Interesting factoids about salt and water

Simple table salt has a great number of uses other than simply seasoning your food. The following list will give you 50 uses of salt, many of which you probably didn't realise. I can't verify that all of these are 100% true so best to take them with a pinch of salt.

1. Add salt to green salads to prevent wilting
2. Sprinkle salt on your shelves to keep ants away
3. Soak stained hankies in salt water before washing
4. Put a few grains of rice in your salt shaker for easier pouring
5. A tiny pinch of salt with egg whites makes them beat up fluffier
6. Rub salt on your pancake griddle and your flapjacks won't stick
7. Soak fish in salt water before descaling; the scales will come off easier
8. Soak wrinkled apples in a mildly salted water solution to perk them up
9. Test the freshness of eggs in a cup of salt water; fresh eggs sink; bad ones float.
10. Add a little salt to your boiling water when cooking eggs; a cracked egg will stay in its shell this way.

Soak your nuts in salt brine overnight and they will crack out of their shells whole. Just tap the end of the shell with a hammer to break it open easily

11. Use salt to clean your discoloured coffee pot
12. Use a mixture of salt and lemon juice to clean piano keys
13. Mix salt with turpentine to whiten your bathtub and toilet bowl
14. Soak toothbrushes in salt water before first use; they will last longer
15. Boil clothespins in salt water before using them. They will last longer
16. Clean your iron by rubbing some salt on the damp cloth on the ironing surface.
17. Pour a mound of salt on an ink spot on your carpet; let the salt soak up the stain.
18. Add a little salt to the water in which your cut flowers will stand and they will last longer.
19. Clean brass, copper and pewter with paste made of salt and vinegar, thickened with flour.
20. Adding a little salt to water when cooking foods in a double boiler will make the food cook faster.

To fill plaster holes in your walls, use equal parts of salt and starch, with just enough water to make a stiff putty

21. Use salt for killing weeds in your lawn
22. Rinse a sore eye with a little salt water
23. A dash of salt enhances the taste of tea
24. Salt improves the taste of cooking apples
25. Eliminate excess suds with a sprinkle of salt
26. A dash of salt in warm milk makes a more relaxing beverage
27. Before using new glasses, soak them in warm salty water for awhile
28. Dry salt sprinkled on your toothbrush makes a good tooth polisher
29. Mildly salted water makes an effective mouthwash. Use it hot for a sore throat gargle.

Soak your clothes line in salt water to prevent your clothes from freezing to the line; likewise, use salt in your final rinse to prevent the clothes from freezing

30. Clean greasy pans with a paper towel and salt
31. Freshen sponges by soaking them in salt water
32. Milk stays fresh longer when a little salt is added
33. Sprinkle salt in your oven before scrubbing clean
34. Gelatin sets more quickly when a dash of salt is added
35. Add raw potatoes to stews and soups that are too salty
36. Fruits put in mildly salted water after peeling will not discolour
37. Rub wicker furniture with salt water to prevent it from yellowing
38. Soaked discolored glass in a salt and vinegar solution to remove stains
39. Soak enamel pans in salt water overnight and boil salt water in them next day to remove burned-on stains.

If a pie bubbles over in your oven, put a handful of salt on top of the spilled juice. The mess won't smell and will bake into a dry, light crust which will wipe off easily when the oven has cooled

40. Salty water boils faster
41. A dash of salt improves the taste of coffee
42. A pinch of salt improves the flavor of cocoa
43. Sprinkle salt in milk-scorched pans to remove odor
44. Salt and soda will sweeten the odor of your refrigerator
45. Cover wine-stained fabric with salt; rinse in cool water later
46. Sprinkle salt between bricks where you don't want grass to grow
47. Add a pinch of salt to whipping cream to make it whip more quickly
48. Mix 1 part salt to 4 parts alcohol to remove grease stains in clothing
49. Remove odors from sink drainpipes with a strong, hot solution of salt water.

Now you know everything there is to know about salt. They even made a movie about it ;)

Related Post: Cooking tips and household tricks

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SHOWER POWER: Green tweaks for your shower and toilet

FOOD, energy and clean water: apart from having a roof over our heads, these are the things that we need for survival.

In recent columns I wrote about how we could create an abundance of fresh produce in city centers with the use of Dr Dickson Despommier’s sky farms or vertical farms. Growing food in skyscraper-sized greenhouses offers numerous­ benefits over traditional farming methods. Water is held in a closed system and nutrients can be pumped within to yield healthy produce. There is minimal risk of bad weather or insects destroying crops. The land used would be minimal and there would be no risk of farm invasions­.

Furthermore, if food were grown in tall buildings within city centers, inflation would be lower as food wouldn’t need to travel far. This would result in fresher and cheaper fruit and vegetable foodstuffs all year round; not only that, but a lot more of it too.

We've got the power!

With regards to clean energy generation, there really is no limit to harnessing more power than we could ever need. With a combined use of solar, wind, tidal and of course, geothermal­ energy sources, we need never burn another finite fossil fuel ever again.

Unfortunately, solar powered technologies are still at a stage where they are very expensive for the home user to implement. A solar geyser for example can save you up to 40% of your electricity bill, but will set you back by about R15 000.

Drink it up

And then there’s clean drinking water­. It has been predicted that wars in the future will not be over land or industrial resources, but rather over fresh water. Despite our planet being more than two thirds water, only about 3% of this is drinkable if it’s not contaminated or polluted.

However, it has long been known that boiling water to the point of evaporation is an effective distilling process. Evaporated water leaves behind contaminants and heavier metals making it pure and safe when re-condensed. What has hindered mass production of this kind was the amount of heat and power constantly needed to boil water at such temperatures.

This has become less of an issue since the invention of heat-exchange devices — devices that produce power but require heat to operate. Coupling this with a water-distilling machine creates a closed loop of energy whereby one device­ feeds into the other. We have now reached a point where we can even create­ fresh drinking water from sewage­ and ocean water.

Producing more for less

What is also starting to sink into social­ consciousness and green living is the idea of creating more with less — an idea which permeates all economic­ sectors of society. The farmer practises producing more food with less land, the architect designs more energy-efficient buildings, and the businessperson, more profit from less work. While there may not be a world war over water in the future, conserving our most precious resource by using it more efficiently should still be high on the social agenda.

Several water companies have been tapping into the water­ conservation market, offering a range of technologically advanced and super green products that will save you thousands. From my experience, I find that the simpler solutions are always better.

Apart from the bath, two of the largest water guzzlers in an average household are the shower and the toilet. It is estimated that a daily five-minute shower uses about 100 litres of water, while a flush toilet uses between six and 18 litres of water per flush.

African Water Controls is one Johannesburg-based company that largely focuses on making the household shower and toilet more efficient.

A toilet­ device, called a WaterStop, allows the toilet user to control how much water is used to flush the toilet simply by holding down the toilet handle­ until the desired water quantity has been released. An unmodified toilet flushes away a full tank of water with one touch of the handle.

For showers, a pressure compensating regulator (PCR) can be used, which can either be fitted behind a hand shower or behind a wall shower. This half-inch connection standardises the pressure throughout a water network and can reduce the amount of water used by a shower by half.

Shower heads and fittings such as these come with different flow rates and fittings and can be found in several major stores throughout the country. However, this is the first company that I’ve come across that sells such devices­ so inexpensively, with the shower fitting available­ for around R45 and the toilet WaterStop for around R65.

Creating abundance and conserving energy and water should not have to be as complicated and difficult as it’s often made out to be.

African Water Controls contact details

130 Main Street
Marshalltown, 2001
Phone: 011 331 9425
Email: contact@africanwater.co.za

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WATER: Can positive thoughts affect water molecules?

IN last week’s column, A dummies guide to quantum physics, I put forward the main theories and ideas of quantum physicists. Of these were the theory that we all collectively play a role in creating reality, that our brains are only able to see what we believe is possible or have experience of, and the idea that thoughts can have real effects on physical reality.

A popular example of the latter was an experiment conducted by Japanese author Dr Masaru Emoto who published his findings in a book called Messages from Water. Emoto was studying the effects of music on water molecules. He found that water molecules seemed to take on different shapes depending on the music they were exposed to. This is interesting when we consider the effect of music on plant growth and the effect of Mozart on milk production in cows.

Emoto then began experimenting with the effects that words, prayer, thoughts and blessings might have on water molecules. Again, he claimed that the molecules took on different shapes depending on their labels and affirmations offered (see images). Some of the labels consisted of simple words or statements such as “thank you” and “peace”. Emoto’s published results indicated that water crystal formation was sensitive to these things and concluded that molecules of water “are affected by our thoughts, words, and feelings”. The science that affects water­ molecules in this way is still unknown.

Water molecule formation (thoughts?)

Emoto’s work has, however, been met with controversy within the scientific community. It was found that he did not publish the entirety of his photographs­. It is also unknown whether or not he ruled out or ignored crystals that did not support his hypothesis. It is sadly something that cannot be soundly verified.

However, Emoto’s experiments still hold interest when we consider that the human body (as well as plants and other animals) are almost entirely made of water. I’m sure we all also know of someone who says they’ve experienced spiritual or alternative healing. We could also consider how we heal faster or get sick less frequently with a positive state of mind, or how subjective pain is. All these secrets may lie in the molecular make-up of water.

What’s more is that water is one of the most complex and unique compounds known to science and chemistry. It may just be a simple combination of hydrogen and oxygen, but the intricacies of water are far more complex. It is not only the most receptive element, but also the only one that can be in all known states (e.g. solid, liquid, gas).

We can take things a step further and consider how the human brain is mostly water and may then too be subjected to thoughts or emotional conditioning in profound ways. The brain is a vast system of neural networks which communicate with each other electrically and chemically. They respond to stimuli picked up from our environment by our sense organs and proceed to send chemicals from the brain throughout the body. Each cell is covered in receptors which absorb chemical combinations (called peptides) and respond accordingly. It can be said the behaviour of our watery cells change depending on the peptides they receive.

Following this process we all build up models of how we see the world outside of us. These are refined according to the information we have or receive. This is how we each form our own personal world view or ideology. However, any new information we pick up from the environment is always coloured by previous experiences that we’ve had as well as the emotions associated with those experiences. People may think of love very differently, for example, if their associations and experiences of love differ.

However, what quantum physics and biology have shown, is that these neural networks are able to rearrange themselves according to the emotions we feel and experiences we have on a daily basis. If we experience anger and despair often, our neural networks will adapt to provide more of the chemicals that cause these emotions. Similarly, if we manage to control our thoughts and maintain more of a positive outlook on a daily basis, more favourable arrangements will be made. And that is something that science does agree with.

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THE FUTURE: Drinking water, electricity, food production and longevity

WHAT we call “the future” may be closer than we think. The technology and solutions for many global issues already exist both in theory and practice; they just need to be properly implemented. Growing populations, clean drinking water, electricity, food production and even longevity are all on the cards within the coming decades...

Distilling fresh drinking water

DESPITE our little Earth being more than two-thirds water­, only three percent of this is drinkable. To make matters worse, a large portion of this miniscule percentage is either polluted or contaminated. Despite what some doomsayers might say, a lack of fresh water is single-handedly the biggest threat to the survival of our species and many others.

So how can we produce more of it cheaply? Simple. Boil dirty water beyond recognition. Boiling water at extreme temperatures not only kills germs, but rising water vapour leaves behind any sediment or pollutants, which don’t vaporise. Water vapour collected via this distilling process is highly pure and drinkable.

American inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen, has invented a small portable device that can produce clean drinking water from any source — even ocean water and sewage. He calls it the Slingshot, which is designed to produce 1000 litres of clean drinking water a day and can be manufactured for under $2 000 (roughly R14 000).

Of course it takes huge amounts of energy to boil water at such temperatures. To counter this, Kamen uses­ a heat-exchange device which is powered by heat and produces the energy needed to create heat. This closed loop of energy allows the Slingshot to run on less power than a toaster.

Food production in major cities

IT is estimated that about 80% of what grows in the ground can be grown indoors under controlled environments. Indoor farms and hydroponics (growing plants without soil) make so much sense when we consider that the majority of the world’s population lives in densely populated urban areas.

Furthermore, growing food directly where it’s needed, will result in lower inflation and therefore cheaper food. No fuel or transport costs would affect the price of staple foodstuffs. Weather conditions would no longer be an issue and we would no longer need to worry about farm attacks.

According to Dr Dickson Despommier from the University of Columbia, a 30-story high sky farm about the size of one New York city block, could consistently feed around 50 000 people per year. The logic is quite simple: to produce food where the people live. The result would be being able to get freshly picked fruit and vegetables easily and cheaply on a daily basis.

• Continues here with energy production and longevity

Link: The Vertical Farm

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