Mud

Mud is a mixture of water and any combination of soil, silt, and clay, and usually forms after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally called lutites). When geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries the resultant layers are termed bay muds.

Building and construction

Adhesive

In the construction industry, mud is a semi-fluid material that can be used to coat, seal, or adhere materials. Depending on the composition of the mud, it can be referred by many different names, including slurry, mortar, plaster, stucco, and concrete.

Material

Mud, cob, adobe, clay, and many other names are historically used synonymously to mean a mixture of subsoil and water possibly with the addition of stones, gravel, straw, lime, and/or bitumen. This material was used a variety of ways to build walls, roofs and floors.

Mudbrick

Mud can be made into mud bricks,also called adobe, by mixing mud with water, placing the mixture into moulds and then allowing it to dry in open air. Straw is sometimes used as a binder within the bricks, as it adds a support lattice. When the brick would otherwise break, the straw will redistribute the force throughout the brick, decreasing the chance of breakage. Such buildings must be protected from groundwater, usually by building upon a masonry, fired brick, rock or rubble foundation, and also from wind-driven rain in damp climates, usually by deep roof overhangs. In extremely dry climates a well drained flat roof may be protected with a well-prepared (puddled) and properly maintained dried mud coating, viable as the mud will expand when moistened and so become more water resistant. Adobe mudbricks were commonly used by the Pueblo Indians to build their homes and other necessary structures.

Mud (river)

Mud is a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows into the river Main near Miltenberg.

See also

MUD

A MUD (/ˈmʌd/; originally Multi-User Dungeon, with later variants Multi-User Dimension and Multi-User Domain), is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat. Players can read or view descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, non-player characters, and actions performed in the virtual world. Players typically interact with each other and the world by typing commands that resemble a natural language.

Traditional MUDs implement a role-playing video game set in a fantasy world populated by fictional races and monsters, with players choosing classes in order to gain specific skills or powers. The objective of this sort of game is to slay monsters, explore a fantasy world, complete quests, go on adventures, create a story by roleplaying, and advance the created character. Many MUDs were fashioned around the dice-rolling rules of the Dungeons & Dragons series of games.

Book of Joel

The Book of Joel is part of the Hebrew Bible. Joel is part of a group of twelve prophetic books known as the Twelve Minor Prophets. (The term indicates the short length of the text in relation to the longer prophetic texts known as the Major Prophets).

Content

After a superscription ascribing the prophecy to Joel (son of Pethuel), the book may be broken down into the following sections:

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from the Coffea plant. The plant is native to subtropical Africa and some islands in southern Asia. The plant was exported from Africa to countries around the world and coffee plants are now cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded arabica, and the less sophisticated but stronger and more hardy robusta. Once ripe, coffee beans are picked, processed, and dried. Dried coffee beans are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and brewed to produce coffee as a beverage.

Coffee is slightly acidic and can have a stimulating effect on humans because of its caffeine content. Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. It can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways (e.g., espresso, cappuccino, cafe latte, etc.). It is usually served hot, although iced coffee is also served. Clinical studies indicate that moderate coffee consumption is benign or mildly beneficial in healthy adults, with continuing research on whether long-term consumption inhibits cognitive decline during aging or lowers the risk of some forms of cancer.

Joe the Plumber

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (/ˈwɜːrzəlbɑːkər/; born December 3, 1973), known as Joe the Plumber, is an American conservative activist and commentator. He gained national attention during the 2008 U.S. presidential election when, during a videotaped campaign stop in Ohio by then Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, Wurzelbacher asked Obama about his small business tax policy. Obama's response included the statement, "when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." Obama's response was seized upon by conservative media, and by Obama's rival, Republican nominee Senator John McCain, as an indication that Obama was interested in the redistribution of wealth and had a socialist view of the economy. Wurzelbacher is a member of the Republican Party.

Since he expressed to then-Senator Obama that he was interested in purchasing a small plumbing business, Wurzelbacher was given the moniker "Joe the Plumber" by the McCain–Palin campaign. The campaign took him to make several appearances in campaign events in Ohio and McCain often referenced "Joe the Plumber" in campaign speeches and in the final presidential debate, as a metaphor for middle-class Americans.