h2ohhhhhh! Women Say Water Trumps Sex

in /by

Yet another enlightening finding in the study of curious gender differences! A new Cooking Light poll finds that women rank gettin’ some water more important that gettin’ some! Via www.basilandspice.com,

U.S. WOMEN SURVEYED IN COOKING LIGHT POLL SAY DRINKING THE RECOMMENDED AMOUNT OF WATER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HAVING ENOUGH SEX
New York, NY (August 25, 2009) – Drinking the recommended daily amount of water is more important to women than having enough sex, according to a national survey conducted by Cooking Light magazine. When asked what women’s priorities were in terms of their health and well-being, drinking enough water ranked fifth and sex ranked seventh. Over 1,000 women across the country participated in Cooking Light’s “Women’s Wellness Poll” which surveyed their opinions on healthy living, eating and exercise.

In fact, there were six health and wellness activities that finished ahead of sexy number seven in the “Women’s Wellness Poll.”

1. Getting enough sleep
2. Keeping stress level low
3. Finding time to relax
4. Eating healthfully
5. Drinking the recommended amount of water
6. Finding time to exercise
7. Having enough sex

Sort-of related post:
Behind the Shower Curtain: Steamy Secrets In which Water Pik Corporation researches “What Men and Women Really Think About in the Shower”

Related in a parallel way:
From a report via consumerist.com: most people would rather save $50 a week (57 percent) than drop down to the next lowest clothing size (31 percent) or have more sex (6 percent).

Obligatory study methodology stuff for the skeptics:
This report is based on a blind online study conducted among a randomly selected sample of U.S. women age 25+. The data in this report is based on 1020 competed questionnaires. The maximum margin of error is +/- 3% at the 95% confidence level.

Raging Infrastructure

in /by
Photo by Editor B on Flickr

Photo by Editor B on Flickr

In Wareham, Massachusetts, vandals opened a fire hydrant in a secluded area Sunday night and flushed about 2 million gallons of water out of the Wareham water system before the breach was discovered,

We’re all numb to big numbers these days, but think about it. 2 MILLION GALLONS. That’s equivalent to 800,000 toilet flushes, or enough water to cover generous toilet flushing for the entire Wareham population for 5 days. (assuming no one pees in the shower.) That’s enough water to fill 40,000 bathtubs, enough for me and my immediate family to luxuriously soak up to our chin-lines every day for more than 20 years.

The story on SouthCoastToday.com notes,

[Michael] Martin [water system department superintendent] said the department’s monitoring system indicated that the hydrant, in an unbuilt subdivision, was opened at 10:37 p.m. Water poured out at a rate of about 3,500 gallons per minute until technicians were alerted by an automated control system that the water towers had dropped to an alarm level.

“The control and alarm system worked exactly as designed,” Martin said. “As soon as the alarm went off, our technician was in the office by 4:15.”

As the water level in the towers dropped, the automated system started individual wells at pre-programmed levels to meet demand. By the time the towers hit the alarm set point, all seven wells were running as designed.

Hmmmm. If the system worked exactly as designed, perhaps it’s time for some design refinements! We’d like to believe that a sudden, sustained 3,500 gallons per minute loss might trigger some sort of an alert, well before the point where critical supply levels reached the emergency stage.

Regardless, someone’s going to pay for this not-so-funny prank.

Martin said the incident was reported to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Wareham Police, who are conducting a criminal investigation. The water department also issued an advisory via its Reverse 911 system regarding the discolored water.

Hydrant shenanigans are not uncommon, and I’m reminded of this story from a few years back. From chicagoclout.com, a water department worker said,

On July 8, 2007 some children from Mayor Daley’s 27th and State Projects opened fire hydrants and splashed water into the cars passing by with open windows, immediately flooding the cars. When attempting to shut down these hydrants, I always attempt to shut down without an incident. This kid pictured, pulled out some “Grills”, put them on his front teeth, and sat on the hydrant. I called for the Chicago Police for back-up and the large crowd dispersed. This Chicago fire hydrant need a “Custodian” safety device to stop millions of gallons of wasted water.

Chicago youth vandalizes cars and fire hydrant simultaneously. 2007 Photo by Patrick McDonough

Chicago youth vandalizes cars and fire hydrant simultaneously. 2007 Photo by Patrick McDonough

Catering To Your Deep Love of Seafood

in /by

Why just dine on fresh seafood when you can dine with fresh seafood? Go ahead, enjoy a “reverse aquarium” dining experience and don’t give it a thought that the act is possibly being witnessed by your meal’s relatives.

The Conrad Maldives Rangali Island’s Ithaa undersea restaurant is 16 feet below sea level with stunning views of reef and marine life. Don’t expect to just impulsively paddle into this unique venue without advance reservations, as it seats just 12 guests. Prepare yourself for a depth charge, as meals run between US$120 to US$250. But hey, we’re talking once-in-a-lifetime here, right?

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Ithaa

Your other option for dining underwater is the Eilat, Israel Red Sea Star Underwater Restaurant, Bar and Observatory, with an ocean fantasy decor that will have you scanning the crowd for Sponge Bob Squarepants. This place seats 105 diners with easier-to-swallow price points ($US10 to $20).

Before the restaurant was built in 1998, the site was devoid of sea life, the victim of pollution, sewage and over-development. Over several years, clean up included restoration of the active and colorful coral reef that originally thrived there decades ago. As the habitat was recreated, the fish soon followed.

Red Sea Star Underwater Restaurant, Bar and Observatory

(Read more at trifter.com; more photos of the Red Sea Star are here.)

Deep Meaning in Japanese Game Show

in /by

Let’s play the guess the game show game! I’ve watched this hyperactive clip several times, and have no idea what’s going in this Japanese game show, except that it involves a crazy aquarium toilet, voting by a “local secrets” panel, and an MC with one of the biggest rubber stamps I’ve seen anywhere. And, I think the female contestant “won.” (Whatever it was she was trying to win!) Watch and guess… I’ve storyboarded it below to give you a head start!

To start: The unusual toilet is revealed; contestant (in upper left) is wide-mouth AMAZED!

Wow! Audience and contestants gasp as 3000 is revealed!

Ok, now to the panel, who are all busy punching to vote/rate the toilet.

Calculating...and the panel comes up with a collective "score" which shows on the screen.

This contestant is happy! The light-up big fish must mean something great!

The host dramatically brings down the big stamp!

And then the stamp's mark magically shows up on the screen.

After than, a giant goldfish/koi emerges from smoke and fire behind the host!

Stormwater Grievance Expressed in Sign Language

in /by

Ya’lled be mad, too, if the city widened a road and turned your front yard into a storm-powered waterfall headed straight for your front door. Still, it ain’t been easy for the Cary, North Carolina town leaders to appease the annoyed Mr. Bowden. So he’s taken his complaint to the streets with an in-your-face message right on the front of his house. From wral.com (the video news report is embedded below), Mr. Bowden…

…claims a recent widening project on Maynard Road has left his once-arboreal yard void of trees and with a steep slope that funnels rain water into his home.

Bowden, who’s lived in the house since 1992, says he has complained for a year now to the town about water damage underneath his house but was told the drainage issue is with his gutters.

“You don’t have to be an electrical engineer or a construction engineer to know water runs downhill,” he said.

That stinks! But before you get caught up a wellspring of sympathy, there’s another side to the story. Seems the problem didn’t start with the widening (although it did worsen.) And he doesn’t want the problem fixed. He wants no less than a generous taxpayer-funded buyout. That is, top dollar for a so-so property in a depressed real estate market.

Assistant Town Manager Mike Bajorek says he understands Bowden’s frustration but says it’s also frustrating for the town. “We have gone to him and said we have a design that would help resolve (the drainage issue),” Bajorek said. “He said, ‘No, stay off my property. I want you to buy my house.”

Bajorek said the town has purchased houses with drainage problems when there was no possible solution but that it is not willing, at this point, to spend tax money to buy the house.

Bowden told the town that the drainage issue was a problem for years before the widening project when the state Department of Transportation put an overlay on Maynard Road, Bajorek said.

“We have been working on this project for several years,” he said. “We have a fix in place. We’re just waiting for Mr. Bowden to give us the go ahead to install that.”

Good try, Dave, but haven’t you learned that you can’t fight city hall? While you stubbornly refuse to remove the message, the town is citing you for violation of their sign ordinance, with big fines that escalate the longer the eyesore remains–$100 for the first day, $250 for the second and $500 for each day afterward. That’s gonna add up to a surprisingly expensive gripe!


Hold It! Code 3!

in /by

Were Scotland Yard’s phone operators playing it too loose with trips to the loo? You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so the bosses have devised an unintentionally-hilarious new procedure to keep tabs on toilet “productivity” metrics. From couriermail.com.au,

Toilet break now a ‘Code Three’

NO longer known as a number one or number two, when phone operators at Scotland Yard take a toilet break they will have to log it as a “Code Three” so police can monitor time wasters.

Britain’s Metropolitan police said the new rules would stop staff at the police head quarter’s control room from taking unnecessary breaks.

The operators will have to log toilet visits as a “code three” on a bath-specific database.

Staff are fuming about being so heavily scrutinised.

Employee Paul Drew wrote in a staff magazine: “Everyone I have spoken to about this finds it deeply offensive and humiliating.

“It would be interesting to know what the public or the Met can possibly gain from making notes of such intimate details.”

Superintendent Russ Hanson-Coles, told the BBC: “Our primary role at central communications command is to be available for the public to contact and it is vital that we make the best use of our resources.

“Staff in this environment have regular breaks that compare very favourably with outside industry so the need for extra personal breaks should be minimal.”

Dumpster Diving in the Merrimack River

in , /by

Imagine that your city dump is located at the bottom of a river, unseen below the surface… and that same river is the main source for your community’s drinking water. Most people would be shocked to realize how common this scenario actually is.

We need a wake up call, and the people of the Clean River Project in Lowell, Massachusetts answered the call with their July 25th “scavenger hunt” cleanup on the Merrimack River. The competition challenged people to see how much “stuff” they could collect from the river with scoring on a points-based system. (There were prizes for both “small boat” and “large boat” categories.)

Competitors dove in and hauled up cars and car parts, engines, a dishwasher, a couch, a tar and gravel roof (ugh!) and many other nasty polluting items from the river that supplies drinking water to Lowell, Lawrence and Methuen (home of the Methuen bottle tree, which was NOT pulled out of the river!)

After the cleanup, the debris was recycled or properly disposed of. I believe I would have preferred that all of it stayed there for a bit, the entire mountain of rusting, smelly, soggy crap, along with some signage explaining where this mess had been…and where it was headed. That’s my idea of compelling public education.

Congratulations to the hardy competitors! Video (with front-end advertising) and screenshots from necn.com.

Indoor Pool, Water View, Needs Work

in , /by

If water is life, then there’s hopefully still a little left in this sad, abandoned building. From englishrussia.com, a tour of a once-proud structure heaving downward into a pool of natural forces on the way up.

Amazing photos of water running through this abandoned house

It looks like a regular abandoned house standing in the downtown of Rostov-on-Don city, but if to inspect it closer one can see mini-waterfalls and lakes all through this house. After many years staying abandoned water sources from underground found their way up and formed this naturally formed water park. Streams are in constant movement and the water is always clean.

The orginal post also contains this fascinating memoir contributed by a commenter:

This is like 10 minutes from my home and i used to climb/play/swim there when i was little…brings lots of fun memories, there were also thick ropes hanging from the supports of roof (as there was no roof to speak of) so you could swing back and forth and drop into water.
The water came from mineral spring so it very clean and cold.
BTW this group of buildings (there are like a whole isle of them) is in the port on the river. There are also abandoned port/factory buildings nearby (many, many of them) but these on the pictures don’t seem to be factory related.
It was a nice place to go exploring with my friends when i was a kid just to get away from the city noise. It was beyond unsafe to downright scary because of all the unstable bricks. I’m amazed it is still standing, guess no one cares.

Diners Declare Tap Water Charges Tough to Swallow

in /by

You’ve got to fight (bomp bomp) for your right (bomp bomp) to hyyyy-drate. With continued talk about emerging “water wars” we remember that the greatest battles start with a single shot. One blogger’s “shot” is brewing into a brouhaha that’s spreading across Singapore, and the opposition isn’t exactly waving the white flag.

“Doomsday” Jim, our sharp-eyed Southeast Asia trendspotter, tips us to this item from the malaysianinsider.com:

SINGAPORE, July 12 — A blogger in Singapore, upset that a restaurant would not serve her tap water which she needed to take her medication with, is urging diners to boycott such outlets.

Veron Ang — urged on by some netizens — went further and posted on her blog a list of 62 restaurants that she claimed do not serve free water. It provoked angry reactions from several of the eateries which said they do serve water without charge.

Ang said that in May, she dined at a restaurant in the west that refused to serve her water although she needed it for her medication. After she “Twittered” the incident, her friends urged her to create a list of similar eating places. She compiled an initial list from her own experience, as well as going to reviews on a food website, and asking friends on Facebook and Twitter.

After her list was posted on blog aggregating site Tomorrow.sg, other contributions started flowing in. Her initial list, first posted last month, grew to 62 restaurants. It has been circulated by many Twitter users and websites.

As the list (posted here) of no-free-tappers grows in submissions, traffic and media attention, proprietors are responding–some angry, some dismissive, but all unappreciative of the exposure.

The marketing and sales manager for The Tapas Tree Group, Lyn Yip, said: “We find this list to be libellous, and will not hesitate to engage our lawyer if we are not removed from the list and the situation is not rectified immediately.

“We live in a time when the influence of web opinion cannot be ignored, so bloggers have to approach their entries with responsibility, especially when composing defamatory lists.

The managing director of Italian restaurant La Forketta, Gracie Vitale, said: “Our patrons are serious diners and come for our food, not to taste water. It’s the customer with a budget who insists on tap water.” She added that, outside Singapore, “nobody really asks for tap water”.

Jeffrey Jumahat, manager of Cafe Le Caire which does not serve free water, also shrugged off the list’s boycott exhortation. “To be frank, I don’t think customers will just boycott because of water. There’s no urgent need to take action at this point of time,” he said.

Jack Chin, co-founder of Mad Jack’s, said his chain of four restaurants does not serve free water because manpower is needed to refill and wash the glasses. He added: “People who complain are not educated about business costs because nothing is free.”

Bakerzin, which started serving free water in April last year, said it incurred costs of S$25,000 (RM60,000) to install special water filters at its 10 sit-down dining outlets

Taking the list seriously is Alps Cafe owner Danny Ang, who is rethinking his policy of “free water only if you ask for it”. His cafe had stopped serving water at dinner only late last year, but he does serve free tap water to customers who want it. He said: “I’m worried about the list. If customers really want it, I might consider raising the price of the food to give everyone free water.”

Several patrons contacted dismissed the reasons cited for not giving free tap water.

Sales manager Renee Koh, 32, said: “Serving plain water for free should really be part of the service experience and I find it hard to think that the costs are that high, given that the water served is just chilled tap water.”

Aun Koh, director of media and lifestyle consultancy Ate Media which published Asia’s first restaurant guide The Miele Guide, said: “In Singapore, there is no excuse other than snobbish vanity to drink bottled water and no reason other than an attempt to increase revenues for restaurateurs to refuse to offer tap water to their patrons.” — Straits Times

Under the Hood of my Ugly ’80s Toilet

in , /by

Hey, they don’t make ’em like this anymore! Thank heavens! This is my hideous 1980s-vintage gold toilet. For a variety of reasons, I’m not in a position to get rid of the 3.5-gallon flusher just now. I have, however, modded it “under the hood” to use less water. (I don’t know the total amount of water these add-ons save; does anyone know how I would determine this?)

Anyway…first, I’ve replaced the constantly-kinking flush chain with a piece of rubbery cord that I pulled off of a retail pants hangers. Try this freebie hack if, like me, you get leaking water due to the flapper not seating firmly when the chain tangles. (Look for a hanger like this one.)

Next: see that blue thing attached to the fill tube? This is a clever little device that saves water by equalizing the bowl/tank fill rate. Most toilet bowls are finished filling long before the tank is full. While the fill valve continues filling the tank, it also continues overfilling the bowl, and the excess bowl water goes over the siphon trap and down the drain, wasted. With this adjustable gizmo the tank and bowl both finish filling at exactly the same time. (I got mine from eBay, but here’s a similar one.)

Next…Julie O’Fee, a friend from the UK, sent me a Thames Water giveaway Save-a-Flush which saves up to one litre per flush, according to their website. It’s a bag of crystals made from a harmless silicone gel. Once you place it into your “cistern” within hours it swells up firmly against the sides of the tank.

With a little more room in the tank, I added the 20 oz. glass; it just sits there in the tank and when it’s flushed the water stays in the glass and the whole deal displaces that additional amount of water.

So this will suffice as I continue to dream of my future Euro-styled dual flush. Now if only I could do something about the color…