Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:11 pm
The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide
I thought that you might find this amusing, I'll cut and paste from Ars;
Need I say more?
Dfficials acting on behalf of the Californian City of Aliso Viejo were prepared to ban foam cups because of research done on the Internet that revealed that dihydrogen monoxide is a toxic, deadly material. And lo and behold, there it is in the makeup of those darned foam cups! But wait. If it's been too long since you had Chemistry, let's spell that compound out for you another way: H2O.
"It's embarrassing," said City Manager David J. Norman. "We had a paralegal who did bad research." The paralegal apparently fell victim to one of the many official looking Web sites that have been put up by pranksters to describe dihydrogen monoxide as "an odorless, tasteless chemical" that can be deadly if accidentally inhaled.
Fortunately someone pointed out to them that we're dealing with mere water here, and the vote has been cancelled. The misinformation which led to this embarrassing event is actually a semi-famous hoax pulled quite a long time ago when a junior high school student won a science fair by discussing the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide. Much of that information has now been put on the web, and its nature as satire apparently has prevented at least a few people from realizing that it's a joke.
Need I say more?
