The most official water costs $120k a gallon

Reference materials & calibration

• Many comments broaden the discussion from “official water” to certified reference materials (SRMs) in general.
• Examples: NIST peanut butter, standard cigarettes, “standard issue meat,” and even “domestic sludge.”
• Core point: you’re paying for the precisely characterized composition and documentation, not for purity or intrinsic value.
• These standards are used to calibrate instruments (e.g., coatings hardness via certified pencils, industrial processes, isotope measurements).
• Some note that almost every large-scale process depends on such references; others find it “frightening” as a hidden single point of failure, pushed back on as simply NIST doing its core mission.

NIST products & surprising costs

• Discussion of NIST cigarettes: effective per-cigarette price compared to high-tax regions (California, New York, UK, Australia).
• Observation that their cost isn’t wildly higher than retail in high-tax markets, given they’re manufactured to a specific QC standard.
• Jokes about luxury restaurants or “calibrated foods” using NIST meat or water.

Water standards & isotopes

• Main use of standard water (VSMOW) is calibrating ultra-precise isotope-ratio instruments; absolute isotope ratios are hard to measure from first principles.
• Suggestion to use pure ¹H₂¹⁶O is questioned: separation of isotopes (especially oxygen-18) is expensive, and calibrating far from natural ratios is risky.
• Clarification that a newer VSMOW2 standard exists, designed to match the original within measurement error; both it and predecessor NBS-1 are (per comments) commercially available.

Heavy water, deuterium, tritium

• Prices cited: deuterium water in the low thousands of dollars per US gallon; tritium water orders of magnitude higher (~tens of millions).
• Heavy water production methods and centrifugation are briefly mentioned; note that enormous volumes of ordinary water are needed.
• Heavy water is described as only “slightly toxic” unless consumed exclusively for weeks; one remark that it tastes sweet.
• Some joke about luxury bottled water with D₂O/T₂O and note deuterium’s use in drugs to alter half-lives.

Temperature scales debate

• Long tangent on Celsius vs Kelvin vs Fahrenheit triggered by water-based definitions.
• Points in favor of Kelvin: invariant triple-point reference, modern definition via Boltzmann constant.
• Counterpoints: Kelvin gives “illogical” large numbers for daily life; people prefer ranges like 0–100 for weather or comfort.
• Arguments for Fahrenheit: 0–100°F roughly spans “really cold” to “really hot” in some climates and offers finer granularity (1°F steps) for HVAC and comfort.
• Counterarguments: this is climate- and culture-specific, not universal; Celsius is equally intuitive once learned, and decimals give any needed granularity.
• Several note that “best” scale is largely what one grew up with; perceptions of comfort and numeric intuition are conditioned, not absolute.

Metric vs imperial / US customary

• Side discussion: US units are formally defined via metric (e.g., 1 inch = 2.54 cm).
• Historical note on gauge blocks making 25.4 mm the practical inch and easing metric/imperial interoperability.
• Lathe threading issues: cutting metric threads on imperial lathes requires specific gear ratios (e.g., 50/127), seen as a practical hassle.
• Jokes about mixed-unit systems (tires sized with inches, millimeters, and ratios) and about obscure units (hogsheads, cubic furlongs).

Tone, humor, and misc

• Many humorous asides: “Very Standard Mean Ocean Water,” ISO tea standards, cookies from lab materials, “calibrated fried spam dinner,” and luxury-marketing jokes.
• A brief, serious intervention urges someone (referenced elsewhere) to stop making online death threats and seek help, citing long-term consequences and providing a crisis hotline link.
• Overall tone: amused fascination with how mundane things (water, peanut butter, cigarettes) become extremely expensive when turned into standards, mixed with genuine technical interest in metrology and isotope science.