3 ms·
water can kill you a lot of ways. boiling can't possibly kill everything, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthermophile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperther
by jfoutz 17y ago
water can kill you a lot of ways.
boiling can't possibly kill everything,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthermophile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthermophile
and even if it could,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_poisoning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_poisoning
can get you.
It's a statistics game. Bringing water to a boil will eliminate a huge fraction of the risks associated with consumption, but it's not proof of safety.
- FooBarWidget 17y agoI don't think extremophiles are a problem. Your body temperature isn't exactly extreme so those bacteria will die in your body.
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago.. and it's pretty unlikely your took your water from a hot vent or steaming geyser.
- pavel_lishin 17y agoUgh, you're just like my family. "Why can't we just go camping in the woods, like normal people? Why do you always want to descend two miles below the surface of the pacific?" Amateurs.
- pbhjpbhj 17y agoA weekend trip to the bottom of the pacific sounds lovely* but I think I'd take fresh water along rather than going to the hassle of desalinating. But camping is nice too ... * Sounds like something a wife would say "sounds lovely dear but I booked us in to visit my mother, maybe next time".
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- Flankk 17y agoThe first Wikipedia page is about fringe organisms which live in hot water and die in cold water. Arsenic is in all unfiltered water. You'd have to dig a well to get a high enough level of arsenic to poison yourself. It is extremely unlikely you'll get sick from drinking boiled water taken from a stream. Sure, nothing is proof of safety. You could distill pure water and then accidently inhale some of it and dry drown.
- davidw 17y agoIt's a lot more likely you'll die if you avoid drinking water. What's this got to do with HN, in any case? 'Survival skills' for hackers is probably more akin to having to cook for yourself if the local pizza/mexican/chinese/whatever place is closed (to play on a stereotype; plenty of hackers are good cooks).
- anamax 17y ago> You'd have to dig a well to get a high enough level of arsenic to poison yourself. Not so fast. Acute poisoning from above-ground sources may be unlikely, but chronic isn't unknown. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs210/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs210/en/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_contamination_of_groundwater http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_contamination_of_ground...