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)

thenextweb:

Carl Sagan ( November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences.

What if Smurfs were real?

The Smurf is actually the result of a symbiotic relationship between two organisms. We believe that Smurfs put their ‘embryos’ in the button of a developing mushroom. From a distance, Smurfs seem like they are wearing a hat and pants but as you can see this is a fallacy. The fungus provides camouflage and protective epidermal layers for the creature, while the creature provides nutrients and mobility for the spreading of spores.

Smurfs are believed to be a hunter gatherer society. As you can see, this little guy is returning from a successful venture. It is generally difficult to spot a Smurf; they are very apprehensive and cunning. Sadly though, it is rumored that they are hunted for their medicinal properties. It’s hard to determine but it is thought that there are not many colonies of Smurf left.