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The Mayans Screwed up Their Calendar, Says NASA

NASA kindly put together a video explaining why the world isn't ending.

Admit it: You were stressed about the Mayan end of the world prediction until you saw that text-only image on Facebook explaining how the Mayan calendar didn't account for leap years. Still, people have picked December 21 as the next day that the world will end, so NASA has put together a chill video explaining why, even if the world does end that day, it won't be the Mayans' fault.

I'm largely amused by this video because titling it "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday" and framing it as a guide for people to watch on the 22nd as they crawl out of their apocalypse shelters feels like America's space agency is getting all science humblebraggy on Mayan calendar obsessives. Not that it isn't deserved. I mean, even if the calendar didn't end simply because Mayans had to stop at some point, and assuming that the Mayans actually did say that the world will end on this day, who cares?

Hell, we've got all kinds of wacky satellites and computers and whatnot today and we can't even predict the weather more than a few days out. But for some reason people love to suck back the mystical Kool-Aid of ancient peoples who, in actuality, were predicting apocalypse at the same time as they were sacrificing people to try to keep the gods from unleashing famine. So yeah, the world didn't end yesterday, and if it does end on the 21st, it will only be a coincidence. Seriously, the Mayans also thought the world was created around 5,000 years ago. Who could possibly trust anyone that believes that?

@derektmead