Natural healer?

For years, I have heard that putting an electronic device in rice right after getting it wet was one of the only things you can do to possibly save it from an early demise.  As a kid, I remember my Grandmom always having rice in the salt shaker and me thinking why in the world would rice be mixed in with salt.  Through a few Junior High School science lessons, I learned of the absorbent properties of rice.  However, I've been a little skeptical about rice's healing properties on wet electronic devices.  I've personally tried the rice thing a few years ago when my LG phone thought it would be more at home in a puddle of water than in my back pocket. After a few days of laying in a bed of rice, I was unable of resurrect it.  Maybe it wasn't the rice's fault. It may have been that I didn't use enough rice, or I didn't let it sit long enough, or it may have been that the new iPhone just came out and...well.  Regardless of the reason,  I'm still skeptical.  But this morning I saw a post on Yahoo, and more interestingly, a link to a Popular Mechanics article, that briefly covers this topic.  Check it out.

Popular Mechanics link:  Tech Clinic: How to dry out a cellphone
Yahoo link:   Upgrade your Life: Simple solutions to high tech problems

Alternate site:
wikiHow: How to save a wet cellphone  (Step 11 is for the advanced user)