Judeo-Christian tradition teaches that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Most modern scholars, both religious and secular, consider that to be unlikely, although many fundamentalists still believe it. Genesis in particular seems to be a collection of tales that were handed down by word of mouth for centuries before they were written down. I think the Flood story is the only one that has been found in Mesopotamian literature but, as I have said, the other stories seem to hearken back to the same source. The Bible never really explains where the angels came from, it seems to assume that the reader already knows that. I read somewhere that the concept angels and demons probably pre-existed organized religion. People believed in multiple deities or spirits before they came up with the concept of monotheism. Angels and demons might be a way of embracing monotheism without totally abandoning the old polytheistic belief systems.
I'm not familiar with the Wounded Warrior commercials. We usually hit the "mute" button when commercials come on and try not to pay attention to them. There are some cute ones, like the Geicko commercials, that we will listen to the first few times we see them, but that's about it. The "tit in a wringer" metaphor used to be common around here but, come think of it, you hardly hear it anymore. I suppose that, if you said it front of a young person, they would ask you what a wringer was.
Okay, FEMA is probably all right, as far as government agencies go. I guess I got that idea mixed up with the bailout issue but, of course, it's not the same thing.
Municipal wells are much larger than individual household wells, and most towns have more than one of them. Any town that has a water tower probably gets its water from wells. The purpose of the tower is to provide constant delivery pressure regardless of the amount being drawn at the moment. Water is pumped into the tower, and then is gravity fed from there. Water level in the tower is controlled automatically. When the water falls below a set level, the pumps kick on and, when it rises back up to the high level target, the pumps kick off.
Anybody that is not served by a municipal water system gets their water from a well nowadays. Modern wells are not dug with a shovel like they were in days of yore. A casing pipe of 4-8 inches used to be driven down by a pile driver type mechanism, but I think most of the drillers have rotary augers by now. Once the casing strikes usable water, a smaller drop pipe with a cylindrical stainless steel screen on the end of it is slipped inside the larger pipe. There used to be lots of pump configurations, but I think everybody has gone to the submersible pumps by now. As the name implies, the pump goes down inside the pipe and is submersed, I think near the screen on the end. Submersible pumps almost never fail but, if they do, you need to call the well driller to come change it out, you can't do it yourself.
As the well driller shoves the casing pipe down the hole, he may strike water veins at several levels, but he can't establish the well until he finds water that he can screen, which means a gravel vein. Anything else will plug the screen, and will inspire the well driller to say "I can't screen that shit!" In our area, screenable water is usually found between 100and 200 deep. (Our well came in at 115.) Before the well is approved for use, a water sample must be sent off to Lansing for testing, but I have never heard of a well around here flunking the test. Some well water has excess minerals like iron or lime in it. It's safe to drink, but it might taste funny, and you may need a water softener before you can get soap to make suds in it. This is a common problem in some Chicago suburbs, but I've never heard of it around here. I understand that falling water tables are a problem out west, but I've never heard of that around here either.
A household water system pumps water into a small pressure tank in the basement or crawl space under the house. There is a certain amount of air in this tank and, when the water compresses the air to a set point, a pressure switch shuts off the pump. Similarly, when the pressure falls below a set point, the pump turns on. I guess this serves the same purpose as the municipal water tank, it gives you reliable pressure without the pump having to run all the time. You wouldn't want to run the pump all the time because it would waste electricity when nobody in the house is using water, and might shorten the life of pump.
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