this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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Bonus: modern doomsday prepper booth in the same flea market.

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[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 41 points 6 months ago (2 children)

After reading the bottom portion, I have to wonder which substance might this container be filled with 🤔

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 25 points 6 months ago

Yeah, I feel like there should definitely be a law that anything that serves as both a refillable drinking container and a commode needs to have a sharpie attached to it that you can use to mark that it has been converted over to commode mode.

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world -4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The plastic liner would protect it anyways if you reuse it, so not really an issue if you can’t see anything?

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I'd rather not drink water out of a container that once held shit on principle.

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It didn’t hold shit, it held a bag of shit.

No different than using a back to pick up dog shit, your hand is the drum, you’ve eaten burgers or hand food before yeah? Or do you not eat with your hand out of principle too?

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

There's a huge difference here. After picking up my dog's shit, I wash my hands. The length of time said shit is on my hand with a plastic barrier is momentary. My hands also shed skin periodically, essentially creating a new surface over time.

The metal container scenario places a lot of trust in the integrity of the plastic holding the shit, as well as the wire tie holding the bag shut. Metals also have absorption properties, so there is a non-zero chance that some of that fecal matter could be absorbed by the drum itself while stewing in there for who knows how long, and later be released into the water (it's the same idea as why they say turning shipping containers into habitable spaces, you have no clue what was stored in there and could be off-gassing nasty stuff). So yeah, I'd rather not mix shit and potable water.

Also, I can choose to use utensils if I want. No need to be a dick about it.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can I just point out that you two are having an argument over the logistics of using a big metal barrel designed to hold drinking water to serve its secondary function and hold human feces instead?

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I just find it funny where people draw arbitrary lines. Rusty container, put the bag in and LFG, maybe touched some poop, yuck I would never. Both are just as dangerous to consume, yet neither matter with the bag. Yet that’s what people would justify to use when rusty. Shits hilarious.

Wait until people figure out or remember where river water comes from….

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

When asked why he never drank any water, notorious alcoholic comedian W. C. Fields replied that fish fuck in it.

[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago

It’s always a matter of perspective, yet in the end it doesn’t make a difference, you’re making a choice over some arbitrary distinction. If this container were just mildly rusty, no one would balk at using it for water, yet rust would be just as dangerous to congest in the end.

Sorry the entire premises you’ve based the argument on is entirely flawed, there is no huge difference. It’s I don’t understand the principles at play, so I’m gonna make arbitrary distinctions to make myself feel better.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world -1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Both are bagged and it didn’t leak, why are you knickers all on a bunch? Never eaten with your fingers before?

[–] Railing5132@lemmy.world 29 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Regarding the second picture...

  1. I gauran-damn-tee that every last pharmaceutical in those kits has been expired at least 7 years, and

  2. the "made with military grade" shelf-stable meals (they're not military MRE's) - means they were made as cheaply as legally possible to still be called "food".

Peppers are a strange lot. My kid's ex's dad kept 2,000lbs of dry beans in his house 'just in case.' Didn't have a functioning furnace, hot water heater, or stove - but made sure to check on his bean inventory every week.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 25 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Peppers are a strange lot.

[–] Railing5132@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

Damnit. Fuck it. I'm committed to it now.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 9 points 6 months ago

The fuel hoarders crack me up. Like, y'all know that has a shelf life, right?

[–] Mereo@lemmy.ca 25 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 39 points 6 months ago

There might be a reason for that.

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The barrel was in episode 5 of Fallout.

[–] blandfordforever@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

Did the sharpie writing indicate that it had been converted to commode mode?

[–] duckCityComplex@lemmy.world 19 points 6 months ago

The "to dispense" instructions are interesting. Put a tube 3/4 of the way into the water, pinch it, and then "pull downward 12 to 18 inches"... good way to create a vacuum and start the siphon action without putting your mouth on the tube.

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago

We acknowledge that you may use this container for refuse. And we've decided to write "DRINKING WATER" on the side in big text, just in case you don't.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's a really nice font and well-laid-out text blocks.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

They didn't half-ass it when it came to armageddon back then.

[–] robolemmy@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago

We had a dozen of those when I was a kid, along with a bunch of aluminum tins containing the nastiest soda crackers you can possibly imagine. The civil defense water barrels were very useful but the “food” was something you’d only eat if there was no alternative.

[–] FullOfBallooons@leminal.space 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I found a barrel just like that at an estate sale a few weeks ago! Part of me wanted it just because it looked cool.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There was one just like it at my old high school‘s auditorium that was used as a trash can. I have very fond memories of seeing it at drama club. I shared it with a lot of my friends, and even my old teacher, who I’m still in touch with, and everyone enjoyed seeing it.

[–] 0110010001100010@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

huh, it was made in my state of Ohio too, neat!

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I may or may not have first hand knowledge that there are a bunch of those barrels in the abandoned subway in Cincinnati...

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It must have been a designated fallout shelter. This was part of a whole concept that people would go into places like that in large masses and wait out the nukes. My alma mater had a supposed fallout shelter in one of the buildings' stairwells. There were big signs up telling everyone that a stairwell with huge windows on every floor was a fallout shelter.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

It definitely was. There may have been corridors and bathrooms that were absolutely packed full of disassembled bunk beds.

[–] nxdefiant@startrek.website 4 points 6 months ago

That's a good price for that IFAK/Trauma kit. That exact one is $110 on Amazon.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 6 months ago

Makes a handy piss jug after drinking all the water. Even has instructions right on the tin!

[–] SolOrion@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have a big thing of "biscuits" from a cold war fallout shelter. Government one, I remember that much. I gotta go find that thing sometime.

I thought about cracking it open and trying a biscuit, but honestly it was in pretty rough shape. I kinda doubted the biscuits would be edible, and if that was the case I would have just ruined the can further for nothing.

[–] skyspydude1@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You should take a look at SteveMRE1989 on YouTube to see how long those packaged foods can last. He's eaten rations from the early 1900s without issue usually. It's pretty wild how well packaged some of that stuff was

[–] SolOrion@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Oh I love that dude! "Nice hiss. Let's get this out onto a tray." He will dead ass stop mid chew like, "yeah that's foul." Then go back for another bite.

The issue with the biscuits is that the can is very very rusty in some spots. The biscuits aren't the failure point the can is lol.

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Many fallout shelters also had food rations and cots that doubled as stretchers (they had handles at the top and bottom). A few even had radios and Geiger counters.