Damn! Eating coal and drinking urine to survive

[RB TexLa]

Trapped miners survive on coal, urine diet

Tue Aug 28, 8:16 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Two Chinese brothers who tunnelled their way out of a coal mine collapse after being trapped for nearly six days survived by eating coal and drinking urine, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.

Brothers Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou became trapped while working at an illegal mine in Beijing's Fangshan District late Saturday, August 18, the latest in a series of disasters to strike the world's deadliest coal mining industry.

Two days later, rescue efforts were called off and relatives began burning "ghost money" at the entrance of the mine for the dearly departed.

"At first there was no feeling, but then I was so hungry I couldn't crawl any more," Xianchen told the Beijing News. "I got so hungry, I ate a piece of coal, and I thought it quite fragrant.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/china_mine_coal1_dc

[WI_DEM]

1. You do what you got to do, I guess

[RB TexLa]

2. I know, just rough thinking about it

[Wickerman]

3. Better than the meal described in the 70's song "Timothy" eom.

[jdlh8894]

4. Damn!

You that old? That song should have been shelved and burned 30 years ago.

[Wickerman]

5. Grew up on bad AM

sorry. :yoiks:

Some songs leave an impression!

[jdlh8894]

7. Where the HELL did you get that!

I was a DJ @ a 1000 wt hair dryer @ the time. Took requests from all the kids.Broke the record on the air and got fired!LOL

[EST]

6. Not so uncommon, unfortunately.

Another cave in, I think it was in West Virginia, several decades ago, was writter about shortly after the rescue of several miners, trapped for many days. They described the things they had to do to survive, one of which was alleviate thirst by drinking urine flavored with coal dust.
And * talks about his job being hard work. Gag.

[backscatter712]

8. Bleah! I didn't even know you could eat coal!

I remember seeing an episode of Man Vs. Wild where the guy was way out in the Australian Outback, where the temperature was well over 100, and he resorted to drinking his own urine to keep from dying of thirst.

Totally nasty, though the theory is that even though urine is toxic, you'll die more slowly if you drink it than if you drink nothing at all, and if you manage to find some good water to drink, your system will flush out the toxins.

But damn, that's disgusting!