Beware Dihydrogen Monoxide

Dihydrogen monoxide, often shorted to DHMO, is an odorless and colorless compound that is a known component, but not limited to, the following dangers:

- Major component in acid rain

- Death due to accidental inhalation, even in small quantities

- Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant side effects

- Soil erosion

- Corrosion and oxidation of many metals

- Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect

- Has been involved in every instance of school violence

The CDC does not identify DHMO as a toxic or carcinogenic substance, but it is well-known that it is a large component of many toxic substances, diseases, and disease-causing agents. These agents can be potentially lethal to humans. The government refuses to ban production and distribution of DHMO because of its importance to the economic health to the nation. 90% of US citizens say that they will sign a petition to ban DHMO.

Now, before you go and sign a petition, I would like to inform you that the formula for DHMO is H2O, more commonly known as water.

This is an example of pseudoscience, fake science, because in this case, water, an essential component to human bodies and the environment, is being passed off as something incredibly dangerous. This is a good example of pseudoscience because although the claims set forth are all true, however the information was rather vague. The information sets forth only negative examples so it is impossible to refute any of the claims. DHMO was only referred to as an alien substance and not being a part of the human body or being a part of the ocean (or being the ocean, really). This grossly misconstrued other people's take on DHMO.

All the scientific claims set forth about DHMO are true to an extent. The scientific ones, such as the fact that it's a major part of acid rain and it contributes to soil erosion, cannot be refuted. However, claiming that DHMO is a major part of school-related violence is stretching the truth a little too far.

People might fall victim to a claim like this because dihydrogen monoxide is not a familiar name for water if you're not a chemistry student. At the time that this hoax became popular, there were many chain letters in emails claiming that other chemicals were dangerous and that people needed to be wary of them. Since there were no positives associated with DHMO, people assumed that it was dangerous and DHMO needed to be banned.

Source: http://dhmo.org/

Mummy, how are babies born?

Like every other child at the age of 6 or 7, I wondered how babies were born. However, unlike every other child, I never believed that a white stork carried a baby wrapped in cloth to the parents' doorstep. One day, I went up to my mother and asked, "Mummy, how are babies born?" My mother is a Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) nurse and has been working in various hospitals all over the world for years. There was no way that she couldn't know.

Rather than trying to sugarcoat the idea that babies came from a mother's tummy and leave it at that, she went ahead and suppressed any desire I had to have kids. She told me that all babies were born by C-section (although at the time I didn't know what it was called, I just thought it was birth). She not only told me that babies were born by C-section, but she went into excruciating detail, thus scaring this poor 6 or 7-year old girl into never having children.

A few years later, I was in the 4th grade and the school health teacher took it upon herself to explain to 9-year olds how babies are actually born. Most of the students in that class were shocked to find out that there was no baby-delivering bird. I was shocked to find out that a baby's birth was much more natural than my mother had led me to believe.

There was a complete shift in my thinking about birth. Originally I thought it was a horrifying experience and wondered why anyone would ever want to have children. However after my fourth grade experience, I found childbirth strange and almost fascinating. My mom wasn't lying about how babies are born. Some babies are born by C-section; however, most children aren't. Although I did gain new information, the idea was roughly the same, but my perspective about childbirth changed drastically.

The Giraffe

Yes, this post is about the infamous giraffe outside of the school.

I first noticed it in math class when our teacher stopped the lesson and asked what half the class was staring at. The students pointed at something behind the treeline outside of the school. The students called it a "giraffe." It made sense. It was brown and yellow in color, had the same rectangular head, and a long neck. I reasoned that it couldn't possibly be a real giraffe. For starters, there were cables attached to either side of the giraffe's head. Then, I reasoned that the only place there would be a giraffe in the US is in a zoo. From all the giraffes that we have studied in the world, none have had cables attached to either side of their heads or have been walking around aimlessly by a school in the US. Based off of these generalizations, I concluded that it wasn't a real giraffe. Then I made the assumption that it was in fact an inflatable giraffe used for promotion purposes, perhaps by Toys-R-Us. There were times I saw the giraffe move and I assumed that it was the wind.

A few days later, my mom drove me to school through the entrance directly in front of the school (with the newly paved path). I looked for the giraffe and once again saw the yellow and brown object. I pointed at it and told my mom to look. It was then I realized that the "giraffe" was not a giraffe at all. It was a crane working on the construction site. That explained the moving of the giraffe. It was moving to pick up bricks or something of that sort. That was truly an embarrassing moment. But from the second floor of the school, I truly thought I saw an inflatable giraffe! I only confirmed it when I had a closer look. So much for my infallible senses!