Soil, soil everywhere, but not a grain to ...errm... build!

I knew soils (different types) were complicated, but let me tell you, I never expected it to blow my mind they way it did this semester. I tell you, you think you've learnt everything possible about soils, but then what you've really done is only touched the tip of the iceberg. Todays soil mechanics paper had me drawing 5 different graphs; each of which had to be extrapolated in odd ways, tangents drawn to curves where curves only barely existed, angles bisected using compasses, set squares used to draw parallel lines, protractor used to determine angles and to top it off, we had to draw one even on a semi-log graph. And a semi-log graph is not as simple as I thought it was...you can't just plot that axis and start drawing. A log graph is less complicated than this. Here is a link you can check out. click here

Anyway, all this boils down to soil being more complicated than we thought. Gone are the days when the sand box was nothing but sand and happy memories. Now it's just a box of particles with large grain sizes that are unsuitable for building foundations' as well as has low ability to retain water, hence ruducing the water table in and around the area making the soil around it settle by consolidation resulting in more construction work to stabilise the buildings nearby to prevent them from crashing to the ground. Boy I loved the sand box!

The autobiograpy of an Earthworm

One day an earthworm was born. It opened it's eyes and it was dark. (by the way, earthworms don't have eyes, so this is metaphorically speaking. I'm assuming that the earthworm sensed that it was dark. Anyway, it was dark) And the earthworm was wondering why it was so dark, and decided to find light. It moved a bit and felt some brown earth. (by the way, this is again metaphorically speaking because, as you know, earthworms don't have eyes. So, I'm again assuming that the earthworm sensed that it was brown and that it was earth. Anyway, it was brown, and by lucky chance, it was indeed earth) So, after moving along the brown earth, the earthworm saw light. (and again I am assuming that the earthworm sensed light, because as you all now know, earthworms don't have eyes. And I'm getting the feeling that the senses of these modern earthworms are pretty acute what. I mean, they seem to be getting these things right, because "Voila" it was indeed light!). The earthworm took a peak and sensed some dark "thing" flapping towards it. (For some reason, the earthworm was not able to sense what this "thing" was) And thats about as developed as earthworms' senses get. Further interrogation of other earthworms have proven that the "thing" has not yet been identifed, and the race of earthworms insist that they will identify this "thing" or die trying!

PS: If you are an earthworm, please click here and the "thing" shall be revealed and you and your race shall suffer no more! (Please click here for pictures of the "thing". WARNING: Pictures maybe disturbing, especially for young earthworms who are not mentally prepared)

PPS: If you are an earthworm, please click here for a picture of yourself (You can at least sense it even if you can't see it...hehe!)

Gimme a ticket for god's sake!

Take a look at these pictures I found on the net. I sure hope they just fine me, rather than do this to my car.


It HAD to go through the glass....ouch!



His only excuse would be if his landing gear was jammed.

And here are some videos. I really don't want to be the victim when this happens!

Clip 1

Clip 2

And here's a guy who just beats the system! AWESOME!

Clip 3

More stuff in my next post!