Dumbing down America: "miracle water"

[ColbertWatcher]

Yes, it's true.

America has been dumbed down so far that the marketplace requires Jesus to sell cleaning products.

From the Los Angeles Times
Simple elixir called a 'miracle liquid'
Electrolyzed water cleans, degreases -- and treats athlete's foot. The solution is replacing toxic chemicals.
By Marla Dickerson
February 23, 2009

The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water -- hardly as catchy as Mr. Clean. But at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, some hotel workers are calling it el liquido milagroso -- the miracle liquid.

(...)

Actually, it's chemistry. For more than two centuries, scientists have tinkered with electrolysis, the use of an electric current to bring about a chemical reaction (not the hair-removal technique of the same name that's popular in Beverly Hills). That's how we got metal electroplating and large-scale production of chlorine, used to bleach and sanitize.

It turns out that zapping salt water with low-voltage electricity creates a couple of powerful yet nontoxic cleaning agents. Sodium ions are converted into sodium hydroxide, an alkaline liquid that cleans and degreases like detergent, but without the scrubbing bubbles. Chloride ions become hypochlorous acid, a potent disinfectant known as acid water.

(more)

--Los Angeles Times

"It turns out that zapping salt water with low-voltage electricity creates a couple of powerful yet nontoxic cleaning agents. Sodium ions are converted into sodium hydroxide ..."

A quick Wikip*dia search tells us what sodium hydroxide really is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide">in the first sentence).

I can't wait for some dumbass to start calling the makers of this "miracle water" witches.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Shouldn't this be in the Wikka forum?? Curious.... n/t

[ZombieHorde]

2. Since you are a baby and can't wait; the makers of this "miracle water" are witches.

(just kidding, I don't think you are a baby, but those folks are definitely witches)

[Duer 157099]

3. OK Mr. Wizard, answer me this:

I have hard water, really really hard water. And it's a fact that it doesn't clean or rinse as well as soft water. Isn't that sort of just the opposite of this so-called magic water?

It all just sounds like chemistry to me. No magic. But also, marginalizing the effect of ionic/mineral composition of water as some sort of snake-oil hokum, is just, to me, the flip side of trying to sell it as a miracle.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Are you trying to trick me? That so-called hard water of yours is called "ice."

Heat it up and it will clean just fine.

[Duer 157099]

7. Hehe, kudos, good one n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

8. : P

Thank you for having a sense of humor.

Today, you're a

[conscious evolution]

26. lol!

[Retrograde]

5. Do people still do high-school chem lab?

One of the experiments we did way back in the 60s was mixing NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and HCL (hydrochloric acid) to make a neutral solution of salt and water. It seems that this is just partially reversing the reaction to get a weak NaOH solution (trust me, you don't want a very strong one). How stable the resulting mixture is I don't know: I'd expect it to revert back to salt water pretty quickly.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. The article actually did say it doesn't last very long.

But, to answer your question--the only science allowed in schools these days is Bible-based science.

So, if the science you are planning on showing to students isn't specifically mentioned in the Christian Bible, think again.

[surrealAmerican]

10. ... or then again,

... maybe schools just can't trust their students to handle hydrochloric acid safely.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Beginners maybe, but not second-, or third-year chemistry students.

I wouldn't trust them to handle a glass of water in the first year.

LOL!

[Confusious]

18. It doesn't

If you have pure water, it does not conduct electricity, so passing electricity through it breaks it into 2 hydrogen and an oxygen atom. Putting salt in the water makes it conductive, so the electricity goes from one wire, through the water, and into the other wire.

Its a scam, a product for the gullible.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. Good, because my Kenoki foot pads have really been making me really thirsty.

Doh!

[jmowreader]

11. Since when was lye in water considered nontoxic?

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Grasshopper, the answer lies at the Wikip*dia link ...

... for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye#Food_uses">lye:

Lye is used to cure many types of food, such as: lutefisk, green olives, hominy, lye rolls, century eggs, pretzels, zongzi (Chinese glutinous rice dumplings), and Chinese noodles. In the United States food-grade lye must meet the requirements outlined in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC),<2> as prescribed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).<3> Lower grades of lye are commonly used as drain openers and oven cleaners and should not be used for food preparation.<4><3> Lye is a heavy duty alkali at about 13.0 pH.

[Canuckistanian]

13. And if it's used with MAGNETIZED water, it's doubleplusgood

http://waterforlife.net.au/content/water/forty-six-reasons-why-your-body-needs-magnetized-water-everyday

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Yes!

Jesus and the Holy Spirit!

In one drink!

[Odin2005]

16. Anyone who browses the lunacy in DU's Health "Scare" forum could have told you that.

DU Health Forum = Woo Woo Central.

Most people are dumber then a box of rocks.

[ColbertWatcher]

21. I heard that boxes of rocks cure hair loss and impotency. n/t

[G_j]

17. a chemical base for drinking water?

"It (sodium hydroxide) is used in many industries, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents and as a drain cleaner."

[Confusious]

19. Total Bullshit

Use your money to wipe your ass, you'll get more use out of it.

[ColbertWatcher]

22. LOL! It's all salesmanship. n/t

[MadHound]

20. Oh you think this is bad,

Wait until you run into some of the colloidal silver drinkers. You'll know them by their attractive blue-grey hue.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. Oh, I heard about them!

Didn't one guy get stuck like that!?

[Ikonoklast]

24. You mean this guy?

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641297781

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Not sure if that's the one I remember, but ...

... I'd hate to think there's more than one person like that in the world!

[conscious evolution]

27. I have to wonder

how many of the people who have replied to this buy bottled water.

[EstimatedProphet]

28. I don't think they meant "miracle" literally.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Sodium Hydroxide Is NOT A Cleaning Agent

It reacts with fats and oils to make soap. (The term for that is saponification, thanks to the ancient Greeks.)

But, it does not, on its own, have any effect on altering the surface chemistry.
GAC