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Best High-Tech Toilet?
shellac writes "For a number of years now, Japan has had incredibly high-tech toilets, complete with a funky electronic control panel that controls a water jet for cleaning the posterior, a hot air blow dryer, a fake flushing sound to cover up those noisy "Dumb & Dumber" style sessions, a seat warmer, and other nice features, not to mention the occasional amusing gaijin encounter. Prototype models can also chemically analyze urine using lasers. The manufacturer, Toto, has made these available in the US and in other countries, but they have failed to largely fulfill their promised potential, despite their popularity in Japan. There is some evidence Kohler toilets is keeping these out of American markets. The toilets also appear to be a victim of poor marketing on Toto's part, which in all fairness may be due to Western advertising taboos that do not exist in Japan. I know I would love to have one of these, and I suspect many others would as well. What does that /. community think of these toilets? Can anyone post a personal review?"
Just how much time do you spend on the toilet? Time to cut some of the Mountain Dew out of the diet, maybe?
--saint
As long as thy have nothing to do with the three seashells
In America we are imprisoned by our fear of them.
The technology behind the ass-tracker is amazing. I can shift my ass to any position after dumping a load and the water stream still knows where my sphincter is. It's quite comfortable and pleasing once the initial embarrassment wears off.
Thats cool and all, but does the tolite have a 56k modem in it like the one from The Sims?
Hacker Media
Just what we need, a nation full of toilets blinking 12:00.
"November 11, 1996", thats a wee bit dated.. maybe theres something more recent?
That's nifty and all but I'm still trying to figure out the three sea shells.
"Prototype models can also chemically analyze urine using lasers."
"An adult male's recommended dietary allowances for vitamin C is 60 mg per day."
If my urine is yellow I don't need a computer with lasers to tell me I've had my daily intake of vitamin C.
Uhh, no thanks..
We actually spent a whole day in Japanese class listening to students talk about their experiences with these things when they went over as foreign exchange students. I found it quite strange, especially the flushy noise.
Do we really want water spraying up at our posteriors from a toilet? Seems like cleanup would be more work, and I wouldn't rely on a towel unless I was able to do some actual CLEANING and not just getter the dingleberries wet. Your other option is toilet paper which never stands up nicely to moisture. I don't want to get my ass wet after a nice healthy movement anyway.
I suppose this is what a bidet is essentially for, but at least you use it with the intention of actually doing to real cleaning of the undercarriage.
I remember a Popular Science article on toilets that would check levels of blood sugar, and various other checks on items prior (during) their flush. Looked interesting, also included the ability to dial-out/in for stats and checks by health-care types.
Remember that toilet from the episode where the Simpsons go to Japan?
"Welcome. I am honored to accept your waste."
I want a toilet like THAT. The toilet-cam is questionable, though.
--
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Has taking a dump really changed that much in the last few million years? Why do I need lasers toanalyze my urine? Don't forget Japan is also the nation of porn comic books and school girl's panties being sold in vending machines among other sexual deviancies. These people go to Bangkok for sex trips and people want a part of their culture here in the US? Why?
The most advanced toiled I've ever seen was in Monte Carlo several years ago. It was completely robotic. It had something like a carwash hooked up to it, and commodes on a rotating table. After each flush, it would rotate out the toilet and pressure wash the previous one. They really pamper the high rollers I tell ya!
I have a few simple requests to toilet makers:
- Odor detection and removal.
- Gender detection and ajustment (regarding this whole toilet seat issue...)
- Self-cleaning
- Methane detection and recycling
- Portability
- Stability
- Scalability
- Modularity
... Oh man, never work on software design when you need to take a dump...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
they ran Linux!
I don't know about you but I sure would like a high-tech throne named toto.
Just think of all the fun.
"Excuse me son, but I'm off to feed toto."
Dorthy on a toto.
"I don't think we're on a Kansas anymore toto."
-rs
I guess someone had to say it
main(i){(10-putchar(((25208>>3*(i+=3))&7)+(i ?i-4?100:65:10)))?main(i-4):i;}
I'll buy one if they let me hook it to my LAN, and have a panel with Mozilla built into it. Then I can read /. while I'm in there!
Lufthansa Business Class lounge (company dime during dotcom heights of glory!)....toilet there was self cleaning. Stand up, flush....the seat rotated while a squeegee sprayed it w. disinfectant and wiped it clean...all ready for the next "user input". Not as high tech as the article's executive platinum premier commode...but for a guy who has crapped in many places (from a hole in the ground all the way to 35,000 feet (not a problem in the 777!)), I was way impressed!!!
OK, I'm going to come clean here. I prefer to clean myself with soap and water instead of toilet paper. I've been interested in a good toilet seat that makes this easy, and I've looked many times over the years. Those seats are simply very expensive, much more than I would expect for something with a simple water spray and soap dispenser. It seems like the price is inflated because this is a luxury, or that such seats have far more features than I want. Maybe things have changed, and it is time to redo my research.
"shit® happens"?
Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
I've seen the innards of the things when they're opened up for maintenance. They're built out of components from the Telemechanique industrial automation catalog. There are motors, valves, pumps, tanks, lights, and a computer with a rack of interface cards in a stainless steel box. That works, but it's an expensive way to go. You don't make a mass-produced product that way. You could build a washing machine, say, from industrial automation components, and it would work fine, but cost upwards of $10,000.
Some units from Japan designed for mass-production would help.
Whoa... where's the Internetworked toilet seat?
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Some of these features sound great!
However i dont see the point in chemically analyze urine using lasers in an everyday home.
This, however, could be an easier way of testing athletes if they have taken performance enhancing drugs or to diagnoise problems of ealderly or children.
I just dont like the idea of my tolite telling me if my is bad!
------------
Rodney McDonell
That you have easy access to wireless ethernet is.
Code on the can! Dump core! Memleak!
Now If they only can come out with the lazybowl. A toilet with a morning paper holder, a beer fridge, a built in remote, and high speed internet access...
I like replies better than Karma, even if they are flames, because that tells me I got someone thinking.
...I could give a shit...
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
/me bows to toto.
The Ascent E-Toilet Number 2.0 is the most advanced model i've seen so far. Info at:
Ascent E-Toilet
...is that if I'm expected to spend that much time/effort/money for/on a toilet, there better be a button on that there control panel for "blow^h^h^h^h oral gratification".
$0.02 (CDN)
I still want the one that Tim Taylor installed for Tool Time... that's more a "bathroom system" than just a toilet, though, complete with high pressure steam cleaning EVERY surface... cause some people can't aim, y'know. Besides, it looked cool.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
At Matsushita's research center in Tokyo, scientists explain how they are working on embedding technology in the porcelain that will catch a urine sample, shoot it full of lasers and in short order test it for glucose, kidney disease and eventually even cancer. One of the researchers, Tatsuro Kawamura, says future smart toilets will compile and compare medical results day by day, allowing doctors to spot important changes.
I'd be interested in hearing more about this. Will it store the information locally or be hooked up to a network? How will it know who's using the toilet? Who's to say they won't test for drugs or something in the future? This could get pretty invasive.
About 5 years ago when I was an entry level web developer (ya, we used Dreamweaver... bleh) I worked on http://www.toilettech.com/. I still work with the designer who made the animation and logo :-).
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Once you get used to them, they really are hard to give up. Ours had a heated seat, something very valuable when you have no central heating and the temperature drops below freezing occasionally.
They are especially nice when you have the runs. You know, when you have to go to the heads all day, and by the end toilet paper might as well be sandpaper, for the effect it has on your sensitive tissues.
Japanese toilets also have (this is ALL toilets, not just the high-tech ones) two flush types: turn the handle one way for a small flush (#1), turn it the other way for a big flush (#2). Simple, environmentally friendly, and good for water bills. Why on earth don't we have them everywhere -- not to mention in the US, where I understand that flush volumes are limited by law. After all, if the average of all flushes is lower, that should be good enough, right?
Graham
I live in Japan and it's not all good. When men don't aim the electrically warmed seat evaporates the stain and the room doesn't smell too pretty. Watch out you poor gaijin!
Hi All,
:-) The warm water really cleans the backside well.
I actually brought one of these from Japan! It is the best thing that I ever owned!!
The seat stays warm (perfect for those late night hacking session bathroom breaks after too much Taco Bell). It is definitally cleaner then just plain paper
Every one of my friends who tried it were all very impressed by my captians chair, and a few of them actually bought one in the States.
Word of adivce, if you import you have to change from Metric->US, and I suggest you get a Transformer (you don't want to fry the computer)
Regards,
The Happy Toliet Dude
a story where The Turd Report can be modded up to 5!
sulli
RTFJ.
The left one is Powder Puff, the middle one is Warm Water, and the right one is Automatic Tampon Remover.
:-)
Guys, it's best not to mess with the seashells when you stagger out in the dark for that middle-of-the-night whiz-- things could get ugly.
No thanks, I will just go behind that bush and risk the public unrination fine. Its better than feeding the powers that be a great source of information about myself.
in which I can pee standing
I had a Toto toilet installed in my apartment for about $1500. It was great; the seat was always heated, it had hot and cold water jets -- with adjustable temperature and aim, and it even had a sort of hair dryer thingy -- except blowing from down below. Best of all, it had a remote control!
Someone has to mention the ever-popular Screwy Loos
I highly recommend the model massages your prostate. Nothing like a good milking to start your day.
The seat warmer part is really weird. When I was in Japan I used one and it always felt as if some really huge guy had been sitting on it for two hours just before I got there.
Cire
neato!
Japan has both very high-end, high-tech toilets, and low-end squat-over-a-hole-in-the-floor toilets as well. I've had a chance to use both, and I posted some reviews, with pictures!
http://www.links.net/vita/trip/japan/toilets/
About the electric toilets, the basic feature that's quite common, even without the spray, etc, is a heated toilet seat. Which makes a lot of sense and makes for great comfort first thing on a winter morning. There are a lot of heated toilet seats without all the gadgetry here, and when I visit home and my buttocks shiver when I sit I appreciate these devices. Of course it's all superfluous, nothing totally necessary, just like toilet paper, right? You can always use one of your hands and then wash it afterwards. But as long as you're going to go for comfort, you might as well have heated toilet seats as well as toilet paper.
I've been living in Japan for about 9 months now, and it seems that toilets like this are something of a status symbol here. The funkier the iPotty (as I like to call them) the more affluent your guests seem to think you are.
.... I didn't have any say in the matter. He just seemed to think it was in keeping with the class of the apartment.
....
Mine was installed about 2 days after I moved in my the landlord. I came from work one day, and there it was. Damned scary
The bit that they don't tell you about is how frightening it is using it for the first time when you can't read any of the labels on the buttons because you don't read Japanese
R
I love that portable toto device, "made especially for people on the go"! Wow, I bet it took 50 takes before they could say that with a straight face. ROFL
The less Japanese culture we have here the better. The last thing I want while taking a dump is being raped by some tentacle.
by about 1 hour, 15 minutes, for april 1st ?
Surely there must be a way to integrate nanotechnology, too.
The mind boggles...
--
Got anti-terrorism?
So now drug users are going to start peeing in sinks, garbage cans, open drains, dark corners...
Just fucking great. Thanks, scientists! Now we can't even have some fucking privacy when we take a leak>:\
And by "we" I mean EVERYONE, not just drug users. How soon til the toilet detects you've got diabetes and tattles on you to the insurance companies?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
...one big adventure game. You know, like Myst or Monkey Island. It's getting to the point that you can't even go to the toilet without figuring out some kind of logic puzzle.
I guess it could be worse, it could be turning into a big platform game. Watch out for those spinning blades!
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
on the Simpsons, there was a toilet that would make the water drain in the opposite direction (the Coriolis effect)... i want to see a toilet incorporate this as a feature! :)
Your post may have been the only time in history where the tag would have made something cooler.
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
a bidet. I've been saying this for years, and anyone at my past few jobs will attest to seeing this on a whiteboard at some point in time.
Heated seats and such are just added bonuses! of course one thing they should consider is including a vast collection of eBooks along with a reader...
A beowulf cluster of these?
No, really, toilets have a huge amount of idle time.
Toto, one of the leading manufacturers, sells its super-toilets for $2,000 to $4,000.
I don't know about you, but I think $2k-4k is just a tad bit over priced. Perhaps isn't not Kohler thats keeping them out but the fact I can have a *very* nice computer for that price. And I happy to say I spend more time at the computer then I do on the toliet.
I don't recall if this was a Toto product, but after using a heated model in Kyoto this past winter, I feel I understand the excerpt from "Gargantua," cited in the infamous Straight Dope column regarding the origin of toilet paper:
l
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_373.htm
I did attempt to try out the "additional functions" but they had either been disconnected in consideration of the non-Japanese reading occupants, or used some kind of fail-safe mechanism to prevent them from being accidentally triggered.
Toto has been selling conventional-flushing toilets in the US for many years--you have probably used one.
My neighbor is working for a scientific instrument
company--they make medical equipment, valves, all
kinds of stuff--AND toilet flushers for commercial
applications. As part of his backround research, he checked out brands of toilets. He says Toto
has the best flush for the least amount of water,
with the least residue leftover, the hardest to
plug up, etc... (this is their conventional product.)
One thing he is working on is remote controlled
flushing. This sounds silly, until you think of all the standing water in multiple bowls in a large commercial building; it is a possible source for Legionaire's disease microbes to breed.
So they want to be able to remotely cycle any toilet that may not have been used lately--say
every 24hrs at a minimum. Bet you never thought
of that....
To scan this article for the wisecracks. This article needs to be modded as something descriptive of "just searching for some wisecracks".
...a shovel.
russian toilets have some shelf, which accomodates your shit until you flush the toilet. this, certainly, has disadvantages: first, if you shit a lot (at once), heap of shit can grow too high and touch your sensitive ass, but this also reminds you to stop shitting, which is good thing -- to know when to stop; second disadvantage -- generally you have to clean that shelf after, because flushing is not enough and stripes of your shit remain visible.
the whole point is: russian toilets rule, american suck!
Good morning. Welcome to the Mark II Toilet. Analyzing urine... Good news! You're pregnant!
I just hope this thing will defibrillate you after that little shocker.
-twb
Everyone seems to have a pretty negative opinion but these toilets are pretty nice. The have one of the newer Toto models installed in my office in Yokohama.
The first impression you get of the shining white porcelain gadget is the motion sensor activated seat. (Obiviously designed with all those people who are too crippled to lift the seat cover on their own but still miraculously find their way into the bathroom) Swing open the door and you will be greeted by a soothing mechanical whirr as the seat cover goes up. After wiping down the seat with provided disinfectant from the design coordinated dispenser (also a product of toto) You are greeted by a fairly quick change in tempurature from icy cold (Insulation in Japan sucks and central heat does not seem to be of interest in bathrooms here [read: DAMN COLD]) to a pleasant or shall we say encouraging warm tempurature. Not a bad touch. Very good contour to cradle you poor senstive ass after being abused by an office chair everyday. I don't think I need to mention that actual process of 'making a deposit in the bank' as it would seem rather independant of the technology.
And now on to the real fun. I had always assumed that all sorts of water jets and blowers and stuff were for some kind of euro-hippy freak but one terribly hung-over morning at the office I decided to take the challege and 'test' the water jet. I was very impressed by the nice features incorporated into the jet alone. The water tempurature angle and water pressure are all independantly adjustable to suit all body sizes and 'consistancies' (for lack of a better word). I felt rather clean, refreshed and not unpleasant at all, after all it saved me the trouble of wiping!
Being a curious, I have experimented with the jet mechanism at a later date and discovered that at maximum pressure activting the jet while not being seated results in an entertaining water jet that easily crosses to the far side of the stall with little loss of angle or tradjectory. Then by adjusting the angle mechanism I realized that the jet could easily reach tie or even face levels of the average male and realized the potential for an excellent prank hack. (It would really be a shame if someone rigged a trigger to the stall door, wouldn't it...).
Following the encounter with the water jet anyone would realize the need for a drying mechanism as toilet paper does not respond well to moisture. As with the water jet the dryer/blower also has adjustments for angle tempurate and air pressure making for a quick and pleasant drying experience. After multiple test runs timing revealed that the dryer could generally complete its task in 25-35sec with no discomfort. (When placed under time constraints the dryer could produce sufficient lack of moisture in a record time of roughly 12.6 seconds but would not be classified as in the 'comfort zone'.)
Due to being of the male variety and forseeable sloppiness, I could not test but give due note to a full set of water jets and dryers located in the front of the toilet to satisfy the needs of our geek friends who do not a twig and berries nor wedding tackle. The frontal jets were also adjustable for tempurature, angle and pressure leading me to the assumption that they would provide appropriate customization to satify most body shapes and preferences. (Unfortunately no ladies were willing to comment on the functionality of the frontal jets)
From an overall view-point I was very pleased with the performance of this toto model (sorry no model number available at this time) however in the office environment one problem was noticable. Often a venture to the 'techo-head', as I affectionately refer to it, revealed that the settings were often adjusted to preferences other than my own and would require some fine tuning before use to provide the optimal bathroom experience. I realized that it lacked the ability to create presets for individual 'users'. This model lacks the ability to present controls and the small number of analog controls would allow one to assume that presets would not be feasible with out a major redesign of the interface and circuitry. In the event that presets did become a option it would be very convenient to register these settings in a directory server. All in all I would give it 4 out of 5 Johns because of the lack of a presets and still some room in the concept to mature but all together a very pleasant dump.
As I cannot afford to be slashdotted, pictures of the jet mechanisms and control panels as well as model numbers and information will be available by email. Send mail to SCE(at)SUBDIMENSION(dot)COM with 'techno-head' in the subject line and I will send you the photos etc.
This post was enhanced by BEER technology! 'Karaoke' is Japanese for drunken loser. -Craig Kilborne
Let me guess, built-in methane-powered UPS?
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
Sh*t, or get off the pot. Please!
I think these Japanese toilets are a bit overkill for Americans, especially when you consider most American homes don't suffer the issue of really cold toilet seats.
What I do want is toilets that flush completely in only 1.6 gallons of water per flush. This was a major problem with the early water-saving toilets, since often you had to flush twice to flush the toilet bowl cleanly. I believe it was Kohler that first corrected this problem with very careful design of the way water circulates in the toiler bowl during the flush cycle. I know that some toilet makers resorted in using pressurized water tanks (I kid you not!), but I'm not sure if the potential for mechanical trouble is worth it.
Theyre after us! My God! What a police state! What a tragedy! If only we had freedom! Bwwwaaaa!
Okay, this has to be the dumbest Ask Slashdot ever.
Integrated ethernet is the way to go.. its a shame so many people just leave their toliet sitting idle, while it could be searching for aliens.
need to imagine a cluster of these?
I think not
This smells like an april fools so bad I think one of those nozzles should hose this story down where the sun don't shine.
:)
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
I prefer to drop all my deuces right here in the comments section of slashdot.
I haven't used anything else as a toilet in years.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
... of those
It dosn't wipe or blow or flush automatically, you still have to do that yourself. It's really a very plain and usual household toilet, which incidently is located in the laundry (as such spare), off the back of the house, which takes the time pressure of the deed (I have a young family). But it does have a 96M FreeBSD 4.4 box sitting right in front of it (it's where I'm posting this) to read ./ etc on the bog. Very civilised if I do say so myself :) It could probably do with one improvement, a padded seat....
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
is a toilet that flushes my doodies down the first time. I just bought a new house, and if I had known better, I would have brought my turbo-toilet with me.
Yes, I'm serious, and yes, that link is real!
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
Worried by the poor sanitation, inefficiency, and high cost of bathrooms, Bucky came up with a solution in 1936.
The four, stamped sheet metal or molded plastic sections are each light enough to be carried by two workers. They'll fit up tight staircases and through narrow doors, allowing retrofitting in existing structures. All the appliances, pipes, and wires are built-in, limiting on-site construction to mere hook-up.
With the sections bolted together, the interior has no germ-harboring nooks, crannies, grout cracks or anything that can rot. Large-radius corners make germicidal swabbing easy and complete. Downdraft ventilation draws fumes and steam to the undersink vent. Both sink and (deep) bath-shower are arranged to ease the care of children and seniors. The mirror doesn't steam up, the sink doesn't splatter, and the toilet paper stays dry.
Dymaxion Bathrooms are to be equipped with "Fog Gun" hot water vapor showers that use only a cup of water to clean hygienically without soap. Remarking that "Nature had designed humans to separate urine and excrement. Both are valuable chemistry, and should be collected for further use," Bucky specified a waterless "Packaging Toilet" that deftly shrink-wrapped the stuff for pickup for later composting. (Ordinary toilets use approximately 2000 gallons of pure drinking water per year to flush - and waste - one human's "exhaust" that, if dried out, would scarcely fill two 5-gallon pails.)
As important isit is to me for a toilet to analyze my urine and play a fake flushing sound, I just don't think that many Americans (myself included) would want to to anything with a toilet but pull the handle and leave the bathroom to get less distracting things done.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
I spent a lot of time on one of these toilet and let me tell you... the are the best! I was sick as a dog for about a week one time. Spending a LOT of time using a warm jet cleaning system is far nicer than rubbing your .... with toilet paper each time.
I live in Japan, but I don't own one because I just can't quite justify the cost. Luckily I spent that week in my girlfriends house.
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
Yeah, mod me down for being cynical about our great society and thinking this kind of money could actually be put to use in places it's really needed. Sorry for not being a narcissist.
I have one of these 1.6 gallon marvels. One flush will completely cycle the most colorful dumps every time. The large capacity toilets just don't flush right compared to this and often require another flush.
Having spent a couple years in Japan teaching English, I would like to share my experiences with the rest of Slashdot.
:)
Basically, I think it comes down to the fact that the Japanese are fastidiously hygenic. I dont' mean to imply that Americans and Europeans are not, but the Japanese take it to a new, almost obsessive-compulsive level. I may be reading too much into this, but I think this hygine compulsion has a lot to do with why they spend so much time creating the perfect commode.
Then again, given a large segment of Japanese society enjoys gross japscat porn it could be just the opposite as the above.
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
Stuff that matters?
i can whipe my own ass, thank you very much.
sig - .
Forgot to mention...I also highly recommend the toilet paper holders! If you always put the toilet paper on top of the holder because you are too lazy to put in on the rod, you will appreciate as much as me "One-hand toilet tissue loading and unloading".
:) Lost it when my brother bought my mom a PDA.
I'm glad this story came up because I found local dealers near my parents in the USA. I'm going to be the favorite sun again
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
We can call it... (yeah, you guessed it) "Attack of the Commodes"... where young Jedi, I-gotta-git Toiletpaper, has fallen in to the dark side of the Force. He's now surrounded by hoardes of S'hit (S'ith anagram)...
...to be continued
I plan on getting one of these.
They require no water, no chemicals, use hardly any electricity (just enough to power a fan), and produce a dry, odorless white powder that you can use in your garden.
Very keen.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
I have a fancy Japanese toilet, but the only feature I really like is the heated seat. It gets below freezing *inside* my house at night, so a heated seat is a great idea.
But let me tell you about my Japanese bath! Firstly, it has no taps - just a control pad with buttons. You set the water temperature (42C for me) and the water volume (160 litres is just right), and then press the big red button. The bath fills automatically from an inlet in its base, and then beeps to tell me when those 160 litres of 42C water are ready.
But that's not the end of it. If the water cools too far below 42C, the bath water is automatically circulated through the instant gas heater until it reaches 42C again. Your bath never goes cold!
There is also a timer, so you can set your bath to automatically fill itself at exactly the same time every night.
Personally, I *never* want to go back to a "non-Washlet" toilet after having gotten used to these things.
:-)
They have been around in Japan for quite some time now, but seem to have really caught on over the past few years. Almost all new toilets seem come with them now (including many public toilets, though that is rarer than finding them in home units). The first few uses are a bit shocking, but once you get over that they become quite addictive.
The heated seat is of course very nice in the winter. So nice that there are simple heated toilet seats without the bidet functionality on the market here.
But it's the bidet features that are best. It's hard to explain how much... er... cleaner and more sanitary you feel after you have used water rather than just low-grade paper to clean your posterior.
The toilet in my office doesn't have a "washlet" on it, and I find myself "holding it" to extremes until I can get home to do my business-- in the rare emergency where I must use the toilets in the office, I tend to feel... soiled... until I get home.
I guess that if you've never used one then you won't feel a need for one. But I warn you, most people who use them for a short time can never go back to just wiping with dead tree slices.
CC-licensed translations of Japanese fiction: http://tonygonz.blogspot.com/
If the diplomat had even first-year Japanese skills, he should have been able to read the kanji "dai" and "sho" (big & little) on the flush lever.
Dai is for "daiben" and Sho is for "shoben" (ie pee-pee and poo-poo.) Not too hard to figure out.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
My SO (Female) had one at her parents home. They have a feature which helps clean during her period. And it helps after making love.
M
It was first introduced when that dirty astronaut, Steve Birchwood, went to France. It was an electric bottom washer. It was a lot like a normal bottom washer except it burned it off. Upright Citizens Brigade
Nothing beats THIS
4,000 bucks for a toilet..no wonder theyre in fiscal trouble. called cutting down on the costs folks(like maybe luxeries), perhaps a business class is in order for some japs..
"Humanize war? You might as talk about humanizing hell!" -- British Admiral Jacky Fisher
I guess it's officially a "Slow News Day" at Slashdot when they get into Toilet Reviews.
Did I oversleep and Slashdot has rebranded itself to "News for Home Builders. Stuff that Sells." or what?
Sheesh!
Where do you want to "Go" today?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I just wish you hadn't asked this right after that article on artificial intelligence. Two concepts I'd really prefer not to have floating around in my head together.
I guess it's not too bad as long as it doesn't start asking me how my day was...
There's nothing you have that they can't take away: Absolute zero, Gentle Jack, bottom line.
very good! :)
-- james
I wonder how much they are in SF?
50 cents
how they'd perform in a beowolf cluster.
Of course these toilets come from a nation with a very interesting poop fetish. You ever seen japanese pr0n? Most of it is 18 year old girls pooping all over the place.
I lived there for a couple of years and had a great time. I fully agree with others who have actually experienced the high tech toilets, they are really nice.
The one thing I thought was really interesting though was that they have these ultra-high tech toilets.. and then there are the ultra-low tech toilets. Basically nothing more than a porcelain hole. You literally have to squat down to use it because there is no seat. and you'd better not lose your balance.
Incase you missed it, here's the whole Ask Slashdot article summed up in two lines:
"Dear Slashdot....I enjoy jets of water shot at my anus, and i'm willing to pay the big bucks for it!! Any suggestions?"
Think about the sum total of what you've just read, then maybe it will hit you. Slashdot certainly isnt what it used to be, is it....And you thought Yahoo Internet Life was bad? Welcome to the new Slashdot, folks -- What once was the proud sentinel of geekdom has been reduced to running stories on toilets. Sure smacks of "stuff that matters" to me, I tell ya. Anyway, before you go off and moderate me down for being off-topic or trollsome, ask yourself this: How many other articles were rejected (re: meaningful, important articles, peoples work, interesting points of view, etc.) so that this story could make it in? On Easter, of all days. Simply charming.
Surprisingly, i'm not trying to troll here. I'm trying to make a point. Just a day or two ago, I had written to Ask Slashdot regarding the issue of Linux on the desktop, and whether it was truly fair to call it "dead", when infact viable, stable, professional-quality desktops are available for Linux. HP certainly doesnt think the Linux desktop is dead -- They bundle GNOME with HP-UX. IBM isn't crazy either; They bundle both KDE -and- GNOME in AIX... So whats all the hub-bub about Linux being dead on the desktop? But, nope, we cant discuss that.....Not here on Slashdot. There are more important things to address in a public forum such as this..
Like how to have jets of water shoot at our anuses.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
So I'm looking at the pretty pictures on the first link and click the Features Menu link thinking I'll get a list of features for the johns. Up pops the AIDS in Zimbabwe page. If AIDS is a feature of the toilet, I really don't want one!
Why is there so much linking in Slashdot articles ?
Here are some new models from a fictional (yet ever expanding) home furnishing outlet, La Piere. My personal favorite is the Powerpot III diesel powered toilet.
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
Toilet: Hello sir, I am honored to accept your waste.
Homer: They're years ahead of us!
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
During a session of binge drinking, you run like hell for the bathroom, only to wait for the automatic lid to slowly raise. You can barely hear the fake flushing noises over the sound of your vomiting. Wanting to flush the toilet, you drunkenly fumble with the buttons on the panel, only to get squirted in the eye. You flinch, and the toilet blows air into your other eye. Still trying to flush the damn thing, you end up lowering the motorized lid and trapping your head in the vomit-filled toilet..
OMG, thank you Toto for reminding how low my sense of humor can be late at night... I'm still laughing at the "Leave it to Beaver" music playing throughout the video (Windows, QuickTime, Real)
This story was posted an hour and fourteen minutes too early...
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
Imagine the great possible names for such viruses!
What I really want is something to measure how much I pee. Sometimes I say: "Man I really had to go this time." But seriously, I have no idea of how much I actually produced. But if there was a thing that told me, I could really keep a tab on that.
hehe, sorry, this is Slashdot and someone had to make the reference.
I AM, therefore I THINK!
Nothing that you'd notice in your commode, anyhow. See The Bad Coriolis Page for further details.
Your fourth grade science teacher lied to you. Hunt her down and leave a dead woodchuck in her mailbox.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
I've actually used one of these, and it was in America. I was attending the Macworld conference in NYC a couple of years ago, and Apple was paying for my room at the RIHGA Royal Hotel, which, by the way, is a really classy place (on a bit of a side note, it was the only hotel not detailed in my New York City Book of Hotels, because the author could not afford to spend a night there), so thank you Apple. But anyway, the toilet in the hotel room had a rather imposing control panel built into it and an array of squirt guns near water level. I immediately went straight for the Unidentified Shitholding Object, and gave it a whirl. Let me just say, that this thing is amazing. Mine seemed to adjust its water guns to the shape of my ass without any help from me (or else the cleaning women were clairvoyant), and the control panel consisted of orders on whether or not to stop or go or toast my buns to a nice golden brown. Of course I used that option.
It might be a bad idea to put these in an office building: people wouldn't want to go back to their cubicles, preferring to chill in the stalls.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
Thomas Crapper: Myth & Reality
The debate over who Thomas Crapper was - or even if there was a Thomas Crapper at all - continues. His contributions to the plumbing industry are even more suspect. But with this article we intend to replace myth with fact, for we have found a cadre of Thomas Crapper scholars who have made it their life's work to prove that Crapper is more than just a slang term brought home by the World War I doughboys.
For this article we interviewed Dr. Andy Gibbons, historian of the International Thomas Crapper Society, and Ken Grabowski, a researcher and author who is writing a book on Crapper's life.
Myth: Thomas Crapper as a person never existed.
Fact: Though we do not know his actual date of birth, we can now say the man Thomas Crapper probably was born in September 1836, since he was baptized the 28th of that month. Crapper did have a successful career in the plumbing industry in England from 1861 to 1904.
The date of Crapper's death has also been a source of confusion for many years. For example, Chase's Annual Events, the authoritative book for listing special days and dates, has listed January 17 as Thomas Crapper Day and January 17, 1910 as the date of his death.
After all his research, Gibbons was certain that Chase's was 10 days off. The actual date of Thomas Crapper's death was January 27, 1910. The error probably resulted from an honest typo in "Flushed With Pride," by Wallace Reyburn, says Gibbons, "but I waged a 10-year battle with Chase's to get them to change the date." He finally won his battle this year after supplying them with a photo of Thomas Crapper's tombstone, notes from a living descendent, and a copy of the man's official death certificate.
Myth: Thomas Crapper invented the toilet.
Fact: No one in the know about Thomas Crapper would ever make this statement. In his research, Grabowski has created a detailed history of Crapper's business life. The man holds nine patents, four for improvements to drains, three for water closets, one for manhole covers and the last for pipe joints. Every patent application for plumbing related products filed by Crapper made it through the process, and actual patents were granted.
The most famous product attributed to Thomas Crapper wasn't invented by him at all. The "Silent Valveless Water Waste Preventer" (No. 814) was a symphonic discharge system that allowed a toilet to flush effectively when the cistern was only half full. British Patent 4990 for 1898 was issued to a Mr. Albert Giblin for this product.
There are a couple of theories on how Thomas Crapper came to be associated with this device. First, is that Giblin worked for Crapper as an employee and authorized his use of the product. The second, and more likely scenario, says Grabowski, is that Crapper bought the patent rights from Giblin and marketed the device himself.
Myth: Thomas Crapper never was a plumber.
Fact. Oh yes he was. He operated two of the three Crapper plumbing shops in his lifetime, but left the business three years before the final and most famous facility on Kings Road in London. When Crapper retired from active business in 1904, he sold his shop to two partners who, with help from others, operated the company under the Crapper name until its closing in 1966.
Several of London's current plumbing companies trace their trade roots to Thomas Crapper. One, Mr. Geoffrey Pidgeon of Original Bathrooms (Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, Great Britain), continues the trade of his great uncle and grandfather, both of whom apprenticed under Thomas Crapper.
Thomas Crapper did serve as the royal sanitary engineer for many members England's royalty, but contrary to popular myth, he was never knighted, and thus isn't entitled to use the term "Sir" before his name.
Myth: The word "crap" is derived from Thomas Crapper's name.
Fact. The origin of crap is still being debated. Possible sources include the Dutch Krappe; Low German krape meaning a vile and inedible fish; Middle English crappy, and Thomas Crapper. Where crap is derived from Crapper, it is by a process know as, pardon the pun, a back formation.
The World War I doughboys passing through England brought together Crapper's name and the toilet. They saw the words T. Crapper-Chelsea printed on the tanks and coined the slang "crapper" meaning toilet.
The legend of Thomas Crapper takes its flavor from the real man's life. While Crapper may not be the inventor of the product he is most often associated with, his contribution to England's plumbing history is significant. And the man's legend, well, it lives on despite all proof to contrary
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
You know that's what it would be used for! You know it! Own up to it..... Just what everyone needs - to put a bookmark to The Hun on the crapper's console!
Kohler Toilets are the best. I happen to live in Kohler, Wisconsin, the home of the Kohler Toilets. We make the best damn toilets ever...
We've had these for over 10 years. It drove my parents closer to divorce than anything else, but eventually my mother learned to love it too. In a phrase, this thing is the difference between cleaning and smearing.
For many years, the only one we had was in our home in California in my parents' bathroom. I would tell people about it reverentially, and they all thought I was exagerrating my love for it.
Whenever I would come home, the only toilet I would use is this one. One time, I came out of the toilet room and said to my dad, "That toilet is the best thing in the world."
He replied, "I know."
If you're going to move your bowels once or twice a day, being able to clean and wash effectively is not something to (excuse the pun) laugh at. There are serious health benefits, not to mention it simply feels better to have a clean ass than to spend the rest of the day walking around with pooh chunks smeared throughout your tuchus.
Is it a coincidence that:
a) The Japanese have high-tech toilets
b) The Japanese have a nasty scat fetish
I think not.
Well, I was just wiring my flat up with Cat 5 and it made to sense to put an RJ-45 panel in the toilet (well, in the ceiling of the bathroom). It so happened that bathroom manhole was the concentration point for some of the other horizontal wiring in the flat so... it has already proven useful!
...a toilet that can give me the BSOD.
"The application 'Bidet.exe' has caused a general protection fault. Would you like to reboot?"
however are the inscriptions in broken English, everywhere from the toilet paper holder "for amenity of a human life", to the tank itself. They are omnipresent in Japan, but reading them in the loo greatly speeds up the business :-)
Thinking over this matter I start to feel uneasy about this dark matter. I came to a simple conclusion:
The toilet is a place where the biggest part of humanity actually gives something to the world instead of taking all the time. The purity of this act is disturbed by a zealous device that makes the creator a receiver again. And think of the amount of energy and additional water involved!
I say: no way to those seducers; don't let them take away the rest of our creativity!
A well meaning friend
====================================== No sig, no ideas, no money
I have to put in a plug for the low-flush Kohler toilets.
Isn't that the point?
El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
No shit. Living in california has forced my colon to evolve to point of being able to partition my fecal droppings into portions that will flush. I'm not some fucking vegan soybean eating tweeked out southern california heroin addict, when I take a dump it is a glorious and reveling thing, I'm not some herbivore in the woods walking in the woods with pellets shooting out of my ass I'm the big bear farting big stinky brown torpedos into the water, fuck I'm ranting but why the fuck should I have to keep my frigging plunger near the toilet at all times because you have a better frigging chance to hit the jackpot than to flush the turd, 5 gallon flushes with a woosh sound, a fucking vacuum, I don't care if it sucks so hard my anus is inside out I just my god damn shit to go on happily to wherever it needs to be.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
My stools are my buziness ... and i dun want no high tech mumbo jumbo toilet analysing it !!!
The Toilet PC
If you're on the subject of high tech toilets, then check out the toilet pc [envador.com], its got to be seen to be believed.
Personally, I think it would be inconvenient to make one yourself.
After all that trouble to make a toilet pc, it would only take one drunken guy to 'christen' the pc case and fry the mobo...
I live in Tokyo, and I have to say these things scare me...OK, one guy points out that if its cold, the heated seat can be nice. But, in our office men's room, people leave the heat on full blast all the time, and its somehow very sickening to sit on a hot toilet seat when you gotta take care of business...
The other thing is how sanitary is some little plastic water gun squirting high pressure water point blank at your arse?!
Lastly, sometimes these things get outta hand, and you don't know which button is used to flush. (Especially if you don't know too much Japanese!) I was in a hotel once, and the toilet seat itself didn't have any buttons; there was a HUGE (7x5")IR Remote velcroed to the wall with a sheet of instructions on using all the different functions. Honestly, you had to flush the toilet with a remote that had maybe 15-20 buttons on it...
I guess its better than the traditional Japanese toilet...
I've used one of these in a Japanese hotel before. It was all I could do to not punch buttons at random and yell 'Scotty I need those warp engines back online NOW!' It was only the knowledge that one of those buttons would squirt unheated water up my butt that kept me from doing so.
My father-in-law has one, my brother-in-law has two. Not complete toilets, but WASHLETS, which are basically replacement toilet seats, with the built-in wash/dry functions. They're great. They get you clean without going through masses of paper. That actually starts to feel rather barbaric. Now, on the lighter side, these toilets are apparently not the most advanced models, which have multicolor fountains and announce that they are honored to accept your waste.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Simply put, after using the washlet for two years, coming back to the US and using only toilet paper now is like wiping my ass with dried leaves.
As someone else pointed out, the biggest obstacle to adoption of these things in the US is probably the lack of AC power next to the toilet.
Otherwise, I would love to have washlets in my house in the US. The heated seat is great on those cold mornings, and the warm water washing is much cleaner and healthier and more comfortable than dry toilet paper (yuck!).
Just like with mobile phones and healthy food, the Japanese are ahead of us in this area.
Java.
Gives a whole new meaning to checking the logs.
Where I come from, we just have to piss in the coat pocket of the bloke in front of us.
..that they removed the blink tag from HTML but also built the browsers with support for animated gifs ?
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
In my experience, the best toilet has always been one that is affordable, has a good warranty, is comfortable, and has plenty of gadgets.
The perfect toilet, of course, would fulfill all of the above prerequisites, yet also offer a variaty of different themes, each geared to the varying mind of the consumer.
For instance, if I were offered the choice to enter a large bathroom with an ordinary mass-manufactured white toilet or a smaller bathroom with a limited-edition "EZ-Bowel 2600" (featuring the seat warmer, built-in XM satellite radio with dodecafonic surroundsound Alpine speaker arrangement, NSA encryptoflush(r) technology processing unit, and the optional recycling IV of Exlax (technology courtesy of the AllYourBase human-recycling branch of the Yakuza) all featured embedded inside a neon-accented, onyx toiletbase), I would definately choose the latter.
Remember, it's either quality or quantity, and we'd probably prefer the sheer ecstacy involved when using anything with encryptoflush(r) technology. Try to ponder this as you sit on your plain porceline camode. Think about how sad it makes you feel that you don't have what I will be receiving via UPS in the upcoming 2 to 3 weeks.
Hah. Hah hah.
A toilet! It's a fucking toilet! Doesn't need a chip. Doesn't even need electricity, and frankly, I don't think I ever want to sit on one that does, considering all those warnings I used to get from Mum about playing the (plug-in) radio while I was in the bath. Did these Japanese remember to include the counter to tell you how many sheets of two-ply you used? Oh, yeah, there's a built-in water fountain for that job!
Anybody who seriously thinks they need one of these contraptions should be forced to a lifetime of using an old two-holer behind some farmer's barn!
Looks like I am the only one /. reader who owns washlet in USA. Of course I got familiar with it in Tokyo hotel. Just a few days after I installed it (mine is Daelim brand) my wife got one of those illnesses which require staying within 30' to toilet at any time. After doing the "#2" about 20times in a span of a few hours she told me that the washlet was a lifesaver, because she didn't have to scratch her sore behind with a toilet paper every time. A little correcion to previous posts: most washlets don't spray your face if you push buttons while standing. They have a safety switch in the seat, which, luckily for pranksters, can be overridden via software. By the way, washlet is THE gadget to amaze ALL your friends and relatives of ANY age.
http://www.bumperdumper.com/
What other part of your body would you let touch fecal matter and then wipe with a piece of paper and call clean. Everyone needs to buy a bidet and learn how to use it. How disgusting are we, as a species, for not cleaning ourselves with anything but a piece of paper after we deficate. It blows my mind.
See... and you thought your sig was boring - TT
It features a heated seat, the bottom washer and a deodorizing fan that "breaks down odorous molecules and returns clean air into the bathroom environment," according to Toto literature.
No no Americans want the self-lifting seat. How can they leave that out?
//m
Though I haven't had the toilet experience, the best sink I've seen was in the McDonalds just outside the Tower of London. The sink was a concave half-sphere set into the wall. You stuck your hands in and the water turned on, then the soap, then nothing so you could lather up, then more water for rinsing, then the hot air. Nothing to touch - all automatic.
A toilet greets Homer in a typical Japanese accent, "I am happy to receive your waste." After he's done it plays a happy tune and squirts colored streams of water like a fountain.
The German Toilet, complete with Turd Inspection Shelf!
-------------------------------------------------
Here's the city's link to a map of the current toilet locations, and a photo of one of them. Many are located near BART stations.
http://www.sfdpw.org/sfdpw/toilet/index.htm
BTW the tops are not bolted to the side walls. I went to a parade and some people were sitting on the roof of one, which was tilting a few inches. Probably there's a few-inches-high catch but it still looked insecure.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
Having lived in Japan and enjoyed the high-tech toilets in my own home, we found that the only thing that we wanted in our home was the "high-tech" toilet paper dispenser. This wonderful gadget allows the easiest change of toilet paper in history. Just lift the new roll into place. We special ordered one for our new home!
d fspc/yh 51t2.pdf
See it here:
http://www.totousa.com/toto/admin/upload/p
The pictures don't really do them justice, but the idea is simple. Two dowels extend into the center of the roll from each side of the dispenser. They are hinged so that they both lift up, but they don't go past horizontal, and they are on a spring so they want to snap down to the horizontal position. To change a roll, you lift the new toilet paper up from underneath, the dowels hinge up and release the old roll and then snap into the new roll. Then you lower the new roll and the dowels stop at horizontal again. Beautiful. We argue over who gets to change the roll.
Some real AMERICAN toilet technology...
http://members.cox.net/marklein/rtype/toilet.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200006/df2000 0602.jpg
This is GREAT! Now, employers will be able to test your pee, while verifying you really ARE in the bathroom, and not out back playing street hockey! P.S. Does it come with a remote control, for when your kids forget to flush?
On a ski trip to Japan with a group of friends, the cabins we were staying in had electrically heated toilet seats. No cold bums when you go take a dump. One of these gizmos had a crack in the material, and when one friend sat down without drying himself off after a shower, he got a huge electric shock. Unfortunately our friend became momentarily incontinent, and I had to clean up the mess while he went to get first aid for the burns to his butt!
...to end up working on crappy embedded systems.
So you're looking for this wonder toilet? Sound hard to find? In a most blatant attempt to climb the corporate ladder... here it is:v iew.jhtml?&sku=AT901REG
http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product
Buy! Buy! Buy!
The main reason these babies haven't caught on is cost. I've looked all my life for the Japanese style "toilet seat replacement" style bidet (pronounced BID-A). Toto is high class but too spendy. American's aren't ready to plunk down a grand for "the extra dose of cleanliness" and we certainly aren't prepared for "a blow dry" down there. There is a low cost-high quality alternative that I am a purveyor of ($269-$399). I'm on a mission to bring the joy and cleanliness of this thing into every American home. I salute your quest. If you visit bidetsdirect.com, you'll see my emabarrasing attempt to put up a functional web page. Radical revision is coming soon.
The good soldier goes to one of these toillets that plays music randomly. And just when starts the defecation, he has to stand up because it starts playing the national anthem...
Rwe obliged 2 save our future by choosing:O3 hole-greenhouse effect instead of accepting everydays gossip-nonsense chat?
If you've ever worked in the aviation industry, you might see just how appropriate BWOD is.
Of course you've all seen the blue water in the toilets, but imagine if you were the guy dumping it from the aircraft and there was a leak in the drain hose. It's called a "blue shower" and it sucks. I once saw a guy get *completely* drenched while dumping a old DC-8 lav: this cargo-hauler's lav was only dumped when the aircraft returned to base, so it was quite the scene. It started out as a slow trickle, so he reached up to re-seat the hose fitting, (so his hands are up above his head and he is looking into it, all on top of a tall ladder). The hose broke loose and it was a 5 gallon deluge straight to the face. Possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
I once had blue juice (clean, from the fresh tank) sprayed into my eyes when someone disconnected the refill hose with the pump on, but a friend of mine got a bit of a face/mouthful of the dirty stuff when a hose parted and the stuff sprayed out onto the ramp where he was standing.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the picture of the toilet next to a 1st gen iBook on a stand. Weren't these machines referred to as the 'Apple Toilet Seats'?
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
www.sun-mar.com
[Part 5]
"WXN calling WWW.... WXN calling WWW.... WXN... WXN... WXN..."
The centre finger of Mary Trueblood's right hand stabbed softly, elegantly, at the key. She lifted her wrist. Six twenty-eight. He was a minute late. Mary Trueblood smiled at the thought of the little open Sunbeam tearing up the road towards her. Now, in a second, she would hear the quick step, then the key in the lock and he would be sitting beside her. There would be the apologetic smile as he reached for the earphones. "Sorry Mary. Damned car wouldn't start." Or, "You'd think the blasted police knew the number by now. Stopped me at Halfway Tree." Mary Trueblood took the second pair of earphones off their hook and put them on his chair to save him half a second.
"WXN calling WWW.... WXN calling WWW." She tuned the dial a hair's breadth and tried again. Her watch said six twenty-nine. She began to worry. In a matter of seconds, London would be coming in. Suddenly she thought, God, what could she do if Strangways wasn't on time! It was useless for her to acknowledge London and pretend she was him - useless and dangerous. Radio Security would be monitoring this call, as they monitored every call from an agent. Those instruments which measured the minute pecularities in an operator's "fist" would at once detect it wasn't Strangways at the key. Mary Trueblood had been shown the forest of dials in the quiet room on the top floor at headquarters, had watched as the dancing hands registered the weight of each pulse, the speed of each cipher group, the stumble over a particular letter. The Controller had explained it all to her when she had joined the Carribbean station five years before - how a buzzer would sound and the contact would be automatically broken if the wrong operator had come on the air. It was the basic protection against a Secret Service transmitter falling into enemy hands. And, if an agent had been captured and was being forced to contact London under torture, he had only to add a few hairbreadth peculiarities to his usual "fist" and they would tell the story of his capture as clearly as if he had announced it en clair.
Now it had come! Now she was hearing the hollowness in the ether that meant London was coming in. Mary Trueblood glanced at her watch. Six-thirty. Panic! But now, at last, there were footsteps in the hall. Thank God! In a second he would come in. She must protect him! Desperately she decided to take a chance and keep the circuit open.
"WWW calling WXN.... WWW calling WXN.... Can you hear me?... can you hear me?" London was coming over strong, searching for the Jamaica station.
The footsteps were at the door.
Coolly, confidently, she tapped back, "Hear you loud and clear.... Hear you loud and clear.... hear you..."
[Part 6]
Behind her there was an explosion. Something hit her on the ankle. She looked down. It was the lock of the door.
Mary Trueblood swivelled sharply on her chair. A man stood in the doorway. It wasn't Strangways. It was a big negro with yellowish skin and slanting eyes. There was a gun in his hand. It ended in a thick black cylinder.
Mary Trueblood opened her mouth to scream.
The man smiled broadly. Slowly, lovingly, he lifted the gun and shot her three times in and aroundthe left breast.
The girl slumped sideways off her chair. The earphonesslipped off her golden hair on to the floor. For perhaps a second the tiny chirrup of London sounded out into the room. Then it stopped. The buzzer at the Controller's desk in Radio Security has signalled that something was wrong with WXN.
The killer walked out the door. He came back carrying a box with a coloured label on it that said PRESTO FIRE, and a big sugarsack marked TATE & LYLE. He put the box down on the floor and went to the body and roughly forced the sack over the head and down to the ankles. The feet stuck out. He dragged the bulky sack out into the hall and came back. In the corner of the room, the safe stood open, as he had been told it would, and the sipher books had been taken out and laid on the desk ready for work on the London signals. The man threw these and all the papers in the safe into the centre of the room. He tore down the curtains and added them to the pile. He topped it off with a couple of chairs. He opened the box of Presto firelighters and took out a handful and tucked them into the pile and lit them. Then he went out into the hall and lit similar bonfires in appropriate places. The tinder dry furniture caught quickly and the flames began to lick up the panelling. The man went to the front door and opened it. Through the hibiscus hedge he could see the glint of the hearse. There was no noise except for the zing of crickets and the soft tick-over of the car's engine. Up and down the road there was no other sign of life. The man went back into the smoke-filled hall and easily shouldered the sack and came out again, leaving the door open to make a draught. He walked swiftly down the path to the road. The back doors of the hearse were open. He handed in the sack and watched the two men force it into the coffin on top of Strangways's body. Then he climbed and shut the doors and put on his top hat. As the first flames showed in the upper windows of the bungalow, the hearse moved quietly from the sidewalk and went on its way up towards the Mona Reservoir. There the weighted coffin would slip down into its fifty-fathom grave and, in just forty-five minutes, the personnel and records of the Carribbean station of the Secret Service would have been utterly destroyed.
Given the mania for connecting appliances to the net (coke machines, coffee machines, refrigerators and microwaves), how long will it be before we have the web toilet?
I can imagine some of the options it will offer...
Who is using the toilet right now?
Average bidet water temperature
Dump log
OK, OK, enough already...
After many trips I have experienced the full gamut of the cultural challenge of "paying a penny" in Japan. First experience was at Narita airport. Standing at the urinal and the cleaning lady wanders by. I soon learnt of the "cocoon world" Japanese seem to develop around them. Conscious obliviousness I think it is.
Next to confront one is the "squat over the floor mounted model." I am a tad slow and it took me a few visits to Japan to realise that it is safest and more practical to completely remove one's trousers before attempting this trick. And if you are "out in the boonies", make sure you have a good supply of tissues as "roll paper" isn't always available. The trains often have an intersting compromise where they sometimes have an elevated "squatter". More often though, now there are "Western style" toilets appropriately signed.
The latest high-tech toilet I encountered in the DaiIchi, Nagoya had two jets. Presumably from the quite explicit diagrams, one jet was for either sex and the other was shaped for women. Press the wrong button and you get a soggy scrotum.
The warm seats are definitely a plus in winter.
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
:-D
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. (-1 Redundant)
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Hey, better living throught technology. Once only the wealthies people had a bidet. Now the middle classes can have a space-saving bidet and toilet in one. This isn't completely irresponsible either, I imagine that with enough of these, there will be less of a need for toilet tissue, which is more than likely a Good Thing for the environment. Also a stream of water is likely healthier and slightly-less unnatural than the friction of rubbing paper on your anus. In the space of a lifetime, how much tissue damage actually occurs to a place that was never really intended to withstand daily wear and tear? Do other mucous membranes have to withstand such an onslaught of moisture roobing flesh dragging bleached, sometimes perfumed and dyed wood pulp?
Actually, you were modded up as insightful, and I M2ed it as Fair, so your disclaimer really saved your ass this time. But money is not zero-sum, and those who have it should have the right to spend it. Most of those places where people claim money is "really needed" won't benefit from money; in many cases, money just ends up making a situation worse. For an easy example of this, look at the majority of "poor" people who go on to win a lottery, the year after they win. Many of them end up worse off, in massive debt, having trifled away more than all of their winnings on useless luxuries. Some of the advances in toilet-science here could actually be considered useful luxuries, that improve upon the current state of toiletry. Would you consider a flushing toilet a frivolous advance over dry toilets? What the people "who could really use the money" need is social change, of a kind which is never brought about by throwing money at the problem.
Social change requires consideration and time from people, and beneficial developments in culture. At best money is an expedient tool for enabling simple ends. The heavy lifting needs to be done by whatever local society is in an unfortunate situation, not by "our great society" with "this kind of money." Having a local society become dependent on our "great society" is detrimental to them, and they end off worse in the long run for not being self sufficient.