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[Ghavrel]

Not sure how many of you live in the greater Boston metropolitan area, but we're all participating in Dwarf Fortress meets real life here. One of the pipes that brings water into the city burst yesterday. And by "one of the," I mean "the only."

BOSTON IS VERY THIRSTY RIGHT NOW.

They're using reserve water, which will last indefinitely, but we're on a boil order because the water isn't up to drinking standards. Which means that currently it's easier to drink alcohol than water. Which means that, during finals period, the city of Boston is pulling a Dwarf Fortress.

On an unrelated note, I now very much sympathize with dwarfs who have to drink out of murky pools. This stuff is nasty.

[smigenboger]

Drinking booze will make you more thirsty : (

[Ghavrel]

So you drink more booze. IT IS A WONDERFUL CYCLE.

And that's not entirely true. Alcohol on boats, and all. Of course, small beer was rather less strong than, say, vodka.

[smigenboger]

True, true

So how will the Boston situation be fixed?

[Ghavrel]

They're essentially welding a giant metal band-aid to it. Then they'll see if it works. The problem is, at the height of the malfunction, the pipe was "leaking" 2000+ gallons of water per second.

But they won't have even that done until tomorrow night, and if THAT doesn't work then it might be over a week before they can fix it.

[ein]

Make some grog.
Stretches out the water AND the booze.

[Itnetlolor]

Might as well make a desalination plant.

Get a bunch of water, tons of water containers, and a funnel or a funneling drape of sorts to condense the steam into fresher water. That is, if you want something cleaner to drink. Otherwise, install a screw pump into a water source and pump it into an artificial container.

[Footkerchief]

Might as well make a desalination plant.

Get a bunch of water, tons of water containers, and a funnel or a funneling drape of sorts to condense the steam into fresher water.

Don't forget enormous power consumption!

[RedKing]

So you guys are actually drinking Boston Harbor water? 
Try not to grow any extra limbs.


Sam Adams should donate millions of gallons of beer to the Boston community as a humanitarian gesture.

[bjlong]

Might as well make a desalination plant.

Get a bunch of water, tons of water containers, and a funnel or a funneling drape of sorts to condense the steam into fresher water.

Don't forget enormous power consumption!

What is it about people on these boards and horribly inefficient or completely unproven technology?

In any case, yeah, drink weak booze or boil and flavor the water. It's how we survived before we knew how to clean water!

[TheDarkJay]

Drinking booze will make you more thirsty : (

Depends. I'm pretty sure things like coffee and a most likely at least some alcoholic drinks contain far more usable liquid that goes into the body than the liquid they take out...

At least that is what St. Stephen Fry said on QI XD

[RedKing]

Might as well make a desalination plant.

Get a bunch of water, tons of water containers, and a funnel or a funneling drape of sorts to condense the steam into fresher water.

Don't forget enormous power consumption!

What is it about people on these boards and horribly inefficient or completely unproven technology?

You're talking about a group of people who play a bug-filled beta of a game wherein they design horrifically complex arrays of windmills, pumps and levers, just so they can flood the landscape with magma and destroy everything. There might be a connection. 

[Lac]

So you guys are actually drinking Boston Harbor water? 

It should be good for making a cup of tea from!

[Baughn]

Desalination doesn't have to have an enormous power consumption. While you do lose a bit of energy in the process (that is necessary; entropy decreases in the water), proper heat management could conceivably make it a very small amount indeed.

I don't think anyone has properly tried, though, and "small amount of loss" times "three thousand gallons a second" is a fair bit of energy no matter what.

[bjlong]

I think pretty much every desert country in the middle east has tried to make desalination plants, and has ongoing research to that effect.