topum

Sometimes stories on BBC can leave me with a lot of unanswered questions. And they are often solved with just one picture. Look at the story below for example.

Firefighters in Norway have pulled a man from the inside of a toilet after he lowered himself in to retrieve a friend's phone and became stuck in the tank below.

Cato Berntsen Larsen climbed feet-first into the public facility after his friend dropped the phone while urinating.

Wow! That's some friend. How did this go? You decide to check your Facebook while taking a piss and drop your phone in there, so you just shout to your mate "Hey, I dropped the phone into the toilet while taking a piss, get in here and get in that toiled and get my phone, mate!" And your friend is like "On it, man"? Also, good to know that he went in "feet-first" because diving in head-frst seems like an equally appropriate way to do this.

Mr Berntsen Larsen said he had volunteered to enter the tank, which is not connected to the sewer and which is only emptied once a season.

Ughh. And again, what a friend.

The 20-year-old became sick as he stood thigh-deep in its contents, and had to spend an hour completely enclosed in the small area. "I panicked because I hate confined spaces," he told Norwegian newspaper VG.

So the problem with all this was the confined space? Not that you were standing thigh-deep in old shit with things crawling all over you and biting you (as he later told the paper)? It was the confined space that was the main problem here. Had it been a bit more spacious it would have been OK I guess.

"It was damn disgusting - the worst I have experienced. There were animals down there too."
To make matters worse, Mr Berntsen Larsen quickly threw up after entering the tank, which was standing room only.

Well, I do not think that a bit if your own vomit can make things much worse when you are standing thigh-deep in old shit with things crawling all over you. And I like how it is noted that there was standing room only there. That's a bummer. Because you would probably want to have a little sit down or possibly even lie down and relax for a bit. But well, standing room only so...

The unfortunate turn of events had begun when Mr Berntsen Larsen's friend shouted for help to get his phone back. "I did not think twice," Mr Berntsen Larsen said about his decision to go in.

Oh I bet you didn't, mate. I bet you didn't.

But the amateur diver immediately realised he was stuck.

Amateur diver? Please don't ruin diving for everyone.

He later described himself as "apparently thin enough to go down but not thin enough to come up again".

Wow, the guy is insightful.

Firefighters were forced to destroy the toilet, which is now out of service. Mr Berntsen Larsen sustained injuries to his upper arms and said he believed he had been bitten several times. He was treated at hospital and given antibiotics.

He was not successful in retrieving the phone.

Wait, so the phone is still there? Don't tempt me.

This story did leave me puzzled so I just typed "Cato Berntsen Larsen" into Google and hit "Images":



Ah OK, no more questions, I get it, "I did not think twice" makes total sense now. Obviously it was not the only thing he did not think twice about.

PS: Yes, I am a judgmental asshole sometimes.

You access the BBC site from the UK and at the top of their home page they invite you to read about "Five underrated countries you need to see", you click to read more and you get this:



Why show this to me at all then at the front page? It is not like I accessed the front page from China then teleported myself back to the UK and clicked on the link already from here. I tend to assume that there is always a valid reason that things which look wrong to me are done in a that particular way. I wonder why they do it this way.