HOW OLD IS CHINA?

I did say I would post more about the Doomsday Clock today, but I'll wait till a later date to instead write about more topical matters.

First, about that horrible Reagan National Airport air collision between an American Airlines flight holding 64 passengers and crew from Kansas and an Army helicopter manned by three.  There were no survivors.

I still remember a similar incident on 13January1982 when I was working in the U.S. Senate.  On a cold and snowy day in the later afternoon, Air Florida 90 left Washington National Airport, but crashed soon after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge, killing 78.  Five on the flight survived, but four motorists on the bridge died.  An unrelated accident shut down one of the Metro lines at around the same time, and it took me till midnight to get home.

Why he does this is really inexcusable, but...the New York Times this morning said:

Trump, Without Citing Evidence, Blames D.E.I. and Democrats for Plane Crash

President Trump’s remarks, suggesting that diversity requirements and other policies somehow caused the collision of a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, reflected his instinct to immediately frame major events through his political or ideological lens. 

So to the topic of today, yesterday was the Chinese New Year.  Which is correct about China?

• The oldest continuous civilization on Earth, with early humans living there more than a million years ago.
• Peking Man, a subspecies of Homo erectus, inhabited northern China during the Middle Pleistocene, from around 230,000 years to 800,000 years ago.

• 
  Homo sapiens lived in China about 45,000 years ago.
• The Chinese civilization is around 5000 years old.
• According to Wikipedia, China is now 4722 years old.
• The Chinese government is into its 76th year.
• The answer is all the above.
• If you have an hour or so, watch this PBS video.

So how really old is China?  First, some ancient history.

• Human migration spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, about the time fire was discovered.
• Homo sapiens only came 250,000 years ago, but modern man perhaps is only 35,000 years old.

• 
  Cave paintings between 43,000 and 65,000 years ago.
• Migration out of Africa around 50,000 years ago, reaching Australia only 5000 years later 

• 
  Humans arrived in the Americas only 15,000 years ago.
• Agriculture first developed 11,000 years ago in what is now eastern Turkey, but the simple plough only 8,000 years ago.

• 
  Egyptian civilization around 10,000 BC, but heiroglyphs took until 3200 BC.
• Taro culture in New Guinea dates to around 9000 BC.
• Recorded history around 5000 years ago and wheels began to be used around 3000 BC, or, in other words, around the same time period.

• 
  Chinese characters as early as 1600 BC.
• The world population was 2 million in 10,000 BC, 45 million in 3000 BC, 72 million in 1000 BC and 209 million in AD 500.
• Given a current global population of about 8 billion, the estimated 117 billion total births means that those alive in 2022 represent nearly 7% of the total number of people  who have ever lived. Because we have existed on Earth for approximately 200,000 years, that’s actually a fairly large percentage.
• 
  About population:
• China has had the largest for millennia.
• -423 BC, 44 million, 27% of world population
• Year One, 65 million, 30% of world.
• 1200, 140 million, 38% of world.
• 1982, 1 billion, 22% of world.
• 2020, 1.45 billion, 17.8% of the world.
• Last year India became #1. 
• The USA is now #3, but will be become #5 around 2060, with Pakistan and Nigeria passing us. 
• Nigeria is now #6, but will be #3 not long after 2050, and #2 around 2100.

I can go on and on, but let me stop here and now report on how 15 Craigside celebrated the end of Year 4721 and the latest Chinese New Year.  We began by by purchasing this Cognac Zodiac Animal chest.

On Tuesday night I had a dinner table of residents born in the Year of the Dragon, featuring champagne and the Dragon Cognac.  2024 was the Year of the Dragon.

Yesterday we had our Chinese New Year lunch.

Started with cognac in Egg Drop Soup.

For dinner had a Penfold's Limited Dragon Release of the 2020 Shiraz Cabernet  and drank the Snake bottle at dinner, so we now have ten years left.

Happy New Year! We are now into the Year of the Snake.

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