It’s caustic (basic).
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I can think of no more appropriate response to this other than JFC.
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“Caustic” doesn’t mean “basic”, though “alkaline” does, but “basic” doesn’t necessarily mean “alkaline”, though potash is both alkaline and basic.
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is the ash of a campfire alkaline and basic enough to cause burns if applies to the skin?
Potash isn’t the same thing as a simple ash is it?
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Cremation products are even more so. Hope they did not use cremains…
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Potash is the product of leaching regular ash with water. That filters out calcium carbonate, which has a low solubility in water and a more neutral pH than potassium carbonate and the other potassium salts in potash.
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Gotta get that holy wood ash to get your cruci-fix on 
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Wood ash mixed with water is potash. Alkali/basic, and pretty caustic.
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Ow, the symbolism, it burns.
Well, it certainly would have hastened that decision…
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How could god let this happen?
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Subsequently they all got kicked out of school for not being able to adhere to the dress code.
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Hmm. You don’t have to be Catholic, baptized or Christian to receive that one. Even excommunicated is fine.
It does look a bit creepy, even without the chemical burns.
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I wonder if improper storage conditions of the ash could have converted inappropriate but safe ash to stratified layers going from safe to caustic. Would a bit too much moisture and time leech from the top and concentrate on the bottom?
And in my inappropriate response - did no one ask for theirs in the shape of a lightning bolt?
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Wood ash isn’t this level of caustic and burnt palm fronds would be exactly as caustic as wood ash. Have you never had a campfire?
The ashes for this are often sourced from palm fronds but for ritual/liturgical reasons. Palms being something of a lent thing. Church I attended as a kid used to hold onto the palm fronds from the previous Palm Sunday and burn them down to source their ash.
And said Church was Episcopalian. Our openly gay priest and atheist, biology PHD having Sunday school director would cook down those palms in an old Weber grill.
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Their God is upset that they don’t burn goats on their alters any more (to make “a sweet savour unto the LORD” - see Leviticus) and decided on some chemical burning. It’s all part of His nonsensical Plan, of course.
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That’s how the head guerrilla of the Buendía family was marked in Gabriel Garcías book “100 yrs of solitude”, so he couldn’t be mistaken. The Federales eventually caught him.
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Yet here you are! How does that work? something like: “Hrm, 17 days old, but I guess I’ll read it. I’m sure no one else will, of course, so this article is otherwise pointless, but…” ?
Reporting an event at a school is “School shaming?”
What? Did you RTFA?
A spokesperson for the school said: ‘During the Ash Wednesday service for Year 9 and Year 11 students, it came to our attention that discomfort was experienced by some students
‘The school is dismayed by this event. In total, 73 students, 16 staff and the Chair of the Governors have been affected to date.
This, to you, is “Nothing happened?”
IMHO, if something happened to 73 students in any school, I’d wager it was probably newsworthy. But perhaps you have a higher bar for number of people affected before you deign it appropriate to post here.
I am sorry you are disappointed in Boing Boing. Surely you will not waste your energy by flogging us further!
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I was going to say - what, exactly, is the cause? Like you said, traditionally it comes from burn palm leaves. (Almost typed pot leaves… that would get more people in the pews…)
You could probably get a job on tour with Rob Zombie.
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