h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Escaping Quicksand: A guide - A87794374
Author: Jamie - U14998497

please give me some advice and feedback, this is my first entry and I would love to contribute more to this great but incomplete guide to everything in the universe ever.

Hello Jamie

And a warm welcome

You asked "please give me some advice".

Very well this is a very good idea I have checked the guide and there are no other entries about this.

Feedback! well its just the bare bones of an entry at the moment, it is not the size it leaves questions. The first thing I thought of is are there any signs of dangerous ground, and there are more things like where are the dangerous areas around the coast. Just answer the questions and fill in the gaps and you will soon have an excellent and useful entry.

It looks and sounds hard but as you write things will come to you never fear.

You have already passed one teat for a good entry. I learned something I did not know. Well done


"I would love to contribute more to this great but incomplete guide to everything in the universe ever". You made a good start when you have added to this post again and you will get more help. Who is your Ace remember them and ask them the next steps. And where and how to post the finished entry for comment and advice.

Best advice don't give up

And keep in touch if you need help remember ask your Ace

See you soon

Which will be much easier, now that you have an ACE

Great start.To help you continue, you might want to examine an already existing guide entry in Peer Review, take a look at A87791539 to find out the GuideML coding for this, just use test87791539 . Don't forget you need to edit your entry in Brunel skin, because you cannot edit now in Pliny. To get to another skin, click on Preferences in Pliny and then change the box labeled skin.
I hope this helps. I find that test thing really helps when writing entries.

See plenty of help just ask

I remember quicksand popping up in about every Western TV show ever made. But I've never come across it.

What kind of terrain has quicksand? Is it found in all climates? Inquiring minds want to know.

The most famous quicksand history wise when he lost the crown jewels in the Wash.

That was quick sand a cart guards horse the lot sank without a trace
and they have not been found yet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wash‎

www.washestuary.org.uk/

unmyst3.blogspot.com/2009/07/king-johns-lost-treasure.html‎

This will enplane

Where quicksand is a sort of non-newtonian fluid required ingredients sand and water there is quicksand in the Arizona and Sahara desert

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2XQ97XHjVw

even custard will behave as the video.

Welcome Jamie

I see you have plenty of help already, and we're always around to offer more help if you need it.


Lanzababy

Great idea for an entry

Can you add a bit of authority to your advice? Why should we lie down, for example? It sounds counter-intuitive.

A real life example would be good too. Can you describe a tragic case? It might make a good opener, or closer.

Icy

Quicksand, is sand bouyed up by a current of water flowing through it so that the individual grains do not rest on one another.

Quicksand can be as fluid as water and the current can drag you down.

Its usually shallow, but if its deep, its recommended that you (quickly) divest yourself of burdens, throw yourself forward and swim out using a vigorous butterfly stroke or breast stroke andkick for all you're worth.




Quicksand is not to be confounded with quick mud, which is a thin suspension of clay particles in water that can superficially look solid enough to walk on.

Quick mud is much more difficult to extricate oneself from than quicksand.

Recommended, back out the way you came, be ready to lose your foot gear to the very strong suction the stuff exerts.

A back pack can provide an island of stability to help pull yourself out.




The Outward Bound survival school usually includes a section and practicum on surviving a quicksand hazard.





https://picasaweb.google.com/DanaIsAmazing/OutwardBoundSemesterCourse





http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/view_online.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.outwardbound.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F09%2Fobjournal_2012_full.pdf

Thanks ITIWBS!

Jamie, I'd love to see this in the Guide, it could be a really niche Entry. I am imagining the illustration as I type. Please do not try to get an action photograph of this for us....

I would like to start by thanking you all for the advice, it was much appreciated.
I have taken aboard your suggestions and edited my entry accordingly, but it still seems a little bare to me, I'm not sure what else to include, any ideas?
I was ecstatic when I read that you would "love to see this in the guide" it made my day! thank you

Thanks for taking on the suggestions we've given you. Our aim is to help improve each other's Entries.


How about adding one or more examples of real life fatalities caused by quicksand? Read a few and put them into your own words.

Heres a link to some search results: http://tinyurl.com/c72rebm

If you want to see it done in practice - which might help with describing the process - there are a couple of video clips here of Bear Grylls demonstrating techniques: http://www.magazine.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/magazine/tscontent/editorials/outdoor-skills/2011/bogs-and-quicksand.html

Hi Jamie,

Here is a link for a similar situation; Drowning in grain.

http://fyi.uwex.edu/agsafety/2010/10/15/763/

As a policeman for the Manchester Ship Canal Co, my father had to attend a ship when someone fell into the grain store as it was being unloaded. Sadly it wasn't a happy ending.


lil

Thomas Edison had a boyhood accident in which he nearly drowned in grain.

Hello Jamie!

Please don't give up on this Entry, it has merit. Just today we had this story in the news:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-22745213

Have a look at all the comments so far, read through your Entry and try to write it as helpfully as you can, eg advice for people who may wish to walk in areas where they may come across this danger.

Read it aloud to yourself, does it make sense? Rewrite bits.

Add in some extra information, use the news stories where people have been rescued or lost their lives to make your Entry more interesting to your readers.

We have a *lot* of readers, so imagine them clicking on your Entry and give them something they will want to read, and find helpful at the same time.

Excellent idea for any article, and very strange as only last night I was reading a book where two of the characters got stuck in quicksand trying to traverse a desert in China.

I am presuming the author had a good knowledge of the area from the subject matter, and it appears that water is not a prerequisite for quicksand, it only needs to be very loose.

The main advice you give is the one I have always heard, NEVER STRUGGLE, but also things you are carrying can sometimes help to keep you afloat.

with the article. It is clearly a subject relevant to many parts of the world.

Websailor

It was the Takla Makan Desert in Western China, just checked.

Websailor