1776 - 2026
Fun fact: The average lifespan of empires is about 250 years. However, many historical empires, such as the Roman and Ottoman empires, have lasted significantly longer than this average.
Interesting… don’t you think?
Have fun!
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Happy Fireworks Day!
Long Live the Fireworks!
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Whew! And we are still here. So yesterday, my husband read my “fun fact” and said, Isn’t that a pessimistic attitude?
My reply is, No. If I wanted to be pessimistic, I would have said, It’s all downhill from here folks!
Then we left to watch the fireworks.
Have fun!
Actually funnier fact: the average lifespan of empires has been dwindling since antiquity.
The Roman Empire lasted 1,400 years, of which it was a hegemonic superpower for 500 years
The Spanish Empire lasted for 400 years, of which it was a hegemonic superpower for some 200 years
The British Empire lasted for about 400 years, of which it was a hegemonic superpower for some 100 years
The American Superpower started in 1945, and was a hegemonic superpower for about 30 years until the OPEP shut down the faucet and the USA just had to beat it until the 1990s when the USSR collapsed on its own and leaned it a second and shorter-lived hegemony which then was effectively wasted post 9/11 for ~reasons~
And here we are… China is seriously handicapped to ever become a superpower because you can’t lead no one when nobody else speaks or reads your language (and your language can’t be dumbed down for strangers in any capacity), and the times when a nation could go its own way and succeed are effectively gone. Everything is just too complicated and some critical masteries have been developed only once in only one place*.
*like 400 mm silicon waffles for cost-effective manufacturing of ultrahigh complexity circuits, a trade commodity that depends on a number of factories (or “foundries” as they’re known) you could count with the fingers of one hand, all of them in a country exposed to earthquakes and typhoons…
Happy 250! I got to see the 200 hundredth as well! My apologies to all our friends and allies.
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Hold on, I’m doing maths…
My HS graduating year was 1977. Does that help?
That’s in the last century??
Have a happy retirement! Class of 77, so did your prom do the Star Wars theme like mine?
Have fun!
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No prom for me. I just don’t fit into that crowd. Sat in the audience as they called my name.
Too late! I had more fun than should be allowed. I was lucky, nothing more. Zaera got to bike ride with royalty, I got to snub David Hasslehofe.
May you all have the time of your life! 
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