This is ludicrous but these guys still manage to change people's purchasing behavior. At work I see a lot of people drinking $2 "Honest Tea" which is just tea with a lot of sugar. On the face of it this is ridiculous but people buy that stuff. In the age of $2 tea and $4+ coffee I can see a big market for overpriced water.
Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone take away this guy's license to conduct business, please. Snake oil is played out.
Unlikely, when after decades, homoeopathic "remedies" are still regularly sold at Whole Foods [1]. The FDA seems to take the stance that if it's not obviously toxic, conmen can sell anything they can get enough people to believe in. [1] If you don't already know why homeopathic remedies are complete BS, look up "homeopathic dilution" and the meaning of the markings such as "30X" or "10C" found on these products.
> The FDA seems to take the stance that if it's not obviously toxic, conmen can sell anything they can get enough people to believe in.
The agency does not wish to take this position but was required to by an act of congress sponsored by that notable scientist and physician Orrin Hatch. You ask what his medical qualifications are? Campaign $$$ of course (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/politics/21hatch.html )
Despite this the agency has still managed to come down hard on unsubstantiated medical claims by some homeopathic rip off artists. But basically $25 Bn can fund a lot of laws to hurt the public.
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#43Some of us grew up on well water. It's generally fine, although you need to inspect and treat it regularly, and if one of your neighbors really messes up his well, it can affect the whole water table around him too. My digestive track always gets a little messed up when I visit my parents back home (although this could also be from the water being treated for hardness). If you were really interested in non-municipal…
>Some of us grew up on well water. It's generally fine, although you need to inspect and treat it regularly You need to inspect it (the CDC recommends annually sending away for a water test[1]), but I'm aware of no EPA or CDC recommendation that calls for unconditionally treating the water. You treat well water only if the tests find a problem. [1] http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/testi... https…
I can safely drink my well water, but it tastes a lot better if I treat it via my RO system.
My well water tests high for nitrates, as a healthy adult this is not a problem, but giving my water to babies will kill them. By only drinking the treated water I make accidents less likely because all my habits are to tell people don't drink the water except for the filtered drinking water.
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#44The best water I have ever tasted comes from a spring in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky. If anyone is rock climbing in the RRG and wants to give it a try look for pipe sticking out of a hill side about a half mile before the Nada tunnel when entering the gorge.
Edit: Just looked up the exact location, 37.815495, -83.692356
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#45I suppose this is meant as a counter-piece to the article that recently was on the HN front page: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/dining/raw-water-unfilter...
I think the NYT article is already critical of the movement without becoming snarky likes the Ars article:
> (There is no scientific evidence that fluoride is a mind-control drug, but plenty to show that it aids dental health.)
> Talk like Mr. Singh’s disturbs Dr. Donald Hensrud, the director of the Healthy Living Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. What the raw-water partisans see as dangers, he says, are important safety measures.
> “Without water treatment, there’s acute and then chronic risks,” Dr. Hensrud said, including E. coli bacteria, viruses, parasites and carcinogenic compounds that can be present in untreated water. “There’s evidence all over the world of this, and the reason we don’t have those conditions is because of our very efficient water treatment.”
Admittetly it wouldve been nice if more counter-voices would've been heard even though the purpose of the reader is to acquaint the reader with the movement (assuming - I guess - a certain reasonableness of the reader)
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#46This seems pretty funny at a glance, but on the other hand there's a really really big elephant in the room today - and that is the state of the American population. Our overall healthfulness has decreased dramatically in just a few decades. The US life expectancy is even in decline. This all correlates with things like the rise of the internet, but the rise of the internet has occurred worldwide whereas the degree of unhealthfulness of the US is something unique in its degree - and that's in a large population. It's easy to blame things look unhealthy food, yet I don't think we have 70% of the population downing Big Macs while treating soda like water in a desert oasis. In either case gluttony is hardly an American exclusive.
I'm not suggesting that it's the water, but I am suggesting that it is not unreasonable to think that something we probably believe is perfectly reasonable or even healthful may be having unforeseen consequences that have yet to be precisely singled out. And so experiments that sound stupid may not be such an awful idea. Penicillin was only accepted long after its discovery. A big part of the reason for that is using a byproduct of blue-green mold to treat vulnerable bacterial infections is something most people intuitively dismissed as idiotic - even after the discoverer presented and published his findings. If there's a market for folks that want to down 'natural' water at a premium, then I think this is a good thing. They get to act as guinea pigs for the whole of society, the guy makes a few bucks, and in the end everybody learns a bit more.
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#47Are you supposed to boil it?
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Some of us grew up on well water. It's generally fine, although you need to inspect and treat it regularly You need to inspect it (the CDC recommends annually sending away for a water test[1]), but I'm aware of no EPA or CDC recommendation that calls for unconditionally treating the water. You treat well water only if the tests find a problem. [1] http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/private/wells/testi... https…
This is true. It's just that you usually find some issues every few years that you at least need to throw some chlorine in the well.
We never did anything to the water wells at places we lived in for 10+ years. Were we just lucky?
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#49FWIW, I absolutely love my in-law's unfiltered well water. It's ridiculously hard water (tons of calcium etc.), and tastes very sweet as a consequence. I haven't ever had water that tastes as good, and we always fill up a couple jugs to take back with us. If I were somehow lose access to that water I'd probably try this at least once just to see if it's close.
I've had well water with a lot of sulfur in it a few times. Not sure if I'd say I like it but it's an interesting experience.
Re: Meet “raw” water – ludicrously priced unfiltered water with random bacteria
#50Some of us grew up on well water. It's generally fine, although you need to inspect and treat it regularly, and if one of your neighbors really messes up his well, it can affect the whole water table around him too. My digestive track always gets a little messed up when I visit my parents back home (although this could also be from the water being treated for hardness). If you were really interested in non-municipal…
My parents home has a well into the kirkwood-cohansey aquifer, with no filters at all, and it is some of the best tasting water I've ever had. Literally the only thing in my life that has beaten it was glacial runoff in the Wapta ice fields