We do a lot of things that we aren't predisposed to in evolutionary terms, doesn't mean I want to go back to running around on all fours. I can only imagine the hilarity that ensues when trying to preform a squat-n-drop while intoxicated.

Thing is, modern toilets also substantially increase the incidence of hemorrhoids and various other colon issues. We're evolutionary predisposed to squatting and only that creates a 'straight path' or so it were.

>> ^steroidg:

One of the public toilettes where I grew up (in Beijing) is pretty much a few planks (to squat) over a gentle slope made of concrete... I don't want to spoil your day so I'll spare the details, but most things didn't end up at the lower end if you know what I mean.
I still refuse to go into public toilettes in China 20 years on.


Yea I've spent a few months in Guangzhou, it's quite important to go to the toilet before you visit the markets - if you have to go at the markets it's exactly like you describe, just a gentle slope that runs underneath the entire line of toilets, with pretty much no water to speak of to keep everything 'moving'.

How politically correct we are.

One of the public toilettes where I grew up (in Beijing) is pretty much a few planks (to squat) over a gentle slope made of concrete... I don't want to spoil your day so I'll spare the details, but most things didn't end up at the lower end if you know what I mean.

I still refuse to go into public toilettes in China 20 years on.

I've been living in Thailand for 4 years, but I'm definitely not a convert to the squat-style toilets. My house has a western style sit-n-s#it. The upside is that almost all western toilets here also have a handheld spray-nozzle hose attachment to serve bidet-like purposes, which I now think I'd miss back in the US. It doesn't fully replace T.P., but it is an excellent supplement in terms of cleanliness.

One more thing about the squat toilets -- imagine all of the difficulties of a squatter: pants placement, tired legs from hovering, lack of optimal handhold locations, etc. and then add on to that being in a moving train being jarred back and forth, going around corners, and lurching with every acceleration change. That experience is hands down my most... exciting visit to the "hong nam" (toilet) in 4 years of being here.

I had to use a squat toilet once (it was an emergency and I couldn't find anything else). It was an extremely precarious affair. Aside from what ghark mentioned about having to be careful of your pants, balance was a definite issue. And if you do lose your balance, what do you hold on to? It's a public bathroom; everything is gross.

Western toilets are a bajillion times better.

The problem with squatting is that you have to be very careful about where your pants are. Other than that, seems to work ok.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'tutorial, poop, bathroom, japan' to 'tutorial, poop, bathroom, japan, squat toilet' - edited by calvados

I quite like squat toilets actually. Seems like more of a natural method than sitting on a seat.

Paul's stance is simple. Charity will solve all. The fact that charity is not currently solving all is due to ..... government?

Paul doesn't want any government spending on areas like this, or perhaps anything, so he sees it all as a waste. What he has to contribute to a debate like this other than simple nay saying is diddly squat.

His call of absurdity is only highlighted by his inability to recognise that the 2 billion suggested meets a certain threshold of minimal subsistence. He seems to have a disconnect between money as mere figures and money actually making a material difference to people that aren't himself.

In his defence, Sanders and Franken could have done more research and offered him figures concerning net savings to satisfy his concerns but it does appear that he has a blind disregard for such matters. I feel it is still best to present such information in the interests of thoroughness and providing a watertight argument.

So you have to have worked in the financial industry to be qualified to make recommendations on making laws to regulate it?

You know what experience can be very valuable as a regulator? Knowing and being involved in regulatory laws on the industry, because you tend to see what laws have been effective, what haven't, etc. It also means you might know a thing or two about what makes a good, well written law vs. a bad one. Now, you got Warren on that one. She doesn't have squat for experience there...

Except of course a BS in law from University of Houston...
...and JD from Rutgers Law...
Editor of Rutgers Law Review...
Decades of experience working as a lawyer involved in financial transactions such as wills, real estate, commercial law...
Over a decade of experience teaching in five universities, one including some crappy college called Harvard Law
Over 100 peer reviewed academic articles
Six academic books on the subject
Vice President of American Law Institute
Best selling author/co-author on personal finance
National Law Journal's 50 most influential female lawyers
Multiple award winner for both practicing law and as a teacher on the same subject

Other than that, she's completely unqualified!

Is this what America has come to? If you accomplish the above, you're in no shape qualified to make recommendations for regulations to help protect American consumers financially?! I get you disagree with her, but disagreeing with her doesn't make her unqualified.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Maybe you ought to do a little research on Ms. Warren, the newest unelected tyranocrat who will be "protecting" the consumer from Wall Street.
Who protects the average man from having everything stolen by vote-buying socialists?
"Ms. Warren had never worked in financial services – in fact, she had never held a job in any financial industry – but as a Harvard law professor, she had written a variety of articles and books."
In other words, unqualified. Just like you-know-who.

the flow and exchange of ideas is vital and one of the reasons the sift is one of my favorite sites to visit and contribute.
where is the fun in seeing the same flavor with no opposing view or argument?
thats when it becomes one big circle jerk and everyone squats in their own putrid righteousness.
i prefer that my opinions and conclusions are challenged rather than parroted.
to do otherwise is to stagnate.

This is from OuterWorldVoice on NeoGaf:

So he killed 3000 people in New York. He beggared and is responsible for the deaths of thousands more in Afghanistan and other parts of the middle, near East and Africa. He fomented pointless purposeless rage in the pursuit of a racist, mysognistic and cruel worldview that regarded everyone outside of his fringe mentality as an enemy worthy of death.

On top of all that, he had a massive ego and no real plan. His agents were children, women, the illiterate, the foolish and the brainwashed. And he sent them to death and murder as martyrs by proxy while he squatted in comfort and adulation, hidden from danger and sight.

He's a piece of fucking shit and I hope there's a black millisecond he experienced before oblivion took him, that he realized there were no virgins waiting for him in paradise and that everything he ever stood for was a farcical fairy tale and a crime against humanity.

I'm surprised you're surprised.

This is not bloodlust. I would cheer for the death of Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot. We cheer not because of righteous vengeance, but because this zit on the world's asshole is finally gone and he can no longer bring pain and misery or spread his herpes all over the world.

GenjiKilpatrick:

Would you please stop babbling and step into reality.

>>> You're the one on the unicorn.

Talk to Dag or Blankfist or Dystopian or Me or even.. Westy for fuck's sake.


>>> I have, and will again.

We're all ACTUAL people who have identified Obama's corruption, incompetence, & hypocrisy for what it is to varying extents.

>>> You have collectively been disappointed that His Earness hasn't closed Gitmo, ended the wars, brought about universal health care, etc. That's not the same as noting corruption and incompetence. Hypocrisy, incompetence and corruption are endemic to politics, but there are degrees of severity. This guy has made us a laughingstock amongst our enemies and his trillion dollars of spending haven't done JACK SQUAT to "fix" the economy. America is living on borrowed time, money and Vaseline and the dunce is out golfing while the world burns. The only way to stay sane is to assume that was his plan all along, taking America down a notch in the name of social justice. To imagine any other outcome means he's a total n00b (which he is).


None of us would ever call a person racism for agreeing with this understanding of events.

With apologies because Netrunner isn't here to comment on his comment:
----------

It does seem like the right-wing consensus will be to just double-down on the original racist dog whistle, rather than shift to one of the others they've tried out since 2007.

----------

Stop hiding behind your extremist rhetoric and engage in an ACTUAL dialogue with left leaners and you'd realize that we all want the same thing.

>>> It's sad that demanding a reasonably-sized government answerable to the Constitution is now considered "extremist". The left views free market capitalism as exploitive and evil (to an extent true) while "my" side sees it as the fastest and most efficient way to lift people out of poverty. It's impossible to argue anything without common ground, and the reality is, not everyone in life ends up a winner, due to poor choices, heredity or plain bad luck. It's not government's job to right every wrong.

It's only you and the douche bag neo-liberals who are your polar opposite, too caught up in dogmatic cheerleading, which are holding the rest of us back.

>>> If that belief comforts you...

>>> The Constitution is a "holding back" document, meant to limit the power of government. If you're waiting for government to make your life extraordinary and make everyone happy and equal, you could be immortal and still not have enough time.

>>> If the American people aren't smart enough to elect someone else besides BHO, they get what they deserve. Hell, they already have.

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:

and then..
she vomits her guts up, detaches her uterus and is left emotionally stunted because all of her peers fear her roid rage & tiny mustache.


Ya know women used to not be allowed to run marathons like back in the 60s or something because it was believed by doctors their uterus would detach. In fact there's a cool story about some woman breaking into the Boston Marathon and a cool video of it I'll try to find it because it's neat. You see a steward try to tackle her and everything.

EDIT: Ok her name is Bobbi Gibb...it's a cool story and it's told in "Spirit of the Marathon" fond here on Hulu.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/85354/spirit-of-the-marathon