Forum:Crazy Pseudoscience Ads on Prison Planet/InfoWars/WND

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I'd love to start an article about some of the crazy "lifesaving" psuedoscience ads that are appearing on the listed sites, amongst others. I'm unsure how to go about this. A few in question:

  • EcoloBlue — claims to create water from the air. I'm assuming it's something that collects condensation but I haven't a clue. Mighty expensive though.
  • Athena Alkaline Water — claims to create an alkaline water which "flushes" acid waste, amongst other claims.
  • Super Natural Silver — claims that their silver mixture can kill viruses on contact, via magnetic viral DNA disruption.

These are just a few of the ads that I saw when I decided to check the site out (hey, gotta pay the lunatics a visit sometimes). I was wondering if anyone had any valid scientific evidence that could prove or (likely) disprove these claims. Looks like stuff we could add to the alternative medicine sections. – Nick Heer 05:45, 30 March 2010 (UTC) Edit: Sorry — the colloidal silver article is already there. My mistake. – Nick Heer 05:46, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

The alkaline water thing is something I know a bit about because the wife's brother in law started on an "Alkaline diet", which involved buying a several hundred pound water filter and alkinator (why not use a brita and add some sodium bicarbonate?) and not eating "acidic" foods, which oddly were all foods which were high in fat. Oh and the diet also included going to the gym for 2 hours every day. He lost about a stone and a half just from the alkaline diet (and nothing to do with cutting out fatty foods and increasing exercise at all). CrundyTalk nerdy to me 10:00, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
Those items that collect condensation look cool, if they weren't so frakkin expensive I'd buy one. They seem to be from the same company that sells ridicolously overpriced solar panels and uses Obama panic to sell them.
I can't see why you'd want to condense your own water, I mean, this isn't Tatooine. It's not like it's going to be purer because it'll still contain all the crap that's dissolved in the atmosphere anyway... Scarlet A.pngnarchist 08:15, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
It seems like a good thing if you want to be off the grid. Although if you're going to live off the grid, it'd be better to have a well drilled / drill your own and get water from there. Unless of course you're relocating to the desert, which is probably not a good idea . . . Ozznova (talk) 08:17, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
Going to the supernaturalsilver thing, silver has well known anti-microbial properties and colloidal suspensions are considered as a good delivery mechanism. That "magnetic DNA disruption" seems a bit odd, though. I suppose silver has some magnetic property but it's still a very, very weird thing to say, particularly as magnetic fields are tiny compared to the range of energies in chemical bonds, which you'd need to alter to "disrupt" DNA. Scarlet A.pngnarchist 08:26, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
Seems like it has something to do with magnet woo. Which is kind of stupid in and of itself, so . . . Ozznova (talk) 12:20, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
Holy dickshit, I've just clicked onto their "NASA technical study", that's not even cargo cult grade science. You'd expect a "technical report" to not include the phrase "special molecules", well, I would, anyway. I'd look up some of their stuff, but because they've used shitty English Lit student style referencing, I can't. I'll see if I can use that serial number to dig up the original NASA report. Scarlet A.pngnarchist 12:30, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
I'm sure someone else can make sense of the NASA report however two things strike me. 1) it's from 1971, hardly cutting edge stuff. 2) It appears to be a study of silver ions not colloidal particles. 3) none of the properties mentioned on that website appear to be in it. Scarlet A.pngnarchist 12:36, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
The "EcoloBlue" thing is quite real but their version of it is a little expensive, even with the claimed "11/12 stage filtering". What does concern me is least expensive and apparently least efficient machine is advertised to draw 450 watts, while the two more expensive ones that retrieve more water are advertised for 280 watts. I hope that's a typo because otherwise they're making a mistake in manufacturing a wasteful machine that apparently could use half the energy.
As with air conditioners but even more so I'd be concerned with the work it takes to keep the unit sanitary to prevent Legionella or something from contaminating the drinking water or nearby atmosphere. Also, it takes less energy to cleanse and sterilize rainwater or fast running water from a stream or something, so unless you're in a very arid climate like a sand or permafrost desert grabbing water from the air is virtually useless.
I would think you'd also have to account for the Ph and osmotic pressure of pure condensate somehow by eating with it or adding a basic solute.
Aphoxema (talk) 14:52, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Article?[edit]

We don't actually have an article on PrisonPlanet - does good documentation of their lunacy exist? I have a conspiracy-prone friend who keeps putting forward PP pages as "interesting links" - David Gerard (talk) 15:13, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

It's kind of odd, but there's not even much mention on Wikipedia. Some poor sod is going to have to visit the site and do a bit of research. Batshit crazy site. The adverts aside (chemtrails, conspiracies and other shite) are just scratching the surface. I imagine they cater to a small but loyal readership of nutjobs who can't fart without considering it evidence of a conspiracy by bean manufacturers. ConcernedResident omg ponies!!! 14:49, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
*splorf* that line has to go in the article - David Gerard (talk) 14:51, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
Heh heh. At great risk to my personal sanity I'm currently downloading the adverts and visiting the sites they link to. I'll write up a section on their adverts and the type of readership it would imply. ConcernedResident omg ponies!!! 14:58, 13 June 2010 (UTC)