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A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

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Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#41

Post by dublinben »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #34
teddyh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Thanks for the correction; fixed.) A civilization needs modern infrastructure. One of these is certainly tap water. If the tap water is not usable for one of its primary purpose – drinking – then I would say that the infrastructure is lacking, and, by inference, the civilization. The same with road systems. If I can confidently know that I can drive safely on the roads, I live in a civilization with a modern, mainta…

Why can't a civilization have tap water that's suitable for everything except drinking, and let bottled water be delivered on the free market? If that's the most economically optimal way to handle things, that's a more advanced society.

You're assuming that "economically optimal" is the best way for a society to do something.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#42

Post by dublinben »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #5
Fuzzwah wrote: post #2

I scroll down past the opening photo so the 1st line of text is at the top of my browser window and settle in to begin reading and then the header scrolls down to cover the top 3 lines of text. Hate.

Side project idea, chrome or firefox extension that takes text and pictures from popular news sites and removes all the distracting bells and whistles. Now that I think about it, something like that probably already exists.

You can achieve something very close to that by just disabling javascript and CSS. It's amazing how much better the web is without that modern cruft.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#43

Post by coryrc »

teddyh wrote: post #15
cema wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are generally right, but nitpicking, bottled water is useful for: large parties; hiking and camping; certain outdoor jobs.

I completely fail to see why tap water would not serve just as well for these occasions. Or is your tap water actually, noticably, different than bottled?

In the USA at least, many bottled waters are tap water...

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#44

Post by pbh101 »

kumarski wrote: post #27

"In 2009, during the worldwide epidemic of H1N1 swine flu, the Ministry of Agriculture decreed that all Egyptian pigs had to be killed. There was no evidence that pigs were spreading the disease, but the government went ahead and slaughtered as many as three hundred thousand animals. Some Egyptians believe that the decision was driven by a desire to appease Islamists, who had become outspoken critics of the regime, a…

It was also speculated that they were killed to oppress the Christian minority in Egypt, who derived a significant part of their income from raising swine, due to Islam's restriction on interaction with pigs.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#45

Post by JetSpiegel »

jholman wrote: post #40
JetSpiegel wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would rather have something local, not send a list of everything I read to some server somewhere.

Ah, then you want Readable. http://readable.tastefulwords.com/

     Evernote has acquired Readable!
Hmmm, let's check Firebug's Net tab

    http://readable.tastefulwords.com/log.js?rand=0.8736547357568928&url=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Finformation-technology%2F2014%2F10%2Fborked-belkin-routers-leave-many-unable-to-get-online%2F&options=%5B%5B%3Dtf%3A%20quote(Palatino%20Linotype)%2C%20Palatino%2C%20quote(Book%20Antigua)%2C%20Georgia%2C%20serif%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtfm%3A%20quote(Courier%20New)%2C%20Courier%2C%20monospace%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtfh%3A%20quote(Times%20New%20Roman)%2C%20Times%2C%20serif%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dts%3A%2018px%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtlh%3A%201.5%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dbw%3A%2030em%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dcb%3A%20%23F5F5F5%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dct%3A%20%23282828%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dcl%3A%20%230000FF%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dta%3A%20normal%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Db%3A%20blueprint%5D%5D&customCSS=&_=1412717055539
I'll stick to Color Toggle [1] then.

1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/color-toggle/...

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#46

Post by Fuzzwah »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #5
Fuzzwah wrote: post #2

I scroll down past the opening photo so the 1st line of text is at the top of my browser window and settle in to begin reading and then the header scrolls down to cover the top 3 lines of text. Hate.

Side project idea, chrome or firefox extension that takes text and pictures from popular news sites and removes all the distracting bells and whistles. Now that I think about it, something like that probably already exists.

I use http://evernote.com/clearly/

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#47

Post by cowpewter »

teddyh wrote: post #13
ugexe wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know plenty of people in the developed world that drink bottled water. Its not that hard to taste the difference between 2 sources of water (filtered vs spring), and not everyone wants to drink fluoridated tap or rusty well water.

People who can taste a difference in tap versus bottled water perhaps do not live in as developed a society as they would like to believe. I certainly have never prefered bottled water over tap. There might be a difference if you made a blind study, but I have never needed to care that much, and I probably couldn’t tell the difference if you gave me a blind test. People around me also seem not to use bottled water in…

My parents have a well, I live 2 hours away in a city with municipal water. My parents' tap water contains enough iron and sulfur to taste like diluted blood, while my tap water tastes like drinking from a swimming pool. But I do not consider either myself or my parents to be living in an undeveloped society (Florida has its issues but it's not THAT bad). A tap filter (of the Brita/Pur/whatever variety) makes both waters far more drinkable.

In terms of taste, filtered well > filtered municipal > unfiltered well > unfiltered municipal. But that's just me. I prefer the taste of too much iron and sulfur to the taste of chlorination.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#48

Post by SamReidHughes »

dublinben wrote: post #41
SamReidHughes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't a civilization have tap water that's suitable for everything except drinking, and let bottled water be delivered on the free market? If that's the most economically optimal way to handle things, that's a more advanced society.

You're assuming that "economically optimal" is the best way for a society to do something.

Why yes, delivering water more cheaply to people is the best way.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#49

Post by dublinben »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #48
dublinben wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming that "economically optimal" is the best way for a society to do something.

Why yes, delivering water more cheaply to people is the best way.

Bottled water isn't cheaper than tap water. Even if that is your only criteria.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#50

Post by TrainedMonkey »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #45
jholman wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, then you want Readable. http://readable.tastefulwords.com/

Evernote has acquired Readable! Hmmm, let's check Firebug's Net tab http://readable.tastefulwords.com/log.js?rand=0.8736547357568928&url=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Finformation-technology%2F2014%2F10%2Fborked-belkin-routers-leave-many-unable-to-get-online%2F&options=%5B%5B%3Dtf%3A%20quote(Palatino%20Linotype)%2C%20Palatino%2C%20quote(Book%20Antigua)%2C%20Georgia%2C%20serif%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtfm%3A%20quote(Courier%20Ne…

Good stuff on firebug research. I am however, not sure how switching between color modes helps with messy layout.
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