Culture: Monument
The Unnatural River   (+13, -4)  [vote for, against]
In 1000 years, they will look upon it, and say 'FTW'?

Take one river, one building crew, and a lot of supplies. Find a spot on such river where the water is flowing quickly; fast water is a must, here. Start building.

What is needed first is some sort of scaffolding to hold this new addition to the river. In the meantime, we will divert the river temporarily to one side, through a lovingly constructed simacrulum (sp?) of a riverbed, as not to harm the little fishies.

This scaffolding levels off, and starts turning to one side. In fact, it turns so far, it would underneath itself. It would, were it not for the fact that the scaffolding then rises above that bit where it starts turning. Sort of like those spiral slides, only in reverse.

Due to the water's high-speed, the fluid has enough momentum to make it up and over the crest after which it joins back to its normal course, creating a unique and unusual place.

The scaffolding is then layered in cement, and other such strong materials, and finally the bottom is layered in mud, with rocks, to simulate the natural riverbed. Replace dirt around it, arrange more plants. Last of all, the temporary riverbed is removed, and the water is free to travel (ab)normally once more.

So there you have a small river diversion, that in a while, will confuse the hell out of anyone who finds it.
-- DesertFox, Nov 07 2006

My crappy MSPaint drawing http://img209.image.../crappyriverik3.png
[DesertFox, Nov 08 2006]

From the Urban Dictionary regarding "FTW":

"FTW is commonly used as marking of gang affilation[Forever Truly White].

Can also mean many other things to many other people and here is a list

Florida Tax Watch
Free The World
Fight To Win
For The Win
Future Technology Workshop
For The World
Free The Whales
Families That Work
Feel The Wind
First Time Wreck
Forget The World ..."

Sometimes you just gotta ask, "FTW?"
-- jurist, Nov 07 2006


Damn!
-- discontinuuity, Nov 07 2006


Not seeing much point in puzzling our distant descendents - they'll already be puzzled enough by all those weird yellow arches sticking up out of the sand.

But puzzling our neighbors and friends, that's surely a good enough reason. However, without a diagram, I don't think your water flow is convincing. Water simply won't flow uphill. It may splash over a crest, but the crest will go away very quickly, as the surface of the rest of the water rises to match it.
-- DrCurry, Nov 07 2006


The whole time that I was reading that, I was foremost preoccupied with trying to figure out what FTW means. Find that water! Its going under the ground! FIND IT I SAY!
-- Jscotty, Nov 07 2006


A drawing or two would really help out the poor simple folk like me who don't have a clue what you are trying to describe.
-- James Newton, Nov 08 2006


There are loop waterslides so I can't see why this wouldn't work.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 08 2006


+
-- Zimmy, Nov 08 2006


There you go, a beautiful piece of MSPaint art!
-- DesertFox, Nov 08 2006


Escher would love this!
-- po, Nov 08 2006


Thanks for the picture, it now makes sense and I would love to find one in the real world. Building interesting things in the middle of nowhere out of materials that are likely to last thousands of years for no reason other than the mess with the minds of our decendants is a worthy cause. +
-- James Newton, Nov 10 2006


agreed +
-- xenzag, Nov 10 2006


Forget our distant descendants, I want to slide down this! A loop-de-loop waterslide! I bun!
-- Veho, Nov 10 2006


The big flush!
-- wylie_coyote, Nov 10 2006


Just thinking. Could you make a perpetual motion machine using an archimedes screw and a water wheel? If the screw delivered water to the top of the water wheel and the wheel powered the screw, would it work?
-- squeak, Nov 13 2006



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