Can you imagine fifty people in your house? It's no more than a big party, or an omnibus of strangers.
Now for our thought experiment, imagine they each live to be, let's say, 70.
Now put them together, not in your house, but in time, back to back. Fifty times seventy is 3500. Broadly speaking it takes just 50 people to go back (approximately) 3500 years. Before Christianity, before Rome, even before Stonehenge. Put them back in your house and the guy who was around when Jesus was is just over there, sitting on the stairs. You can probably wave to him and be seen, and he'll hear you if you shout.
So there's a thing of no worth to cheer you up.
Anyway, I thought about what was happening in the world in my birth year, my father's, and my grandfather's. Just three people.
Here's some "headlines" from our birth years (all Wikipedia, Google "XXXX uk headlines".
All makes me feel old, and yet incredibly close to stuff that seems on the face of it to be like ancient history today. I knew both of these people, I remember them and talked to them. They were born into a world where these things were new and happening.
What are your headlines?
Me, 1962:
The first album on which The Beatles play, My Bonnie, is released by Polydor.
Opinion polls show that less than half of voters now approve of Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister.
Ford launches the Cortina, a family saloon costing £573 and similar in size to the Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Minx and Morris Oxford Farina
1927, my father:
First transatlantic telephone call from New York City to London
The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act renames the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The change acknowledges that the Irish Free State is no longer part of the Kingdom.
Treaty of Jeddah: Saudi Arabia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
1888, my grandfather:
Whitechapel murders: the body of London prostitute Martha Tabram is found, a possible victim of Jack the Ripper
Joseph Assheton Fincher files a patent for the parlour game which he calls "Tiddledy-Winks"
John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tyre
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 2 Jan 20 at 20:13
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>> Now put them together, not in your house, but in time, back to back. Fifty
>> times seventy is 3500. Broadly speaking it takes just 50 people to go back (approximately)
>> 3500 years. Before Christianity, before Rome, even before Stonehenge.
I can assure you I have been to many parties where neanderthals were much in evidence.
People who share my birth year
A A Gill
Adam Ant
Alex Salmond
Annie Lennox
Anthony Minghella
Bobby Sands
Charlie Whelan
Cherie Booth
Cheryl Baker
David Aaronovitch
Elvis Costello
George Galloway
Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Menzies Banks
Jimmy Nail
Judith Weir
Neil Tennant
Richard Littlejohn
Sam Allardyce
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I've met one of those people. That's exciting, isn't it.
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>> I've met one of those people. That's exciting, isn't it.
You shared a cell with Bobby Sands?
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All modern Europeans derive around 4% of their genetic material from Neanderthals. I guess they weren’t too choosy in the Ice Age
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From what I've seen driving through my town on a Saturday night, they're still not all that choosy round here to be honest.
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>> From what I've seen driving through my town on a Saturday night.......
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...Slowly, near the kerb was that......?
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>>Kerb...
One of our investigators from work was prepping for the next day in a distant and drove to a factory to check lorries were arriving and leaving from a client's site 24/7 as they said.
The police pulled him over as the industrial estate was a well known red-light area after dark.
Luckily he had the client's address and map of the area.
On a similar note, my works travel agent has taken to put the client's address in the email confirming the hotel booking which is a right pain as I ended up outside the client at 11PM rather than the hotel some 20 miles away!
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genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/issues
Check what was on the radio when you were born.
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Oddly by searching the bbc genome for my father's name I saw he actually was broadcasted back in the 196os and credited. I asked him about it, he remembers it, never mentioned it before.
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>> Check what was on the radio when you were born.
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A play called "Nelson" to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
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>> >>
>> >> Check what was on the radio when you were born.
>> >>
On the tele, A play called Rain Before Seven . Its about the drought in Australia. How ironic.
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I think the maths at the start of the thread is somewhat flawed - unless reproduction habitually takes place shortly before death at a biblical three score years and 10.
More likely, to go back 3500 years, assuming each generation reproduces at average 20 year intervals is 175 folk at the party.
Just to reinforce the point - even by 1800 AD life expectancy in the UK was around 40, not 70.
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>> I think the maths at the start of the thread is somewhat flawed -
Blimey, talk about a party pooper! This forum survives and thrives on flawed maths.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 4 Jan 20 at 13:01
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And ten out of nine agree.
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>> And ten out of nine agree.
I am 110% with you.
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>> This forum survives and thrives on flawed maths.
>>
This forum survives and thrives on flawed everything!
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Back in time; a long muse - Zero
