Cosmic Calendar

Just been reading this page I found over at the del.icio.us/popular page.

Cosmic Calendar, The Universe In One Year.

It describes the time since "the big bang" to now, compressed into the equivalent of one year, with each month equalling roughly 1 billion years.

Not much happens to begin with, the sun and the planets form in August and a few multi cellular organisms start to evolve around November - just in time for fireworks night.

The real good stuff all happens on December 31st. Apes pop their heads up and are noticed at 10:15am and evolve into "modern humans" at 11:54pm - after they have been for a few pints and a kebab on their way home to watch the new years eve celebrations on TV.

At one second before midnight on that same day, the voyage of Christopher Columbus sets sail. I expect that fractions of a second before big ben chimes the first "bong" of new year, the world spirals into war, poverty and environmental meltdown - but they left that bit out.

I wonder how many days the world would last after that...