Bill Gates Looks to Reinvent the Toilet 471
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the German government are working on a $10 million project to provide innovative sanitation facilities to 800,000 Kenyans over the next five years. From the article: "The goal is to find 'innovative solutions' for sanitation in poor urban areas. Gates says it's time to move on from the era of the classic toilet. He points out that, despite all the recent achievements, 40% of the world's population, or some 2.5 billion people, still lives without proper means of flushing away excrement. But just giving them Western-style toilets isn't possible because of the world's limited water resources." I wonder what the toilet version of The Blue Screen of Death is.
Re:Reflexive /. Gates bashing in 3...2... (Score:5, Interesting)
The bashing began before you started typing. Did you read the summary?
Re:Reflexive /. Gates bashing in 3...2... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm just trying to figure out why he wants to violate the KISS methodology. You have few options for feces. Put it it into a treatment facility (flush, carry...) to be treated with bacteria that live on that sort of thing, use it for fertilizer or burn it.
The use of toilets in "western society" simply facilitates the first step in those methods be it an out house, a ceramic bowl, or fancy plastic. I don't understand what he wants them to do. Maybe learn how to use sea shells for less paper usage? There's only so much waste you can get rid of with a small amount of water, and any breakthrough in toilet technology that would make it cheap enough for the third world and use little water will likely be patent encumbered for the next 50 years (probably by Bill himself.)
Re:Reflexive /. Gates bashing in 3...2... (Score:3, Interesting)
>Forget that Steve Jobs does NO charitable activities
Steve Jobs isn't public about whether or not he does charities. He thinks it's none of your business.
And I tend to agree with him on that point.
Some people use charity as a means of self-promotion.
Who is better, the Christian that goes to church every Sunday and makes sure everyone knows he goes to church, or the Christian that doesn't always go to church, but volunteers at the soup kitchen downtown and tells nobody?
Disclaimer, I am a lapsed Episcopalian. I can fake my way through a Catholic Mass for weddings and funerals, but that's about it.
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BMO
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Reflexive /. Gates bashing in 3...2... (Score:4, Interesting)
Why not have a dual system?
Liquid waste goes into a liquid recyc system, to be chemically cleansed and reused in future flushes. Doesn't need to be electric powered; you should be able to pump up a couple gallons into a reserve flush bin by a hand-crank pump fairly easily. Solid waste filters out into a bin to be taken away for treatment later (carried or otherwise). That way, you don't have to worry about wasting good, potable water on your flushes.
Re:Making fun of gates (Score:5, Interesting)
What about Composting sawdust toilet [humanurehandbook.com] I'm sure the locals have something they can use in lieu of sawdust.
You could even create a dehydration toilet [finishsociety.com] Urine is collected separate (where it could easily be evaporated off and the urea used as fertilizer). After dehydrated the human waste could take place of animal dung used for heat.
I think a bigger and better use of this money would be something to sanitize. Something as simple as soap or the 'waterless' alcohol based sanitizers.
Re:Reflexive /. Gates bashing in 3...2... (Score:2, Interesting)
Who is better, the Christian that goes to church every Sunday and makes sure everyone knows he goes to church, or the Christian that doesn't always go to church, but volunteers at the soup kitchen downtown and tells nobody?
I don't see how this comparison works. The fact that they they do/don't go to church has no bearing on the charitable service/money they provide, and you've not indicated whether the first guy does anything for charity. So in the context of a debate about charity, I don't have enough facts to determine which one is "better".
What I can tell you is that the soup-kitchen guy is probably a criminal who is sentenced to a number of hours of community service... which is why he doesn't brag about it.
Ok. Kidding aside, I don't see the obsession with people physically going and helping at soup kitchens. That's more of a selfish act than anything else. Go to work for another hour and donate an hour's worth of salary money to pay for multiple people to work at the soup kitchen.