Why ignoramuses should not make laws...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...lug=H2O%20hoax
Synopsis: town in CA was *this* close to banning the use of foam cups at city sponsored events, because they found out that dihydrogen monoxide, a colorless, tasteless chemical that can be fatal when inhaled, is used in their manufacture.
You can guess the rest.
At least, I hope so.
Synopsis: town in CA was *this* close to banning the use of foam cups at city sponsored events, because they found out that dihydrogen monoxide, a colorless, tasteless chemical that can be fatal when inhaled, is used in their manufacture.
You can guess the rest.
At least, I hope so.
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Not sure whether to laugh or cry about this one. That's hilarious and really sad all at the same time.
Arnold for President!!!
And what was that bit about they still may ban styrofoam cups because styrofoam is hard to clean up if it breaks up in water? Time for another round!
http://www.dhmo.org/
ONLY in Cali, man. ONLY in Cali.
Hysteria Reigns Supreme.
Originally posted by Jubelum
I did this same thing, as a petiton at college. Got over 50 signatures to ban the stuff until a Chem major caught on... after seeing the list of names she laughed until she cried.
A group did the same thing here at UNC a few years ago. It was quite sad - they gathered enough signatures to have it pounced on by a student government member as 'her new cause'. What was hilarious was that it started out as a couple of folks in the quad, but then they had people *volunteering* to get signatures, they felt so passionate about it... so the original people just washed their hands of it, and let it go rampant on its own.
Several hundred students had their names on a petition to ban pure water. It was priceless.
The uproar when it finally became obvious was *huge*... everyone that had been taken wanted to *lynch* the original folks... who simply said "Sorry, not our fault if you're gullible."
The thing that killed me about the town near-ban was that they tried to pin it on the paralegal. I'm sorry, but *none* of you caught this?!?
Ok, pet peeve rant over.
Originally posted by Whisper
People who automatically freak out whenever someone says "chemicals" make me mad. Kinda like those nuts...
The reason people of all kinds get upset about this is because there is a horrible history of supposedly safe chemicals causing severe illnesses. In post-war US, the chemical industry was viewed as the answer to all of our problems. Of course, we later found out how incredibly dangerous these chemicals actually are, and we found out the hard way.
Labeling skepticism of manufactured chemicals as some sort of new age thing ignores the very real problems. I'm reminded of video I saw regarding citizens protesting the massive pollution of the southern mississippi by the chemical plants that line it. There were no political splits, just citizens trying to stop the poisoning of their homes. And those were just the people that realized how bad it was and felt they could actually do something about it (many of the poor blacks in the area clearly didn't believe they could cause any change).
The chemical industry has a horrible record that continues to this day.
But yeah, people need to fact-check before making stupid laws.
I sent my high school physics class into a screaming frenzy one day by bringing in a brown paper bag, and telling them I had a radiation emitter in it that I put together at home. (Which was true.) I told them that it emitted part of the same radiation as came out of a fission reaction, as in a nuclear reactor, or a fusion reaction, as in a hydrogen bomb, but just at a *slightly* different frequency.
I then pulled it out of the bag, flipped it on, and aimed it at them.
It was a flashlight.
Took everyone a few moments to realize what the hell it was, and they were *PISSED*... but then they started asking questions. "You mean gamma is just *LIGHT*?" And it sunk in.
The amount of fear in this world over the misunderstood or unknown is just *phenomenal*... and yet people will campaign against things they have zero knowledge or understanding of, simply because 'well *everyone* *knows*....'
Drives. Me. Bananas.
This is the flip side of blind faith in technology - blind fear of it.
As for the people making laws...well yeah, they're fools. "A paralegal did some bad research". HAHAHAHA. That's a great excuse.