Tag: water

space

The Moon is Alive!

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A giddy sort of excitement swept through me today when I heard that significant amounts of water has been found on the moon. A NASA mission that plunged a rocket into the moon’s surface last month on purpose to possibly detect water in fact detected about 25 gallons of water in the form of vapor and ice.
“The moon is alive,” a mission scientist says. What a groovy thing to say about the lifeless rock that controls our tides.
While this is not the first time that water has been found on the moon, previously water was found in such an insignificant amount that it did not really matter at all.
This time around though things are different: this amount of water is enough to start one dreaming about setting up moon bases and then having them drill for water to survive. Carrying water is a heavy proposition – any who has hiked a decent distance will agree with that statement – and flying hundreds of gallons to the moon would be super expensive. The long time dream / fantasy for all moon explorers is that you wouldn’t need to transport water to the moon, rather you could just drill for water when you get there. Now, that seems to be at least a real possibility. Moon tourism in my lifetime? That has moved into the possible but not probable category, which is definitely better than “No way Jose.”
Via ma femme

ramblings

Seltzer Versus Soda Water

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When I go to the bodega or supermarket to buy some seltzer, which I absolutely love and easily drink a case of each week, I also notice that club soda is sold. What pray tell is the difference between the two?
A) Seltzer, aka soda or sparkling water, is merely plain water into which carbon dioxide gas has been dissolved.
B) Club soda can be identical to plain carbonated water or it may contain a small amount of table salt, sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, or disodium phosphate, depending on the bottler. These additives are included to emulate the slightly salty taste of homemade soda water.
So, all club soda is seltzer but not all seltzer is club soda, like how all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares.
Answers courtsey of Wikipedia

ramblings

How Does Water Expire?

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I have been in all-day Client meetings the past 2 days where access to the good old office water cooler is not possible. So, I have been drinking bottled water. I happened to notice on my .500 mL bottle of Dannon Natural Spring Water that it was bottled on 8/11/05 at 16:59. That was nice to know I guess. I also noticed right under those stats that it will expire in August, 2007. No more specifics were given. So, I thought to myself, how the fuck does water expire?

In case you are wondering, I’ll tell you. Water is known as the universal solvent. What that means is that it will absorb almost anything. So, even though it’s been on earth for millions of years, once you put water in a bottle it’s life is limited. It’s actually better for you to drink tap water than bottle water because fluorescent lights, the kind of lights that illuminate every convenience store in the world, help grow bacteria. During the bottling process, there are various processes used to clean up the water including filtration and ozonation. If too much ozone was added, the plastic will leach into the bottles. If too little ozone was added, bacteria can start growing immediately. Awesome!
Now, take that gross tap water. The tap water that arrives at your house is just hours from where it has continuously been tested for hundreds of contaminants. Even with a bottled date, I would prefer freshly tested water than water that has been in a bodega or in a corporate pantry for months. Next, if your teeth important to you you should almost definitely skip bottled water. While bottled water does not have fluoride, most city municipal systems add fluoride to their supply.
So, the next time you are at someone’s house or apartment and they don’t have a Brita, don’t worry. Turn on the tap. Forget the marketing bullshit that everyone is selling you. Relax. And enjoy a cold drink of water. Because its probably better for you than a bottle of Poland Spring/Dasani/Dannon/Deer Park/Evian/etc.

Don’t believe me? Check out this past episode of Penn and Teller’s Bullshit which showed that tap water is usually safer for you, and often better tasting too. Or, if you don’t like “comedy,” you can always peruse the NRDC’s report on bottled water titled “Pure Drink or Pure Hype?” which found that there are major gaps in bottled water regulation and that bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water.