As someone who works an office job with free bottled water, it keeps me awake and serves as a better keep-hands-and-mouth-busy habit than eating all possible snack food in the vicinity. Still, I average about 100 oz of water a workday and really never go above 160 oz.
Seven liters (236.7 oz according to the interweb) each day is nuts.
That's too much water. I think she's confused about how much she drinks.
Wait, liters? I thought you said gallons. 7 liters is a lot, but not crazy. Definitely more than needed, but it's probably better than drinking 15 cups of coffee throughout the day.
I notice at least two of her roommates report similar water consumption. Clearly, they are infected by aliens.
7 liters! She's drinking almost 2 gallons of water a day. Hyponatremia, here we come!
All I know is that a lot of women's mags recommend drinking water in order to keep you feeling full and to avoid eating. Which I think is fucked up, but then, I would.
Hey, did you guys hear the one about the bactrian ungulate with nephrocarcinoma?
Thinking about it a little more, 7 liters might make sense given Catherine's relatively high consumption of alcohol. I'm still not sure where I'd put 7 liters of water though. Talk about feeling full.
If she's actually drinking because of felt thirst (and not for reasons like those in 1 and 6), then it might be a genuinely medical issue. Drinking that much water can be a symptom of diabetes, for instance.
Fine, fine, camel and kidney cancer jokes are banned. That still leaves us Lovecraft. 7 liters? That's crazy.
8: She does also mention peeing about 30 times a day.
How many times a day does Catherine pee?
Damn.
12: I just told you. Try to keep up, Anderson.
Does Kriston really need video of her drinking all day? Couldn't she just give him a daily urine intake collection to measure?
(Because I'm solutions oriented.)
Drinking that much water, though, she really ought to get a refillable container. Throwing away all those plastic bottles is wasteful.
Isn't peeing a lot also a symptom of diabetes? (Not that I'm trying to scare Catherine; it could also be a symptom of being addicted to water.)
I drink a lot of water but not 7L, I don't think. I can go through maybe 4-5 in a day, though, easy.
I started drinking loads of water when I lived in NOLA. I had a real problem with feeling lethargic and stuff my first couple of years until I realized I was chronically dehydrated from the crazy heat. I just got in the habit of drinking a lot of water and it stuck.
My ex-roommate drank a similar amount and it was because of the dieting thing B mentioned in 6.
15: "refillable bottle" s/b "contract with Ozarka"
Drinking that much water, though, she really ought to get a refillable container.
Or at least one of these. Waste not, want not, Catherine!
A guy I knew once said to the group, "Dude, I think I'm addicted to water. No, seriously. Without it, I think I would die."
I drink 5-6L in the summer, 2-3 in the winter.
Once your body gets used to it you really do feel dehydrated when you cut back.
2L isn't much for a days consumption. If I think about trying to make one 2L of water last the entire day, I would definitely be slightly dehydrated.
19 - Nope. The girl I lived with right before the Flophouse.
sheesh. you all are crazy. here's a liter bottle. now, i drink about two of those between 7:30am, when i wake up, and lunchtime. in the afternoon, i drink about two as well. when i get home, i drink a couple more. if i work out, even more. i have drank a ton of water ever since becoming a kind of serious runner a few years ago (which i am definitely not anymore, but the water habit seemed to stick).
also ogged, you're an ass. i haven't had alcohol to drink the past three days, and i'm still drinking that much water.
All you damn water overconsumers are contributing to desertification, you know. Why are you supporting the terrorists?
i haven't had alcohol to drink the past three days
Some would say that this statement is confirmation, not rebuttal. Also, you're going to drown.
I think B's asking people to pee on her lawn.
All you damn water overconsumers are contributing to desertification, you know
Those living in over inhabited arid regions are, but nobody here fits that category, I'm sure.
27: Nope, the landlord pays for the water, the gardener, and the electricity to run the automatic sprinklers. You can use the guest bathroom. But would you mind plunging the toilet first? Kthx.
Am I the only one who goes days at a time consuming no liquid other than coffee and beer?
(Yeah, yeah, I'm gone again.)
I drink 3-4 quarts of ice tea a day. It doesn't dehydrate you like people used to think:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5281046.stm
I do pee a lot.
7 litres sounds pretty close to the level that'd be bad for your health. Even if it's not actually leading to acute hyponatremia.
When I'm working in an office, I consume about 100 oz. over 8 hours - more in the summer, or (of course) when I was bike-commuting. When I'm at home, I have to remind myself to drink any. It's totally a response to under-stimulation. My wife always complains on trips that I bogart all the water before she's even thirsty - "You're drinking recreationally!" She's correct about this.
What's frustrating about my water-all-day habit is that it doesn't actually counteract evening acohol-dehydration very well. But after that 100 oz., I'm not so focused on a glass of water for each of bourbon. So I awake parched, and the cycle begins again.
Even if it's not actually leading to acute hyponatremia.
We need a list of vague symptoms that Catherine can be convinced that she's exhibiting. Catherine, do you feel kind of sleepy at night?
Am I the only one who goes days at a time consuming no liquid other than coffee and beer?
That's how I like to rock it.
The Merck manual states that:
To exceed the body's ability to excrete water, an adult with normal kidney function would have to drink more than 2 gallons of water a day on a regular basis.
Which is pretty close.
One of the best things about Pittsburgh - delicious City water, so my habit is free. I've been working 2 days a week in the burbs, and the water is disgusting - I bring my own, which is fucking ridiculous, but what are you gonna do?
Hmm. Maybe Ogged's right, and Catherine really is crazy.
Lizard: I would definitely go days drinking only coffee and beer if I let myself. I make a conscious effort though to drink water after every two or three diuretic beverages.
Yeah, but those Merck people are just trying to sell dialysis machines. Can't trust 'em.
I knew a guy who joked about firing his entire support staff because they were all on the "drink lots of water" diet, the obvious result of which meant much more time in the bathroom and alot less time doing their jobs.
44: What, he was too cheap to just stock the supply closet with Depends?
I drink 3-4 quarts of ice tea a day
Back in college I laid down a baseline of 2 liters of Pepsi - it wasn't even a caffeine thing, it was just economical at the soda fountain at lunch and dinner. Allnighters entailed like 3 cans of Mt Dew. Hardly ever drank water, except from fountains.
I figure I can get by without the sugar.
40: True out in some suburbs, too. At my apartment here, I have a Brita filter because the water tastes weird otherwise.
On the post, I'd be leaning borderline hyponatremia unless catherine's in a very dry area or a heavy alcohol drinker.
much more time in the bathroom and alot less time doing their jobs.
At the job where I bike-commuted, I was hitting the head about every 45 minutes from 1 PM on. But how long does peeing take? A minute or two?
It's people on fruit & fiber diets who chew up valuable office time.
I drink a lot of water. Maybe five or six liters a day? A liter doesn't seem like very much, maybe a little more than a glass's worth.
30: Essentially the only time I drink anything other than coffee, beer, or water (water is just so easily accessible, how can you not drink it?) is when I'm drinking a different kind of alcohol or eating somewhere that includes a stupid sugary beverage along with the food as a combo meal (e.g., today two slices of pizza came with a free small soda, I can't turn down the small soda, though I should).
45. Yeah, the crazy astronauts kept stealing the Depends, so he quit stocking them.
A liter is about two glasses, give or take.
On the post, I'd be leaning borderline hyponatremia unless catherine's in a very dry area or a heavy alcohol drinker.
Hi there.
I'm basically on the Catherine Plan. But I live in a very dry area (Utah), am a heavy drinker, and am a decently big guy.
47: I haven't figured out what water company this guy's on (near Carnegie), but you can smell the chlorine when you wash your hands. Ugh.
You guys would've been Penn-American?
I drink a lot of water.
And just look how you turned out.
Oh, I dunno, JRoth. We're further out than Carnegie, though, and definitely no chlorine smell.
Roughly 16, I think. 4 liters or so to the gallon, 64 oz. to the gallon. Two 8 oz. glasses.
47: Don't forget exercise. I used to do between 1 and 3 liter/hour average riding in warm to hot weather.
7L sounds like a lot without extenuating circumstances. Most north americans are chronically a bit dehyrated, I've read, which would lead to skewed judgement
53: Wah? A liter is 33 ounces.
Sorry, sorry, I was looking at my half-liter bottle and forgot to size up. A liter is about four glasses, give or take.
48. Without rehashing the squat to pee thread, some girls just seem to take more time in the bathroom, no matter what the mission.
Really? I see you are right.
Fuck, then, catherine, that's a lotta of fucking water. I have a liter water bottle and I usually get through 1.5 a day and I'm peeing all the time!
59: No, more like roughtly 2 liters to the gallon. 33 point something ounces.
Since this is the thread du jour, has everyone seen this article? Chilling stuff.
This Seung Cho clearly went past "quiet creepy loner" to the point where he was terrifying anyone who got to knew him. Many people were convinced that he was a psychopath, he hated women, and he loved violence. Girls were dropping out of classes because he was in them.
A) Hopefully the policy result of this will be to make legislatures realize "Hey, mental illness is real, you know, and counseling is not medical care."
B) Far be it from me to put responsibility on strangers, but don't the campus mental health people have any ability at all to use their discretion and make a "watch list" of people who look dangerous and refuse their help?
C) Far be it from me to put responsibility on strangers, but did this guy have fucking parents? Did they have any idea what his thoughts were like? Were they terrified of him too?
hmm, now that I think of it I was basing those bicycling numbers on per water bottle, which are probably 28oz ish not 33oz, So probably .75 times those numbers.
I am developing the theory that Catherine is actually kinda a weird chic.
You people suck at volume conversions. Your elementary school science teachers would be ashamed.
Or maybe, if a guy hates women and stalks them, take it as a sign of a fucking problem and not just not a big deal?
I was assuming O meant a pint glass. Who the hell drinks water from a juice glass? The minimum glass a normal grown-up uses is 12 oz.
58: I thought, from your comment on your sister's bomb scary HS, that you were South, rather than west?
72: We are, I was going by turnpike exits.
Yeah, if it helps any of you volume-clueless types, a liter is really close to a quart. This may also help you next time you need ot figure out gas prices everywhere else in the world.
The minimum glass a normal grown-up uses is 12 oz.
Don't people normally say "an eight-ounce glass of water?" I thought that was standard.
63: And some take less. And some guys sit forever on the toilet, and some don't.
67: A NYT article noted that the parents were unavailable for comment, and seemed not to be in their house anymore.
I was actually feeling very sorry for them. Imagine that you hear about the shooting. You wonder if your child is safe, and then find out that he is not only dead, but the shooter. The grief and shame!
67: did this guy have fucking parents?
Perhas literally, to judge from some of the content of his plays.
73: I think Carnegie is far enough west to get its water from like McKees Rocks. You guys would probably be South Hills Water, or whatever that company is. I was totally off with Penn-American.
Everyone else is so lucky to be reading this exchange.
75: Yeah, and if you believe that, a square inch of cheese = a serving. C'mon. Do you know how small 8 oz is?
75: Yeah, they do say that, but I don't know why - it's a really small glass.
74: But I thought there were four quarts in a gallon! And there are! But there are two pints in a quart! And two cups in a pint!!! arrrrrgggggggg.
Don't people normally say "an eight-ounce glass of water?" I thought that was standard.
Yes, because 8 oz. is 1 cup. Then it's 2 cups to a pint, 2 pints to a quart, 4 quarts to a gallon. It's all so very logical!
arrraslkhlasddhgghgggh.
yayyyy wiggles.
glug.
I just measured my water glass: 400 ml. I probably go through eight of those a day. So, not even close to 7 liters.
8 oz is exactly 2/3rds of a standard size soda can. That's not a lot of water, though it's enough "sugary drink as snack."
That said, I like soda, dammit.
I'm kidding. Metric is better. 1 mL of water weighs 1 g, nicely tying everything together.
I like soda, dammit.
The grocery stores have replaced the 20-oz bottles with 15.9-oz models, and I find this to be unfortunate.
I think we've gone too far without a joke about how many people with advanced degrees here didn't know how many ounces were in a gallon :)
Apo, have you ever seen or tried these? I gave my dad the dinner one for Xmas.
We all have humanities degrees, so it is ok.
92: I blame the invention of calculators.
In the scientific field we have no use for the words "ounce" or "gallon".
I'm a very large person, and I probably drink an absolute maximum of 2 liters of liquid per day. (More if I go to a 2-for-1 happy hour of course). In fact, the Bass I'm drinking now is just barely pushing me over the 1 liter mark. In LA, I tended to drink a lot more liquids, but here in the midwest, with sedentary job and central air, I just don't perspire that much.
I think 7 liters is maybe on the high side, but if I were getting more daily exercise and I really liked drinking water, I could probably do it. But jayzus, I'd be in the restroom every 12 minutes.
Also: there are only two genres of "why'd he do it?" story for multiple homicides "he seemed like a regular guy" and "Nikki Giovanni threatened to quit if she had to teach him any longer."
90: But a "pint's a pound, the whole world 'round." So 16 oz. water weighs 16 oz. Simple.
Well, almost. 16.7 Troy ounces. No idea why they got that wrong. Maybe someone forgot to account for the weight of the measuring cup or something.
92: And there you are, but there's the emoticon foul, payable in oz. of chocolate.
Did you ever notice how optimal serving sizes of pretty much anything snack-like are always 150 or so calories? Even if the smallest bag then ends up containing 2.5 servings?
I could answer that question, but alas it was not asked to me.
102: The single serving packets of Cheez-Its in the office vending machine have only slightly fewer calories than a McDonald's hamburger.
85: OFE and ttaM will teach you the proper pint and gallon size, you Americo-centric semi-master of imperial units.
But yeah, one quart ~ one liter, people. Geez. All of our toilets have had 1.6 gallons and 6 liters flush written on them for years! It's not like you had anything better to look at while you were on there!
1 millilitre equals 1.000028 cc and 1 cc equals 0.999972 ml.
I decided to be pedantic to avoid being corrected and I was corrected for it.
102: Part of me likes the fact that they're now selling snack-packs of food in 100 calorie packages. I mean, I find prepacked snacks to be painfully wasteful, but at least this has the function of helping to gauge and control portion sizes.
Sorry, I thought you were just enjoying typing "≈".
I'm also willing to throw open the floor to what 104 was in response to.
Two liters is approximately a 2-liter bottle like you see all the time and are well-acquainted with.
106:
So Catherine is drinking a flush and a bit. That does seem like a lot.
108: Wait, why? Wasn't the whole point of the metric enterprise to get the conversions just so? I mean, the milliliter was defined by fiat, not by some Encyclopedist's thimble size. What happened?
And I would be happy if OFE or ttaM could explain to me why Brit pints don't have the harmony of their US cousins.
108: Is this because some frenchman fucked up when creating the platinum-metricium alloy kilogram and made it just barely too heavy? Or is it a rounding error from converting the meter to that wavelength basis?
That's bullshit if we all have to suffer conversions that are off at the 5th decimal place!
I just hope she doesn't flush 6 liters each time she pees 0.5. That would be 20+ gallons a day more or less wasted.
114: Actually, the guy holding the end of the tape measure at the north pole moved a bit just as the other guy reached the equator. Pity, really.
20+ gallons a day more or less wasted
Can someone explain where my water comes from and where it goes? When I take a shower, it's not as if the water that goes down the drain disappears from the earth. Doesn't it go back into the system at some point? Why is it wasteful to take long showers and to flush a lot?
99: "just threw up in my mouth"? Wuss.
Because filtering wastewater consumes resources as well.
I think because it gets mixed in with sewer water and has to jump through a lot more treatment plants to be deemed potable. When I say "more", I don't know compared to what, though.
105: And given how easy it is to chow down half a box of them, Cheez-its are truly the food of the devil.
I've had a self-imposed ban on purchasing those damn things for nearly 10 years now because they are so impossible to stop eating.
That was written in 2004, B. It was a different, more innocent time.
113: They do:
160 ounces = 32 gills = 8 pints = 1 gallon
The factor of 5 provides the WTF number that is necessary in all British units of measure (c.f. 66 feet to a chain and 14 pounds to a stone)
121: And because they turned your fur orange?
99, 118, I tasted those once. Weirdly accurate but not very delicious.
Because filtering wastewater consumes resources as well.
Ok, energy and money I can see, but I'm not killing water, right?
I rarely drink anything other than tea or beer or milk.
But i drink like half a gallon of milk every day so that seems like a lot of liquid.
116: Seriously though, what's the deal? Why's the conversion not one-to-one? Is it something that happened when the official bases of the length and weight measurements became physical objects or assumed physical constants?
117: Here you go. If you'd attended a decent school instead of some madrasah, you'd know this.
126: No, Persian shoe. The water is only alive *before* they process it. Seriously, the problem is in the cleaning of wastewater and also the distribution: if my economy depends on pumping up the water from deep in the ground, and we pump it all up, while it'll probably get back there *eventually*, it won't fast enough to avoid a clean water shortage.
121: I can't buy tortillla chips for the same reason. And judging from the waistline, the ban may have to extend to M&Ms.
Why's the conversion not one-to-one?
Here. (I think; I didn't read it very carefully.)
117: It takes a lot of energy (and other resources) to create each gallon of potable water. If you foul that gallon with an ounce of pee, it has to be filtered just as much as if you took a half-pound dump (sorry). And, stupidly, every ounce of shower water is also filtered and cleaned as if it contained fecal matter.
Furthermore, the infrastructure costs of wastewater are ginormous, and really hard to expand (think of replacing an 8' diameter sewer main with a 10' one).
Finally, they don't take 1,000 gal. of wastewater and clean it into 900 gal. of potable. They clean it up as much as they can, then they dump it into someplace with enormous diluting capacity - usually a river. Then someone else has to clean up that river water to make some of it potable again. It's bad enough in the wet, wet East, but out in Desertland, it's well-nigh criminal.
126: In some states, there's also the problem of using groundwater.
The answer is that people use up our planet's fresh water faster than it can naturally be replenished.
That's the part I don't get. What does that mean, "used up?" And what does naturally replenished mean? You give me platitudes, B.
I've had to use the restroom three times just since this post was posted. That's what you get from all this water drinkin'.
Do West Coast cities dump sewer-water into the ocean? If so, then you are, effectively, killing the water - it's so far up the cycle that it's inaccessible for a long time.
Where does your water come from? An aquifer if you or your municipality has a well, or a river, or another surface freshwater source, plus treatment. If it's an aquifer, the problem is the process by which water gets back into the aquifer is very slow (years), so too much human use can deplete the aquifer This is a pretty big deal. If it's a surface source, though, then the concern isn't really total usage but peak flow, and there's less of a sense of "wasting" water, but your competition with other potential users (other people, farmers, the ecosystem of the river) is more explicit.
That's the part I don't get. What does that mean, "used up?"
I've had this same argument with people, ogged, with me taking your side. The response--which seems right--is that we make water less useful--for drinking, agriculture, etc.--and it costs energy to make it useful again.
stupidly, every ounce of shower water is also filtered and cleaned as if it contained fecal matter
Uh, that's probably because it does contain fecal matter. I had a bio teacher who loved to go on about how there was fecal matter all over the place.
134: You know how Evian (or whoever) brags that their water is like a million years old? What they mean is that they draw from an aquifer that is replenished by water that takes a million years to filter down to. So when that source is exhausted, it's gone for a million years.
Hasn't the Central Valley physically dropped feet or even yards in ground elevation due to the usage of all the groundwater?
When we take water out of the system, we don't usually put it back - we put it elsewhere, places less usuable.
Ok, so essentially, when I use water, some of it gets taken out of the human system and put into nature, where it has to go through a long cycle before it becomes usable to humans again. That cycle is slower than the "cycle" of human use, so I effectively deplete available water. Thanks, folks.
1 mL = 1e-3 *(1e-1)^3 m^3
1 cc = (1e-2)^3 m^3
1 cc = 1 mL
However, 1g water is about 1cc, but not quite- density of water at STP is a bit different from 1.
The problem is calling 1mL the volume of 1g of water.
I really never believed the 'save the water' stuff at least for here in the midwest. Its one of those california exports that doesn't really make sense elsewhere
134: If little kids can understand that site, why can't you?
No, no, shower water is perfectly reusable in the short term if you separate it out (and don't pee in the shower, obv). You just need to settle the soap and dirt out, and it's good for landscape watering, or other non-potable functions (like flushing toilets!).
I would totally support building more nuclear power plants if it meant fewer low flow toilets.
I keep hoping that new housing construction will be required to have two sets of pipes. We all ought to be able to treat our wastewater and reuse it in our toilets. Why should toilet water be potable? (Screw the dogs!)
134: If little kids can understand that site, why can't you?
I was just about to say that it was obvious that you hang out with a five-year-old all day.
132/145: The terms you're looking for are greywater vs. blackwater. There's a lot of interesting reuse of greywater at the home scale - garden irrigation and the like.
(Screw the dogs!)
Did we go to junior high together?
A milliliter and a cc are the same fucking thing. There was that 1.000... inconsistency only before 1964.
Clearly, JRoth doesn't wash his butt in the shower. Also.
This Toilet Lid Sink is about the simplest greywater reuse you can imagine.
I have never understood the hate for low-flow toilets. What the hell do you people eat?
Some of the first generation were literally just old bowls with smaller tanks attached, so those sucked, but for at least 10 years, even pretty cheap toilets clear the bowl quite effectively (by using directed, higher-velocity flow, rather than brute volume). I mean, I have lived exclusively with low-flow for a decade now, and simply don't have any problems.
Here's a tip, btw: you're allowed to flush twice. In fact, if you're creating a situation where bowl-clearing is going to be a problem, it would probably be best for everyone if you flushed twice. Furthermore, 2x1.6
I have never understood the hate for low-flow toilets. What the hell do you people eat?
Not the leftovers in the low-flow toilets, I can assure you.
Uh, thanks Nathan. I'm a LEED-accredited architect; I'm familiar with the terms. I just didn't want to freak out the normals.
My wife expressed interest in the toilet lid sink for our powder room, but instead we had a friend make us a basin for one of those hip countertop sinks. I make up for it by never washing my hands (it's a joke, people!).
A little ass-wash in 35 gallons of shower water isn't going to harm anyone. I assume you guys wipe first?
Which is to say, not that anybody cares, volume standards are based on length standards, and length standards alone.
Length standards, if you're still stuck in 1964, have been updated to be based solely on time standards and a defined speed of light.
And, if you're still curious, time standards are based on radiofrequency emanation from cesium atoms.
Mass, unfortunately, is still based on a lump of metal somewhere.
116. I read that book! http://www.amazon.com/Measure-All-Things-Seven-Year-Transformed/dp/0743216768/ref=sr_1_11/104-6935622-5765508?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176935583&sr=8-11
Remarkable really, that the project to measure the Earth survived through three very different administrations (Royal, Jacobin and Napolean). The political angle was
the most interesting (note physical guillotine reference)
A little ass-wash in 35 gallons of shower water isn't going to harm anyone.
This is one of those "there are thirty of us, and he only has ten bullets" arguments, isn't it?
It's also making me reconsider your praise of Pittsburgh's drinking water.
Ass wash is what gives it the flavor, ogged.
The link is 153 is absolutely brilliant!
I'm going to get one and start bringing store bought fruits and vegetables to the toilet with me for maximum water savings.
I'm with Drymala and LB on the fluid of choice thing.
157: oops, sorry. I just wanted to get across to the people who seemed to be asking that there is terminology and technology and thought about this stuff out there.
Next, JRoth is going to tell us that, in Pittsburgh, "tastes like ass" is a high compliment.
"Is this the Mineshaft? I just came here for a drink."
No, Pittsburgh's water system is brilliant - intake is at the upstream City Limits, and outflow is at the downstream City Limits. And since no one to our north has developed indoor plumbing yet, we're in the clear!
In fact, if you're creating a situation where bowl-clearing is going to be a problem....
Vinnie: "Boss, we had to whack him. He was creating a situation where bowl-clearing is going to be a problem".
Nick: "Good job, my man. I loved him like a brother, but that's one thing we can never let pass ."
In fact, if you're creating a situation where bowl-clearing is going to be a problem....
Just pack the pipe, Mr. Stingy.
Two liters is approximately a 2-liter bottle
Two liters is "approximately" two liters? Are you, like, a humanities major or something?
Also, I think we're going to see a story tomorrow about how the VT killer drank 7 liters of water a day for the week before the rampage. Even if I have to write it myself.
(and don't pee in the shower, obv)
I'm not at all wililng to trust that other people don't do this. Re-treating shower water seems like the right approach.
173 - no, I'm just terribly hilarious.
You people are useless.
I wonder if Catherine's in training?
153 truly is brilliant. Although unless you live in a very warm climate, the water is going to be extraordinarily fucking cold.
177 cont: (I know that from once in the middle of winter using a bidet that was attached to the toilet water supply. Big fucking mistake.)
Yes. I'm experimental by nature.
30: Add another "no, it's not just you" to the list. I drink only beer and coffee because I am trying to dessicate myself.
Okay, there is the regular morning glug of grapefruit juice, without which I am very cranky.
As long as you're answering my water question, just how are you supposed to use a bidet? Specifically, is there some practice involved in getting the water to hit you in the right spot, or do you have to adjust while the thing is one, and are you just supposed to run it a while and dry off and done? In the middle-east, people use a water pouring thing the name of which escapes me at the moment (you know, with a spout) and their hand (the left hand, which is why it's extremely rude to hand someone something with your left hand....). Of course, this requires a nation of good hand-washers, but since they also have to pray five times a day and wash up before each time, it's all good.
No, the italics were in surprise, not correction.
How was it?
Does one let water do everything, or do you...get involved?
one s/b on
what the fuck is the water pouring thing called? Types also used in gardening. Wow, I'm eighty.
183: Wait! I sense a connection here. Did a major world religion get one of its central tenets from some sort of ancient public health push to get people to wash up after wiping?
7 litres a day is mad. I just got back from being fairly active all day out of doors in the desert and I never drank more than 5 or 6 litres a day. Does she work in a sauna or a boiler room or something?
Pretty much like this thing, although I don't think it was the same model.
184: it was a icy cold shock that made me want to cry. I have no idea what's involved in proper usage.
I have a male friend who swears by them. (The heated ones.)
The important measures of water are the miner's inch, and the acre-foot. (For those of you who are not Megan, the first is a measure of flow, and the second of volume.)
Liters per day? Bah.
At a rate of one inch,* Catherine would get her whole daily intake in about 10 seconds.
*I use a Montana inch, not one of those wimpy So. California inches. Oh. Now I see from the internet that a Montana inch is .708 liters per second. That could've saved some calculation time.
A watering can? Is that what they're called? That sounds like a translation from the Hopi. I guess it's right.
And not to relieve hemorrhoids or anything like that: he just swears they feel wonderful. Just an all around wonderful way to clean one's ass.
I was just about to say that it was obvious that you hang out with a five-year-old all day.
Six and a half, you asshole.
183: My friend jpv answers that one.
Just an all around wonderful way to clean one's ass.
I doubt it can hold a candle to the Teledyne Water Pik Family Oral Irrigator WP-30. [originally on epinions.com, but now behind a paywall]
It seems like if I just turn on my faucet and let it run all day, and don't pee in it or get it soapy or anything else, I'm not wasting any water whatsoever. The water doesn't have to go into the ocean and then evaporate and then precipitate back down to earth and trickle to streams and tributaries. They could just filter the water coming out of my pipes and throw the clean stuff right back in the water supply. And since I didn't do anything back to it, it's all clean. So, no loss, other than trivial processing expenses.
Iron City beer is made using unfiltered Pittsburgh city water. Iron City beer is also quite drinkable (in comparison with other beers that college students might drink). But JRoth is crazy if he thinks Pittsburgh city water neat is good.
196: The biffy was kind of a running joke over at his blog for a while. Which is sadly underread, because he's hilarious.
197: And they're supposed to know how, exactly, that you're just leaving the faucet on for kicks?
195: again, might work well in balmy Las Vegas, but I promise you it's a bad idea on a cold winter day in the Northeast.
I also have a guy friend who swears by bidets and brought his wife around on the idea as well. I've always been too squeamish to ask, like, how it all works, but at least through him I cleared up a long-running confusion about which nether parts they're actually meant to clean. Even in the privacy of my French hotel room, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to feel emasculated by sitting down and giving the thing a whirl.
195: That's hilarious, and I think i might need one.
196: I do not theenk that word means what you theenk it means.
Water everywhere tastes fantastic once you've lived in San Diego for a while.
And on the other subtopic, bidets are great. I've only used them a couple of times, and I'm not entirely sure I got the hang of using one properly, but if I owned one, I'd use it all the time.
Jesus, Brock, that's true in an alternative universe in which there's a special gadget to do that. Is there a point which I missed.
He lives in Seattle, not Vegas. Why anyone would live in a cold winter place is beyond me: y'all deserve cold asses.
197- of course they don't know that. But my point was that when they filter it, it's all come out CLEAN AS A WHISTLE, and pass the tests, and can be put right back in the water supply.
i don't know what to tell you all. i picked up the massive water drinking when i was running half marathons then training for a marathon for about six months. of course i don't drink 7 liters consistently every day (especially on weekends when i don't have access to work's water dispenser), but that's not abnormal. i'm trying to get back into more serious running lately so i suppose that could have something to do with the amount i'm drinking. when you're running 4 miles 3-4 times a week you just need more hydration. and yes, i pee an awful lot. the receptionist, who i must pass on the way to the bathroom, must think i have a serious problem.
190: 7 liters = 5.67499236 × 10-6 acre-feet
So, I was curious enough to follow the link in 195, and then still curious enough to follow THAT link to the product page, and this line is something else:
Enhances Intimacy Through Cleanliness
At once hilarious, gross, and undeniably true.
211: Hell, I actually thought, "yknow, when we buy a house, we could actually get one of those...."
re: 209
I'm surprised that a 3 or 4 mile run would require that level of hydration. And, basic physiology, if you are peeing a lot, you are generally getting more water than you need.
Wow, everyone secretly wants a bidet. Good luck beating back the toilet paper lobby.
I wonder if the Bidet desire is related to the cleanliness or the ability to direct a stream of water wherever you want it to go.
I've heard stories about the bathtub facet being used for naughty purposes.
215: Those of you with hairy asses should take bidets a little more seriously.
From the OP:
I work out for about 15 minutes in the morning...
Do you actually get to count boxing the bishop as exercise?
208: Brock, are you serious? Do you think your sink has its own dedicated pipe to the sewage plant? George Costanza was exactly right: it's all pipes. Your clean water goes down the drain to the big pipe under the street, where it's added to the shit water from when Ogged washes his hairy ass in the shower. At which point it is no longer clean.
Which is part of why water-wasting is so bad - every drop of potable water you send down the drain becomes, almost instantly, toilet water. Used toilet water.
And all of this sets aside combined storm/sewer overflows, where many older cities combine storm sewers with sanitary. Which means that rainwater mixes with shit water. As an added bonus, when there's a big storm, it exceeds the capacity of the sewage plant, and gets dumped directly into the river! Raw sewage!
210 -- I worked out that Catherine is drinking, on an annual basis, about 10% of her share of the water that falls from the sky on her house and yard each year. Seems fair.
219- none of this is my fault. My point is that they could just filter out the bad stuff, test and treat the water, and send it right back to me. I can't be held responsible for governmental waste.
Charley:
Is she exceeding her fair share of use of the local wastewater facility?
Is Catherine a Clean Water Act problem?
I'm not sure why BZA doesn't like it, but as I say, I drink gallons of it a week, and prefer it to Poland Spring, among other famous bottles. I've had mixed experiences in other cities, but I'm not joking about Pittsburgh's being quite good. It's clean tasting, with no noticable chemical flavor or odor. Not minerally, either.
Brock, if you want to go off the grid, I can design it for you....
225: Depends, a wine press, some cheesecloth, a funnel, and a water bottle, and you're good to go.
220: Ah, but then there's the flushing from all the peeing, and the showering (especially if she starts running--will she take two showers a day?!? The horror!). And the cooking: does she make stock frequently? Pasta? Does she water the yard?
In short, I believe we have no choice but to condemn the water drinkers of the world.
We have a bidet in our house, which we bought from an polish couple. It has a regular faucet, pointing down, and all we use it for is washing feet and storing clothes.
I wonder if Catherine is aware that overconsumption of water is a greater problem than dehydration for most marathon runners. The jokes about hyponatremia are not jokes if you're running seriously. Some of the ultra-marathoners I used to run with swore by salt tablets for ultra long runs.
Brock, retreated sewage water is probably available if you'd prefer to drink that. Just go to the outflow and dip in your bucket.
I believe that some process like you describe is in effect in military bases in the middle of deserts or places like that, but it's not cost-or energy-efficient anywhere else.
Opponents of low-flow toilets ought to consider whether they really want to be in league with Ann Cou/lter, who has fulminated furiously against them. If you have a proper toilet, low flow is totally not an issue. The infinitely clever-at-space-saving Japanese have also come up with a way to combine toilet seat and bidet in one ingenious (and heated!) device.
I see that the last sentences of 190 were left off. Damn computer.
Thus, one can say that Catherine's daily ration is 5 inches for 2 seconds or 10 inches for 1 second. Doesn't seem excessive.
(In Southern California or New Mexico, though, you'd say 7 inches for 2 seconds.)
224: We probably just have different tastes, since I'm not really bothered by a mineral note in water, but I find the tap water here to have a slightly organic funk. (I wouldn't say it tastes like ass, though.)
Those Japanese jobs from 230 are impressive. One of the faculty in my dept. has one. It does tend to give guests pause, though.
Residential water use is a drop in the bucket compared to what agriculture and industry use.
Thus, one can say that Catherine's daily ration is 5 inches for 2 seconds or 10 inches for 1 second. Doesn't seem excessive.
(In Southern California or New Mexico, though, you'd say 7 inches for 2 seconds.)
I'm not sure we should talk about Catherine's partners like this.
171 -- "watering can" = "penis", anyways if you are Oskar Matzerath.
Speaking of tasting like ass...
infinitely clever-at-space-saving Japanese have also come up with a way
...to catch you on fire while sitting on their space-age heated bidets.
(In Southern California or New Mexico, though, you'd say 7 inches for 2 seconds.)
I'm not sure we should talk about Catherine's partners like this.
I don't know, I'm pretty happy to have NM associated with 7 inches.
(Cue Bitch talking about politics.)
to catch you on fire while sitting on their space-age heated bidets
Takes care of any ass hair problem - what's not to love?
I'm pretty happy to have NM associated with 7 inches.
7 inches for 2 seconds is nothing to shout about, teo.
244: Hmm, better check. Hey Cala, do you know where I can find a wallaby? It's for my friend.
I'm out of wallaby. I think the temple stores of clothes might have a wallaby department, though.
Okay, I'll try there. Thanks.
(Man, I hope I can find a nice wallaby for DaveL or he's going to be pissed.)
Wallabies are a well-known gateway drug to dolphins and bears.
250: You say that like it's a bad thing.
By the time he gets to bears his stamina will be up. Ahem.
7 inches for 2 seconds is nothing to shout about, teo.
...
He'll improve with practice.
2 seconds may be his window- she probably would have to get up and go to the restroom, given all that water.
Sorry, Dave, I don't think the temple stores of clothes ship to Hawaii. I'll keep looking, though.
Oh, Hawaii has its own temple. But I'm not allowed in there.
But we do have dolphins. Spinner dolphins, in fact.
But do they have a wallaby department? That's the real question here.
Hmm, I guess I'll have to think of something else to get you, then. If you're all set for wallabies and dolphins, looks like it'll have to be a bear.
Luckily, there's a white one in New York that I think I can catch. I just need to perfect my 500-yard stare.
Oddly enough, there were two in the last hotel I stayed in. (Seriously.)
263: She gets better 500-yard stares in her sleep.
265: I just need to build up my stamina. Where'd Cala go?
Some googling reveals that Squaw Valley is a resort at Lake Tahoe which owns the domain "squaw.com".
Also the valley that was there before the resort and the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.
Arguably the bears weren't actually in the hotel, but they were on the direct route from lobby to guest rooms. The lobby is in one building and the guest rooms in another, with the two buildings connected by an alley of shops at a 45-degree angle to the main buildings. The bears were looking around in the pie-shaped gap at one end of that alley as we were heading back to our room one evening. Smallish, probably last year's cubs. I assume that either someone around there had been feeding them or they'd just come out of a winter den and were desperate for something to eat. Pretty cool, in any case.
Throw 'em a 500-yard stare and the bears are yours.
BZA - that's not V/lker, is it?
Better than the combined bidets are the dual-flush toilets - a mere gallon for pee, and 1.6 for poop.
So how obvious is it that I have a toddler?
274: I didn't know that such miracles exist. I am not on the bleeding edge of elimination technology.
274: I think I know who you mean, but no, I'm at the other university, in Weiner's old department.
Do dual flush toilets have two different handles? It'd good if the technology allowed intermediate values, for, like, vomit.
They've been in Japan for at least 15 years (we have a photo of the brilliant little ideogram on the wall above our old-fashioned water-waster), but have only been here for a few years. Only in the last year or two have they become semi-normal priced (they used to be a high-priced import).
This story mentions an acquiantance of mine whose dual-flush toilet I got to use, while here's the main manufacturer. Ah, and I see that I sold them short (or long); it's a mere 0.9 gal. for pee, which is actually better than a code-meeting urinal (which are shamefully wasteful - waterless urinals are where it's at).
Oh, and be glad that you are not on the bleeding edge of elimination. No toilet tech can take the pain out of that experience.
No flush urinals are supercool. I've been to a place that uses them and they don't, in fact, smell bad--which seems to be the main concern.
"no-flush urinals" s/b "pits"
Of course, peeing in the shower requires no extra water. Don't tell me you don't do it, people.
276: The old Japanese style was one handle that went to the left for #1, to the right for #2. The kind that I've used have a sort of large push-button on top that has smaller and larger areas, so it's more intuitive. No clever ideogram.
Speaking of intermediate values, it's never been clear to me whether those turn-handle urinals are legal. It seems to me that flush valves are required (for legit sanitary purposes), but I see the turn-handles (which let you add just a few ounces of H2O) sometimes in new installations. Paid-off inspector, maybe.
On the sanitary note, this poster is just awesome.
Don't tell me you don't do it, people.
I don't do it, dirty person.
278: Yay, ogged!
I can't believe we're approaching 300 comments on this post. Of course, 50 of those were discussing the complex ounce-liter-glass conversion....
requires no extra water
That's only true if the shower with peeing incorporated lasts the same amount of time as the shower with pee held for afterwards. Seems to me you would stay in the shower at least a bit longer if you were peeing in addition to lathering yourself with soap and shampoo and rinsing.
Peeing in the shower don't mean peeing on yourself, dude. It's sterile, in any case.
Seems to me you would stay in the shower at least a bit longer if you were peeing in addition to lathering yourself with soap and shampoo and rinsing.
Multitasking is pretty easy when one of the "tasks" consists of standing while you relax a muscle.
don't s/b doesn't. I wasn't going for the colloquial touch.
Actually, I'm not all that freaked out by pee; I don't even think I'd mind all that much if a hypothetical roommate confessed to peeing in the shower. I don't do it because I believe in civilization.
I only shower in other people's pee.
I conserve water because I believe in civilization. Has it occurred to you that pee-retention issues might lead to kidney problems?
with pee held for afterwards
Here's a little time-saving tip for you: if you won't pee in the shower, then pee beforehand, and you won't have to wash hands in the sink.
Civilization is that which has provided us with pipes to take our pee from the shower to the river.
I once lived in a low water house, and we had a propane toilet. Close the lid and a zillion BTUs took care of what you'd left behind. Kind of noisy, though, and when the wind was wrong, the smoke in our little valley wasn't the nicest thing.
Pee retention? How long are you showers, McQueen, seven days?
I like to be clean, dirty person.
Close the lid and a zillion BTUs took care of what you'd left behind.
So awesome!
I was lucky to have a very powerful flush toilet when I was in junior high, because I would run home to get "discipline notices" from school before my mom arrived and tear them up and flush them. I didn't realize it could have been even better.
I refuse to feel guilty about peeing in the shower. It's all dirty water going down that drain.
I've used a flushless urinal too, and there was no smell at all. I have to confess a fondness for huge, extravagant, water-wasting urinals, though. I like the ones that go all the way down to the floor, so you basically have the experience of peeing on a wall, only it's not antisocial, 'cuz you're in the bathroom.
Someday I want my bathroom designed
to look like the gents' from an Italian train station.
perhaps "fondness" is a bit of a strong word
I like to be clean, dirty person.
Bah, I take long showers (one niggardly landlady even had the nerve to complain to me about it), but pee retention is still not a problem.
Ted, Woody, and Junior
Stand in the bath together
And they cover each other with soap
Cover each other with soap
Cover each other with soap
When I finally finish our bathroom remodel, the last detail will be to put this up over the toilet (the image on the screen doesn't do it justice, but click on the detailed view).
299: Not that I'm indifferent to the health of your excretory system, but I was kidding. And shouldn't you say "neighborly landlady?"
301 -- This is to remind you where the water you're peeing in comes from?
Basically -- water consciousness meets decoration kind of thing. I do have some misgivings about putting it up, because it's a beautiful image and highly detailed, and I don't want to take people's minds off their aim.
Raven maps are awesome.
My daughter (again, toddler, and so still mastering potty, and still going to bathroom with whichever parent is around) is fascinated by urinals, and comments with awe at the ones that "go all the way to the floor." She likes to check out the puck colors (they're often pink!). It sucks being occupied and having to give her my sternest "Step back! Don't touch!" I mean, it's not like she's about to touch a hot stove.
But then again, in some ways, it is.
Tying together the last thread and this one, when we started dating my now-wife had a Japanese school poster of kana, the main syllabary, on the wall over her toilet. I called it her Boyfriend Japanese Alphabet Poster, since of course only male guests would actually get to study the thing. For awhile I was starting to absorb them, but it now resides in the guest room, and I've regressed....
201 and 207:
I use my Biffy ass jet on the coldest days. First of all, your butt is much less sensitive to jets of cold water than you think. Absolutely.
Second, CLEAN AS A WHISTLE!
Late to the thread (and I support catherine's water consumption, you haters), but my favorite example of silly urinals is this silly waterfall urinal at a recently opened wannabe NYC-type night club. Notice how the stall door would open right into anyone standing on the left-hand side. It happens—I've seen it—and it's delightfully awkward:
"Uh, it's gonna be a moment…"
Awkward and wasteful, that is.
I still maintain that these are the best urinals ever.
And as far as toilets go, I would really like to give this one a try.
309- There's a bar here with toilet stalls like your second link. It's an odd experience.
It's a shame that I discovered the concept of an aftabeh five days too late to enter it into this discussion. Oggers, how dare you fail to represent your people and defend their customs.
Ah yes.
He could also have used the word "pitcher", but we were thrown off by the reference to gardening.
Anyway, go to the link in 311. It's disgusting.
I spent a fair portion of a recent trip to S.E. asia puzzling over the water pitchers sitting next to the squat toilets. I never got anywhere rural enough that I had to actually figure out how to use it, toilet paper generally being around someplace.
Alex Garland's narrator spends some time being mystified as well. (search for "pitcher"; couldn't figure out how to link to the page)
