Wednesday, December 15, 2004
I'm Never Playing in a Sandbox Again.
As described here (NY Times login required) and here, there is apparently such a thing as dry quicksand. What?
Yes, apparently scientists have managed to create piles of dry, otherwise normal sand into which weighted ping pong balls vanish, leaving only a jet of sand sprayed into the air behind them. The scientists tell us that this might explain why people have been known to vanish in the desert. I've always just attributed that to Sand People, but I guess dry quicksand could have done it too.
If you can find some way to get access to Nature Magazine online, you can check out the whole article on this experiment. I got access through U of M's library website because I'm a student. It's got a lot of equation mumbo jumbo that I'm majoring in history and poli sci in order to avoid. Unless you're into that stuff, the brief accounts of the experiment should be sufficient to make you go "Wha?".
In other news, I'd better get to studying for this guy's class. I've been blowing off the reading for the whole semester, and I have a long way to go, like identifying a list of 53, count 'em 53 people and things and whatnot. I'm not particularly looking forward to taking the test tomorrow, but I am looking forward to being one step closer to done with the semester. Then at least I will be able to only fret about my thesis for a while instead of my thesis and three classes.
Plus going home means carolling with the ORG. Fun!
Yes, apparently scientists have managed to create piles of dry, otherwise normal sand into which weighted ping pong balls vanish, leaving only a jet of sand sprayed into the air behind them. The scientists tell us that this might explain why people have been known to vanish in the desert. I've always just attributed that to Sand People, but I guess dry quicksand could have done it too.
If you can find some way to get access to Nature Magazine online, you can check out the whole article on this experiment. I got access through U of M's library website because I'm a student. It's got a lot of equation mumbo jumbo that I'm majoring in history and poli sci in order to avoid. Unless you're into that stuff, the brief accounts of the experiment should be sufficient to make you go "Wha?".
In other news, I'd better get to studying for this guy's class. I've been blowing off the reading for the whole semester, and I have a long way to go, like identifying a list of 53, count 'em 53 people and things and whatnot. I'm not particularly looking forward to taking the test tomorrow, but I am looking forward to being one step closer to done with the semester. Then at least I will be able to only fret about my thesis for a while instead of my thesis and three classes.
Plus going home means carolling with the ORG. Fun!
