man vs mountain: avalanche control structures

one of the places i’d refuse to set up home would have to be at the bottom of a mountain with a history of avalanche activity. unfortunately for some that choice doesn’t seem to exist and after reading a post over at the highly recommended blog pruned yesterday the frightening world of avalanche survival systems nearly became an obsession, for a couple of reasons.

incredible engineering: the maeslant storm surge barrier

the maeslant barrier (maeslantkering), a huge storm surge barrier at the mouth of the port of rotterdam in the netherlands, is the largest hydraulic engineering structure on earth and, according to hard-fact bible wikipedia, ‘the largest moving structure on earth’. it was opened in 1997 as the final part of the delta works, an enormous […]

the world’s best snowmen & snow art

maybe i was crap in this arena but when i could be bothered making a snowman the process was relatively simple and took a few hours at most. a couple of huge snowballs for the body, some coal for the eyes, carrot for the nose and then if i was feeling adventurous some accessories (hat, […]

11 phenomenal images of earth

below are 11 incredible photos taken from space which illustrate just a few of earth’s fascinating geographical features and nature’s frightening unpredictability.
click on all pictures for humongous versions.
1. sri lankan coast, 26th december 2004

(above) the ocean rapidly retreats 400 metres on the south-western coast of sri lanka, just 5 minutes prior to the arrival of […]

ingenious flood management

this is engineering and construction at it’s best: the smart tunnel (stormwater management and road tunnel).
in order to combat regular flash flooding in kuala lumpur (sometimes twice yearly) caused by two overflowing rivers in the north of the city, engineers decided to construct a huge stormwater tunnel to drain the water from it’s source […]

the 10 plagues in modern society

i’m not religious in the slightest but i thought it might be interesting to see if modern society had experienced anything even similar to the 10 biblical plagues (horrific events magically caused by god). so below are all the plagues listed, accompanied by the results of my search.
1. (exodus 7:14-25) rivers and other water sources […]

10 of the best natural phenomena

(i’ve now added ball lightning and fire rainbow to the list, you can see them at the bottom)
obviously, rainbows aren’t the only brilliant natural phenomena on earth.
below are some optical phenomena, atmospheric phenomena, electrical phenomena and natural optical illusions and they’re all incredible for one reason or another.
if you know of others worth a mention, […]