Posted by Racer on June 26, 2004, at 14:51:47
In reply to i haven't taken chemistry in a while.., posted by karen_kay on June 26, 2004, at 9:05:57
I'm an addict, I admit it. Most of the time, I have the liquid form next to my monitor in a 24oz bottle with a sports top.
Heck, I'm so addicted, I can safely say I *bathe* in the stuff!!!
(Y'all don't know *how* long I've been waiting to post that last line!!!! Thank you for finally letting me!)
The story is true, though, so if anyone is looking for a cause to champion, how about education? Kooka got it from a recent chem class, I got it from a class in Linguistics taken 20 years ago.
dihydrogen: di -- meaning two, hydrogen. Two atoms of hydrogen, notated H2.
monoxide: one oxygen atom.
Put them together: H2O.
The city council was bamboozled in a way, but in an honest but ignorant way. Someone found a website citing all those facts listed -- inhaling water causes drowning; solid water is ice, which causes frostbite; and the water component of acid rain is the RAIN part. The survey was taken using 50 people, and 43 said "Ban the dangerous substance!" Thus, 86%. It's all TRUE, but it really doesn't tell the whole story.
Now, how was a website posted about this highly dangerous substance? A 14 year old boy put this together for a science fair project to illustrate the dangers of precipitate actions regarding scientific claims, he won one of the top awards. He later made a website from the project. It's a parody site, in the sense that it uses readily verifiable facts that are not in dispute to support a position. (In theory, this sort of thing should teach people the value of checking facts before believing what they hear from one source alone.)
Some environmentalist brought it to the attention of the city council, however, without realizing it was not a serious threat. No one involved recognized what the meaning of the words itself meant. That lead to a council debate that apparently got pretty heated. I do forget where it was exactly, but I think it was Arriba Vista, CA.
I lower my head and pray to any gods that hear me, "Please, let those council members have gone to public schools, and let it be the start of the Revolution."
Thank you for letting me get up on my soapbox for a little on this. The best part of it is, I can see all of you at once from here, and it's great to see each of you at the same time. Kinda like a group hug, but without that uncomfortable feeling that gives me -- as a social huggette-er at best.
poster:Racer
thread:360410
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040626/msgs/360691.html