“Water is a precious commodity when you leave Earth.”

I’m sure most of us would agree that water is a precious commodity or earth too – just go for a couple of days without it and water’s importance will be evident.  If I told you I had a machine that would turn your urine into drinking water, would you be interested?  If your answer is no, I don’t blame you!

For the life of me I can’t see why on earth I would want to drink some processed urine.  But what if we were not on earth and turning urine into water was actually efficient?

The crew on the International Space Station has been collecting urine, waiting for the Space Shuttle Endeavour to deliver the new Water Recycling Unit for installation on the space station.

The unit, known as the WRS, was finally installed on the 19th of November and may already be hooked up to the new $19 million dollar toilet that is being added during this mission.  It will be used to recycle astronauts’ urine and sweat, and turn it into drinking water.  Yes, you read that right – $19 million dollars for a toilet!

I don’t know about you, but it could be boiled, cooked, flipped and rubbed down.  I can’t see myself drinking processed urine.  It would have to be a serious situation for me to even consider this.  This is what Tonight Show host Jay Leno had to say:

“NASA now says their $154 million machine that converts urine into drinking water is not working properly.  How would you like to be the astronaut that found that out?”

How about this: what if you had to go outside to get water and weren’t able to walk to your indoor sink and shower or outdoor water hose, etc. and just turn a knob? Sounds like the stone ages huh? Well that is exactly the case for 67 residents in a small town near Zanesville, OH. Yes, I said Ohio. I didn’t say the back woods in a third world country, I said Zanesville, OH! What a shame! This is 2008 and supposedly the land of the free and the brave! Well, 67 people weren’t free to have the luxury of running water in their homes, and it appears, somebody/ies weren’t brave enough, until now, to make it happen!

Here is what a story recently published about the situation in the small town near Zanesville, OH says:

Black Ohio residents denied water get millions
A federal grand jury awarded residents of a Black neighborhood in Ohio almost $11 million last week because, for nearly five decades, they were forced to dig wells, haul water or collect rain so they could drink, cook and bathe, while Whites enjoyed the benefits of the public water system. The jury found that the 67 residents of the Coal Run community in Muskingum County in east-central Ohio were victims of longstanding discrimination and awarded them between $15,000 and $300,000, depending on how long they had lived there. The award is for “monetary losses and the residents’ pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water,” The Associated Press reports. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission found in 2003 that the residents had been discriminated against, which prompted the lawsuit. “As a child, I thought it was normal because everyone done it in my neighborhood,” said one of the plaintiffs, Cynthia Hale Hairston, 47. “But I realized as an adult it was wrong.” The city, county and water company, however, deny that any discrimination has occurred. Attorney Mark Landes, who represented the county and water district, described the suit as “a case that was started and filed by out-of-town lawyers who saw an opportunity for a cash settlement.”

http://blogs.bet.com/news/newsyoushouldknow/national-news-black-ohio-residents-denied-water-get-millions-jury-selection-resumes-in-nichols-trial-naacp-convention-to-host-both-presidential-candidatates/

Can you believe this? I can’t either! Do you believe it was race discrimination? Funny thing, the lawyers that they claim “saw an opportunity” should be given a gold medal for having their eyes open and making this happen! Unreal!

Holla back and tell me what you think!