Idiotion

An article about fancy toilets in the March edition of Wired magazine that talks about fancy new porcelain pots with super efficient plumbing and even features that monitor your health. But my question is, why does even the most serious article resort to ‘poopy’ puns. I know I would, but isn’t it juvenile?

US consumers still describe their ideal toilet as one that appears only when they need it. Every advance – both incremental and excremental – will take years to filter down to the masses’ asses. Consumer acceptance will develop the way things often progress in the bathroom: slowly.

Even an NPR piece on the World Toilet conference in Beijing is filled with the same; My favourite mot describes an upmarket public John as a place where “the affluent meet the effluent”.

On a related note, I’ve always thought that Thomas Crapper never gets the respect he deserves.

John Dvorak, professional cranky guy, has a rant at PC magazine about slowdowns in network traffic with an example from the physical world.

Clogs are rampant worldwide. Recently a researcher, comparing the travel times in London through the years, noticed a peculiar consistency. The amount of time it took to go from point A to point B in horse-and-buggy days was actually the same as after the introduction of the car. As things got more efficient, the services were used more, nullifying any benefit and creating a constant. The researcher observed that the point-A to point-B travel times have recently worsened from the pre-car days. No improvements in efficiency have been able to stem this problem.

If you’ve ever been an American commuter you know the story. Cities build huge freeways to ease traffic flow so more people take the freeway so the new freeway clogs up. There are other approaches.

An article about The Law Of Unintended Consequences in the grandly named Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: Library of Economics and Liberty mirrors some old saying about the best intentions of men. It’s an ode to human creativity and the ability to circumvent artificial limitations.

The law of unintended consequences is at work always and everywhere. In 1968, for instance, Vermont outlawed roadside billboards and large signs in order to protect the state’s pastoral vistas. One unintended consequence was the appearance of large, bizarre “sculptures” adjacent to businesses. An auto dealer commissioned a twelve-foot, sixteen-ton gorilla, clutching a real Volkswagen Beetle. A carpet store is marked by a nineteen-foot genie holding aloft a rolled carpet as he emerges from a smoking teapot. Other sculptures include a horse, a rooster, and a squirrel in red suspenders.

Sucking face, swapping spit, tonsil hockey… Have you ever thought about kissing and where it came from? It must have been a sick puppy that came up with the slobbery embrace we use to bestow affection. there’s a theory that claims the action derives from a mother chewing food for an infant and passing it on. Aren’t you glad someone invented spoons?