Secret 3D scans in the French Supreme Court

I am a French taxpayer.

This is not the most outrageous thing about taxpayer money at work that I learned today.

That would be the fact that local branches of the ministry of agriculture require wind turbine builders to put blue dyed water in concrete to make it friendly to all life or something, I'm not sure I understand, it's called Pneumatit®, and I'm not making this up.

It's biodynamics, it's biogeology (neither biology nor geology, not an actual science, it's more like dowsers). It's not only about wind turbines, it's in so many buildings now, but because it's not only approved but required on some public projects, it's... interesting. It's homeopathy for concrete, and like homeopathy in France, it'll receive government subsidies for far longer than it should.

> It's homeopathy for concrete

you're really not joking

Pneumatit® is a liquid additive that permanently anchors a fine biological activity (liveliness) in the concrete Many people experience adverse effects that come from concrete - regardless of the design. This ranges from slightly subliminal discomfort to irritability, inner cold sensations, joint pain, exhaustion and organic disorders. Underlying such sensations is a reality, because the production of cement breaks through the bottom of the natural processes of life. Result: a lifeless building material with an absorbing effect on our organism [0].

[0] https://www.lehm-laden.de/en_GB/shop/pneumatit-pneumatit-50-...

Oh how I wish I was joking.

This stuff is apparently made from small bird femurs and nautilus shells grounded into powder, then add water, then diluted a million times so that they can sell olympic pools of the thing without running out of raw material. It's textbook homeopathic dilution.

There's even more:

> The end product, ready for use, has the homeopathic format D7. This is another reason why Pneumatit® does not have any physical or chemical influence on the building material.

https://www.lehm-laden.de/en_GB/pneumatit

They even state that it doesn't have an effect on the physical properties of the material.

Cui bono?

I just did some initial snooping, thinking the manufacturers of the product would be some French people with some backdoor connection with the ministry of agriculture, but as far as I can tell, it is provided by some seemingly unrelated German company.

Is this something that is distasteful, but needs to be done to prevent some group from picketing the installation of the wind turbines?

I was slightly annoyed starting to read your comment, because "who cares what this guy learned today? these people are obstructing aggregation of knowledge, let's focus on that!", but after googling this "Pneumatit®" stuff…

> Concrete with Pneumatit® is different. The experience of Pneumatit® rooms is described as warm, wide, free, soft, relaxing, breathing. Because Pneumatit®, a liquid additive, permanently anchors a fine biological activity (liveliness) in concrete - and in all other building materials based on cement and anhydrite.

I don't even know, what to say, this is the most absurd thing I've seen in a long time. I'm chuckling right now, but the fact, that some country enforces using it… It's truly mindblowing.

P.S.

Could you please source some regulation or something where it says you have to use Pneumatit®? Cannot find it myself, and the fact that French ministry of agricultureenforces it is a bigger part of the story than the product itself.

I'm also a French taxpayer, I regret coming back to France every time I read about something stupid they do with our money. This Pneumatit thing is really something.

It seems like this YouTube video [1] is the source. I don’t speak French, so someone else will have to comment on veracity. I think it hinges on a phone interview in the last third of the video, so please look at that.

[1]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xVfDjU8R5Ag