Coolest book ever written

[try another castle]

http://us.macmillan.com/thebignecessity

I found out about it thursday, bought it yesterday, and am thoroughly enjoying this read.

It's about poop. What more can you ask for?

[Ursus]

Oh, MAN... you know I'm BIG on binnis!!  :seg:

Here's that link expanded out, in all of it's penultimate glory:

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

The Big Necessity
The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters
Rose George

RELATED: Economics, Social Sciences, Environment, Stock Market Crisis Books - the economy, the energy crisis, the election, Understanding the World Economy Books, United State Economy Crisis Books, World Crisis Books - the economy, the energy crisis, the election

Metropolitan Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8271-5
ISBN-10: 0-8050-8271-9
Trim: 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
304 pages[/list]

An utterly original exploration of the world of human waste that will surprise, outrage—and entertain

Produced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly, and hidden by euphemism, bodily waste is something common to all and as natural as breathing, yet we prefer not to talk about it. But we should—even those of us who take care of our business in pristine, sanitary conditions. For it’s not only in developing countries that human waste is a major public health threat: population growth is taxing even the most advanced sewage systems, and the disease spread by waste kills more people worldwide every year than any other single cause of death. Even in America, 1.95 million people have no access to an indoor toilet. Yet the subject remains unmentionable.

The Big Necessity takes aim at the taboo, revealing everything that matters about how people do—and don’t—deal with their own waste. Moving from the deep underground sewers of Paris, London, and New York—an infrastructure disaster waiting to happen—to an Indian slum where ten toilets are shared by 60,000 people, Rose George stops along the way to explore the potential saviors: China’s five million biogas digesters, which produce energy from waste; the heroes of third world sanitation movements; the inventor of the humble Car Loo; and the U.S. Army’s personal lasers used by soldiers to zap their feces in the field.

With razor-sharp wit and crusading urgency, mixing levity with gravity, Rose George has turned the subject we like to avoid into a cause with the most serious of consequences.

[try another castle]

Oh yeah, and here's her website:

http://rosegeorge.com/site/

[Ursus]

PRAISE

“Rose George's subject—the global politics of defecation—is both superbly indelicate and morally imperative. With the basic health and dignity of several billion poor people at stake, we need to take s**t seriously in the most literal sense. Human solidarity, as she so passionately demonstrates, begins with the squatting multitudes.”—Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

“In Rose George’s hometown in England, impoverished immigrants took up residence in the new public latrines. (‘Fighting over the more spacious disabled cubicle was fierce.’) Which is worse? Living in a toilet or living without one? George bravely—and sometimes literally—submerges herself in the tragedy and occasional comedy of global sanitation. Sludge, biogas, New York City sewage: I ate it up and wanted more! The most unforgettable book to pass through the publishing pipeline in years.”—Mary Roach, author of Stiff

"This fascinating, wise, and scrupulously drawn portrait of the world and its waste will last long as a seriously important book. Like a literary treatment farm, it manages to turn the completely unpalatable into something utterly irresistible. Rose George, a brave, compassionate, and ceaselessly impeccable reporter—and, when needed, a very funny one too—has performed for us all who care a very great service. A big necessity, indeed."—Simon Winchester, author of The Man Who Loved China

"This engaging, highly readable book puts sanitation in its proper place—as a central challenge in human development. Rose George has tackled this critical topic with insight, wit, and a storyteller’s flair."—Louis Boorstin, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

"Rose George has trolled the gutters of the world for the predictable low-matter and come up with something weirdly spiritual. Worship the porcelain god, revere its ubiquity and protest its absence: George reveals that the act of private and sanitary defecation is the key to health, the wealth of nations, and even civilization itself."—Lisa Margonelli, author of Oil on the Brain

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

BIOGRAPHY


Rose George is a freelance writer and journalist who regularly contributes to Slate, The Guardian, The Independent, and the Financial Times. She lives in London.

[Froderik]

"The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest preoccupation of man. Man being the chosen alloy, he must be reconnected via shit, at all cost. Inherent within us is the dream of the task of the alchemist to create from the clay of man and to re-create from excretion of man pure and then soft and then solid gold. All must not be art. Some art we must disintegrate. Positive anarchy must exist."

[try another castle]

"The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest preoccupation of man. Man being the chosen alloy, he must be reconnected via shit, at all cost. Inherent within us is the dream of the task of the alchemist to create from the clay of man and to re-create from excretion of man pure and then soft and then solid gold. All must not be art. Some art we must disintegrate. Positive anarchy must exist."

Really? Patti Smith said that? Awesome!

She would love China. They have a biogas program that seems pretty impressive. And the size of the crops you can get with human poop is amazing.

[Che Gookin]

I've contributed some sizable contributions to the Chinese biogas program as well.

 :fuckoff:

[try another castle]

I've contributed some sizable contributions to the Chinese biogas program as well.

 :fuckoff:

I'm surprised all of Asia isn't cooking their rice from your poop.  ::fullofshit::

[Ursus]

Sorry, I'm a day late with this post...

19 November is World Toilet Day – a day to celebrate the humble, yet vitally important, toilet and to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis.
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved ... efault.asp[/list]

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

TIMESONLINE
November 13, 2008
Top 10 toilet horrors: Times readers kick up a stink



There’s always been one good outlet when life feels as if it’s going down the drain: write a letter to the The Times. To celebrate World Toilet Day, Ellen Przepasniak has scoured the Archive for ten particularly choice missives from readers who've got themselves in a lather about lavatories [click on the links to read the originals].

1. It seems railway lavatories have never been clean. In August 1886, a reader signing himself Viator Infelix shared his noisome experience aboard the Transcontinental Express. The stench of a lavatory in the stagnant August heat can’t have been pleasant, but the language is what makes this letter especially, shall we say, pungent: “The so-called lavatory, a pandemonium of stinks, some six feet square, with water-closet, urinal, and washing apparatus cheek by jowl, was apparently never cleansed; and neither in this one in the Pullman were there any antiseptics to deaden the sickening effluvium.”

The agents for the South Italian Railway Company wrote back vouching for “one of the best appointed and most comfortable services in Europe.” They claim: “The condition reported is entirely exceptional, and in contradiction to the testimony of hundreds of passengers by this service.”

Still the matter wasn’t dead. Another letter followed from the International Sleeping Car Company, with the ‘we’re doing the best we can’ excuse: “We may say that they are kept in as good a state of cleanliness as it is possible to do during a two days’ journey across hot and dusty countries and while in constant use.”

2. In August 1892 (what is it about lavatory complaints in August?), a woman wrote in complaining about the introduction of the penny-in-the-slot lock on women’s lavatories on trains. She calls it “not only a nuisance, but a most unfair imposition.”

Another writer calls for the abolition of the ineffective system. She claims to have seen people holding doors open for one another and five people going in at a time, and adds: "In more than one instance under my notice the non-possession of the necessary penny has caused inconvenience which amounts to the endangering of health."

A male sympathizer weighs in, calling the penny slot system a “scandalous development of a scandalous traffic,” and an “injustice to the weaker sex”.

3. When was the last time you heard complaints about queues and cleanliness at a festival? This summer, most likely. Things have not changed since the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908. Our correspondent wrote: “It is impossible even to estimate the mischief already wrought by these insanitary lavatories.”

Further scandal is exposed when this letter reveals that female exhibition workers were forced to pay for use of the lavatories, which were “erected without sufficient provision for the extra sewerage necessary for these thousands of employees and visitors.”

The Medical Officer of Health for Hammersmith defended the Public Health Committee’s planning ...

but he’s blown out of the water by “A representative at the Rest Room for Employees for the National Union of Women Workers”.

4. The polio scare in the 1950s provoked one reader to blame the lack of hand-washing facilities. He says: “There are few indications that public bodies in this country are doing anything at all to make hand-washing even possible in what are miscalled public lavatories.”

While another points the finger at British Railways lavatories for helping to spread the virus, both on the trains and in the stations.

5. “I find it a matter of serious public concern,” writes Mr John A. Turner under the heading, Closed at Night, “that a person anxious to attend to the calls of nature, but equally desirous to catch the last tube from Tottenham Court Road to the suburbs, discovers to his frustration that the Underground convenience is padlocked, and his only recourse to relief lies in the Soho backstreets.” We know you’re a rube, Mr Turner, but didn’t anyone ever tell you about the Tottenham Court Road gents? Believe us, whoever locked them was doing you a favour.

With admirable restraint (“the acute staffing position”), the chairman of the general services committee of Westminster City Council writes back with the locations of 24/7 public lavatories in Central London.

6. In 1981, Miss Susan Corbett celebrates the recent introduction of the warm-air hand drier to UK lavatories as a convenient way to dry one’s socks when coming in from the rain.

7. In 1874, the Medical Offer of Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Girls wrote in to clarify an obituary for one of its doctors [originally attributed to sewer gas]. Apparently, the girls were inadvertently infecting each other because of faulty plumbing linking the drinking and bathing water in one of the lavatories. During a post mortem examination of an infected girl, Dr Anstie cut his finger and “imbibed the poison which so unhappily proved fatal”.

8. A Lieutenant-Colonel recalls the unsanitary conditions on board HMS Malabar in 1889. There were three to a bed, cockroaches everywhere, animals being slaughtered  on deck and “the lavatory and washing facilities were so inadequate that the men were covered with vermin”.

9. Be careful the next time someone tells you there’s dirt on your jacket and suggests you repair to the gents to wash it off. This retired colonel went to the lavatory, hung up his jacket on a peg and his pocketbook was promptly stolen.

The same thing happened, not once, but twice to Mr W. W. A. Elkin.

But clever Mr Mead foiled the lavatory pickpockets, who struck while he was visiting the Natural History Museum.

10. A “Spiritual Festival”, in Pilton, Somerset, lived up to the statement in its brochure that “man is fast ruining his environment,” according to the  Chairman of Somerset County Council Health Committee, who wrote to point out that the “superior facilities” promised by the organisers turned out to be nothing more than “scaffolding poles suspended over poorly-screened 6ft deep trenches”.

Posted by Rose Wild on November 13, 2008 in Social history | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBack (0)

[Ursus]

Some of the comments posted to that story in my previous post were just too delicious to pass up, so here they are:

-------------- • -------------- • --------------

Comments

In relation to item number 5, the lack of public conveniences in England has become deplorable, despite councils claiming they have to close due to illicit activity inside, there is no excuse for not providing this service to the tax payer. Indeed if the councils are so worried about the activities perhaps they should employ attendants to keep them clean and safe! Some people then wonder why members of the often forced to relieve themselves in an alley or public location.
Posted by: James | 13 Nov 2008 23:04:18

What a wonder no one mentioned a "pit stop" along the freeway in California's Imperial Valley. The sign warns of rattlesnakes lurking in the loo. It seems the critters seek the residual warmth of concrete during the cold desert night. Disturbing their warm dreams could lead to the ultimate indignity.
Posted by: sam guyton | 14 Nov 2008 01:27:15

It's a century since Thomas Crapper, the pioneering Yorkshireman, popularised the syphonic flush, yet a month ago I was confronted by three overflowing chemical loos and another sealed-up stinker aboard the Eurostars to and from Paris which were an abomination. I've asked how such insanitary trains could be allowed to run but so far have received neither explanation nor apology - only a couple of non-committal acknowledgements that pass the buck to the company's so-called "Head of Onboard Comfort" who has so far remained closeted. Sir Thomas could have taught her a lesson or two.
Posted by: FRANGLAIS | 14 Nov 2008 01:53:37

One of the most gruesome lavatory stories of recent years evidently missed your letters page. Only 25 years ago the British serial killer, Dennis Nilsen, was caught because he had flushed the body parts of his victims down his top-floor loo and thus blocked his neighbours' drains.
Posted by: Stephen Clifford Wilson | 14 Nov 2008 08:11:56

Yes, if a council closes the public lavatories, the whole town becomes a public lavatory.
Posted by: Frank Upton | 14 Nov 2008 09:21:39

There are never enough toilets for us ladies. It is humiliating that we always have to queu, while the men can just walk in and out. There should be rules that in public places there should be at least twice the facilities for women.
Posted by: cm kooij | 14 Nov 2008 09:36:05

Certain public toilets are frequented by types of men for 'entertainment' purposes. This is disgusting and they should get a hotel room.
Posted by: John | 14 Nov 2008 09:39:02

What a load of crap!
Posted by: James McShute | 14 Nov 2008 09:43:56

bullshit!
Posted by: | 14 Nov 2008 10:42:25

On a recent visit to Warsaw I found that public toilets, and those in hotels and bars, were guarded by a custodian who would expect a few coins to be placed in the bowl before them. I was even offered change on one occasion. This ensured that the toilets were not abused or vandalised, and were generally impressively clean. Perhaps we should follow this example in the UK.
Posted by: Harry Thompson-Jones | 14 Nov 2008 14:54:38

at crowded events with equal numbers of gents and ladies tiolets, I am one of those brazen women who turns my head away from the urinals as I power walk to the gents cubicles. Come on ladies learn to power walk with your head turned.

PS it is helpful if you can send a friendly male inside, in advance so you know where to walk to!
Posted by: ppoo | 14 Nov 2008 18:38:58

The description of public toilets in Warsaw, ( where one pays a custodian ),reminded me of a visit to a similar arrangement in a park in Gothenberg. Not noticing the pay - window I entered the cubicle and had just made myself 'comfortable' when the lock-less door burst open and a very robust and formidable lady with outstretched arm and open hand rushed at me shouting furiously in, ( to me ), incomprehensible Swedish.
It took some time to realise that I was being accused of trying to avoid payment . Having located the necessary coins I was left alone to reflect on how effective the whole incident had been in securing my relief.
Posted by: John Freshwater | 14 Nov 2008 20:34:22

It's alright for you men- you can find yourselves a dark alley. What about the women- we can't pee standing up, where are the dark alleys for us?!!
Posted by: alicia | 15 Nov 2008 09:53:28

How about the "bomb holes" that we went to in Verona, Italy. My grandaughter was 8 years old and it was for men and women with no drapes just a big open room with all these holes in the floor. The Italian men were very polite and they all stayed outside to allow my two grandaughters have some privacy. I was very impressed that all the men respected little girls, 8 and 12 years old. Thank-you to the Italian men for being so kind.
Eleanor, Jacksonvill, FL, USA
Posted by: eleanor whalen | 15 Nov 2008 14:18:06

To Alicia and all those women who haven't discovered p-mates yet- yes you too can pee standing in a back alley -or wherever if you want to. But the real issue is the awful queueing women seem to accept as the norm in public places. We need double the number of toilets that are provided for males, (and that includes the urinals.) The area of the women's floorspace needs to be larger to accomodate the extra cubicles too. The men's urinals take up less space, but the men's and women's toilets are usually a similar size. Why can't anyone see this is part of the of the problem?
Posted by: Janet | 15 Nov 2008 22:27:05

I work in a bar, 4 bathrooms for men, 4 for women (no not one with 4 stalls, 4 separate washrooms each with a toilet and sink NO urinals). A line up always at the women s but never at the mens. Same number of facilities but why no line up.

With exact same numbers of facilities, either women are slower, more women go to the bathroom than men or ?
Posted by: anthony | 15 Nov 2008 23:19:05

Holland has introduced communal facilities, which they say work very well & there is no waiting time; no drugs; no "cottaging";1st come; 1st gets it done.
Beijing put loofs on the commural lavs for the Blits, to provide privycy?
Posted by: M. STANISTREET | 16 Nov 2008 09:33:17

Holland has introduced communal facilities, which they say work very well & there is no waiting time; no drugs; no "cottaging";1st come; 1st gets it done.
Beijing put loofs on the commural lavs for the Blits, to provide privycy?
Posted by: M. STANISTREET | 16 Nov 2008 09:34:18

Interesting to note the subsequent fate of the site described above (item 3) as being overwhelmed by "sewerage" from tens of thousands of visitors. Today it is occupied by the BBC Television Centre, who presumably don't have to dig too deep for some of their programme ideas.
Posted by: DashDot | 16 Nov 2008 14:29:36

Try going to the loo in Spain in the 21st Century!
There are few if any public conveniences and certainly none on the Costa Blanca.
Anyone needing to 'go' has to enter a bar or restaurante where clientes have to jostle with 'outsiders' for the priviledge of relief.
The absence of an effective H&S organisation means your experience often mirrors that of the Victorians above.
Resident of Altea, Alicante, Spain
Posted by: David Mills | 17 Nov 2008 09:41:31

In Finland, in general women have better facilities than the men and have much more room and cubicles than in England. As most of the men consider the rest of the world as there urinal they so see little need to frequent the little boys room. However in general the public toilets are cleaner and safe. I guess hotel rooms are cheap and staff regularly check and clean the toilets......that’s one idea for the brits is to design public toilets that are so easy to clean that in general it could be done with a hose........!!!! then cleaning them would require little effort. Also don’t put locks on the doors……really who would want to watch someone else dropping the kids of at the swimming pool?
Posted by: snags | 17 Nov 2008 09:44:19

Our paper, The Toronto Star, recently published a series of articles on the disgusting condition of the lavatories on our tube system. They didn't mention the condition of the lavs at Mississauga Transit's main terminal: Their putrid miasma seeps up from the first level to the second, and walking down the staircase from the bus platform is an eyewatering plunge into a septic tank.
Posted by: Emilka | 17 Nov 2008 22:29:38

A couple years ago, on a trip across Europe, a fellow traveller bought postcards of all the sights & just took photographs of all the attendants at public lavatories! Can you imagine an after supper "Would you like to see my holiday snaps" scenario?
Posted by: Sue S | 18 Nov 2008 09:51:55

Closer to home, has anyone sat next to the toilet in a Virgin West Coast Line (Manchester to London)?

I suspect new trains are not allowed to discharge toilet contents on to the line, and use a chemical agent to deal with it. Perhaps the train engineering has not quite caught up with the new hygiene laws!!
Posted by: Dr O T Tang | 19 Nov 2008 02:22:11

Closer to home, has anyone sat next to the toilet in a Virgin West Coast Line (Manchester to London)?

I suspect new trains are not allowed to discharge toilet contents on to the line, and use a chemical agent to deal with it. Perhaps the train engineering has not quite caught up with the new hygiene laws!!
Posted by: Dr O T Tang | 19 Nov 2008 02:22:55

Switzerland has by far the best facilities overall, even the trains!

In Poland, some cities have a new idea for pay lavatories... You can get in to the stall free, but you cannot get out without paying!

One guy was pleading for a Zloty when we were leaving with his hand under the door. We gave him a Turkish banknote. All I can say that he wasn't very happy.

Perhaps, he is still there!
Posted by: Alex | 19 Nov 2008 07:43:42

A couple of years ago, my friend was quietly sitting on the loo,when she heard the distinct sound of water splashing and on investigation saw the BIGGEST Cane Toad she had ever seen trying to extrigate itself from the s-bend. Apart from screaming like a mad woman, she FLUSHED the loo.For a long time after we just'hovered' as quickly as possible knowing that it could reappear at any time! Then we moved house!
Posted by: sue butcher | 19 Nov 2008 09:41:36

LOL.....last year while traveling in India, I took an overnight train. The bathroom, though fitted with a western style toilet had the usual "roll-up-yer-pantlegs" floor and stench I have become accustomed to.....but the noise of the tracks DID seem a bit loud.

My morning visit to the same bathroom revealed NO PLUMBING....lol....the tracks rushing by, clearly visible under the toilet.
Posted by: Kindns | 19 Nov 2008 17:39:08

The 'spiritual' festival at Pilton in your tenth item, was actually the second Glastonbury Fayre. Stinky toilets at Glasto?! Nothing changes...
Posted by: Tom Nicholls | 20 Nov 2008 10:32:02

Women spend much longer in the public loos than necessary because of the difficulty in getting access to the toilet paper. Often these are on huge rolls that never seem to have an end, and one has to spend ages picking at the roll to start the thing moving and then it will only release one measely little square. Do men always use toilet paper?
Posted by: Jackie Gordon | 20 Nov 2008 21:16:55

The gams need "go" more often than the gents because their bladders are anatomically smaller, and hold less volume.
Posted by: Deluge Observer | 21 Nov 2008 05:45:10

I'm sorry to say the 6-foot ditch loos (over which hangs a wooden plank with a number of circular holes cut out to sit on) at Glasto still exist, though are far more pleasant than the unimaginable horrors and stench of the Portaloos!
Posted by: Reveller | 21 Nov 2008 06:14:53

Some years ago I was waiting for a ferry to the Isle of Skye in Scotland and had to pay 10p for using a loo there. It was spotless. Pay-to-go is the way to go. It's a bugger if you don't have the 10p though.....
Posted by: David Ashton | 21 Nov 2008 21:25:06

Some years ago I was waiting for a ferry to the Isle of Skye in Scotland and had to pay 10p for using a loo there. It was spotless. Pay-to-go is the way to go. It's a bugger if you don't have the 10p though.....
Posted by: David Ashton | 21 Nov 2008 21:25:49

[Anonymous]

Oh, MAN... you know I'm BIG on binnis!!  :seg:

Here's that link expanded out, in all of it's penultimate glory:

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

The Big Necessity
The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters
Rose George

RELATED: Economics, Social Sciences, Environment, Stock Market Crisis Books - the economy, the energy crisis, the election, Understanding the World Economy Books, United State Economy Crisis Books, World Crisis Books - the economy, the energy crisis, the election

Metropolitan Books
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8271-5
ISBN-10: 0-8050-8271-9
Trim: 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
304 pages[/list]

An utterly original exploration of the world of human waste that will surprise, outrage—and entertain

Produced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly, and hidden by euphemism, bodily waste is something common to all and as natural as breathing, yet we prefer not to talk about it. But we should—even those of us who take care of our business in pristine, sanitary conditions. For it’s not only in developing countries that human waste is a major public health threat: population growth is taxing even the most advanced sewage systems, and the disease spread by waste kills more people worldwide every year than any other single cause of death. Even in America, 1.95 million people have no access to an indoor toilet. Yet the subject remains unmentionable.

The Big Necessity takes aim at the taboo, revealing everything that matters about how people do—and don’t—deal with their own waste. Moving from the deep underground sewers of Paris, London, and New York—an infrastructure disaster waiting to happen—to an Indian slum where ten toilets are shared by 60,000 people, Rose George stops along the way to explore the potential saviors: China’s five million biogas digesters, which produce energy from waste; the heroes of third world sanitation movements; the inventor of the humble Car Loo; and the U.S. Army’s personal lasers used by soldiers to zap their feces in the field.

With razor-sharp wit and crusading urgency, mixing levity with gravity, Rose George has turned the subject we like to avoid into a cause with the most serious of consequences.

what are binnis?

[try another castle]

Now that I've read this book, I have adopted some of its terms.

For instance, I now refer to what my cat does on the floor as "open defecation".

[Che Gookin]

I've contributed some sizable contributions to the Chinese biogas program as well.

 :fuckoff:

I'm surprised all of Asia isn't cooking their rice from your poop.  ::fullofshit::

I'm in the dark heart of savage China. They cook their genetically flawed children in my steaming hot turds.

[Anonymous]

Oh, MAN... you know I'm BIG on binnis!!  :seg:

what are binnis?

binnis <-- "business" <-- poop

[try another castle]

I always referred to that as "bidness."

As in, "Ain't none o' yo damn bidness, foo."