Interesting email from frequent commenter Ray Smith:
I pulled this off of Comedy Central. One of my employees sent it to me.
“Science Project”
A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science fair. 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:
1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. It is a major component of 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
He asked fifty people if they supported a ban of the chemical.
Forty-three said yes and six were undecided. Only one knew that the chemical, “dihydrogen monoxide†was water. The title of his prize winning project was, “How Gullible are We?†He feels the conclusion is obvious.
I thought it was interesting because of how it shows that people decide “good and bad†(or evil) without knowing both sides or realizing the consequences of their decisions. Sort of like basing decisions regarding foreign policy on information that they are receiving from one side of the debate.
A similar experiment was pulled off by Penn and Teller’s show “Bullshit,” where they had a woman gathering signatures for the ban of dihydrogen monoxide at a environmental protection rally.
Nearly every asked was happy to sign the petition—so sure were they that if somebody at an environmental conference had a petition for them to sign, they were doing their part in helping the environment.
Such is the bandwagoning of many of these “movements”—which are, once you radiate away from the true believers at the center, nothing more, really, than social get together and mixers that are disguising themselves as political movements.
It’s an easy way to show you care without having to do the heavy lifting of finding out what it is you are upset about.
Plus, CHICKS IN SUNDRESSES!
How gullible? Well, tomorrow there’s gonna be a lot of people checking PW to see if there’s a dancing hard-shelled rodent.
I did something similar in college , only I used Sodium Chloride. (NaCl – table salt)
I’ve been after banning water for years! It’s a horrible diluter of fine Whiskeys and other spirits!
Down with water! All hail pure, wholesome booze!
Chicks in sundresses.
I’m sorry. You were saying something?
I found this on the web. I don’t know where it came from:
to the tune of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
There’s a chemical that poses deadly danger to us all
If we don’t eliminate it, we are headed for a fall
But our governments refuse to see the writing on the wall
They’re going to let us die!
CHORUS (after every verse):
Ban dihydrogen monoxide!
Ban dihydrogen monoxide!
Ban dihydrogen monoxide
before it kills us all!
Dihydrogen monoxide is a chemical to fear
Uncounted thousands die of inhalation every year
Yet the FDA allows it in our burgers, beans, and beer
And never questions why!
(Chorus)
In gaseous form it’s subtle, without color, taste, or smell
But it’s part of acid rain, and it’s a greenhouse gas as well
It’s also found in car exhaust, which makes our cities Hell
And dirties up the sky!
(Chorus)
It’s widely used by industry, and agriculture too
They dump it on the ground or in the river when they’re through
And from the ecosystem it gets into me and you
Which they dare not deny!
(Chorus)
You’ll find dihydrogen monoxide everywhere you go
In oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams, in air and soil and snow
Its quantitative formula is simply H-2-O
You’ll get it if you try!
(Chorus)
How far DHMO has spread no one can safely tell.
They’ve found it on Europa, and it’s on our Moon as well.
It may well turn our Solar System to a living hell!
It’s filling up the sky!
Spam word: people Dihydrogen monoxide is people!!!!!
How gullable are we? I dunno… I guess you could measure the NYT’s subscription rates for a decent unmber.
I did something similar in high school myself actually. Also… there was an early Man Show episode on Comedy Central where got women to sign a petition to end “Women’s Suffrage”. They even got one women so riled up about it that she went around the board walk convincing more women to end Women’s Suffrage.
It’s times like these I wish I could edit my comments… my grammar sucks.
Last year (or so) my husband and I refused to sign some petition on our way inside a coffee shop in Ann Arbor. They wanted to get rid of Dove hunting or something. The lady couldn’t believe we wouldn’t sign. She looked hurt and confused all at once.
True anecdote: In college, a lunch table of my classmates were swapping tales of “simple things you can do to save the environment” etc., and I volunteered that when brushing your teeth you should leave the faucet running the whole time, because turning it on and off actually uses up even more water. Of course, I was just kidding, and the idea is quite obviously BS, but several of the blowhards said “yeah, I already knew that one.”!!
Last week I was accosted on my way to lunch by some women wanting to know if I would like to know what the Iraq war was “costing me” in the form of a “receipt” for “my portion.”
I glanced at the amount ($2,600 or something) and said, “My God, that’s ALL?! Where can I give more?!”
I won’t burst any bubbles telling everyone they will never see a dancing hard shelled rodent on this site.
But ‘dillos aren’t rodents either…
Sounds like church.
This sounds like a couple of stupid fucks over at Eschaton who accused me of anti-Semitism because they didn’t know what my reference to shtetls meant.
Toby, how do you stand it over there?? I tried reading a thread yesterday, and noticed your name. Are you a glutton for punishment?
“Major component of acid raid.” Heh.
But what’s missing is the fact that “dihydrogen monoxide” also has a higher heat-trapping capcity than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is produced by burning anything, and also comes out of the tailpipes of our cars. But of course the subversive brainiacs behind the Kyoto Protocol couldn’t exactly stand up in front of people and propose the governmental regulation of GLOBAL HUMIDITY, so they picked CO2 instead, even though it makes about as much practical sense.
T/W: every, as in there’s one born every minute.
:peter
Indeed, it doesâ€â€although I don’t know of a religion that demands the total governmental control of all economic production as a tithe.
:peter
Carin- I can’t believe you hate doves.
At least dihydrogen monoxide doesn’t carmelize the skin.
Carin:
Toby, how do you stand it over there?? I tried reading a thread yesterday, and noticed your name. Are you a glutton for punishment?
I eat that stuff up like warm pecan pie with a little vanilla ice cream on top.
Anyway, I cut my online polemical teeth in a Usenet group dedicated to the Shakespearean Authorship Question. After that, arguing politics with a bunch of half-educated shitferbrains is nothing.
In one of the few years I spent at Earlham College (I’m not a failed academic, I’m a failed student), I was confronted by one of the typical moonbats there with the fact that ‘$2 billion had been spent on making Nutrasweet’. Counter?
“$2 billion? Jesus, do you know how many Stealth Bombers that would have bought?!”
TW: I had a good time there.
Oh, damn. That H20 gag was old when I was young.
I remember reading that in Science News about 20 year ago (damn I’m old).
I guess if people keep falling for it, ya gotta keep pulling it.
College japes are good fun, though. I remember when we set up a table at “multicultural day” with applications for “whitehood”, a chart showing the benefits, and coupons for a year’s supply of macaroni and cheese and a free Ford Crown Victoria if you applied. We all dressed like Herb Tarlek, including my Pitch Black friend from Nairobi (and cofounder of the Rod & Gun club) who was our main pitchman at the table.
A few people got pissy, but most people thought it was hilarious. Oddly enough it was the GLBTSSMMBLA people who protested loudest, but they were commies anyway. The lady heading the black student union got a huge laugh out of it and had pizza with us afterward.
Times have changed. I imagine “tar & feather” would be the order of the day now.
Damn! You are a glutton for punishment. Darn near the first time I saw a grown man cry over an argument was one of those bare-knuckled events. Whoo, count me out…
W C Fields: “Water? Never touch the stuff, m’boy. Fish fuck in it, y’know.”
Toby,
Holy crap! I lost a girlfriend over that.
How gullible? This gullible.