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The drinking fountain button

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Re: The drinking fountain button

#141

Post by ssl-3 »

weinzierl wrote: post #138
radlad wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It always smells like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. Why is this a problem? Flavor? This is certainly different than places like Mexico, where the tap water isn't potable. > We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint. If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in th…

> "Why is this a problem? Flavor?" Yes, if it already smells after chlorine, how can I know what else is in there. If it was from a clean source, it would not need chlorine in the first place. > "If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in the world." No, water supply in Germany is closely monitored at the source, at the water works and even close to the user in apartment buildings and rental…

If it already smells like chlorine, you can know what isn't in there: Living organisms that want to kill you.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#142

Post by TylerE »

netsharc wrote: post #132
openplatypus wrote: post #92

Meanwhile in Germany: 0.50€ for tap water in restaurant No public drinking water facilities

Suuure... where are you in Germany? https://overpass-turbo.eu , the sample query is already for drinking fountains. I navigated so Berlin is on the map and clicked Run, and it shows me all drinking water fountains on the map. A few of them even have image links, for example: https://imgur.com/d6UheOw

I mean, I went two towns to the east to the decent sized town of Villanova and it only showed 3 for the entire town.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#143

Post by recursive »

ssl-3 wrote: post #140
recursive wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention, I often have to do 2 or 3 flushes after a more productive session, not to mention cleaning. Just like how I run the dryer twice on "hyper-giga-dry" if I actually want dry clothes.

I just put the clothes in the dryer and tell it to dry them. It has a multitude of different modes, but "Normal" succeeds at this every single time -- regardless of the amount or dampness of what I put in there. Am I doing this wrong?

You are not wrong, and I'm jealous of your dryer. There are like 5 levels on mine ranging from soggy to slightly damp.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#144

Post by weinzierl »

ssl-3 wrote: post #141
weinzierl wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Why is this a problem? Flavor?" Yes, if it already smells after chlorine, how can I know what else is in there. If it was from a clean source, it would not need chlorine in the first place. > "If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in the world." No, water supply in Germany is closely monitored at the source, at the water works and even close to the user in apartment buildings and rental…

If it already smells like chlorine, you can know what isn't in there: Living organisms that want to kill you.

That is why you monitor the water supply. It is done in my rented apartment by a company commissioned by the landlord and it is done daily at the water works. If there are to many living organisms they add chlorine and inform the public, which happens only every couple of years.

The alternative is dead organisms plus a quite toxic substance in your water.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#145

Post by weinzierl »

weinzierl wrote: post #118
icambron wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite following; are you saying it's not recommended that you drink American tap water? Or that there are bunch of other countries with sketchier water full of drinking fountains?

I would not drink American tap water, at least not in the cities that I travelled. It always smelt like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. This is definitely not a thing in western Europe. We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint.

I cannot add to my post above, but since people don't seem to take it well, I'd like to add some data to back it up.

Here is the link to a paper that compared contaminants in drinking water in various developed countries. When it comes to residual chlorine the USA demonstrated the highest levels followed by Singapore and Canada. After these three countries there was a huge gap before the UK and other countries which much lower levels.

Could it be that you are all so used to the chlorine, that you don't notice it anymore?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343719890_Comparati...

In addition, here is the WHO list of countries ranked by access to safe drinking water. The US is number 42 after Bulgaria and Guadeloupe.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_access_...

Re: The drinking fountain button

#146

Post by CorrectHorseBat »

matwood wrote: post #128
Johnny555 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you need a better designed toilet. Good low flow toilets do exist. We replaced the old 3.5 gallons per flush toilet in our house with a new Kohler 1.28gpf unit and it flushes and clears the bowl just fine - no worse than the previous toilet with about 1/3rd the water use.

EU toilets are often of the 'poop shelf' design. Which end up requiring cleaning and multiple flushes after every bowel movement.

It depends very much on the country, for example The Netherlands is a poop shelf design country, but Belgium isn't. No idea what's the reason behind it.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#147

Post by Balgair »

alistairSH wrote: post #117
Balgair wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what US cities are you in that do not have public fountains in parks and whatnot? I'm struggling to think of any parks or high pedestrian areas around me that don't have a public fountain, nor in any of the cities I've lived in. Like, yeah, you're not going to have a fountain out in the middle of a parking lot. But they, to my recollection, seem to be everywhere that people tend to be walking a lot. As for Euro…

DC Metro, specifically Reston. The park across the street doesn't have one. There are none in the town center (gotta buy Starbucks or similar). And I don't recall seeing any public ones in downtown DC, other than the Mall and Smithsonian areas. I already stated they do exist in quasi-public spaces (airports, offices, etc). Like, if I'm running errands downtown, and I'm not in the tourist zone, there really isn't much…

Hmm, DC is a bit strange about that then. I see them all the time in the more walkable areas of CA, CO, PA, NC, FL, TX, HI, TN.

Maybe a state level law thing then.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#148

Post by radlad »

weinzierl wrote: post #138
radlad wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It always smells like chlorine and from what I googled apparently up to 4 milligrams per liter are regularly allowed in the US. Why is this a problem? Flavor? This is certainly different than places like Mexico, where the tap water isn't potable. > We don't need to talk about the things that you cannot taste or smell and what happened in Flint. If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in th…

> "Why is this a problem? Flavor?" Yes, if it already smells after chlorine, how can I know what else is in there. If it was from a clean source, it would not need chlorine in the first place. > "If we're talking about unknown unknowns, this is true of anywhere in the world." No, water supply in Germany is closely monitored at the source, at the water works and even close to the user in apartment buildings and rental…

> No, water supply in Germany is closely monitored at the source, at the water works and even close to the user in apartment buildings and rental properties. Also, our water supply is not privatized, like in the US. A disaster like Flint could not happen here.

I advise you look into the Flint water crisis, because your understanding doesn't sound accurate. The decision to change the source from one body of water to another was a municipal decision - made by the city's Emergency Manager (indicted on felony charges) - not one made by a private company.[0]

The EPA (another governmental agency) mandates contaminate limits and testing. MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, another government agency) was not properly testing to federal requirements. Still, the issue was known by residents long before it was fixed, due to... private testing.[1]

What happened in Flint was criminal negligence, but it had nothing to do with water supply being privatized (it wasn't), or a lack of monitoring requirements (although it's believed testing may have been manipulated... by government workers.[2])

[0] https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2014/04/closing_the_valve_o...

[1] https://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/commentary-mdeq-mistakes...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/21/us/flint-lead...

Edit: Here's a good place to start - https://mphdegree.usc.edu/blog/the-flint-water-crises

Edit 2: Citations added.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#149

Post by dmckeon »

recursive wrote: post #143
ssl-3 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just put the clothes in the dryer and tell it to dry them. It has a multitude of different modes, but "Normal" succeeds at this every single time -- regardless of the amount or dampness of what I put in there. Am I doing this wrong?

You are not wrong, and I'm jealous of your dryer. There are like 5 levels on mine ranging from soggy to slightly damp.

Have you found and cleaned all the lint filters and exhaust air passages? A shop vac and/or an electric leaf blower may serve to improve throughput.

Re: The drinking fountain button

#150

Post by numpad0 »

bombcar wrote: post #87
numpad0 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meat was wrapped in paper. Milk, butter and sour cream were poured into whatever container This type of arguments are still as annoying as the first time I've heard it. Reusable containers just don't satisfy modern day safety standards. If they could get away without paying for packaging they will happily do so. They can't because chances of poisoning followed by lawsuits becomes real at scale, causes including not…

Reusable containers are used at almost ever restaurant in the world that serves on plates. Reusable containers are currently not cheaper and so they're not used - but the fact that they're not used for non-food items is pretty indicative that it's a cost thing, not a safety thing.

Do you really think what you've posted make sense? Or do they not teach you basic food safety in schools, like finish your food ASAP after removing from heat, heat any cooked food to 84C for 1 minute for sterilization, immediately refrigerate dishes not intended for immediate serving, etc until it gets annoying having to fill in same quizzes every few years?

It really feels strange that this level of basic understanding hasn't permeated across, at least, developed nations. The humanity collectively got as much as 6x mortality variance _among developed countries_ with COVID. It's appalling if things like this had been a contributory factor.

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