h a l f b a k e r yFewer ducks than estimates indicate.
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If you live in an area with a high or fluctuating water-
table, conditions may have already obviated your need to
deselect the option of having a basement.
That does not, however, prevent Ma Nature (or your
local
water & sewer utility) from suddenly creating one for
you.
The GPR alarm
will join your paranoia constellation
(smoke, carbon monoxide, radon, natural gas, and
intrusion alarms) and monitor the ground under your
home's foundation. Any changes, and it'll let you know
it's
time to decamp.
It will also alert in free fall, just in case you're too sound
asleep to scream on your way down the sinkhole.
Needs more bungee
Guatemala_20Sinkhole_20Bungee
(Shameless self-promotion) [theleopard, Apr 29 2013]
NASA reads Halfbakery, spends taxpayer $$$$$$$$
http://www.nasa.gov...-foresee-sinkholes/
May also be able to spot submerged Corvettes [lurch, Mar 07 2014]
[link]
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How long does it take a sinkhole to form anyways ? |
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Depends on the depth of the ravel zone, the
method of subsoil transport, type of material... |
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A shallow cavern collapse could have you down in a
matter of seconds with no warning (but a cavern
like that should be detectable pre-build, or at
least with an alarm-pre-install survey), but I think
(there doesn't seem to be lots of data on this) if
you could actually monitor subsoil radar
opacity/reflectance, you should get at least
minutes, perhaps a few hours, of warning. Water,
of course, being the biggest confounder - it blinds
the radar and can rapidly move soil, so it's kind of
like watching for polar bears in a blizzard. |
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I was just contemplating a GPR-related service: once or twice a year check the homeowner's property for sinkhole formation. |
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"Goodbye latent defects, who could hang the blame on you?" ~ apologies to Mick Jagger.
Would be difficult to prove to the new proud owners of a large hole that you had no prior knowledge. |
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(At this location was an anno by [21Quest], asking if he
hadn't made an annotation here. This annotation
subsequently disappeared in the [21Q]
account bashup/disaster of Jan 2015) |
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I didn't see one; if I happened to clobber it, that
certainly wasn't my intention. |
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Average number of deaths per year in US homes from
sinkholes: 0.03. |
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Number of houses in the US: 125,000,000. |
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Minimum likely cost of GPR alarm, per house: $100. |
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Likely service life of GPR alarm: 25 years. |
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Total cost to protect all homes: $12,500,000,000. |
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Total cost per life saved: $16,600,000,000. |
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[Max...] cetacean needed...
I still stick by the fact that you will not successfully sell a home (without legal recourse) in US of A unless you can prove you had no prior knowledge of any latent defect. More is less, in this case...apologies to Mies van der Rohe. |
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From USA Today (OK, so it's late). |
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"Randazzo has made a career studying sinkholes,
first as a professor at the University of Florida and
now through his company, Geohazards, which
analyzes potential sinkholes and seals them up. |
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He only recalls two other people who died
because of a sinkhole in the 40 years he's been
involved with the geological phenomenon. And in
both those cases -- both in Florida -- Randazzo
said the people were drilling water wells and
triggered the sinkholes to open underneath
them." |
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Neither of these two other people died in their
homes. Hence, we are left with one fatality due
to a sub-home sinkhole, in 40 years, or 0.025/year. |
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Nope, not citation, cetacean... |
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I am thinking blew whale, 'cause he needed the job. |
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A medium-sized cetacean is on its way to you by
UPS. I took the liberty of allowing you to pay the
delivery charges. His name is Gonville, and he
enjoys classical music and krill (mainly krill). |
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The over-arching principle is that you cannot offload an asset if you are aware of some claim against the asset or some defect in the asset that could either reduce the value of the asset or incur cost to the buyer to return the asset to the (at least) purchase price. This is one of those scenarios, fire alarms are not |
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So, you're saying you won't take the damn whale? |
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[Max...], not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the last time I needed a cetacean the pot plant said: "Oh no, not again!" |
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Well, I'm dumbstruck. Do you have any idea how
much bubblewrap it takes to mail a Northern Right
Whale? Have you any conception of the lengths I
had to go to, to get the bubblewrap company to
charge it to your name? And have you ever tried to
arrange collection of a large aquatic mammal by
motorcycle courier at 1am in East Anglia? |
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[Max...] do you perhaps have a southern right whale on hand, easier to ship ( in fact they tend to ship themselves). just give me the tag code. I do enough of nothing to watch for tagged whales. |
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Now you tell me. I've got a bloody plague of
Southern Rights. Started with just one which I
won in a late-night game of cribbage. Then the
man at the krill shop said he could get me another
one cheap from a friend, and that it would keep
the first one company. Definitely another female,
he said, definitely. Bastard. Do you have any idea
how fecund Southern Rights are? Three went to
friends (now mostly ex-friends); two went to a
West-End restaurant (endless paperwork). But did
it stop there? Did it buggery. And do you know
the price of krill in East Anglia? AND the mess
they leave. You have NO idea. Don't talk to me
about Southern Rights unless you've walked a mile
in my galoshes. |
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//I've got a bloody plague of Southern Rights. Started with just one which I won in a late-night game of cribbage.// |
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A 'plague' might be overstating things a bit although they are on the largish size. I don't think it's possible to get more than 29 in a cribbage game. |
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//A 'plague' might be overstating things a bit// |
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Au contraire. 'Plague' is the collective noun for
Southern Right whales, like an 'exaltation of larks'
(which, now that I think of it, would be a good
tagline) or a 'bicker of eels'. |
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//unless you've walked a mile in my galoshes. |
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Obviously the recession has bitten deeper than I thought, if you've had to lay off the whale valet. |
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[4whom] - //you cannot offload an asset if you are aware of [...] some defect [...] that could [...] incur cost to the buyer[.]// |
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My property is in the USA. The city wants to build a railroad here, the county wants to build an airport here, the state wants to raise the taxes on this parcel so they can bulldoze it for an Olympic venue, the federal government says it's ok for me to live here as long as I don't use any electricity or own any metal that might disrupt the National Security Aardvark's new operation just over the hill, the US Air Force wants to use it as a bombing range, and so does North Korea. |
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The fact that it might just suddenly take a down elevator to a strata laid on in the Older Dryas may just be a feature, not a defect. As long as I don't go fossil-chasing with it, anyway. |
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[Max] - I have several bottles of krill oil on my desk, but I prefer that they are not opened until they are beyond smelling range, so please send me none of your finny mammalia. I can, if you wish, forward your contact info to a krill-oil vendor possessed of exceeding drive and little integrity... |
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Either you are referring to Finny Mammalia, the celebrated
Austrian yodeller, or you are mistaken. The appendages of
baleen whales are known as "flukes" (for the tail), "flippers"
(for the two fins at the front), and the "pennant" or "tumicle"
for the so-called 'dorsal fin'. In toothed whales, the tail is
again a "fluke", whilst the forward fins are known as "hams" or
"paws"; there is no dorsal "fin", only a series of bumps known
as "posts". |
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//an utter bitch. (In Anglish, would that be
"uttre"?)// |
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(Oh, and upon reflection, I have come to the
supposition that your vocabulary of appendages on
aquatic exotherms are calques of the Monarch's
tongue, derived (as usual) from the meristem of your
ample imagination. Phbtfbtftphttpftphttps.) |
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I hate to appear contravicinal, but whales are
undoubtedly endotherms. Perhaps you are thinking
of sharks? |
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from the French: "outrez" - "grumblingly pedantic". |
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