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On this day in 1982, the government informed the residents of Times Beach, Missouri that they would have to evacuate. The town had paved its own roads with dioxin, among the most toxic cancer-causing substances made by man.

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Illustrated chemical reactions.

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We weren't expecting to see the final Glyph prototype materialize until just before CES, but Avegant is ready to show off the latest consumer design in the flesh, presented above (and again after the break) for your viewing pleasure. The high-res ...

Here’s an interesting look at her case and how it was played up in the media.

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Moral: There’s more to the story then we usually hear about.

 

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Back in the late 40s, Bozo the Clown was hot stuff. He was the star of a lot of kids' books, including one about an amazing rocket. Unfortunately, this futuristic story was also amazingly racist.

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If you're planning on cooking a turkey in the oven this Christmas, you're making a terrible error. A much easier, faster, and more economical way is to just use a Lamborghini Aventador. Duh.

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This will be the strangest Christmas ever for millions of British households as a new law goes into effect forcing every web user to choose whether they want to be able to access porn on the internet — and then register that choice with their internet company. BT, Sky and TalkTalk have already implemented the ban. Virgin Media and other are expected to follow in January.

The new law, passed by Britain's ruling Conservative government, is intended to protect children from accidentally coming across sexual material on the internet, and to generally ward off the "hypersexualization" that many Brits believe has overrun the country, not just in terms of adult entertainment but in marketing and media too.

But not everyone is happy about it. It's a mass exercise in censorship that requires individuals to declare themselves to private companies: Blogger and radio host Mark Shields writes, "As we know, lists don't stay hidden. I would imagine people don't want to be on a list that is possibly accessible by anyone (Virgin Media or not) that says they're into porn, right? I can imagine politicians, media personalities, church goers etc don't want to be on the list, and thusly are blocked because of fear. That's an insane jump for our government."

The actual filter requires users to select from one of three "levels" of internet censorship: strict, moderate and light. The Telegraph notes that the choice over sexual material is mixed in with choices over gambling, violence, smoking, and social media:

Those who opt to switch on the parental controls will have to choose between three set filter levels – strict, moderate and light. All three filters cover pornography, 'obscene and tasteless' content, hate and self-harm, drugs, alcohol and tobacco and dating sites.

Moderate and strict also block sites featuring nudity, weapons and violence, gambling and social networking; strict also blocks fashion and beauty sites, file-sharing, games and media streaming. Additional websites can be added to the list manually to be allowed or blocked.

Here is what they look like. You can see that BT's filter forces some odd choices. The "light" setting blocks "pornography" but allows "nudity":

And this is TalkTalk's:

Already, it has been discovered that the filters fail to block some types of X-rated material and inappropriately block health, education, and public safety sites, according to the BBC:

... BBC's Newsnight has discovered all the major ISPs that have launched full default filters are also failing to block hardcore porn-hosting sites.

Among the sites TalkTalk blocked as "pornographic" was BishUK.com, an award-winning British sex education site, which receives more than a million visits each year.

TalkTalk also lists Edinburgh Women's Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre website as "pornographic."

BT blocked sites including Sexual Health Scotland, Doncaster Domestic Abuse Helpline, and Reducing The Risk, a site which tackles domestic abuse.

It's all the Daily Mail's fault, according to Slate.

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This weekend, two readers sent us very similar “holiday creep” photos from two different kinds of retailers. Secret Consumerist synchronicity? Maybe. Or maybe the week before Christmas is now the universal time to put Valentine’s Day stuff out.

Ben spotted this display of Valentine’s Day-themed pet toys in a Petsmart store on Sunday. “Yes, an entire display,” he writes. “Prominent, and fairly close to the front. Let the dust settle from the holidays first, please?!” They probably have already clearanced out most of the Christmas-themed stuff already: what else is supposed to go in the seasonal displays?

Meanwhile, over at Albertsons in the Pacific Northwest, Mary noticed these Valentine’s Day party gift pags and candy containers. If you like to plan ahead and get your party favors ready six weeks early, you’re in luck.

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Everybody pees and everybody poops. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, or how much money you have; when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. But how did the contraption that we all know as the toilet come to be? Who proposed that toilets should be shaped a certain way, and who decided how much water is needed for every flush?

World Toilet Day was celebrated last November 19th, so we’re a little late to the party. But let’s take a look at the past, present, and future of toilets as we face an ever-growing sanitation problem (2.5 billion people currently don’t have access to clean and safe toilets) and water shortage (think of how much water is flushed down the toilet worldwide, every second of every day.)

Past

Our ancestors didn’t fuss much when they had to go to the loo. In fact, there probably wasn’t even an actual bathroom because any place with tall grass or enough foliage could serve as a toilet of sorts. Pits on the ground were basically dug for people to poop in. Other people’s “toilets” were simply pots that they squatted over and took a dump in as the need arose. There are still places in the world where people still do this though, so it’s not that far back into the past as most people would think.

As sewers were built, toilets became more like the toilets of today: they were built with vertical chutes that directed the waste into cesspits, while others used flowing water to move the waste down the drain.

Present

Our current toilet, the flush toilet, was designed by Sir John Harrington in 1596. In 1775, the first patent for the flushing toilet was issued to Alexander Cummings. The designs were modified and further developed over the years, which eventually led to the toilets of today.

As people continued to innovate, accessories and add-ons were designed to make the pooping process more comfortable and hygienic. For example, the adjustable toilet seat allows people with big bottoms to take a dump without tipping over or losing their balance. Meanwhile, add-ons like the Bio Bidet BB 2000 Bliss offer fancy upgrades like wireless control, hybrid water heating system, water pulse, and even massage cleaning features to take personal hygiene to the next level.

The modern bathroom experience is further enhanced by products like the automatic toilet paper dispenser (which is perfect for germophobes) and the glowing toilet night light (since we all go for that midnight pee every once in a while.)

Future

At this point, you might be thinking: toilets are fine as they are. Is there really a need to tweak its design or change it, when there are so many things that could benefit from that attention and those efforts instead?

Well, you’ve probably already heard about Bill Gates and how he’s pushing people to come up with alternative designs to the current toilet through the Gates Foundation. Unfortunately, while most of them are green, multi-purpose, and energy efficient, the designs have been dubbed as too high-tech and too expensive.

There’s the Fluid Wall, a concept design that tacks on all bathroom fixtures onto a single wall to save space. And then there’s the Wellbeing Toilet, pictured above, which won an award at a toilet design competition in the UK. First of all, it integrates ergonomics and encourages people to be in the right position when they poop to lessen muscle strain. Second, it’s smart: it has a built-in system that analyzes pee for conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, or even pregnancy.

While none of these seem like viable and practical designs for mass production, someone is bound to come up with a good enough alternative as more people continue to toil over the toilet’s redesign.

[via Gizmodo, About, & Wikipedia]

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