty sure that when the editors used "BCE" the meaning they were referring to was "BCE".

[size=165][color=#0000FF]Before the Vulgar Era?[/color][/size]

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Wiley's Dictionary:

<<The expression "Common Era" can be found as early as 1708 in English, and traced back to Latin usage among European Christians to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, and to 1635 in English as Vulgar Era. At those times, the expressions were all used interchangeably with "Christian Era", with "vulgar" meaning "ordinary, common, or not regal" rather than "crudely indecent". Use of the CE abbreviation was introduced by Jewish academics in the mid-19th century. Since the later 20th century, use of CE and BCE has been popularized in academic and scientific publications, and more generally by publishers emphasizing secularism or sensitivity to non-Christians.

The Gregorian calendar and the year-numbering system associated with it is the calendar system with most widespread use in the world today. For decades, it has been the global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union. Common Era (Current Era), abbreviated as CE, is an alternative naming of the traditional calendar era, Anno Domini ("in the Year of Our Lord", abbreviated AD). BCE is the abbreviation for Before the Common/Current Era (an alternative to Before Christ [who was presumed to be born between 6 and 4 BC]). The CE/BCE designation uses the year-numbering system introduced by the 6th-century Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus, who started the Anno Domini designation, intending the beginning of the life of Jesus to be the reference date. Neither notation includes a year zero, and the two notations (CE/BCE and AD/BC) are numerically equivalent.>>

[Beyond]

I haven't seen BC in years. Thanks neufer.

[geckzilla]

Of course, this is so long ago that you could say it was 4 billion years before any day in the entire fleeting history of humanity and it would still be exactly as accurate.

[Psnarf]

Thanks, Bystander, but I lost my JSTOR access the day I retired. Don't have "free" access to the Nature article, $35 to view.

[neufer]

Of course, this is so long ago that you could say it was 4 billion years before any day in the entire fleeting history of humanity and it would still be exactly as accurate.

• You bet your BP, Geck

<<Before Present (BP) years is a time scale used mainly in geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use 1 January 1950 as commencement date of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon dating became practicable in the 1950s. The abbreviation "BP", with the same meaning, has also been interpreted as "Before Physics"; that is, before nuclear weapons testing artificially altered the proportion of the carbon isotopes in the atmosphere, making dating after that time likely to be unreliable.

The BP scale is sometimes used for dates established by means other than radiocarbon dating, such as stratigraphy. This usage differs with the recommendation by van der Plicht & Hogg, followed by the Quaternary Science Reviews, both of which requested that publications should use the unit "a" [for year] and reserve the term "BP" for radiocarbon estimations.>>

[DavidLeodis]

Thanks all for your inputs, which are appreciated.

I do think though that as BCE may not be that commonly known acronym that in the explanation it could perhaps have stated such as "Four billion years ago BCE (Before Common Era)..." or what ever definition of BCE was used, rather than not defining what BCE stood for in the APOD title.

PS. I like neufer's 'Blueberries' on Mars! photo. I fancy a cupcake now!

[Beyond]

Actually, what neufer posted, had a blueberry muffin. But as long as it tastes good, who cares?

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Actually, what neufer posted, had a blueberry muffin.
But as long as it tastes good, who cares?

Betty Botter bought some butter;
"But," said she, "this butter's bitter!
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter
Will but make my batter better."
Then she bought a bit of butter
Better than the bitter butter,
Made her bitter batter better.
So ´twas better Betty Botter
bought a bit of better butter.

[owlice]

Thanks all for your inputs, which are appreciated.

I do think though that as BCE may not be that commonly known acronym that in the explanation it could perhaps have stated such as "Four billion years ago BCE (Before Common Era)..." or what ever definition of BCE was used, rather than not defining what BCE stood for in the APOD title.

PS. I like neufer's 'Blueberries' on Mars! photo. I fancy a cupcake now!

I think BCE is known well enough to not need writing out, and you very ably demonstrated how easy it is to Google if one doesn't know the acronym.

[DavidLeodis]

Actually, what neufer posted, had a blueberry muffin. But as long as it tastes good, who cares?

Well it looks like what I would call a cupcake!

When I was young (which seems long before BCE!) 'Muffin the Mule' was a popular show for children.

[DavidLeodis]

Thanks all for your inputs, which are appreciated.

I do think though that as BCE may not be that commonly known acronym that in the explanation it could perhaps have stated such as "Four billion years ago BCE (Before Common Era)..." or what ever definition of BCE was used, rather than not defining what BCE stood for in the APOD title.

PS. I like neufer's 'Blueberries' on Mars! photo. I fancy a cupcake now!

I think BCE is known well enough to not need writing out, and you very ably demonstrated how easy it is to Google if one doesn't know the acronym.

You may be right owlice as I don't know, but I suspect that the definition of BCE may not be that well-known. Despite the apparent ease of googling for what BCE means I still think that putting the definition would have been helpful.

[neufer]

You may be right owlice as I don't know, but I suspect that the definition of BCE may not be that well-known.
Despite the apparent ease of googling for what BCE means I still think that putting the definition would have been helpful.

BCE may stand for:

• Before Common Era, an alternative to BC.

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The office complex in downtown Toronto, Canada
. formerly known as BCE Place, now Brookfield Place
European Central Bank in some Romance languages
. (e.g., Banque Centrale Européenne,Banco Central Europeo)
Business Commitment to the Environment Award,
. UK environmental award established in 1975
Banco Central del Ecuador
Basic Chess Endings, a chess book on chess endgames by Reuben Fine
Beauce region of the Province of Quebec
Bell Canada Enterprises, the largest telecom corporation in Canada
Behind Crimson Eyes, a hard rock band from Melbourne, Australia
Bhagalpur College of Engineering
Boundary Commission for England
British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Electric)
Broadcasting Center Europe, a RTL Group subsidiary
Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem: Corvinus University of Budapest