this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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xkcd

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well well well, if it isn't a new xkcd

You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.

https://explainxkcd.com/3004/

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What did the farmer say when he found three deep holes in his field?

Well, well, well, look what we have here.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why did the blind man fall in the well? Because he couldn't see that well.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Well! .... this is a silly conversation!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Ah Well, moving on.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

At least wish him well on his recovery.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago

We'll, we'll, we'll, if it isn't autocorrect

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I always assumed that some poor schmuck was trying to dig a hole because he needed a hole and the fucking thing kept flooding. He was pissed until his buddy realized that they had stumbled upon a magic portal to a lake which they could use to get water from.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

We've known that groundwater existed for verifiably more than 7,000 years (the age of the oldest well ever found). Springs and seeps are easily observable groundwater coming up out of the ground. I seriously doubt it was stumbled into by accident. We probably started by modifying springs for our use and then dug in other places to see if we could tap into the same source.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd say it's likely that wells were independently invented multiple times. Some may have been luck, others ingenuity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

The fact that people were still paying for 'professional' dowsing services as recently as 20 years ago says a lot too. Many people genuinely thought that wells needed to hit a specific spot to get water, the comprehension of how water tables work was certainly lacking.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

The "This one neat trick big water won't tell you about" to "the government can't tell me not to dig my well next to my latrine" pipeline (aquaduct?) is real.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Be careful though. If you keep on digging deeper and deeper, you’ll find magma. That’s not a bad deal either, because you can use that heat to run a geothermal power plant.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Idk man I've yet to know anyone who died from drinking magma.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Fair enough. We’re going to assume it’s completely safe until proven otherwise. Vulcanologists can tell you that the viscosity can be pretty high, so there could be a choking hazard though. Further study would be needed to determine the exact nature of potential hazards.