If the water treatment system can't cope with a bit of rotting flesh I don't want to know.
If you have to drown, you may as well do it in the water the your friends are going to drink. But don't put on sunscreen. Nobody wants to drink that.
If you are swimming in a reservoir and everybody in town flushes the toilet at once, you'll get sucked into the intake of the water system. Once, during a professional football championship game, a small boy was in the reservoir when everybody got up to relieve themselves at the start of half time. He was pulled under so quickly that no one could reach him. Everyone feared the boy was dead, but just then a large bird swooped down into the water and came up with the boy. The bird set the boy on the shore and everyone was so happy that the game was renamed for the Superb Owl.
And then John Edwards won a lawsuit against the town on behalf of the boy.
Huh, based on my glancing read of newspaper headlines, the primary danger is that in swimming in a body of water where it is not permitted, people will predictably do dumb things* and there will be no lifeguard to rescue them.**
*Non-comprehensive list: Overestimate their ability to swim; overestimate their safety in floating/paddling without having any swimming skills; underestimate dangers such as currents/undertow, rocks, etc.; underestimate dangers such as cramps that will cause them to be unable to swim; jump in to try to rescue (real or pretending) endangered friends; fail to summon help promptly because of aforementioned illegality of their presence at the swimming site.
**The number of city kids that drown in rivers every year is kind of staggering to me.
From "The swimming song" by Loudon Wainwright III
"This summer I swam in a public place
And a reservoir, to boot,
At the latter I was informal,
At the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit."
More at http://goo.gl/ZkmaO, perhaps inexact.
people will predictably do dumb things
This should be the first sentence in the handbook on humans that we distribute to visiting space aliens who are struggling to understand us. I'm willing to believe the tendency is exacerbated around bodies of water, presumably because back on the veldt, doing a cannonball off a water buffalo into a shallow pond meant you got to be in charge for the rest of the day.
Alcohol is a big factor in river drownings, too. In the last five years one person I knew and one student at a school where I worked have died because they were out drinking, decided to go down to the river, and wound up falling in.
That is enough to really enforce the idea to me that drunk people should not go anywhere near bodies of water larger than a bathtub.
That is enough to really enforce the idea to me that drunk people should not go anywhere near bodies of water larger than a bathtub.
I have to take my distance from you on the question of the bathtub. I remember a friend of mine celebrating her finals in style and then announcing that she was going to take a bath.
Four hours later, her boyfriend, having first failed to elicit any response by shouting, and then having failed to break down the door, climbed in the bathroom window to find her deeply asleep in a tub of cold water, her head just above water. Had she fallen asleep with her knee crooked at a different angle, that would have been that.
Semi-OT:
I'd just like to say how unsatisfactory the weather has been here this holiday weekend. What I would like (and what has been the case ~40 miles north of here) is some much needed rain, but otherwise pleasant temperatures and humidity. What we have had thanks to stalled front just to the north is the soupy air, but we keep missing the rain. I've watered the garden and emptied half the garage out onto the lawn and all that I have summoned is some distant thunder. One storm brewed up literally a few miles to the southeast and moved away and now it looks like another is going to pass by just a few miles to the south. Not that I'm obsessively tracking the radar. Bah humbug--who wants swimming and heat* on the 4th of July.
*Really not that hot, but I like to whining about it anyway--give me the rain for the garden at least.
11: It's raining here. Rained here big time last night (which was mildly inconvenient, as I was heading to visit a friend who was visiting town). Rain is important, because it means I don't have to feel guilty about not going running. Also: tomato plants.
12.last: This. We did a pretty big expansion of the veggie garden this year (slowly getting back to where it was ~15 years ago before the deer and groundhogs won--a couple of years back it looked like this.) I hate watering it, though.
If the water treatment system can't cope with a bit of rotting flesh I don't want to know.
Well, quite. A typical reservoir is going to contain, I should think, several million trout, perch, frogs, newts, mayfly larvae, stickleback, water voles, beetles, and so on, none of which are likely to climb tidily out onto the bank when they feel the icy clutch of Death upon them.
Huh, based on my glancing read of newspaper headlines, the primary danger is that in swimming in a body of water where it is not permitted, people will predictably do dumb things* and there will be no lifeguard to rescue them.**
The big problem with reservoirs specifically is that they tend to have much more steeply sloping beds than rivers or lakes, so you don't have to go very far out before you are out of your depth.
12: Tomato plants don't need a reason not to go running.
I don't drink water; fish fuck in it.
I was trying out the used bike I'm borrowing. I got sweaty the first block. Also, I'm not sure that a bike purchased for somebody over a half foot shorter than me will work, but it its very nicely rebuilt/maintained.
We used to go canoeing in Polmont reservoir, with the school. I can speak from experience [I nearly drowned after a capsize] that they are indeed fecking deep.
Overheard in Aspen: middle-aged woman on the phone saying "I think it's just too much money and too much privilege." I wanted to hug her.
We don't need to. We just headbutt the water until it gets out of our way.
20: How much were you going to charge her for a hug?
re: 21
I can swim OK, but the canoe capsized, I got a mouthful of water, panicked and couldn't get the spray-deck off. I was under a while. Seemed like hours but it was probably only a minute or two. Eventually I managed to sort of tear it and swim out, with a teacher screaming at me in the distance not to lose the paddle.
I guess I was never surprised by a canoe capsize because I usually caused them myself.
25: Moby's a huge fan of William Henry Harrison but seriously misunderstood his political slogan.
a teacher screaming at me in the distance not to lose the paddle
"We get new pupils every September, but replacement paddles come out of the equipment budget!"
re: 25
I turned too hard playing canoe polo, and went over. I'd only done capsize drills without a spray-deck before, so that was what fazed me. I think it was probably my second or third time in a canoe. Mostly I just panicked in a stupid way, though.
Man, we never got to play canoe polo in gym class. Whacking a floating ball around with a paddle, or something more complicated?
I'm not sue how a spray-deck would confound things because I've never seen one. I've only used the giant aluminum type of canoe and only capsized them for practice or because I was ramming another canoe or because the other person in the canoe wanted to go a different direction.
I've only used the giant aluminum type of canoe
Yes! For the first twenty years of my life, I thought that Grumman was primarily a canoe manufacturer.
I'm going to have to water the plants on the deck upstairs when my landlady's gone. It's a trade-off for what's a fairly good basement rental deal overall, but I'm a bit apprehensive about it as I've never taken care of plants, nor wanted to. I assume it's easier than pets, though.
There were two thunderstorms yesterday. I managed to avoid getting caught in the middle of the evening one while I was out - the morning one was so early I hadn't left yet - and it was pleasant walking through the dwindling light rain at the end.
Kayaks. You could flip the ball to people with your paddle or carry it on your canoe. If you did the latter opposing players were allowed to capsize you by coming up behind and flipping you. In my case I was nowhere near the ball and flipped myself being stupid on a turn. If I'd had the ball I'd have been ready for it and not panicked and swallowed water. Because I was away from play no-one noticed until I'd already surfaced.
Spray decks are really tight and have a toggle you need to pull to release them. When I did a proper drill with one later it was fine. Just tug the toggle and slip out.
Just tug the toggle and slip out
Talk about divided by a common language: where I'm from that's the primary method of non-procreative recreation.
11-13: Ha! Went to some friends' house for a barbeque about five miles north of here and while they got basically sprinkles we got nearly an inch of rain.
Crappy picture I took earlier this evening with my cellphone of the garden reclaimed from nearly the same angle as the one in 13.
The crappy picture links to the Thistle Garden, Stormcrow.
38.2: Oops, this is the current one.
41: If you look, it is actually in both pictures (possibly the same chair).
It's changed orientation though, because it's phototropic.
Or if you're really ambitious, a Broccolounger.
Nothing compared to the water(melon) bed ... laydeez.
I wish I had a garden to grow towers of bricks in.
48: What, like Madison Square Garden? (Oh, snap!)
48: Thanks, that one's coming along nicely.
My town has a nice hill where you can see the Boston fireworks, so they decided to simulcast the Boston Pops concert, but before that they had this honky tonk band. At the end this old guy in a cowboy hat started talking about how we were the greatest nation on earth, and all these people out there in the world who hate use can't take that away from us. I don't really think that that was hugely reflective of most of the people in my town, but I was horrified. Then there were some teenagers at the end of the fireworks who started shouting "USA, USA, USA." I never expected to see that sort of thing here.
I always shout "USDA" because I love farm subsidies and eating.
I showed my kids this video to celebrate the fourth and they really liked it. We still haven't managed to institute the tradition of watching Life of Brian at Christmas, though, because too many of the jokes go over the kids' heads.
"at Christmas" is not really part of the title of Life of Brian
51 makes me glad of my insular, close-minded, left-wing-bubble social circle. (That's mostly tongue in cheek, but admittedly not entirely. Someone at a little 4th of July party yesterday said they were hoping Michelle Bachmann would get the Republican nomination because she would be so easy for Obama to beat. In response, I brought out the apocryphal Pauline Kael quote.)
It also reminds me of Chris, a guy from high school who comments on facebook a lot. He happens to be some kind of devout Christian, talking about hell and stuff in status updates, but not that nutty. And that's not just gratuitous religious-person-bashing: he posts about playing Dungeons and Dragons and getting complaints from religiously like-minded acquaintances for perceived Satanism in the game or whatever, which tells me (a) he's reasonable about that kind of thing, but (b) he knows and chooses to spend time with people who aren't.
The point is, after Osama bin Laden's death, Chris posted something about disapproving of all the Christians he sees celebrating a man's death, even bin Laden is a human being and all that, etc. The same basic sentiment as that apocryphal Martin Luther King, Jr. quote that was going around. Some friend of his replied by saying that (paraphrasing) celebrating Osama's death is OK because it was God's will. The U.S. army killing Osama is just like David killing Goliath, because they both opposed God's chosen people. Now, while comparing U.S. to David and anyone else to Goliath would almost literally get someone banned around here just because the analogy is that badly flawed, there are a lot of Americans who don't understand the problems with that.
OT: The "Favorite Bands" guy is still going at McSweeney's.
all the Christians he sees celebrating a man's death
Hell, they make holidays out of this sort of thing.
53: Wewl make such a noys with that 1 Littl 1. The 3 of the 1 Littl 1 is yellerboy stoan and Saul & Peter and chard coal.
Our deck faces east and there is a 1-story DPW yard across the street, giving us a nice unobstructed view of the Boston fireworks. We came back with a few friends from a cookout down the street to watch them from our house, only to find our downstairs neighbors on our deck. You access all the building's decks from the back stairway, so they didn't have to go through our apartment or anything, but it was a bit odd. "Um, hi, People-we-don't-share-a-common-language-with. Welcome to our deck."
I think they didn't quite know what to make of us when we gamely stumbled through the American songs singalong medley on the Boston Pops broadcast. (Also, we totally fell apart in the second verson of "You're a Grand Old Flag.")
We alwis burn it in the Pendants Day wich is wen the flags are hung on the Ash and Maul. I wach them lookin in2 the Flexing Pool wich is alwis shakin and movin in the wind.
we totally fell apart in the second verson of "You're a Grand Old Flag."
You're a, uh, pretty good banner.
You're just like, um, Danny Tanner...
Made of stuff and...freedom, and ice cream?
Bostoniangirl never thought she would see the day when people like Blume would sing "You're a Grand Old Flag".
I'd be, "Happy 4th. Get off my deck."
I'm pretty sure the end of the first line of the second verse is "the red, white, and blue."
This deck is my deck, this deck isn't your deck.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd be in line with 65.
Then again, a bunch of teenagers were sitting smoking and being noisy next to the communal pond last night at 2am, and I didn't go down to tell them to fuck off (for knife-crimey reasons).
I realized the I was officially old when I yelled "Hey" at some teens making a minor nuisance of themselves and they ran away.
One Pendants Day when I come an old man I gone in the esuva to frends hows and et some burnt pig he parbly ben kilt sum plays els as there hadnt ben none pigs in ther for a long time befor that nor I aint looking to see none agen.
I realized the I was officially old when I yelled "Hey" at some teens making a minor nuisance of themselves and they ran away.
That's when you're officially middle aged. When you're old they kick you to the kerb.
71, 73: I'd try to get the reference, but I don't want to use Google.
No 1 can tell what my riddles mean without they talk 2 Gagool. Gagool is lyk Aunty shes a feers and feerful old woman and she has all the nollege she can tel when u r born when u die for ever and every1.
I herd about Gagool from a horseman on the road all pale and haggard he looked.
The water that comes out of my tap comes directly from a river with pools that people are known to swim in. People are known to contain coliform bacteria, so I don't drink my tap water without boiling it first. It doesn't matter whether or not people are actually swimming; the mere possibility that they are swimming is enough to create the health hazard.
The ASPCA takes a similar attitude toward putting a cat in a box with a vial of poison that will be released if a radioactive sample decays.
To be honest, the ASPCA has pretty much had it with me putting cats in boxes regardless of the reason, but at least my water supply is sanitary.
I has sum reller tiffs oo talks the way Riddley an the Ardship do but for as like they ain't bin nuked yet, just growed up that way, not that for I be lookin out em or not nothing an I donthink as you be eye ver, so I be on the road an keepin a woide birth...
CAUTION: Only open Schroedinger's Box in a well-ventilated area. Schroedinger, Inc. is not responsible for any waveform collapses that occur outside of the box.
81: but at least my water supply is sanitary.
Sure, no one goes in the Mon it's too crowded polluted.
I think Pittsburgh gets its water from the Allegheny. At least, I hope it does.
Sanitary, maybe, but now that I'm used to drinking river water, city tap water (this includes bottled water) tastes... a lot. A lot more than water should taste.
It's kind of like American Coke vs. Mexican Coke, except even more exclusive.
America pro wrestling vs. Mexican pro wrestling, excepting drinkable?
(Oh, since you mentioned the Alleghany, I should also mention that there's nobody living between my house and the actual mountain source of the creek/river. No living, just swimming.)
re: 79
It doesn't go through water processing first? Literally straight out of the river? No chlorination, no filtering, sedimentation, and all the rest?
Some say love, it is a river. I love you guys that much!
We drink straight out of the river up here. There is the occasional stick or fish egg. I doubt it's a water supply solution that would scale up.
It doesn't go through water processing first? Literally straight out of the river? No chlorination, no filtering, sedimentation, and all the rest?
We've got a gigantic tank in the compound for sedimentation/seasonal fluctuation correction, and the pump intake has a filter. I would say it's "off the grid" but apparently the people in charge of getting the water out of the river have a web site.
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NMM2 Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg, formerly Crown Prince of Austria Hungary.
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Beavers have good press, but I don't see what the big deal is. If they dam the Mon at Braddock, call me. Otherwise, meh.
Spoken like a man who has never had beaver fever.
Do beaver swim to the shore before voiding?
The practical concern for even wilderness streams in most of North America is giardia. Discussed here before, I believe. (And d'oh, "beaver fever".)
96 et seq.: Although there has been a bit of a scientific/expert backlash in recent years against "all your wilderness streams are belong to Giardia".
103: "Does a bear shit the woods?" "Yes, painfully and frequently, because of the giardia."
Oh the beaver inquiry was serious. No, the beavers mostly stay out of the big, cold, glacial waters and prefer the side creeks. Also, did you see how much water was in that "river"? Dilution is a mighty power.
Yet Superman can't stop laughing whenever I show my face at the Hall of Justice.
Dilution Man lost all credibility after his supposed homeopathic powers were debunked.
I'm going biking in a city for the first time ever. I'll be back when I get sweaty or butt-hurt.
butt-hurt
I'm not sure you're using that term the way I normally hear it used. But by all means, have a lovely ride and do report back.
I did, but by butt does hurt now. I only almost ran into a car door once.
I thought the giardia warnings always had an implied "do you want to risk it? it could be anywhere[: example]" rather than a "it actually is everywhere."
Taking disproportionate action against a small risk, percentage-wise, is the American way. My boy scout troop authorized the use of military force against bacteria in the water.*
*in the form of a military-grade water pump - somewhere on the label/accompanying materials there was a claim that it could filter something like 97% of fallout. Too bad it's the 3% that'll get you. On the other hand, it pumped on the up and the downstrokes, meaning it worked a hell of a lot faster than most camping supply water pumps.
There are probably hundreds of thousands of cases of giardiasis in the U.S. every year--not everyone goes to the doctor for it. I'm not sure whether it's more commonly contracted from beavers or from drinking sources way sketchier than that pretty looking lake.
On the other hand, there are under 200 cases of tetanus every year... but do you want to risk it? It could be anywhere.