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        Daily Chat >> General Posts >> ihydrogen monoxide
        
(Message started by: Maffumatt on Jan 30^th, 2008, 10:18pm)

Title: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by Maffumatt on Jan 30^th, 2008, 10:18pm

H2O: Dangerous Chemical!
A student at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."

And for plenty of good reasons, since:

1. it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. it is a major component in acid rain
3. it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
4. accidental inhalation can kill you
5. it contributes to erosion
6. it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
7. it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

* Forty-three (43) said yes,
* six (6) were undecided,
* and only one (1) knew that the chemical was water.

The title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?"

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by Charlie on Jan 30^th, 2008, 10:23pm

Gullible is correct.

I think I saw this done on Penn & Teller some time ago. People signed a petition against this scourge.

Charlie

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by ski2k on Jan 30^th, 2008, 10:56pm

Yup... Penn and Teller did that, too. It's just brilliant!! ;;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

Enjoy!!
Adam

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by thomas on Jan 31^st, 2008, 8:38am

So the kid decides to do exactly what our media and government have been doing for about the last twenty three years. Good on him for having a brain, shows how many of us out there don't have one. ;)

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by Paul98 on Jan 31^st, 2008, 9:27am

Ah yes! Thankfully we have government to think for us. Government will provide for us as long as we pay taxes and don't question their good intent. (Even if you don't pay taxes they will provide as long as they have your vote.) These wonderful people that are against Dihydrogen monoxide have been tought critical thinking in our public school systems who know better how to educate the masses.

-P.

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by Kevin_M on Jan 31^st, 2008, 9:55am

This was done and originated many years ago by a student from Minnesota to show the lack of understanding people have about an issue before they present an opinion. I think though he used dihydrogen monoxide, as Paul mentions.

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by artonio7 on Jan 31^st, 2008, 10:06am

That's an interesting observation with the water test it reminds me of a particular study I recall from psych 101... and how people can be led to do almost anything with the right circumstance and prompting in place.

Several years ago (back in the 60's) a psychological experiment was conducted.

A person was told that they were to ask questions over a microphone to a person in another room. They were told that if the person answered incorrectly they (the questioner) was to push a button that would send an electrical shock to the person being questioned.

The person asking the question had a person standing behind him/her encouraging them to send an electrical charge to the person if they answered incorrectly. With each wrong answer the questioner was asked to turn up the voltage to be administered to the other participant.

A speaker was set up in the room of the person asking the questions and each time he/she pushed the button he heard the screams of the "test subject".
As the test progressed the voltage was turned up and the screams grew more intense when the charge was given.

All of the questioners grew reluctant to administer the punishment to the test subject... but the man standing behind them encouraged them to please continue... until they pushed the button.

End result was... Most of the people giving the questions could be encouraged to administer lethal volts of electricity to a fellow human with subtle persuasion and no threat of physical harm. All that it took was was an authoritative figure to coax them.

I guess under the right circumstances alot of folks could be encouraged to kill another human if they are given the right line of BS. I mean... Just tell some folks that weapons of mass destruction are the reason and that's all they need.

Just a thought.

with warm regards,
Tony

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by Kevin_M on Jan 31^st, 2008, 10:17am

Quote:

A student at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26.

In this go-round of the survey, the target audience for the question was asked to ninth-graders.

http://www.snopes.com/science/dhmo.asp

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by deltadarlin on Jan 31^st, 2008, 10:33am

The *power of suggestion* has very potent. Years ago when I was a student in college, I had a psych professor who talked about the power of suggestion. To illustrate his point, he used *witch doctor/voodoo* practitioners who place a *spell* on people and tell them they will die. Guess what? They died. Now, logic tells me that someone putting a death spell on me is not going to cause me to die. However, there are those individuals who would believe this and subsequently die.

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by monty on Jan 31^st, 2008, 11:21am

on 01/31/08 at 10:33:08, deltadarlin wrote:

Wow - he used witch doctors to kill people just to illustrate a point for his lecture? :o

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by Jimi on Jan 31^st, 2008, 11:29am

Quote:

Wow - he used witch doctors to kill people just to illustrate a point for his lecture?

[smiley=crackup.gif]

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by monty on Feb 2^nd, 2008, 7:50am

Just teasing, Deltadarlin. I just heard about a study in Germany that found that heart attacks went up 3x on weekends when the German team was playing in the World Cup. Adrenaline can push some people over the edge - even with something as non-personal as sports. If someone thought they had a curse on them, it could be worse.

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by BarbaraD on Feb 2^nd, 2008, 8:55am

Back when I was in high school we used to give the teachers "headaches" (we were not really NICE kids) by the power of suggestion. Of course we'd decide to do it before class and just "casually", one at a time, quietly ask her/him, if he/she felt ok and mention that his/her forehead was drawn like he/she had a headache. Before the class was over the teacher would have a headache.

OMG!!!!! This MAY be my punishment and WHY I NOW have CH -- it's PAYBACK!!!! But I swear it was just a "little - get out of work" headache and nothing like a CH... we didn't know about them....

But I do love the science project about H20 and will probably use it on someone (maybe a family reuion - see how many "genius" relatives we have there!) ;;D ;;D Or maybe start a mass panic - haven't done that for a while - need some excitement in my life ::) You can bet, I'm gonna have some fun with it....

Hugs BD

Title: Re: ihydrogen monoxide
Post by monty on Feb 2^nd, 2008, 7:27pm

on 02/02/08 at 08:55:14, BarbaraD wrote:

At my high school, if any teacher lectured while holding a coffee cup (or water glass, beer stein, etc), there were students who were very good at carefully distracting the teacher and then asking them what time it was. Seeing the teacher spill the cup to look at their watch was about as good as it got in one small town.