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Asia: the largest of all the world’s continents. It stretches from the Equator to beyond the Arctic Circle. This is a continent of extremes. Here, temperatures can drop to bellow minus sixty degrees Celsius. On land, survival is almost impossible. But for a few weeks of summer the ice melts, and the coast is transformed. David Attenborough, Seven Worlds, One Planet II: Asia
Pacific walrus … 100,000 of them: almost the entire world population is here. They are gigantic. ibid.
Asia has the hottest deserts, highest mountains and tallest jungles on our planet. This is a continent of incredible variety. ibid.
Meet the blue-faced, golden-coated snug-nosed snow monkey. They are among the heftiest of monkeys … The whole group snuggles together at the slightest opportunity to keep warm. ibid.
The bird was mistaken. It was a viper with a lethal bite. This species has only recently been discovered … On its tail movable scales have been modified to look like a spider’s legs, and its tip like an abdomen. ibid.
For thousands of years [homo] erectus had been one of Asia’s most successful predators. The arrival of modern humans would have threatened their world. Planet of the Apemen: Battle for Earth I, BBC 2011
The first humans species to walk fully upright, [homo] erectus would have made formidable opponents. ibid.
Above the ash only our tools are found. The lack of evidence of erectus after the Toba eruption suggests that they might have been wiped out of India never to return. In other parts of Asia they hung on. Fossilised skulls from Indonesia show homo erectus living here as recently as 30,000 years ago. A descendant of theirs – Homo Floresiensis, nicknamed the Hobbits - lived until about 18,000 years ago. ibid.
1963-1975: US military kills 4 million people in South East Asia. Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine, 2002
For twenty years this nation has been at war in Indochina. Tens of thousands of Americans have been killed, half a million have been wounded, a million Asians have died, and millions more have been maimed or have become refugees in their own land. Meanwhile, the greatest representative democracy the world has even seen, the nation of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, has had its nose rubbed in the swamp by petty war lords, jealous generals, black marketeers, and grand-scale dope pushers.
And the war still goes on. People are still dying, arms and legs are being severed, metal is crashing through human bodies, as a direct result of policy decisions conceived in secret and still kept from the American people. Mike Gravel, The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam
Most of the population growth in recent years has been in Asian countries. Professor Hans Rosling, Don’t Panic – The Truth About Population, BBC 2013
America must realize, there are conditions she must accept in Asia. The first is a diversity of Asian cultures, governments, economic and political systems; the second, that to run against the tide of Asian nationalism is worse than impractical – it is also highly dangerous. Ferdinand Marcos
Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old. Rudyard Kipling
Asia is rich in people, rich in culture and rich in resources. It is also rich in trouble. Hubert H Humphrey
Asian art is selling well. Sold! Inside the World’s Biggest Auction House II, BBC 2016
By 1223 Genghis Khan’s destruction of the Muslim empire in central Asia was complete. Andrew Marr’s History of the World IV: Into the Light, BBC 2012
It is the dawn of the 13th century over Asia. A fierce storm reaches deep within the heart of the continent. Growing to a tempest, it spills over into China devastating one of the most ancient cultures on Earth. Then, gathering momentum, its violent fury vents westward laying waste Afghanistan and Persia. Riding this bitter winds are unstoppable hoards mercilessly carving out an empire that will know no equal in all of human history. (Hate & Evil & Tyranny & Dictator & Oppression & Ruler & Despotism & Mongolia & Asia) History’s Most Hated s1e3: Genghis Khan: Terror & Conquest
Known by many terms: madman and genius, bloodthirsty warrior and brilliant politician, architect of nation and destroyer of civilisations, he was all of these. His name: Genghis Khan. ibid.
He was born somewhere in the Steppes in about the year 1165. ibid.