Mark Jones

68% of Britons believe the US has had a mostly or entirely negative impact on the rest of the world in recent years, up from 57% in January Entirely positive: 2% (-1 from 12 Jan) Mostly positive: 8% (-2) Mixed: 18% (-6) Mostly negative: 35% (+1) Entirely negative: 33% (+10)

Who’s the worst striker your club’s ever had? 😅🤦‍♂️

The clip below is a historically accurate recreation of one of the most grueling aspects of China’s early nuclear program. This scene takes place at the Lop Nur nuclear test base in the Gobi Desert. The soldiers are engaged in an ancient, traditional Chinese construction technique known as manual earth ramming (人工打夯 - réngōng dǎ hāng). The loose, shifting sand of the Gobi is incredibly unstable. To prevent heavy structures from settling, tilting, or collapsing, the earth must be violently compacted. This technique was vital for securing the foundation of the massive, 100-meter-tall Ground Zero steel tower used to detonate China's first atomic bomb. Additionally, such backbreaking labor was used widely across the Lop Nur base to physically pound the desert flat for building barracks, paved roads, and other essential testing facilities. The tool the men are using is a multi-person collaborative wooden rammer. According to historical construction records, these traditional rammers were made of dense hardwood and typically weighed between 40 to 50 kilograms (about 90 to 110 pounds). Operating one required a tightly coordinated team of 10 to 12 men. To manage the immense friction and prevent horrific blisters, workers often used braided hemp ropes with knots tied every 20 centimeters, allowing for a better, safer grip as they hoisted the heavy weight into the air over and over again. For American audiences, it might seem jarring to see a nation developing a highly advanced thermonuclear weapon while seemingly lacking basic construction equipment like bulldozers or steamrollers. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union abruptly withdrew its technical experts and heavy machinery from China. While China was gradually restoring parts of its national industrial base leading up to the first successful nuclear detonation in 1964, the remote, unforgiving environment of the Gobi Desert meant that base construction still relied overwhelmingly on raw human muscle. The military had to deploy ancient, agrarian folk techniques to engineer the foundations for a modern Cold War weapon. In this video clip, the commander stands above the men, waving a red flag and yelling a rhythmic chant: "Com’on Comrades!" to which the men heave the ropes and reply, "Heave-ho!" This was a critical safety and synchronization mechanism known as a ramming chant (夯歌;hānggē). Dropping a 100-pound block of wood effectively requires the rammer to fall perfectly vertically. If just one of the ten men pulls too weakly, or releases a fraction of a second too late, the rammer will tilt. A tilted rammer fails to compact the soil properly, exhausts the men trying to balance it, and, most dangerously, could easily crush workers' feet. The commander acting as the "lead chanter" serves as a human metronome. The tempo of his chant dictates the work. The rhythm of his chanting needs to ensure that every single man exerts the exact same amount of force at the exact same millisecond.

Any Frank Zappa fans on X? 🤘🏻