Category: Weird Stuff

If you slept through your alarm, stubbed your toe on the bedside table, or stepped into a puddle on your way to work, you may be thinking you’re having a crappy day. Well, guess what? The rest of the world is accompanying you in your mood. It’s World Toilet Day today. That’s not a joke but a real official United Nations international observance day. And it’s actually a lot more serious than it sounds.

Why World Toilet Day?

Because nearly 2 billion people around the world use drinking water that may be contaminated with feces and 4.5 billion people live without access to a safe toilet. This means that many people are left to defecate outside which contaminates their environment, their source of water and pretty much makes them live in a sewer.

Bill Gates recognized this problem back in 2011 and launched a global competition called the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. However, he’s still struggling to scale a suitable toilet to solve the problem in areas that don’t have enough water to run one.

It’s not easy to build a working toilet in poor areas where water is scarce and laying an intricate network of pipes is just not a possibility. This problem is particularly prevalent in India where a massive 39% of the urban population can’t use their toilet due to insufficient water.

Here’s Why Having a Working Toilet Matters

If you take a look at the infographic below you’ll see why it’s so important to have a working toilet. Even Gandhi said that sanitation was more important than independence. And he was a pretty wise man.

Nearly 3 million people die every year due to inadequate sanitation and diarrhea is the second biggest killer among children. Which again, puts your shitty day into perspective.

If you think you’re up to the challenge and want to join Bill Gates on his quest to solve the world sanitation problem, here are the guidelines that your toilet should be able to do:

1. Separate the germs from the usable matter in human waste and reuse valuable resources such as energy and water
2. Operate without connection to water or electricity
3. Cost less than $0.05 a day to run
4. Promote sustainable and profitable sanitation solutions in rural and poor urban communities

A few toilets have been designed that fit some (but not all of) the specs but scaling them is a challenge. Clear Toilet China, for example, depends on rainwater to function. While it costs just $0.03 a day, it does not produce fertilizers or delivers energy.

The Eco-San Toilet US relies on solar energy and collects 4-5 meters of cubic usable (not potable) water a day, as well as fertilizer but costs $0.02 per flush.

While Gates officially announced the winners back in 2012, the problem is yet to be solved. The WHO says that every dollar invested in sanitation yields $4.3 in return. So if you want to get involved in reinventing the toilet, you have a massive and profitable market to get into.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

If someone told you in 2018 you’d be inserting a card reader under your skin, you’d probably laugh in their face. Yet, that’s exactly what thousands of Swedes are busy doing–voluntarily–to “make their lives easier.”

In what somehow feels very Big Brother meets Minority Report, Biohax, the company behind the chip implanting, has installed more than 4,000 card readers over the last five years.

But why would Swedish people want to be as trackable as their mobile devices or exotic pets?

The Biohacking Card Reader Trend That’s Caught on

It turns out that getting a microchip fitted under your skin is actually extremely practical. At least that’s what the Swedes are saying.

Since the technology launched over five years ago, it’s proven to be an efficient and (almost) painless way of letting people replace key cards and a host of other bothersome items like train tickets and even ID.

The chips are called subdermal (meaning that they’re inserted under the skin) and are placed between the thumb and forefinger. They emit a radio-frequency technology, which is the same that’s found in your credit and debit card or passport.

Coming in at about the size of a grain of rice, the minute card reader allows its bearer to open doors, enter buildings, and even order a smoothie.

Despite being placed under the skin, they can still be read by any device that uses near-field communication (NFC), so even your Android can read them.

Extremely Practical and Not Creepy at All

Biohax says that beyond replacing the need for physical cards, signatures, or passcodes, the card reader makes life more efficient by reducing lines at banks, government offices, and travel terminals. Moreover, they’re better for the environment since they reduce the need for plastic cards and waste.

While the Cyborg craze is certainly popular with many brave Swedes and even has a Facebook page dedicated to it with almost 7,000 likes, unsurprisingly, it’s not without its critics.

Tracking human beings as if they were cattle raises serious privacy concerns the likes of which would give even Facebook unpleasant nightmares.

Featured image from Shutterstock.