On most days toilet paper helps you smear more than it helps you wipe.
For those wanting to try out the bidet without buying one there's always the backcountry bidet [1].
What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
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Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#12I read that many asian people don't even use it and simply wash themselves with a showerhead instead. Maybe we should just do it like that?
Even if you don't avail yourself of the U.S.S. Enterprise style command console allowing you to finely tune how and where your bum is washed, Japan just does toilet business better. Want a clean seat to park your ass on? The American way is to use a toilet seat shaped piece of what feels like thin wax paper, which is guaranteed to slide off the seat and stick to your skin. In Japan, you hold a piece of TP under a nozzle and it sprays a bit of sanitizer, which you then use to wipe the seat. Marvellous.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#13On most days toilet paper helps you smear more than it helps you wipe. For those wanting to try out the bidet without buying one there's always the backcountry bidet [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2x-G7sXVs4
I have one of these: https://hellotushy.com/ - it works really well.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#14I read that many asian people don't even use it and simply wash themselves with a showerhead instead. Maybe we should just do it like that?
I am thinking of a bidet, possibly this one: https://www.amazon.com/Luxe-Bidet-Neo-120-Non-Electric/dp/B0...
We poop almost every day, so it makes sense to try to make the experience pleasant. Some day when I own a place, I'll probably get one of those amazing Japanese toilets. Or at least an $800 seat: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009IJ2NBI?ref=emc_b_5_t
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#15I think a machine vision directed spray is the future. I don't fancy collecting the training data though.
Doubt it would take off, considering the low adoption rates of "regular" spray toilets in the west. It's a relatively marginal improvement after all.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#16The article says that certain remote and rural areas of Asia still don't use toilet paper. However, this is also true of most of the Philippines, including middle- and upper-class areas in major cities. It's not an issue only of economic stability or access to it, but also just a cultural one. I've been in upscale restaurants in Manila where there was no toilet paper in the bathrooms. They use a little bucket of water next to the toilet to wash instead.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#17I read that many asian people don't even use it and simply wash themselves with a showerhead instead. Maybe we should just do it like that?
I guess most Muslims use them as well because washing with water is commanded in Islam. In case there was no water, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would command his followers to use pebbles.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_toilet_etiquette
Coming to India, I have been to a lot of toilets in different places and it's hard to find the ones _with_ a toilet roll. The only place I remember I couldn't find a hand shower was the Delhi airport. I was disgusted. In fact most households use the 'Indian seats' with a lota (vessel pot) instead of the commode toilet. Many have both including my house. Funnily, I'm actually currently relieving myself.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#18My uncle was an engineer for a toilet paper manufacturing plant, that took logs in one end and put TP rolls out the other end. The path was over a mile long. He worked on variable speed electronic drives for the 1000 horsepower motors that turned the machinery. TP illustrates the triumph of civilization: 1000s of people all doing specialized jobs so billions of people can each avoid a daily unpleasantness.
This made me recall immediately the "I, pencil" article. It's stunning to remember that almost anything one gets to touch or see throughout the day is a product of almost always global collaboration, if we include a things conception with its production, and also transportation, selling, etc.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#19My uncle was an engineer for a toilet paper manufacturing plant, that took logs in one end and put TP rolls out the other end. The path was over a mile long. He worked on variable speed electronic drives for the 1000 horsepower motors that turned the machinery. TP illustrates the triumph of civilization: 1000s of people all doing specialized jobs so billions of people can each avoid a daily unpleasantness.
This made me recall immediately the "I, pencil" article. It's stunning to remember that almost anything one gets to touch or see throughout the day is a product of almost always global collaboration, if we include a things conception with its production, and also transportation, selling, etc.
This is the result of free markets. Centralized economic planning is simply unable to deal with the complexity.
Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
This made me recall immediately the "I, pencil" article. It's stunning to remember that almost anything one gets to touch or see throughout the day is a product of almost always global collaboration, if we include a things conception with its production, and also transportation, selling, etc.
This is the result of free markets. Centralized economic planning is simply unable to deal with the complexity.
Yeah, we certainly can't produce toilet paper unless 50% of the population is in poverty.