October 25, 2006: Quicksand Myth.

While I thought that the show was pretty informative on how some types of quicksand will react to those that travel across it, I also found it pretty lame that they would Bust this Myth based on the items that they had on the show. Most quicksand stories that I have heard about pretty much all happen in a swamp. Those of us that have traveled into a swamp can tell you that the swamp reeks pretty bad due to swamp gasses that are from dead stuff that is in the water as well as natural gasses that bubble up in the waters. Not long ago on the Discovery Channel had a Doctor that was doing a study of sinking ships in the oceans. People wanted to know why ships that went out to sea in good working order some even brand new would travel out into the Big Blue and never come back with most of these disappearances happening around the Bermuda Triangle. What the Doctor has found is that the ocean floor that is in these parts of the water has Natural Gas trapped beneath the ocean floor. From time to time the Gas would escape and rise to the top of the water. When a ship is on top of the water above this gas it can no longer keep its buoyancy while trapped inside of the gas bubbles that are surrounding it. The Ship then sinks. When the gas is done escaping from the ground the ship is well under the water and starts to take on a lot of water and never returns to the surface.

I find it hard to Bust a Myth if you don't have all of the Elements of the Myth. This fine sand that was used for this Myth was able to keep them pretty much stuck within the sand when placed in buckets. Let's put the quicksand at 10 feet and place several pockets of gas at different levels within the tank. How one would be able to do such a task is beyond me however I am betting that once the human body or any other living thing is able to break the gas bubble that that person or thing will sink much faster and if given enough gas pockets... could suck one under the sand. In the movies you always see the bubbles popping up around the one that is sinking.

would it be true if you sneezed with your eyes open would they pop out? thank you for reading this.

You're welcome Robert. It's like they say, you can please some of the people some of the time... And while I don't know if I'm an obviously awesome internet jockey (that was a funny line), I have been around the internet long enough to know that a thick skin is a handy tool. I'm glad you enjoy the site.

But to digress, I do appreciate you giving me stuff to read while sitting around on a lazy Saturday afternoon. You're working on the weekend so I don't have to...and no matter my thoughts on that first paragraph in this entry, I do appreciate your work. So, thanks.

Just pointing out that an entry about an (according to your comment) obviously very well linked story doesn't need a masturbatory first paragraph about how the author "found his way to The Christian Science Monitor," as if he's the Lewis & Clark of the internet when, in terms of this metaphor, he really just took an express flight to the Pacific instead.

Look, he found it on Digg, just like I and thousands of others did when it first hit Digg's front page two weeks ago. No need to write a 50+ word first paragraph to make it seem as if he had to go through a jungle to find it.

Skip the self-fellating and get to the story. That's all I'm saying.

Actually Robert, that wasn't my intention at all. The scour the internet for junk line was meant tongue in cheek, hence the word junk. But hey, comedy is hard. The joke is that this story was on the Christina Science Monitor. A site which is completely off of my radar, and not where one would expect to find TV articles.

Jaymez, I get what you are saying about Jamie, but I'm not sure that he is in fact a snob or an asshole. He talks in the article about growing up completely isolated from anyone and how he prefers to be alone in a room thinking. I think some of what comes off as him being a snob may just be poor social skills.

Cool it Robert it was also on slashdot... and del.icio.us... and...

The biggest laugh in this entry:

[The Set-up]
Brett builds himself up to be this big bad internet jockey who scours the internet for us lowly readers. That whole first paragraph is all about HIM and his obvious awesomeness.

[The Punchline]
( via digg)

Since when was going to one of the most popular sites on the web and reporting on a story that was dugg over 1000 times "scouring?"

Does the book document the point at which they became lovers?

Jamie has always come off as a bit of a snob or an asshole. It makes you wonder how the show works with the two personalities so different. Then again, I probably wouldn't be able to work with Adam, either.

Kari is the reason I watch the show.