This year is going to the dogs

   Today begins the Year of the Dog. The whole idea wouldn’t dog me so much if in the spirit of equal opportunity the Chinese had also designated a year for the Yellow Jacket. I understand that equal opportunity wasn’t a buzzword way back then, but aren’t the Chinese the ones who introduced yin and yang and all that balance stuff in the first place? In the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, there are eight mammals, two reptiles, one rodent and one bird. Talk about inequality! Couldn’t they have left off one mammal (It wouldn’t necessarily have to be the dog) and given some time to one little insect? 

   I know the ancient Chinese had no way of predicting the dog-eat-dog world of college rivalries, but how appropriate it would have been if they’d included the Georgia Tech mascot on their calendar, considering that it was in the Chinese culture that engineering originated.

   As far back as 2500 BC, the Chinese determined the equinoxes and solstices and charted a calendar. A thousand years later, astronomers calculated the height of the sun in relation to the polar axis, laying groundwork for NASA engineers and textile engineers developed silk.  The Chinese were the first to use iron and steel in 350 BC and it was a “helluva” engineer of the civil kind who really broke ground with the Great Wall of China in 215 BC. During that same time the first Ramblin’ Wreck appeared on the scene as what the Chinese called the wooden ox and what we now call the wheelbarrow. Pretty cool, huh?

   We can thank Chinese chemical engineers for paper and mechanical engineers for their bookbinding presses which were put into use in 600 AD.
Mechanical engineers invented the chain pump for irrigation in the first century and blast furnaces in the fourth century, over 1200 years before such devices showed up in Europe. From 600 AD until 1500 AD, China was the world's most technologically advanced society, producing finely engineered products such as fireworks, gunpowder and the magnetic compass. 

   Now just to be fair and balanced, I will be open to the saying that every dog has his day and rightly so. I admit that this year’s honoree does deserve at least a little recognition. The Yellow Jackets may be a world leader in educating engineers, but the Dogs excel with their agriculture curriculum. Most apropos, considering 150,000 years ago the Chinese developed farming techniques that are still used today.

   OK, before I dig any deeper and really put myself in the doghouse with UGA fans—by the way, it was the Chinese who first came up with the idea of fans in 200 BC—maybe I should let sleeping dogs lie, and just wish everybody a dog gone happy new year! 

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