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Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

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Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#241

Post by kbenson »

mindfulplay wrote: post #18

This reminds me of software developer who favor deep, technical, architectural work instead of attractive, "sounds cool on paper" sort of work. To an outsider, the animations look cool but the engine that drives the animation is cooler to software engineers. Point being, this is not something a normal philanthropist would imagine being cool and awesome. This takes someone who actually cares about shit (in this case l…

Bill Gates is an amazing example of a driven, ambitious (and when called for by his ambition, ruthless) person and how those traits can lead to startlingly different perceptions of him based on what they are applied to.

Bill Gates the businessman was ruthless in his pursuit of dominating the markets he was in, and was largely successful, to many people's dismay.

Bill Gates the philanthropist is doggedly persistent in identifying and working towards fixing some of the major problems human-kind faces, and he's an actual hero to millions (me included, at this point).

The same person, with the same attitude and drive, just applied to a different goal. I think that's amazing.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#242

Post by aplummer »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #198
docbrown wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I always thought fascinating about Gates was his candid relationship with feces. mindfuplay’s comment reminded me of the famous glass of shit water Gates drank from his Omniprocessor project [0]. But within that 2015 article, Gates mentions a long term plan for seweage and shit[1]: >If we can develop safe, affordable ways to get rid of human waste, we can prevent many of those deaths and help more children…

> "One thing I always thought fascinating about Gates was his candid relationship with feces." I'd say his relationship is with humans. People are his ends. Feces (i.e., the lack there of) are his means. It's a stunning example of hope (not being lost). What's most impressive to me is a $200 million investment over 7 years, has the potential to "return" $200 billion __annually__. The lottery seems to break $200M a co…

Just _one_ F35, depending on the variant.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#243

Post by anticensor »

choot wrote: post #57
GolDDranks wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes. Squat toilets are usually called "Japanese style toilets" so that got me confused.

They are also called Turkish or Roman toilets.

Weirdly, they are called Turkish toilet in Turkish, too.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#244

Post by teddyh »

tome wrote: post #180
teddyh wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've always wondered why we never really saw toilets in Star Trek. When the original series was made, you couldn’t show a toilet on TV – it simply wasn’t allowed. But, beginning in 1989 with the release of the feature film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , you do get the occasional glimpse of an actual toilet here and there. http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Toilet

This is the closest I could get from 1973, "The Sting" https://youtu.be/M78dkPzChPw?t=4733

That’s not TV; that is a feature film.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#245

Post by specialist »

oblio wrote: post #186
MarkMc wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toilets can be cheaper than you expect - in some places cultural barriers may be the main problem. Here's an extract from an excellent book called Poor Economics [1]: ----------------- The conventional wisdom is that today, at $20 per household per month, providing piped water and sanitation is too expensive for the budget of most developing countries. The experience of Gram Vikas, an NGO that works in Orissa, India,…

I don't know if it's in this book, but I remember reading that apparently there's also a "class shaming" effect that can also help: if you can get the poorest members of a group to do something which is perceived as advanced and ultimately beneficial, everyone does it, eventually, out of shame of being "outwitted" by the poor.

The book Diffusion of Innovations [1962] has a few case studies about that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations

https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Rog...

This is the seminal book on marketing, social cognition, innovation, etc. It blew my mind. Mostly that we've known this stuff for so long, but apparently must keep rediscovering it.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#246

Post by eyeinthepyramid »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #109

I admire Gates a lot, but for him and way too many technophiles the answer is somehow always tech. Africa does not have a toilet problem. Or a tech problem. Or even a resources problem. They have a lack of intelligent social organization problem; i.e. dysfunctional or non-existent institutions, laws and organizational structures, as well as myriad forms of corruption from top to bottom that make it impossible to crea…

Africa (and the world at large) has lots of problems. Some are technical and some are political. Just focusing on one issue means missing out on opportunities to improve people's lives in other ways.

There are already a lot of organizations working on governance -- maybe it's best if tech people focus on tech problems and let the governance people work on governance problems?

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#247

Post by canhascodez »

jrockway wrote: post #231
freehunter wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But unlike an NES system, if your septic tank develops a problem you now have liquid and solid waste flooding your yard and home, and your toilets, sinks, and showers are useless until it's fixed.

I feel like the failure mode for electronics is "randomly catches on fire" which can be just as devastating, if not moreso. Nobody has ever died because their toilet backed up. Their house burning down in the middle of the night is a different story.

People die from diseases caused by sewage, but it's usually a downstream issue.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#248

Post by felipemnoa »

adrianN wrote: post #221
derangedHorse wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't know if these systems will get better without external interference either. Another post on this page talks about fixing systematic corruption within African countries as being more helpful, but that's a hard problem also. One solution I could think of is a foreign investor investing a lot of money into the campaign of a candidate who isn't corrupt. The caveat of that solution is the perspective that it woul…

How much does it really help to have a noncorrupt leader of government when a large part of the bureaucracy below them is corrupt? Rooting out corruption is a terribly difficult problem that takes decades.

I read somewhere that removing corruption is a bottom-up process, not a top-down one. That is, the culture has to change. There has to be a grassroots movement to eliminate corruption. If society as a whole does not care about it, then it matters not whether the people at the top are corrupt or not.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#249

Post by weaksauce »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #198
docbrown wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I always thought fascinating about Gates was his candid relationship with feces. mindfuplay’s comment reminded me of the famous glass of shit water Gates drank from his Omniprocessor project [0]. But within that 2015 article, Gates mentions a long term plan for seweage and shit[1]: >If we can develop safe, affordable ways to get rid of human waste, we can prevent many of those deaths and help more children…

> "One thing I always thought fascinating about Gates was his candid relationship with feces." I'd say his relationship is with humans. People are his ends. Feces (i.e., the lack there of) are his means. It's a stunning example of hope (not being lost). What's most impressive to me is a $200 million investment over 7 years, has the potential to "return" $200 billion __annually__. The lottery seems to break $200M a co…

> Editorial: It's amazing what you can accomplish for the price of a handful of F35 fighter jets.

sadly our investments don't align in the high return ways.

Re: Gates Foundation spent $200M funding toilet research

#250

Post by chiefalchemist »

aplummer wrote: post #242
chiefalchemist wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "One thing I always thought fascinating about Gates was his candid relationship with feces." I'd say his relationship is with humans. People are his ends. Feces (i.e., the lack there of) are his means. It's a stunning example of hope (not being lost). What's most impressive to me is a $200 million investment over 7 years, has the potential to "return" $200 billion __annually__. The lottery seems to break $200M a co…

Just _one_ F35, depending on the variant.

Thx. I looked and couldn't find it mentioned per jet.
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