61–70 of 216 posts
Not part of that playlist, but a beginning recommendation of mine is their video "Everyday Moments in History - A Roman Soldier Prepares Dinner"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-l_EbXE3LU).
I wonder why so many articles today have so many words but yet so little content? This one has a mile-long introduction. The headlines question could have been answered in rather few words. I feel a short answer had satisfied me. To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... I said I wonder why, I guess that was a…
I wonder why so many articles today have so many words but yet so little content? This one has a mile-long introduction. The headlines question could have been answered in rather few words. I feel a short answer had satisfied me. To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... I said I wonder why, I guess that was a…
For real, I can’t stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay. And when the write starts with an accurate description of weather, place or person, “It was a foggy winter day in …”, “we reached a hidden part of the shore”, “is a tall woman with bright expressive eyes" you know you’ll be stuck in a fifteen minutes reading without learning anything.
People in tech, on average, prefer the utilitarian. They also, as a whole, on average, are considered to have below average social skills and below average art skills. Their coincidence is not a coincidence.
> To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that...
For an introduction to South Asian "toilet technology", both very accurate and very humorous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ
[EDIT: also quite humorous is how this is getting down-voted into the toilet. Is it defensiveness? Angry denial?]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK here: But instead of reaching for a roll of toilet paper, an ancient Roman would often grab a tersorium (or, in my technical terms, a “toilet brush for your butt”). A tersorium is an ingenious little device made by attaching a natural sponge (from the Mediterranean Sea, of course) to the end of a stick. Our ancient Roman would simply wipe him- or herself, rinse the tersorium in whatever was available (running wate…
Thank you for posting this - you added more value than that entire article.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !
> green Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well. Plus most of us westerners would probably balk at using cold water, so we'd waste a lot of energy heating it up too.
Today, toilet paper is ubiquitous in Western cultures; it’s a US$9.5 billion-a-year industry in the United States. Americans, in their typical excess, use more than 50 pounds per person per year! About 1.75 tons of raw fiber are required to manufacture each ton of toilet paper. That doesn’t seem sustainable, and frankly, I’m surprised that people haven’t protested more as a result. Given these numbers and the marketi…
Now, how much land each tree needs, and how long it takes to grow is not exactly easy to calculate. But, something like 2 * 200 trees per acre / 20 years for fast growth forest ~= 1/20 acre of forest per person for sustainable production does not sound bad.
And that’s assuming you can’t use waste streams from some other processes like sawmills.
The decision is clear, at least in my opinion: Water.
Water, by far.
And from so many angles (hygeine, cost, ecology, availablity, ikkiness, etc.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For real, I can’t stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay. And when the write starts with an accurate description of weather, place or person, “It was a foggy winter day in …”, “we reached a hidden part of the shore”, “is a tall woman with bright expressive eyes" you know you’ll be stuck in a fifteen minutes reading without learning anything.
Not all writing is utilitarian. People in tech, on average, prefer the utilitarian. They also, as a whole , on average , are considered to have below average social skills and below average art skills. Their coincidence is not a coincidence. > To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... For an introduction to So…
It's just posted to a wrong forum then. Hence the readers being nonplussed.