Spread the message like wildfire: KONY2012

(Source: youtube.com)

The Mayans were known as highly intelligent mathematicians. They did an extremely precise count of 365.256 days in one sidereal year. We now know that there are in fact 365.25636 days in a sidereal year, which goes to prove how exact the Mayans were in their calculations and they only miscalculated 1 second every 2800 years (kinda impressive for people without our technology, huh?).

The Gregorian calendar (the calendar the world currently uses) was closely based on the Julian Calendar where Julius Caesar introduced the method of Leap Years (an extra day added every four years). These calendars don’t follow the accurate calculation of a sidereal year introduced by the Mayans, but the tropical year (or calendar year) which is measured by the amount of time between the Sun’s successive transits of the vernal equinox and only counts 365.24219 days in a year (20 minutes less than a sidereal year). This makes all the difference. 

It is known that the reason we use this calendar with leap years included instead of the more accurate calendar is because of the seasons. If we were to use the accurate calendar, our sense of time may get fuzzy as Winter will come in the Summer and vice versa. I suppose we just don’t want to adapt to such dramatic changes, especially in a world-wide scale, so we are stuck using a faulty calendar that will definitely start screwing up one day in the future, maybe then the people will be ready for a massive change of calendar.

Going back to the 2012 issue at hand, the Gregorian Calendar translated the Mayan calculations of the end of their Long Count calendar (note: not end of the world) into the current calendar, and it is a known fact that the 21st of December 2012 is the date also known as four ahau, three kankin in Mayan count.

So, you see… It is not as simple as to subtract all the leap years in our calendar without taking into consideration the rest of the methods used before Gregorian. Four ahau, three kankin did not occurred 7 months ago, but will occur on December 21st, 2012. Note that I am not saying that the world will end on this date, only that the end of the Long Count calendar created by Mayans will end its 26,000 precession of Equinoxes cycle.

Sources:
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(Source: dirty-taemin)

What if, and just listen to me on this one, what if the S.O.P.A. bill keeps being pushed to a later date throughout the year? What if it extends so long that the whole world just says, “Enough! Get a fixed date and make a decision ASAP.”? And the date chosen is December 21, 2012. And then (still with me?) what if S.O.P.A. passes? The horrid bill passes and truly the end of the world as it was predicted in the Mayan calendar comes to pass, and the world of which it spoke of was actually our beloved Internet. 

One of my favorite authors, Steve Alten, predicted what seems to be described as an iPad in 1997 when writing the manuscript for Domain, a book (a favorite of mine) about the Mayan doomsday prophecy of 2012.

I’ve read this book twice before (reading it again for a third time this year) and just realized this. In a newsletter from Steve that I anticipate anxiously every month due to his informative and off-topic content (the joke of the month is my favorite part!), he explains that “[he] had to project what things would be like in 2012” back in 1997. It seems he was spot on.

I wonder what other things he may have predicted (or will predict) successfully in 2012.

wetheurban:

NEW IPHONE 5 DESIGN FOR FALL 2012

Rumors have now begun to surface that 2012 will see the release of an entirely new iPhone design. Sources say that the next generation model will be constructed from a rubber or plastic material that will probably border the front screen glass and could possibly be powered by hydrogen - leaving you to have your iPhone powered without charge for days. The overall design will apparently be more in line with how the current iPad looks - above is a mock up of how such an iPhone might look. Thoughts?