DON'T BUY BOTTLED WATER!

[Yollam]

Bottled 'spring water' is a bad thing to buy for a slew of reasons.

First and foremost, the increased pressure to drill for spring water has these companies buying drilling rights all over the place and depleting and fouling water tables. That's right. Most of this stuff comes from WELLS. You didn't think they got all those millions of bottles of water just from little gurgling springs, did you?

Then there is the issues of all the horrible plastic bottles and the unnecessary pollution they create. They are not TRULY recyclable like glass or metal.

Then there is the fact that bottled water is NOT regulated, and is not even necessarily cleaner than your local tap water.

Unless your municipality has exceptionally polluted tap water, you will save a lot of money and pollution, and get equal or better water if you just use a good reverse osmosis filter. I have the undercounter model from aquasana. It's great.

www.aquasana.com

I'm not married to this brand, but it did seem to give the best filtration for the lowest cost when I shopped these things. There are a lot of other very good filters out there.


Last, bottled water is part of the effort of companies to try and condition us to thinking of EVERYTHING as a commodity, when it is actually a part of our commons.

The day will come soon when we are told by the filth in Congress that we need to sell off our municipal water supplies to private industry, and we'll be forced to pay a fortune for it as has already been done in third world countries.

DON'T BUY BOTTLED WATER!!!!!

[timber84]

1. Boondocks!!

[Yollam]

5. Love it. Sad to say, the TV show doesn't capture the comic well...

...I hope it improves - a lot.

[timber84]

6. The boys in my house have me watching it have to say I've laughed

[Jokerman]

28. Hit and Miss

The "Trial of R. Kelley" was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV. The other episodes have been OK but not up to the level of the strip.

[Yollam]

30. It's obvious that the animation is being outsourced to Asia...

...and I can't help but wonder if all the editing, etc. is being done there too. The comic is so sharp, but the TV show seems unfocused and has very weird timing. The drawing style is less grafitti and more anime than the strip - another weakness. The self-hating black character, Ruckus is funny in the strip but is so hideous and over-the-top mean in the TV show that he's just a pure villain. The TV show needs more of the subtlety and wit that makes the strip shine. Maybe if Matt Groening isn't too busy he could give McGruder a few pointers...

[Jokerman]

36. I've read that McGruder is a big fan of Anime.

The Anime influence has always been somewhat apparent in the strip but even more so in animation. I agree about Ruckus.

[LSparkle]

2. I've sworn by Brita water filters for years

The only time I buy bottled water is when I'm out in public and thirsty (and can't find a drinking fountain).

[Warpy]

21. Same here

I used bottled water on Cape Cod, but that's because the local water was nasty and polluted by all kinds of crap from Otis Air Force Base. It was hyper filtered municipal water from a safer part of the state.

The local water here in NM is full of minerals and comes out of the tap smelling like Clorox, so the filter is essential. No way am I going to pay hefty prices for water with chichi labels.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

Ditto

All that plastic has always made me suspicious.

[ohio_liberal]

3. United Dairy bottles our city tap water

Says so right on the label. :D

[stop the bleeding]

4. Welcome to DU and do you suggest an RO system

because I am not drinking what comes out of the tap.

[Yollam]

12. I am not an expert on the matter, but...

there are a bunch of comparison studies up on the aquasana website. I think both RO and straight filtration are good. I picked aquasana because it gives the best filtration for the least money, but there are are many excellent systems, and most of them cost a lot less per litre than the plastic bottles.

FWIW, I have the undercounter model which cost about $150, the filter replacements cost about 50 bucks and need to be replaced every 6-9 months. The water tastes very good (luckily, tap water here in San Francisco is pretty good to begin with.)

[stop the bleeding]

35. thanx for the link to the site and also your input on this matter

My lady and I have a Tri-Filter inline systme under the sink for drinking that has to have the filters replaced every so often, but we are debating on an RO system or something that is equivelant to, so that we can have it for the whole house.

Good water is good for everything

[GaDemo]

19. Our water here

in Gwinnet county in N.Georgia is just as good or better right out of the tap.:) I remember not to long ago they did a taste test between different bottle waters and our tap water and guess who won.Our tap water

[notadmblnd]

7. I just bought a PUR

water filtration system today. I'm tired of tasting chlorene in my tap water.

[LynneSin]

8. Hate to disappoint you but I'm sticking with bottled water

Wilmington water is so bad I filter it but I'll still only use it for cooking and brushing my teeth. Even my cats get bottled water.

Mind you I'm not buying the expensive fancy stuff. Usually the 3 gallon container you can put in your fridge slapped with my store's own label will do. Lasts me and the cats for about 7-10 days.

[havocmom]

16. Water where I live is officially rated as Not Fit For Stock Animals

and the PA's wife mentioned there are some 'radiological issues with it' after her husband sent some to a private testing lab after getting curious about some cancer clusters he was noticing in the population...

I'll stick to my bottled water too. Been to the spring it comes from and it is OK-fine.

Meanwhile, if you need light, I'll just glow for you... can't afford bottled water to shower with. ;)

[LynneSin]

25. I use to waterski in front of TMI both before AND after the accident

I could just glow myself

:D

I think for some of us bottled water is pretty much the choice so the least we could do use make good choices such as buying in larger containers like those 3galleon jugs you can put in your fridge that have a spout from them. If I had the room I'd get a water subscription but this is the best I can do for now!

[havocmom]

32. We use the five gallon bottles

at least while we can still lift the damned things out of the car once a week (no delivery service in THIS hood)

Hey, maybe that's why Havocdad is looking to retire to a different local... where the water is actually safe. He said I can have a burro too, if I'm good. AND a bicycle! Off the grid, off municiple water and off the beaten path! ;)

[brooklynite]

9. But if I buy water that's not in a bottle, it slips through my fingers...

As a rule, I'm perfectly happy with NYC tap water with no additional filtering. There are times when a bottle on the go is useful however.

[Yollam]

13. I've read that NYC's municipal water supply is one of the best.

Nice for you!

[Bill McBlueState]

10. you & the Chewley's gum salesman oughtta pair up n/t

[mduffy31]

14. Clerks reference....nice

[npincus]

11. thanks for the info... I do drink bottled water

because tap water in my NJ town tastes like CRAP. But I've always been interested in a water filtration system for my kitchen sink.

[Lannes]

15. Ive gotten sick from drinking tap water

Only drink distilled water,no complaints.

[Yollam]

17. Distilled water has no mineral content. Doesn't it taste crappy?

nt

[Lannes]

27. Actually I like the taste

or lack of it compared to bottled water out there like evian.

[Yollam]

29. To each his own, I suppose...

:)

[jim3775]

18. Does it cause cancer? n/t

[Broken_Hero]

20. I use to buy bottled water....

but this past may my wife and i got a Hague Water purifying/softener for our well. Through some trial and error, the Hague water people finally got our water tasting good, finally. The biggest issue we had was sulphur, and massive sediments coming through our pipes. I'm from Alaska, and the water back home is damn great right out of the tap, and having this water system is almost as "good" as that.:)

[Xithras]

22. My tap water has uranium, mercury, and pesticides in it.

The tap water in parts of the central valley is nasty as chit thanks to mother nature, mechanized farming, and the legacy of gold mining. Well after well is being shut down because they're getting worse and the EPA limits keep getting violated. Since our municipal water companies can't afford to fix the problem, it gets ignored.

My home has a whole house filtration system that cost a couple thousand dollars just to take all of this garbage out. When I'm not at home, bottled water is my only option.

[Dr.Phool]

23. I keep 10 cases of Zepherhills in my garage.

Mainly for Hurricane season. I know it comes from a spring in my county. And I recycle all the plastic. For everything else I use filtered tap water.

I have a water softener, which uses salt, and I drink bottled because of the sodium content- hypertension.

[Mutley]

24. I'm going to have to stick with bottled...

Baltimore water is so nasty. They find bodies in the reservoir pretty regularly. :puke: No filtration system is perfect enough to make me drink THAT. :puke: I don't even like showering in it.

[trogdor]

26. Actually...

...a lot of it is filtered tap water. Aquafina is, and I understand it's one of the top brands.

FWIW, I hate bottled water. It takes like plastic. The water from OUR well kicks ass, and I use a GE whole-house filter, mainly for sediment.

[madmom]

31. When my daughter was in high school she did a science

experiment, tested water from 5 different sources. The best my nieces well water, the worst our city tap water we are surrounded by farms, can you say fecal matter? I'll stick with my filtered bottle water!

[Wilms]

33. Don't forget all the trucking involved with bottled water. n/t

[LeftyMom]

34. The tap water here smells like clorox and it's not even clear

I don't hnow how much of that's the water district on this end of town and how much of it's the pipes in this old building, but I get filtered, ozoned, UV'd and remineralized water for $0.40/ gal at the food coop and do all my cooking with and drink that.

I'm thinking of putting a filter on my showerhead, if that gives you any idea how nasty the water is here.

[Meldread]

37. I've never bought bottled water.

I live out in the middle of no where and have a well. The water tastes nice and clean. No bleach smell to it like the water in towns, straight from the ground here.

My uncle used to clean and paint water towers for a living before he fell and got hurt (and nearly died). You wouldn't believe some of the stuff he's claimed to see. Dead decaying birds, for example.

Anyway, I wouldn't buy bottled water unless for some reason the water where I lived was contaminated. Why in the hell would I pay for something that I can get for free? I only wished that I had come up with the idea of selling bottled water first.

[we can do it]

38. No Kidding - Who Is Dumb Enough to Do It Anyway..n/t