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A dataset curated by humans, spanning over a thousand years, is awe inspiring on its own. The first person to record their observation must have had no idea wha

A dataset curated by humans, spanning over a thousand years, is awe inspiring on its own. The first person to record their observation must have had no idea what they started. Are there others like this?

ljf 6mo ago
If you liked that you might find tbe lost of oldest companies interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies It was sad when I checked some time ago how many ancient Japanese companies have closed in tbe last 50 years.
- stingraycharles 6mo ago
  Interesting that the top 5 is all Japanese companies. Any reason why this is? They didn’t experience the dark ages like Europe did (just a very wild guess) ?
  - SenHeng 6mo ago
    Small, mountainous, resource-poor island at the far end of the world meant few were interested in conquering it. That meant Japan had the luxury of maintaining their culture unhindered for a very long period of time. The Japanese royal family is the longest continuous royal bloodline on record. Oral records say its 2600 years old while archives exist from the 6th century.
  - IIsi50MHz 6mo ago
    There is long-standing tradition that if a company's "core competency" is retained, it remains the same company. And also of adults being adopted into a family (including when done as a means of producing a successor when there is no suitable heir). So, a family of weavers going back hundreds of years, now switching to carbon fibre production under the direction of an unrelated (adopted) heir can said in Japan to still be the same company if that carbon fiber is woven. But also, sometimes "core competency" is re-interpreted. Perhaps the original core competency was as dyers, which morphed into weaving at some point, and might eventuall change to "anything involving carbon fibre"…
dylan604 6mo ago
You mean like the Egyptians keeping records on the constellations?
- morkalork 6mo ago
  Yes exactly. Like the Mayan observatory that could only have been built after tracking celestial events over many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Caracol,_Chichen_Itza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Caracol,_Chichen_Itza
owlninja 6mo ago
The times had a little story relevant to this recently: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/climate/japan-cherry-blossom-database-scientist.html?unlocked_article_code=1.elA.ZRzq.Vv5v8tYmF_EG&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/climate/japan-cherry-blos...
carabiner 6mo ago
Japan did the same with tsunami records.

ljf 6mo ago

If you liked that you might find tbe lost of oldest companies interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies It was sad when I checked some time ago how many ancient Japanese companies have closed in tbe last 50 years.

stingraycharles 6mo ago
Interesting that the top 5 is all Japanese companies. Any reason why this is? They didn’t experience the dark ages like Europe did (just a very wild guess) ?
- SenHeng 6mo ago
  Small, mountainous, resource-poor island at the far end of the world meant few were interested in conquering it. That meant Japan had the luxury of maintaining their culture unhindered for a very long period of time. The Japanese royal family is the longest continuous royal bloodline on record. Oral records say its 2600 years old while archives exist from the 6th century.
- IIsi50MHz 6mo ago
  There is long-standing tradition that if a company's "core competency" is retained, it remains the same company. And also of adults being adopted into a family (including when done as a means of producing a successor when there is no suitable heir). So, a family of weavers going back hundreds of years, now switching to carbon fibre production under the direction of an unrelated (adopted) heir can said in Japan to still be the same company if that carbon fiber is woven. But also, sometimes "core competency" is re-interpreted. Perhaps the original core competency was as dyers, which morphed into weaving at some point, and might eventuall change to "anything involving carbon fibre"…

dylan604 6mo ago

You mean like the Egyptians keeping records on the constellations?

morkalork 6mo ago
Yes exactly. Like the Mayan observatory that could only have been built after tracking celestial events over many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Caracol,_Chichen_Itza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Caracol,_Chichen_Itza

owlninja 6mo ago

The times had a little story relevant to this recently: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/climate/japan-cherry-blossom-database-scientist.html?unlocked_article_code=1.elA.ZRzq.Vv5v8tYmF_EG&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/climate/japan-cherry-blos...

carabiner 6mo ago

Japan did the same with tsunami records.