What is Digg?116 Comments
- sonaro, on 10/12/2007, -29/+307Because George Bush hates black people.
- m0nk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+66The Mayan calendar also ends at 2012, so I can't help but wonder, if their calendar was so accurate, why does it end there? *cue end of world music*
- totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -3/+61"Why are there 28 days in February?"
there are 28 days in every month. - CheckMarshall, on 10/12/2007, -3/+58I read somewhere that the Mayans or the Incans actually had the most accurate calendar.
- JAVandiver, on 10/12/2007, -8/+58But then the Man came and put them down too!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+47That's because their calendar was confusing as all hell.
- kevinmotel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+46REG: All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
XERXES: Brought peace.
REG: Oh. Peace? Shut up! - doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Woof - the article have a major pass to good ol' Pope Gregory, the author of the calendar we use today. He's the one who came up with the Leap Year, the keeps the calendar in sync with our solar orbit (more or less, ya gotta do leap seconds every now and again). I wonder how many Diggers know *all* the Leap Year rules?
1) If the year is a multiple of 4, it's a leap year...
2) UNLESS it's a multiple of 100, in which case it isn't...
3) UNLESS it's a multiple of 400, in which case it is. - cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26What? When did it START being FebUary?
- Fire4Effect, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25Because 7 ate 9?
- m0nk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23Only if the day we loose is a work-day...
- fluidfoundation, on 10/12/2007, -14/+33Crap.. the Man has his boot on my neck AGAIN.
- InSeverance, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Excuse me, are you the Judean Peoples Front?
- loup, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15"The Mayan calendar also ends at 2012, so I can't help but wonder, if their calendar was so accurate, why does it end there?"
I'm too lazy to actually check my facts here, but I think it's because the Mayans believed that time was cyclical and that their current time period was going to end in 2012 and time would start over then. - MurderMystery, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Uh no..we're the People's Front of Judea!
- g30ph, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16@M0nk
AFAIK in 2012 there will be a celestial alignment of of certain stars in our galaxy which apparently only happens every 12000 years or something like that. There are also theories that this will cause a gravitational strain on earth which will cause a pole shift when the earths core becomes detached from the crust. Some scientists say that there is evidence of pole shifts in the past and they seem to come with massive extinctions every time they occur.
Anyway 2012 is just a celestial event as far as the Mayan calendar goes. Why did they just stop there? Because a new era begins after that time? Maybe they didn't feel like extending the calendar to infinity? - bIuebonics, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15accurate is a clock that doesn't gain or lose a second in 60 million years... it's not a calendar that has a seemingly arbitrary cutoff date :P
- laplacian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Another question: Why are there 0 sources cited in that article?
- loqqq, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11It was just supposed to be a temporary hack until the calendar patch was released.
- prockcore, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10"Friggin' R cost me so many spelling tests in 1st-4th grade."
Damn, I'd think you'd screw it up once and never get it wrong again. You must be pretty dumb. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Only if the day we loose is a work-day..."
In that case, you'd have to tighten it back up. - holydope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6These rules depend on what your definition of the word, "is", is.
- M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+66 day a week theory sounds like the best idea...well at least from what I can gather.
http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=5748 - kaykfrink, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"I wonder how many Diggers know *all* the Leap Year rules?"
Anybody who has taken an intro programming class should. I can't tell you how many times I have had to help people with the 'figure out if this is a leap year' problem. - DangerMouse9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It ended in 2012 because they knew they'd be wiped out by then.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Dugg For...
http://i17.tinypic.com/4bh4i07.png - M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3From the article.
"This creates a 4-day workweek.
This creates 16 extra weekend days per year.
(7-day week) 365 day year = 260 workdays + 105 weekend days. (A ratio of 2.5 workdays/ day off.)
(6-day week) 365 day year = 244 workdays + 121 weekend days. (A ratio of 2 workdays/ day off.)" - Future2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4wikipedia:
"In order to get a closer approximation, it was decided to have a leap day 97 years out of 400 rather than once every 4 years. To implement the model, it was provided that years divisible by 100 would be leap years only if they were divisible by 400 as well. [1] [2] So, in the last millennium, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. In this millennium, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2900 and 3000 will not be leap years, but 2400 and 2800 will be. The years that are divisible by 100 but not 400 are known as "exceptional common years". By this rule, the average number of days per year will be 365 + 1/4 - 1/100 + 1/400 = 365.2425." - spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The pole switching - earth destruction story is a myth. The poles are changing constantly, in fact they could flip right now, and the only thing that would really change is which way compasses point. Cause major problems for humans, but the earth would be perfectly fine.
- BillDoor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The calendar there because that's where they stopped counting. All this stuff about cycles and end of the world is just crap. It had to stop somewhere and 2012 just happened to be it.
- dreamlayers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2After reading this article I understand the weird numbered month names:
September = 7
October = 8
November = 9
December = 10
That numbering makes sense when you consider that originally March was the first month. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3More like Vista.. they announced all these features, and after 5 years of delay, they released a shinier version of the old calender..
- merdiesel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dugg for the audio version of this article.
- rabwah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2global warming?
- roflcopterdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Is he a pirate?
- mutatron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The article is inaccurate, or at best poorly written. Before Julius Caesar the Roman calendar was a mess. The Romans even had a priesthood dedicated to the calendar to try to keep it on track with the seasons, but sometimes the pontifices didn't pay attention, other times they were bribed to make the calendar go one way or another, so that often times the calendar would be misaligned to the seasons by months.
Julius Caesar, being a brilliant man and somewhat OCD, took it upon himself as Pontifex Maximus and Dictator for Life, to fix it for once and for all. The ten days he added were distributed over the 12 months and were aimed at eliminating the intercalary month which was supposed inserted by the College of Pontifices every other year to realign the calendar to the season. Knowing that the year was actually more like 365.25 days, probably using the knowledge of Egyptian astronomers, he also invented the Leap Year with a 4 year cycle, which was later amended by Pope Gregory.
Incidentally, under the Republic, a week was 8 days long and the names of the days of the week were the letters from A through H. - Pplus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2From the article: "No one knows why February was left with 28 and remained an unlucky month."
Thanks, that was very informative. I'll break that fun fact out at the next cocktail party... - DangerMouse9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Why are there 28 days in February?"
Because you touch yourself at night. - tonton2012, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4$ cal 9 1752
September 1752
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
hmm.. Looks like we also skipped a few days in 1752 when the Pope entered the trans-dimensional timewarp. - zyzzyvette, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What I want to know is, do people born on Feb 29 age 1/4 as fast as everyone else? Or do they just age four years for each birthday?
- Raian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32012 is the date one of their favourite Gods, Quetzalcoatl is supposed to return and the world is supposed to end.
- toxicredm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Lyph4,
The punchline "seven eight nine" doesn't make sense. Why would six be afraid of seven just because you count from seven to nine? But, "seven ate nine," watch out! - doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I didn't mean it to be that confusing :)
Rule #2 (every even century) is an exception to rule #1, and #3 (every 400 years) is an exception to #2.
1900 was NOT a leap year (divisible by 4, but also by 100, but not by 400)
2000 WAS a leap year (by 4, by 100 AND by 400)
2100 will NOT be (yatta yatta yatta)
It gets more interesting when you realize some nations didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar until the 20th century (Russia comes to mind).
All bets are off if you're using Microsoft Excel, as it thinks the year 1900 WAS a leap year. D'oh!
And yes, I did Y2k remediation coding. Loads of it. You're welcome ;) - bacon_skoda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1very bad explainer. doesn't know what he's talking about.
lame. - xSEED, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1should use the olmecan calandar
- VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My landlord probably hates this fact most of all. Thank god I got paid today instead of Friday.
- anonym41414, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I touch myself in the morning, too. So the real question is, why do some months have MORE than 28 days?
- zadadka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know there are 28 days in February because my Mum said so ....
- zadadka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1S'right...just as you thought you'd got the finances straight, after Christmas, they dump February on you.....
- brownspank, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Friggin' R cost me so many spelling tests in 1st-4th grade."
4 grades to get February spelled right? Good luck with life. -
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