The End Of The World Is Over!

How many moles of Guacamole did Bishop Ussher consume on this day? How about Samuel S. Snow on the same day some years later? Not that this Epic FAIL is going to deter the True Believers - dealing with them is a "a repetitious and futile task" and they'll keep coming up with fresh dates. I bet many expect this November 4th to be one of those dates....

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On this date, six thousand and eleven years ago (give or take a little due to the vagaries of how calendars are kept), the creation of the universe had just begun. That's according to the 1650 chronology determined by the Anglican Bishop of Armagh James Ussher, anyway, published in his Annales…
Garden Calendar When the dogstar is aglow plant petunias in the snow. When the snow begins to melt Wrap your hollyhocks in felt. When the felt begins to bloom pick the apples off your broom. When the broom begins to wear weed the turnips in your chair. When the chair begins to rock prune the…
Creationists have been strangely quiet today, their silence all the more odd because it's Bishop Ussher Day! According to Young Earth Creationist dogma the world just celebrated it's 6,011th 6,010th birthday (or a formless, empty Earth just celebrated it's birthday, the job not being finished until…
Kevin Drum has a post up at the Washington Monthly about the new meme going around to the effect that saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is some sort of anti-Christian conspiracy. I wrote about it a few days ago with Pat Buchanan's inane blustering about it. He quotes a religious…

Guacamole contains tomato and avocado - both new world plants. In the 17th century, these Aztec foods had probably reached Spain - but perhaps not most of the rest of Europe. Ussher probably never tasted either.
Furthermore, Ussher originally calculated the date assuming the Julian Calendar. On the Gregorian Calendar, I'm not sure what date it should be - the adjustment should be 15 days per 2000 years, thus, 45 days, thus, September 8th. But Wikipedia says September 21. I must be missing some ugly detail.
Anyway - Ussher wrote that he was uncertain both about the exact number of begats - he thought some might of been lost or added by mistake - and that he was uncertain about the length of time represented by each begat - so the exact day was not meaningful.