Today, before the Maryland House Appropriations Committee.

At the house we’re staying in, courtesy of the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting.

By Van Smith

Berkeley Springs, WV, Feb. 22, 2019

Kenneth Guoin (pictured today at the 29th Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting) is the founder of a California company, Ophora Water Technologies, that he says sells water for $20 per half-gallon bottle.

“Our water is expensive,” Guoin says, “and our systems are expensive” – especially the ones Ophora installs in celebrities’ homes along the California coast, which treat all the water entering the households, not just the drinking water. Remember: California water is extraordinarily disgusting, typically containing a 22-page EPA-compiled list of toxins.

“If you know what’s in the water,” Guoin remarks, “you can remove it.”

Ophora makes highly functional water via reverse osmosis and other processes that make it highly oxygenated, ionized, hydrogen rich, and, to the extent possible, depleted of deuterium, a hydrogen isotope that produces “heavy water” that humans are advised to avoid.

Guoin says “the Russians are getting really good” at depleting deuterium from water – as far down as 25 parts per million from the standard 155 parts per million.

If the Russians have a competitive advantage, the rest of us should probably take note. Expect “deuterium depleted” to start showing up on bottled-water labels and advertising anon.

The speech that keeps teaching.

By Van Smith

Baltimore, Jan. 18, 2019

The Maryland Department of Legislative Services (DLS), analyzing the fiscal effect of granting standard business deductions to the state’s medical-cannibis industry, sees a very fast-growing sector of the state’s economy. Sales in 2018 were about $100 million – but DLS is working on the assumption that sales will reach $250 million in 2020, and $440 million in 2024. Read the report here.

… but I have to scramble to take care of life for a bunch of hours before going to the hearing. I’ll update as I learn more, only found out this morning.

Courtesy of the Iona Terrace pig and Paula Willey. Yum!