Building Bridges

Amongst Other Things

Once again I was pondering and wondering whilst wandering this morning during Thinking Time, and decided that this Intro ought to be about -

     Concrete!

     Yes, the humble construction material.  You will recall that the Glenfinnan Viaduct was constructed over a century ago, from concrete.  Should you ever visit Rome, you will see structures still extant that are made from concrete.  It is incredibly abundant in modern construction.  Art!

     It is, however, fearfully dull stuff to look at, so instead we've got a picture of Chrysler's proposed nuclear-powered tank.  Pretty obviously this design never got off the ground or we'd have scads of them buzzing about on the battlefield.  The crew and nuclear reactor were to be housed together in the turret, which sounds even riskier that sitting in a Russian tank turret of today.  Imagine getting a penetrating hit on the turret that pierces the reactor.  A confined space full of fissile fuel!  "DANGER PLUTONIUM FIRE" is not a warning you'd ever want to h

     ANYWAY, concrete.  It's been around for millenia. The Nabateans - whom you've never heard of before, have you? - used concrete to build subterranean water cisterns, houses and temples.  Art!

    These structures can be over 2,000 years old.

    Roman architects and builders loved concrete (which name comes from the Latin "Concrescere" meaning "To grow together") because it freed them from the constraints of building with brick or stone.  Part of it's appeal was that it could be poured as a fluid after mixing cement with an aggregate, since it takes several hours to harden.  Art!

 

     You could do domes and vaults in concrete that simply weren't possible with other materials.  Moreover, if one added volcanic ash to the mix, it would set underwater, which is quite freaky when you stop to think about it.

     The next innovation was reinforced concrete, which came in around the middle of the nineteenth century.  Currently, reinforcement bars of steel are laid in the form to be filled in, before concrete is poured over the top.  Art!

     This gives the end product a much higher tensile strength.  The South Canadians refer to it as "rebar" because they're lazy like that.  Now, getting back to the Glenfinnan Viaduct -

     That's not reinforced concrete, yet it's still standing because it was built by craftsmen who were themselves the offspring of craftsmen.  Should <ahem> 'rebar' be exposed to high temperatures, the integrity of the structure is threatened because the steel loses strength, which can cause collapse when exposed to shear strengths.  This is why nothing's been crossing the Kerch Bridge since a set of fuel wagons caught fire upon it.  Art!

I wonder who'll 'volunteer' to be first across that?

     The next innovation that researchers are looking into is carbon-neutral concrete, because the industry contributes significantly to global warming, and the industry is extremely large.  Going entirely carbon-neutral would take ages yet it's a worthwhile goal given how much concrete is made globally.

     So, the next time you're crossing a whacking great bridge, spare a thought for the humble material it's made from.

"Samdo River"

This is a term which crops up several times in "Hotel Del Luna", used in such a context that it implies a soul travelling to the afterlife.  So Conrad concluded, and of course - obviously! - he had to follow up with a bit of internet nosiness.  Art!

     It appears that "Samdo" is either an anglicisation or a substitute for the Korean mythical River Sanzu, which is a staple in Japanese Bhuddism, too.  A spirit must cross the river to attain the afterlife, and how easy or difficult the journey is depends on how good a life you led.  HDL guests always travelled in a luxury Jaguar, with "To Heaven" on the numberplate.  Yes, in English.

     Incidentally, I have selected "Alice" as the next K-drama of choice.  It involves time-travel and a lead protagonist with a profound lack of emotions.  Art!

     I think "Alice" is an agency rather than a person, as one unsmiling protagonist explained, before he severed the bad guy's foot at the ankle, that "They were from Alice".  We shall see.

Some People Have Entirely Too Much Time On Their Hands

Yes, that was irony in case you were wondering.  Let us paint a picture that says 11,000 words.  Art!

     This is Tyler Lawler, a South Canadian, and that's an 11,000 piece Lego replica of Nottingham Railway Station.  Nottingham the city in This Sceptred Isle.

     A man's got to have a hobby, I suppose*.

Another "Set In Scotland" Item

This time the shot refers to "Highlander" which bizarrely cast Sean Connery as a Spaniard and Christopher Lambert as a Scot.  Here's the shot referenced.  Art!

     This is Eilean Donan Castle, which manages to look forbidding and impressive at the same time.  Observe the bridge, for the castle is on a tidal island and we may have covered it before, years ago when we looked at tidal islands around the UK.  Art!

     There you go, low tide in August.  What you see of the castle is in reality a painstaking reconstruction undertaken in the early 20th Century, because the original was blown up after being used as a Jacobite base.  Art!

Before

     The reconstruction ended in 1932, by which time the castle looked a lot better.  Art!

As Scottish as it gets

"The Sea Of Sand"

The Italian officer leading the garrison at newly-captured Mersa Martuba is beginning to wonder exactly what he's in for.

Dejected and sad, Sarah sat on the warped wooden desk that Captain Dobie had used, only able to see the three garrison survivors by the light of vehicles traversing the path outside.  They came by regularly, headlights shining through the slatted blinds, illuminating the dusty, musty room for half a minute at a time.

     Still no sign of the Doctor.  Gone for hours without a trace.  Surely nothing serious had happened to him?  After all, the dig was now safe.

     Safe!  So was she, here, here and now.  The bodies of the dead British soldiers were lying outside, behind this very hut, Captain Dobie amongst them.  He had been shot down after refusing to surrender, taking on two Saharianas with his pistol.  Caporale Balduccio, the fluent English-speaker, had escorted Sarah past the Captain's body, tutting and sighing.

     "Are ye alright, Miss?" asked Davey, his Scottish accent full of perceptible worry on Sarah's behalf.  "I can hear ye greeting, lass."

     Sarah bit her tongue, ashamed that her worry had been apparent and obvious.  How dare she be so self-obsessed!  These men had seen their comrades killed in front of them, and instead of self-pity, they were worrying about her!

     "I - I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, thanks.  I'm alright now.  Just worried about what might have happened to the Doctor.  Doctor John Smith."

     With good reason, because if there's any trouble to be found, the Doctor will find it.

Finally -

And once again the weather baffles me.  Yesterday it remained dry, however there was a sky composed of Uniform Grey Layer all day.  Today we have cloudless blue skies and the merest zephyr.  In fact it's more of a summer's day than a lot of days back in summer.

     Right, time to put this to bed and have a shave!

*  Actually his mother was from Nottingham