Project 25, Post. No. 7: Water wednesday  

Before we launch into today’s post, won’t you consider donating the gift of clean water to some lovely kids in Cambodia? It’s tax deductible!

Is there anything as important to the human condition as water?

(well, other than hugs, pizza and love, at least)

Probably not. So today’s post is all about the best long reads/watches on water, to commemorate water Wednesday, which is a real thing!

I.

Diving deep: how the human body reacts to being submerged

“Once his volunteers were underwater, the blood in their bodies began flooding away from their limbs and toward their vital organs. He’d seen the same thing happen in deep-diving seals decades earlier; by shunting blood away from less important areas of the body, the seals were able to keep organs like the brain and heart oxygenated longer, extending the amount of time they could stay submerged. Immersion in water triggered the same mechanism in humans. This shunting is called peripheral vasoconstriction, and it explains how Bucher could dive to below one hundred feet without suffering the lung-crushing effects that Boyle’s law had predicted. At such depths, blood actually penetrated the cell walls of the organs to counteract the external pressure. When a diver descends to three hundred feet — a depth frequently reached by modern freedivers — vessels in the lungs engorge with blood, preventing them from collapse. On land, the equivalent pressures would be debilitating. But not in water. And the deeper we dive, the stronger the amphibious reflexes become.”

image courtesy the article linked above, thanks TED!

II.

Are you ready to cry? This perfect video of a couple dancing to “Latch” is perfectly perfect.

III.

Real talk from Pope Francis, and a constant reminder to loners like yours truly: “If you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid.”

Here’s to a lovely evening, and drink a tall glass of water for me.