Domestic Cats Are About 9,000 Years Old

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The modern domestic cat descended from Sardinian, Central Asian, European, and Sub-Saharan African wild cats, and the Chinese desert cat.  Archaeologists and historians estimate that cats became domesticated about 8,000 or 9,000 years ago.  For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

Today is the Pin Festival !

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Hari-Kuyo, the Festival of Broken Needles, was the beginning of the lunar year on the old Chinese calendar, and is now a festival in China and Japan every year on February 8.  People bring to the shrine their broken pins and needles used in the previous year, and express gratitude for their service.

For more information click here and click here.

I've broken sewing machine needles and the eyes in needlepoint needles, but I didn't exactly express gratitude for the broken needle, nor even for the service it had provided.  I wonder if there are uses for broken needles, but that's for another blog on another day.  What do you do that requires you to use needles?  (You can leave comments below.)

Chinese Year 4710

Moon phases:  New, First Quarter, Full, Third Quarter
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We are now in day two of Chinese year 4710.  The Chinese use a lunar calendar (although in business they usually use the Gregorian calendar like most of the rest of the world), and the first of every month is the darkest night of the month, or the night with the new moon.  For more information click here and click here.

Year of the Water Dragon

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Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, which is based on the lunar calendar.  The celebration lasts for 15 days.  This is the year of the water dragon, and so is supposed to be the most prosperous and lucky of years in the Chinese zodiac calendar.  For more information click here and click here.

I was born in a year of the water dragon.  What animal in the Chinese zodiac were you born under?  If you don't know, click here.

The Sun and Stains and Smells...oh yes, and Clothes!

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Scientists in China have developed a combination of chemicals to apply to cotton cloth.  When this specially-treated cloth acquires stains and smells, a few hours of sitting in the sun removes the stains and smells.  They are calling clothes made out of this cloth "self-cleaning clothes".  For more information click here and click here.

I would definitely buy clothing made from this cloth.  Would you?  (You may leave comments below.)

Maps and History

"The history and pre-history of the historical atlas are commonly understood in Western terms.  The first known historical atlas is generally given as the Parergon of Abraham Ortelius, published in Antwerp in 1579, initially as part of his general atlas, but from 1624 as a separate work. 

Yet it is also possible to draw attention to independent developments in China.  The first map in China dates from about 2100 BC and appeared on the outside of a ding (ancient cooking vessel), and a map of a graveyard produced between 323-15 BC was uncovered in a tomb in 1977.  Maps in China certainly became more common under the Western (or 'Former') Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 9), although very few have survived from before the twelfth century."

From page 2 of Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past, by Jeremy Black, published by Yale University Press.