Paper flowers preserved in a sealed Chinese cave for a thousand years.
TODAY:
- UK citizens to be able to travel to China visa-free. Looks to be broadly similar to the visa waiver we have with the US, and one presumes this will be seen as a signal to the US.
- “Alfvén waves—plasma waves traveling along Earth’s magnetic field lines—act like an invisible power source, fueling the stunning auroral displays we see in the sky.” Never heard of them before! I love that.
- The oldest wooden tools yet discovered – 430,000 years old.
This is a tripwire crossbow. I discovered Will Lord some years ago, when he was on an episode of FIRST MAN OUT, and have been following his work ever since.
FIRST MAN OUT was a show where survival expert Ed Stafford would race against someone with similar skills through some inclement part of the world. The episodes would all follow a similar pattern – Stafford would almost kill himself to win, and his competitor would rock up to the finish line a short time later having had a nice time and usually arriving in some style. I have a memory of Will Lord’s episode featuring him basically whittling a hotel room and dining like a medieval king while Stafford nearly died a couple of times and crawled around in the dark eating ants.
STATUS: went out for a glass of wine and a quick stop at the shops yesterday so of course I have a slight cough and what feels like the beginning of a chest infection today
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:
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