Regardez, c'est un tosspot.

I was looking for candidates for the earliest fixed calendar date in history and found this short article from 1906 arguing that because of the creeping disparity between the calendrical and actual seasons in ancient Egypt, due to the lack of a leap day, we know that the ancient Egyptian calendar must have been introduced in the forty-third century BC (4241 BC to be precise).

I think we should add 4241 years to all dates, and make this the new calendar epoch.

god this makes me happy

Can’t believe I forgot the link. It’s an elegant little piece of reasoning that relies on the fact that Egyptian civilization was already old at the time of classical antiquity, and used the same calendrical system the whole time, nominally beginning the year with the rising of the star Sirius at sunrise. The actual astronomical event drifted by a quarter-day every year, because a year is closer to 365.25 days long than it is 365, meaning you have cycles of 4*365 = 1,460 years where the rising of Sirius drifts from the first day of the year to the last and then starts over again. Over centuries, this drift was profound–a monument in Sinai describes an official arriving during calendrical winter, which at the time fell in the middle of the summer heat.

The calendar was already in use during the Old Kingdom, and (if I understand correctly) has to be older than the Pyramid Texts, because the texts show indications that the Egyptians were already aware of the problem of calendrical drift; therefore the beginning of the last cycle of drift that could have begun with the introduction of the calendar is, based on astronomical and textual data, the one beginning in 4241 BC.

And since this 365 day, 12-month calendar is functionally the same calendar we use today (as laundered through Greece and Rome, and with minor modifications to increase its accuracy) and since it is now the civil calendar of most, if not all, of the world, it makes sense to date the epoch of general international, culturally agnostic use from the time of this calendar’s introduction. So the first day of the present epoch should (again, if I understand the article correctly) be dated from July 19, 4241 BC.

It’s a neat calculation but that’s a pretty sketchy argument for something that purports to establish an exact date over a thousand years before any of the actual evidence for it. I don’t think this theory is taken seriously by modern historians, and Wikipedia says

Also (from the same article):

Ah, that’s too bad. Mayan calendar it is, then???

I see no difference

a masterpost

you can only reblog this every day of the week

How do i articulate how fucking Premium this content is

(via)

Don’t go praising Korra and Asami’s progressiveness by mentioning only Korra as a poc and failing to acknowledge that Asami’s a poc as well

In case it’s not sinking in: no one in the Avatarverse is white, full stop.  Anyone who’s pale-skinned is coded as eastern Asian. 

And yes, this still applies even if they have auburn hair or whatever.  Pigment mutations laugh at your ethnocentrism.

Reblog to make a fandom racist cry.

#her fucking name is asami sato#that’s a japanese-ass name

The Fire Nation is Japanese. The Earth Kingdom is Chinese. The Air Nomads are Tibetan. The Water Tribes are Inuit.

There are other peoples out there, but they are mostly just fantasy versions of other Asian or Native peoples.

Korra is an Inuit, Asami is Japanese, and Mako and Bolin are mixed race Chinese/Japanese.

This is an over-simplification. The Avatarverse combines cultures quite often.

For example:

1. The Northern Water Tribe, while also being Inuit-inspired, has Chinese-inspired architecture. Note the circular doors.

2. The character of Song from Zuko alone is very clearly wearing a Korean hanbok. She is from the Earth Kingdom.

3. The Kyoshi Island Warriors dress in kendo uniform-inspired outfits and wear Kabuki-inspired facepaint, both Japanese, despite being Earth Kingdom.

Also, the Fire Nation is most certainly not primarily Japanese-inspired.

1. They had initially planned to base the design of their armor on samurai armor. This is where the misconception typically originates from. However, it was changed before the show came out and they switched to Tang dynasty style armor. Note the pointed, up-turned toes. That is a feature of Tang dynasty armor. The shoes worn by samurai had rounded toes.

2. Look at the clothing of the Fire Nation Royal family. It looks nothing like a kimono. They are wearing hanfu. That panel of cloth attached to the front of the belt is called a bixi. The hairpieces they wear are based off guan, and the practice of distinguishing the heir through a specific headpiece is Han Chinese in origin. The pointed layers of cloth worn over their shoulders are inspired by Thai dance costumes.

3. The commoners’ clothes in Book 3 appear to be inspired by Thai clothing.

4. Fire Nation cuisine is notably spicy. Japanese cuisine is not. However, Thai cuisine is and so are some variants of Chinese cuisine.

5. Zuko’s broadswords are Chinese dao swords.

Yes, the Fire Nation might draw some parallels to World War II Japan in its actions, but its material culture is most certainly not Japanese-inspired.

I know that you mean no harm by parroting the error that the Fire Nation is Japanese-inspired. It is a common misconception that gets circulated due to misinformation and a lack familiarity with Asian culture. It just gets tedious sometimes, for people of Chinese descent, like me, when parts of our culture get misattributed to Japan simply because Japanese culture is more familiar (sometimes, we think “more fashionable”) to Westerners.

White people getting mad that the characters are all POC, if race and seeing yourself represented doesn’t matter if it’s a good story, why are you getting so upset?

in case anyone tries to tell me that “the swamp benders are the only white people in avatar: the last airbender. they are not white either. the swampbenders are inspired by the vietnamese people in louisiana and the mississippi delta their names are distinctively vietnamese or derived from (tho, huu, due). it’s incredibly irksome to see people say that well at least these people are white, when they are very much derived from southeast asian culture. 

this is so fucking funny

Honestly??? this is all you need to know about cycling in Amsterdam

play this at my funeral

happy cycling is safe cycling

If you ever wondered what the Dutch accent in English sounds like, please watch this.

i honestly can’t tell if this is the dutch equivalent of a shitpost or an actual friendly psa type video

ok but all the information is technically correct. like. this is technically a thorough and sufficient safety video.

Where’s the fucking post of the guy with the huge chain whipping the swat team

Vibe check

i’ve been catsitting a duo of cats every day since march and occasionally when i go to visit the cats i steal some of the owner’s food because it’s not like she’s eating it?? anyways i was just making tea and discovered her box of green tea bags has laxative tea interspersed in it. y’all i just narrowly escaped something. i almost ruined my whole afternoon

i got you!!!

also here is my cat in his little harness that he HATES 

Lawrence, KS

monkey secrets

You can bite your finger off. It’s not that hard. But your brain won’t allow you to do it.

You can bite your finger off, they said

It’s not that hard, they said

That’s 20000 dollars, the hospital said

U can’t make a pendant, tumblr said

just-towel-thoughts callout post for biting off their own fucki ng finger and making it into a neckkalalaeeasbababhjyhcr;ou4;cuw;ou9c9u’3uo4′w’u45uiouciaunbhcnicnnsmcfjw’e;odcw9erca0cmdmjdcnbycs