I'm just an average middle age dude (43 yo) trying to be above average. Sanderson,Fl. Noles fan, Electrician, nutrition and fitness enthusiast. @0bean0 #GoNoles
That water clarity is an engineering decision, and the math behind it is wilder than the video.
Roman aqueducts ran on gravity alone. No pumps, no pressure systems. Engineers carved channels with a gradient so shallow it borders on absurd. The Pont du Gard in southern France drops 2.5 centimeters over 275 meters. That's roughly the thickness of a coin over the length of three football fields. They surveyed that accuracy with plumb lines and wooden leveling instruments.
The clarity you're seeing is a direct product of flow velocity. Too steep and the water erodes the channel walls, picks up sediment, turns brown. Too flat and it stagnates. Roman engineers targeted a slope of about 20 centimeters per kilometer, which kept the water moving fast enough to stay fresh but slow enough to stay clear. Before the water reached the city, it passed through multi-chamber settling tanks where velocity dropped near zero. Suspended particles sank. Clean water flowed out the top into the next chamber. Repeat three or four times.
Pliny specified the minimum slope in writing. Vitruvius published the exact mortar ratio for hydraulic cement: one part lime to two parts volcanic ash for underwater work. The pozzolana from Pozzuoli reacted with water to form a calcium-aluminum-silicate compound that actually gets stronger the longer it sits submerged. Modern concrete degrades in water. Roman concrete bonds with it.
Scale the whole system and it gets harder to process. Eleven aqueducts fed Rome at its peak. Combined output: roughly 1 million cubic meters of water per day. That works out to about 250 gallons per person for a city of one million. Modern New York delivers about 125 gallons per person per day. Ancient Rome had access to double the per capita water supply of the largest city in the United States, running entirely on slope and stone.
The Trevi Fountain in Rome is still fed by one of them. Two thousand years, same source, same gravity, same water.
I bet Booger and LSU celebrated going to the Peach Bowl in 1996 with a 10-2 record and a No. 17 ranking like crazy because back then ESPN wasn't there to tell them that their season was meaningless because they didn't make the playoffs.
In 1997, nobody was telling his LSU squad, which lost two games by less than a touchdown and had a win over the number one Florida Gators, that their season was a failure. They were excited for their bowl game. That was an excellent season. We used to recognize that.
But if Booger played today, he'd be told those seasons don't matter because they didn't make the playoffs.
This is what I'm talking about in terms of what we've lost in a sport with the focus on such a narrowly drawn playoff.
Last time a team was the ACC Champions
Duke- 2025
Clemson- 2024
Florida State- 2023
Pitt- 2021
Virginia Tech- 2010
Georgia Tech- 2009
Wake Forest- 2006
Maryland- 2001
Virginia- 1995
North Carolina- 1980
NC State- 1979
South Carolina- 1969
Never:
Boston College, Cal, Louisville, Miami FL, Notre Dame, SMU, Stanford, & Syracuse
Nobody is beating Marco Rubio if he runs for President.
I like DeSantis a whole lot, but the party energy is clearly with Rubio.
This guy is one of the greatest political talents in American history, & I say that objectively as someone who prefers RDS.
I’m not a big softball guy but almost 50 games into the season Isa Torres is batting .590 with 14 homers and a 1.725 OPS.
She also set the NCAA record with 16 straight hits and has 0 errors in 127 chances as a SS. 🤯