Sometimes, the Internet seems like a vast ocean of insanity.
In a comment thread on Pharyngula, I found a gem of a web site. Have a look at the Crystal Clear site. It’s one of those sites that makes claims so bizarre that I wonder if it’s not really a parody site in disguise. Assuming it’s not a parody, it’s frightening how the site author tries to wrap his device (a water purifier) in scientific-sounding gibberish, hoping that some poor soul will send in $1500 to $2800 to get this “answer to cancer”.
Let’s look at one of the site’s claims: Everybody is drinking someone else’s disease.
1: Today’s water is low in Electrons that destroy free radicals that cause disease
Low relative to what? How is this detected?
2: The disease markers of former users are still in the water!!!
What are these “disease markers”? How are they detected?
One sure sign of a quack is that he won’t reveal his methods. Let’s continue reading.
That’s why water from the purest water products goes bad in a bottle or quickly develops such a horrible smell in a hot tub, you couldn’t get in the hot tub if it’s not treated!
I’m not exactly sure what he’s getting at here (but it isn’t backing up his claim). I don’t observe the water coming from my laboratory deionizer going “bad” in its nalgene bottle over a noticable period of time.
And as for hot tubs, wouldn’t the need for treating the water have to do with the fact that the typical hot tub is exposed to lots of sources of bacteria and other contaminants – not the least of which would be the people that sit in the hot tub? I don’t see how this guy connects the fouling of water in a hot tub to some intrinsic property of the water molecules.
For centuries (vapor to rain), the disease markers from the waste products of billions and billions of people and animals spread diseases everywhere!
“Disease markers” again. Which are what?
My patents and proprietory secrets prove that I am THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD that can find disease markers in water and as a result, unlike cigarette manufacturers that have a warning label, there are grounds for legal action against sellers of bottled, ordinary distilled, reverse osmosis, ozonated, filtered, alkaline and spring water products for causing any problem you can name!!
Even if you’ve never had a chemistry course before, you can immediately tell that this guy is spouting B.S. and not doing science. Not only will he not tell us what these “disease markers” are, he claims that he’s the only person in the world who can find them! If you can’t reproduce your findings and describe them in such a manner so that other people can reporduce them as well, you sure as heck aren’t doing science. Telling people how to spot these “disease markers” would mean that more people would buy his water-purifying machine, right?
Bonus points for anyone else who can figure out what the rest of that sentence means.
And now … the proof we’ve been waiting for!
Proof! I have copies of a certified letter that I sent to the authorities where they now have the high est cancer rate in the country in spite of using these products!!
That he sends a letter to “the authorities” is proof of what, exactly. The presence of these “disease markers”? That water is “lower in electrons” now than it used to be?
Shuw us the data!
4/5/06: The John Ellis site appears to have been rearranged. You cas still find most of the crasy stuff linked from here.