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Ancient water

Bottled water extracted from ancient ice
  (+4, -19)(+4, -19)(+4, -19)
(+4, -19)
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I propose creating the worlds purest bottled water to be sold for $100 per gallon and up. As you may know, scientists drill ice core samples in the arctic region to collect climate information from the past. Often the deeper they drill, the older the ice. Ice cores older than 1000 years were formed from water that predates the industrial revolution and nuclear development, and is free from the man-made toxins of last 1000 years

The idea is to drill large 36" ice cores in the arctic region to 1000 year depths. These cores are then sealed in 36" drums and shipped to a facility where the cores are melted and purified within a level-1 clean room. This ultra-pure water is then bottled into custom shaped Pyrex containers resembling the ice cores they were extracted from. A bottle stopper lined with sterilized Gold would insure purity and lend a nice touch to this luxury item. Water made from the oldest samples could sell for more. Perhaps someday a bottle of fine aged-water with dinner will become more popular than wine.

(Before you decry the environmental damage caused by drilling in the arctic region, I'd like to make two points. One, zero-toxic emission equipment could be used to power the operation and become a selling point rather than criticism of the product. Two, were not talking about oil drilling depths of hundreds of meters, but much shallower depths measured in the tens of meters.)

hightide, Jul 29 2006

How naive are you? http://www.evian.com/
How naive is everyone else? [zeno, Jul 29 2006]

Fin'e artesian water http://www.eau-fine.com/
not worth a tenner! [shinobi, Jul 29 2006]

Lake Vostok http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok
Giant lake at the bottom of the Antarctic ice cap [BunsenHoneydew, Jul 31 2006]

Really pure water http://www.millipor...ations.nsf/docs/p21
No, really really really pure. [Frankx, Aug 01 2006]

Anheuser-Busch's effort during Katrina http://www.anheuser..._redcross090205.htm
[Klaatu, Aug 01 2006]

Ancient Beer? http://news.bbc.co..../europe/5234194.stm
[Jinbish, Aug 02 2006]

Deep, deep in the oceans? http://www.scienced...08/060801182958.htm
I dunno, [baconbrain]. This article describes “anthropogenic influence” at geothermal vents. [reensure, Aug 02 2006]

Great Artesian Basin http://en.wikipedia...reat_Artesian_Basin
Bring a bottle, this water spent 2 million years in the dark and you're going to be thirsty in the desert. [reensure, Aug 02 2006]

Like this? http://www.google.c...0glacier%20water%22
Google search for "bottled glacier water" [st3f, Aug 04 2006]

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       Yeah, and you might call it the reverse of naive and get really rich selling just water. Oh, wait, link.
zeno, Jul 29 2006
  

       How ignorant are you? Evian water filters in 15 years and has levels of strontium in it from nuclear testing in the 20th century. In fact that's how they determined how long Evian water percolates through the FRENCH alps, by measuring the strontium levels in it. I'm talking about ice formed from water in the atmosphere over 1000 years ago. Read S-L-O-W-E-R next time ze-not.
hightide, Jul 29 2006
  

       [tide], please don't beat up on the other bakers. i realize that you seem to have been gone a while and that [zeno] might have been a little harsh, but name calling is just childish.
tcarson, Jul 29 2006
  

       I'll fish any idea that involves drilling in artic and antartic areas. The survival of large areas of our planet (including some of the world's most important cities), relies on us preserving the ice at the poles and not destroying it.   

       However you look at it [hightide], this idea involves melting the polar icecaps which most environmentalists would consider foolish.   

       Secondly, if you really have to drill the ice, it should be done for scientific learnings only.   

       Fish.   

       btw - all water is 'ancient' in a way - I'm surprised some marketing idiot hasn't jumped on that yet.
jonthegeologist, Jul 29 2006
  

       Just because it's from the icecaps doesn't mean it's pure. There are psychrophilic bacteria living there for starters. Plus you've still got plenty of minerals and such like.
hazel, Jul 29 2006
  

       (a) baked in a scene featuring a discussion involving Tim Robbins ordering bottled water in a restaurant, from the film "The Player".   

       (b) environmentally destructive.   

       (a) + (b) = bone   

       //Read S-L-O-W-E-R next time ze- not.//   

       Add S-L-O-W-L-Y [hightide] and don't attack the messengers, just the message, or your ideas will be ignored. Do you want that?
xenzag, Jul 29 2006
  

       I might point out that there's a friendly if somewhat cliquey community on this site. That means we all know that [zeno] is a nice guy, none of us know you, and (in my case at least) your childish attack on him feels like an attack on the whole community. That, I suggest, is a bad thing. Zeno was attacking your idea, not you; perhaps you might avoid getting personal about it.
david_scothern, Jul 29 2006
  

       I'm glad zeno is a friend of this community but his initial response was contrite and arrogant. Had his comment been constructive or even relevant to the suggestion, then perhaps he would not have been assailed. The fact that this behaviour is not just tolerated but defended, speaks volumes. I didn't come here looking for a fight, but apparently that's what comes on the half-baked menu. My idea is no more practical or absurd than many many idiotic posts freely erected on this site. There are billionaires walking the planet today who made their fortune selling sugar water.   

       Frankly the fact that so many of you hate it is a very good sign. Controversy sells.
hightide, Jul 29 2006
  

       THIS IS the halfbakery.
skinflaps, Jul 29 2006
  

       read very, very slowly: B-A-K-E-D. Too much ire as well [hightide]. You should change your name to Tsunami.
xenzag, Jul 29 2006
  

       I think [zeno] was commenting on the fact that you wanted to sell water for rediculous prices through a clever(?) marketing scheme. Such as what evian has done and evian backwards is naive (if you didn't know).   

       I don't think he was really attacking you OR your idea. I think he was just saying that if they did it then this idea would have just as good a chance of working. So your response is harsh and inappropriate for the anno that [zeno] made.   

       Sorry if I misread your meaning, [zeno].
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Jul 29 2006
  

       not a personal attack, I just don't think this is a very smart idea - in fact, it's irresponsible. Don't care for its commercial value.
jonthegeologist, Jul 29 2006
  

       Baked.   

       I was approached by a Japanese company a few months ago to be the sole UK-distributor of premium bottle water called Fin'e artesian water (linked). This water also has a gimmick. Thousands of years old, bottled from some mythical ancient source under the fijean mountains, a secret of the monks ets. This sounded like a great opportunity, until I spoke with the head purchasers of all the major department stores (Harrods, Harvey Nic's, Selfridges), all of whom basically told me to piss off. This water would be sold to retailers at a higher price than the RRP of the runner-up brand (VOS), therefor would be a completely unfeasable move.   

       Got given a crate of the stuff, and to be honest wasn't all that special. Not worth a tenner, much less $100 as you're suggesting.   

       Big smelly fish-boner for you my friend. sorry, been wanting to say that for a while.
shinobi, Jul 29 2006
  

       //and is free from the man-made toxins of last 1000 years//   

       So is distilled water, most rain water and surprisingly most municipally treated Drinking water(probably 90% of bottled water is sourced from a Municipal Supply).   

       This statement is backed up by the fact that I managed a Laboratory that was responsible for the annual and quartly testing of Bottled Water in the Northeast US. And it is REALLY pure Clean Stuff.
jhomrighaus, Jul 29 2006
  

       I suspect that [hightide]'s idea would actually sell quite well, but not at a price that would allow you to extract the stuff from the poles and still make a profit. And what [jtg] said.
wagster, Jul 29 2006
  

       Thank you all for a defence that was not needed. [NotTheSharpestSpoon] understood exactly what I meant.
zeno, Jul 29 2006
  

       Storm in a water bottle.
wagster, Jul 29 2006
  

       Ah, Chateau L'eau 1000BC. Not a good year, didn't age well. A bit too runny.
Ling, Jul 29 2006
  

       There is a company somewhere pumping up sea water from very deep down, desalinating, and selling it as pre-industrial. The gimmick aspect of this idea could work.   

       But drilling isn't needed, is it? Just wait for an iceberg slide off the edge of Antarctica, and tow it away in managable chunks.   

       Or just get some municipal tap water, filter it, and tell everybody that it came from Antarctica.
baconbrain, Jul 29 2006
  

       //... Or just get some municipal tap water...// [baconbrain]   

       An episode of 'Only Fools and Horses' springs to mind.
7ennyn, Jul 29 2006
  

       You could do the same thing with any glacier. They contain ice that old. There are still some glaciers near populated areas. Might as well bottle them before they melt.
bungston, Jul 30 2006
  

       I want a bottle of Lake Vostok. [link]   

       And while I kind of like the idea, I'm sorry but you're getting a fish for manners.
BunsenHoneydew, Jul 31 2006
  

       Most water on Earth largely stays as water, cycling endlessly between oceans, air, rain, rivers, and oceans. So any given glass of water is mostly ancient anyway.   

       The only real difference is going to be the air trapped in the ice. In glacier ice, the decompressing trapped air makes for cracks and fizzes as the ice melts.   

       Oh, and by the way, glacier ice was Widely Baked some 15-20 years ago. Haven't heard much about it lately, though.
DrCurry, Aug 01 2006
  

       [rcarty] "Can you think of a better way to get ice?"   

       As already said, most water is "ancient," the 'oldest' being located in the undercurrents of the deep ocean at about 2,000 years without being in contact with the atmosphere.   

       There is something ever so slightly appealing about abusing the naivety of the wealthy, but that in itself isn't novel. I imagine [hightide] chose an controversial source to provoke lots of responses. Which it did.   

       The science is not so good - the water is neither relatively ancient nor particularly pure - for really pure water a combination of reverse osmosis, deionisation and ultrafiltration achieves many orders of magnitude over any natural source (...and a link...)   

       But, as a marketing gimmick, there's no logic in how and why people buy the stuff they do.
Frankx, Aug 01 2006
  

       Bottled water is a stupid idea. It's thousands of times more expensive and contains more impurities and dangerous things than tapwater. It also incurs a ridiculous environmental cost in terms of packaging and transport. Finally, while cycling recently in London a truck carrying 24 tons of bottled water cornered too fast and fell over, rather too close to me for comfort. Bottled water is the work of the devil.
hippo, Aug 01 2006
  

       quite right - it should come in cans
po, Aug 01 2006
  

       [po] it already does come in cans <link>
Klaatu, Aug 01 2006
  

       you get a Boneo for rudeness hightide [-]
Eat my fishy slice...
The_Englishman_Abroad, Aug 01 2006
  

       Great idea --- to appease the scientific community keep a bit of the ice in a freezer. They will probably thank you for going and getting it...   

       Onward...!
madness, Aug 02 2006
  

       There's a link above to “anthropogenic influence” on geothermal vents in oceans, for [baconbrain]. The Roman elite in ancient days had ice conveyed to them from glaciers in the Alps -- could global warming be somehow linked to the fall of Rome? heh.   

       Anyway, the Idea of glacier ice as a premium product sucks eggs, for just being too P.T.Barnum-esque.
reensure, Aug 02 2006
  

       //The idea is to drill large 36" ice cores in the arctic region to 1000 year depths//   

       I'm not a glaciologist, but I doubt three feet down would put you a thousand years back.   

       //Frankly the fact that so many of you hate it is a very good sign. Controversy sells.//   

       Apparently not, judging by those fishbones at the top there. Also, it's companies like Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani that are theiving water from aquifers under communities where people would be getting it for free from wells, then selling it back to them at a buck twenty a bottle.
jellydoughnut, Aug 04 2006
  

       Good scam, bad idea. Fishy.

//An episode of 'Only Fools and Horses' springs to mind.//

My house appears in that episode.
DrBob, Aug 04 2006
  

       //My house appears in that episode.//   

       Really!? Did Nicholas Lyndhurst have the day off?
Jinbish, Aug 04 2006
  

       //Did Nicholas Lyndhurst have the day off?//
[DrBob]'s house is entirely made from wood? Incredible!
zen_tom, Aug 04 2006
  

       you can see a fair few miles from Peckham on a clear day.
po, Aug 04 2006
  


 

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