Youku video for those in China after the jump
According to the video description [UPDATE, 7 pm: It's come to my attention that the following was taken from a Daily Mail story]:
This incredible footage was recorded as firefighters in China used an iPhone camera to seek out a two-year-old boy who had fallen down a well.
The child plunged into the 40ft shaft while playing with friends outside a small village near Mengzi City, in Yunnan Province.
Villagers raised the alarm after they heard him crying, tossing down a rope to which he clung for about an hour as they waited for the emergency services to arrive.
Questions:
How does one “fall down a well” while playing? I get how it’s possible, but you hear about these kids-in-well stories all the time and it’s difficult not to think, Really? You really fell into a well? Do wells have a little-known but scientifically plausible suction effect?
Isn’t it about time that wells 1) are placed off the ground, and 2) covered? The well in this video looks like it’s neither.
There’s a lot of doting of the iPhone in the video description [UPDATE, 7:30 pm: This part is from Mail Online]:
Then, in a stroke of genius, the rescue team taped an Apple smartphone to a rope, lowering it into the narrow shaft so its video function could show them how best to loop the straps around the boy.
But I suppose that’s to be expected. Even in Mengzi City, Yunnan province, the legacy of Steve Jobs something-something, something-something, EVERYONE HAS AN iPHONE.
I guess there are lot of new unsecured drought relief wells in Yunnan atm, just my guess..