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Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



 
 
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  #81  
Old December 14th, 2008, 03:21 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
sharx35
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Posts: 803
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...
John Kulp wrote:
The Dutch should talk. I have never seen so many different types of
toilets as I have in The Netherlands. You think you're turning on the
light and the toilet flushes.


Their toilets are strange. When you take a crap, the turds sit on a sort
of shelf, so you can contemplate it for a couple of minutes before
flushing. (BTW, Flushing is in Holland too)


Ah, there's a whole bunch of Dutch **** in and around New York. Figures.
They actually HAVE flush toilets in the Netherlands? I thought
that they used chamber pots which they then emptied into the canals.


  #82  
Old December 14th, 2008, 03:24 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
sharx35
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Posts: 803
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



"Alan S" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:50:32 +0100, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

[Disclaimer: I can't believe I'm actually reading/writing this stuff!
:-)]

Mike O'Sullivan wrote:
John Kulp wrote:

The Dutch should talk. I have never seen so many different types of
toilets as I have in The Netherlands. You think you're turning on the
light and the toilet flushes.

Their toilets are strange. When you take a crap, the turds sit on a sort
of shelf, so you can contemplate it for a couple of minutes before
flushing. (BTW, Flushing is in Holland too)


Your description doesn't compute. With 'shelf' do you mean a moving,
probably metal, plate in the 'output pipe' (don't know the right term
for the latter? Or do you mean the bottom of a US-style toilet, but
without the few gallons of water, i.e. the 'shelf' is not a seperate
component, but just the bottom of the ceramic toilet?

I found them to be common in parts of Germany and parts of
the Nederlands near the German border.

This guy describes it in detail:
http://www.asecular.com/~scott/misc/toilet.htm

I had the same aversion to that design as he did. I presume
they were designed to allow some anally-obsessed people to
check stools for health purposes on a daily basis.

If the former, then those kind of toilets are *not* common in The
Netherlands, i.e. there might be some in some places, but they would be
an exception.

As to strange, *we* find having them float around in a few gallons of
water both strange and disgusting!


The American system of the bernoulli suction effect was
equally strange to us, with their high waterline and an
unfortunate tendency to block easily. Again, someone else
has described it better than I could:


The regular toilets in N.A., until they downsized their capacity, rarely
clog. The effing p.c. ones, with only 6 litre capacity,
are the total ****s, no pun intended. They clog up very easily, requiring
many litres to unclog them. So, to save water, in the end, the water
conserving ones actually USE more water. Typical LIEbrawl politically
correct logic, I guess!




http://www.alldownunder.com/oz-k/rea...an-toilets.htm

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com
Latest: Two Indian Hotels: to Sleep, Perchance...


  #83  
Old December 14th, 2008, 03:28 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
sharx35
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 803
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



"John Kulp" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:24:08 +0100, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

[Reposted. Please don't cut the newsgroups (without saying so).]

pltrgyst wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:10:37 +0100, Frank Slootweg

wrote:

John Kulp wrote:

Excuse me? Our sales taxes range from zero to around 8%....

I just took the stack of receipts we have. The *very first*, a toy
car, is already 8.5%, i.e. already *above* the maximum you mention.

The US generally has state sales taxes. The California state sales tax
is 7.25%.

On top of this, you may have smaller district, county, or city sales
taxes
(generally less than 1%). The total of all sales taxes may indeed range
as high
as 8.5%.

The *second* one, a meal, is already 12.3%!

Many cities have special restaurant taxes in addition to the general
sales tax.

The *third*, a motel bill, is 12%.

Most cities have special occupancy taxes for hotels in addition to the
general
sales tax.


Thanks! So the *total* *tax* is indeed often much higher than what
John said. That was my point. I already knew that *sales* tax wasn't the
only tax, that why I *started* by saying "your *product* (i.e. sales,
VAT, whatever) taxes", i.e. *any* tax which is added to the listed/
advertized price.


No, its not often, it's rare and restricted to taxes like the hotel
tax, the object being to stick tourists like you who can't vote in the
state so they can get away with it.


An excellent idea, I say!



  #84  
Old December 14th, 2008, 03:29 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
sharx35
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 803
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



"Frank Slootweg" wrote in message
.home.nl...
pltrgyst wrote:
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:48:49 GMT, "Sharx35" wrote:

Well, I have travelled in the U.S., too. After several dozen trips to
the U.S.,
**MY** bad experiences are a fraction of yours. I suspect it might be
due to
your arrogant Eurocentric, obviously chip on the shoulder attitude to
U.S.
culture. I am not a U.S. resident nor a U.S. citizen, however I much
prefer
to travel in the U.S., compared to the continent of Europe where the
common
attitude is that "WE are the centre of the cultural universe
and the rest of the world are wannabes or boors". :Hell will freeze over
before I travel to the continent of decay, Europe.


Well, I'm pretty sure that at least 99% of us here in the US would rather
have
Frank visit than you.


I'm not quite sure if that was a compliment or not! Afterall, all is
relative, isn't it? :-) I.e. something like "I would rather have a
broken leg than a missing eye!". :-)


Close. Schizekopf.

  #85  
Old December 14th, 2008, 03:32 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
sharx35
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Posts: 803
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



"John Kulp" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:11:29 GMT, "Sharx35"
wrote:


(Without looking them up,) Most of the places you mention don't ring a
bell. To be clear, we visited only California (and a tiny bit (Pahrump)
of Nevada) and only a *part* of CA (see above).


It's obvious how low Colorado has sunk when one examines the results of
the
Nov./08 election.



Not as low as Canada which allows foul-mouthed cretins like you
around.


Sad to say but, legally speaking, freedom of speech/expression is much
better protected in the U.S. than here in Canada. In the U.S.,
truth is a defense, here in Canada, not necessarily so.

  #86  
Old December 14th, 2008, 05:06 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
Mark Brader
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 346
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.

This is now off-topic for both newsgroups, but in the hope of ending
the subthread quickly...

Mike O'Sullivan:
"Not so the German toilet. The excrement lands on a bone-dry horizontal
shelf, mere inches beneath one's posterior. Repeated flushings are
required to slide the ordure off the shelf ..."


Frank Slootweg:
I still don't understand it! The "shelf" is a little hollow, not flat.
Do the Germans use special water which magically flows *up*hill?


When you flush, the flush water is dumped onto the "shelf", moving
fast enough to overcome the slight slope of the hollow and wash it
(hopefully) clean.

So the bottom :-) line question is: Is there water on top of the
"shelf"?


No, only when you flush.

If not, *why* not?


What I've read is: so that dirty water won't splash up when the next
chunk falls in, as it can in the design the rest of us are used to.
--
Mark Brader | "When I was 10 years old, all I gave my sweetheart was
Toronto | a pair of projections that turned the group of rotations
| in 4 dimensions into principal bundles over the 3-sphere."
| -- Yann (Greg Egan: "Schild's Ladder")
  #87  
Old December 14th, 2008, 10:39 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
Mike O'Sullivan
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Posts: 428
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.

Sharx35 wrote:


"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...
John Kulp wrote:
The Dutch should talk. I have never seen so many different types of
toilets as I have in The Netherlands. You think you're turning on the
light and the toilet flushes.


Their toilets are strange. When you take a crap, the turds sit on a
sort of shelf, so you can contemplate it for a couple of minutes
before flushing. (BTW, Flushing is in Holland too)


Ah, there's a whole bunch of Dutch **** in and around New York. Figures.
They actually HAVE flush toilets in the Netherlands? I thought
that they used chamber pots which they then emptied into the canals.


No, the canals are reserved for rusty bikes.
  #88  
Old December 14th, 2008, 10:42 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
sharx35
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 803
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.



"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Sharx35 wrote:


"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...
John Kulp wrote:
The Dutch should talk. I have never seen so many different types of
toilets as I have in The Netherlands. You think you're turning on the
light and the toilet flushes.

Their toilets are strange. When you take a crap, the turds sit on a sort
of shelf, so you can contemplate it for a couple of minutes before
flushing. (BTW, Flushing is in Holland too)


Ah, there's a whole bunch of Dutch **** in and around New York. Figures.
They actually HAVE flush toilets in the Netherlands? I thought
that they used chamber pots which they then emptied into the canals.


No, the canals are reserved for rusty bikes.


Along with bitter, Americanphobe, over the hill Hollanders.

  #89  
Old December 14th, 2008, 05:03 PM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 275
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.

John Kulp wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:24:08 +0100, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

[Reposted. Please don't cut the newsgroups (without saying so).]

pltrgyst wrote:
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:10:37 +0100, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

John Kulp wrote:

Excuse me? Our sales taxes range from zero to around 8%....

I just took the stack of receipts we have. The *very first*, a toy
car, is already 8.5%, i.e. already *above* the maximum you mention.

The US generally has state sales taxes. The California state sales
tax is 7.25%.

On top of this, you may have smaller district, county, or city
sales taxes (generally less than 1%). The total of all sales taxes
may indeed range as high as 8.5%.

The *second* one, a meal, is already 12.3%!

Many cities have special restaurant taxes in addition to the
general sales tax.

The *third*, a motel bill, is 12%.

Most cities have special occupancy taxes for hotels in addition to
the general sales tax.


Thanks! So the *total* *tax* is indeed often much higher than what
John said. That was my point. I already knew that *sales* tax wasn't
the only tax, that why I *started* by saying "your *product* (i.e.
sales, VAT, whatever) taxes", i.e. *any* tax which is added to the
listed/ advertized price.


No, its not often, it's rare and restricted to taxes like the hotel
tax, the object being to stick tourists like you who can't vote in the
state so they can get away with it.


Give me a break! You guys don't stay in hotels, even not on business?
Dream on!

And you don't eat out, at 12.3%?

Face it, it's like I said: The exclusion of the tax in the displayed/
advertized prices does *not* serve any purpose for the *customer*,
because - despite your statement that it does - it apparently does *not*
help you realize how high it is!

BTW, in case it was not clear: Our receipts, bills, etc., do *mention*
the amount and percentage of tax, it is just *included* in the
displayed/advertized/receipt prices. I.e. on the display etc. you see
how much you have to pay, and - if yo're to stupid to calculate it
yourself - you will see the amount of tax on the receipt.

FYI, here the non-hotel taxes which i still have (I have no other
restaurant receipts, because most places keep those themselves):

Toy: 8.5%.
Restaurant: 12.3%
Groceries: 8.25%
Drinks: 7.25%
Mobile phone: 8.75%
MacDonald: 7.7-8.7%
Pharmacy: 6.75%
  #90  
Old December 14th, 2008, 05:23 PM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada,rec.travel.australia+nz
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 275
Default Report from the US, a nice but somewhat backward country.

Mark Brader wrote:
This is now off-topic for both newsgroups,


Well, you might not *like* the topic, but I don't think it's
*off*-topic.

I'm quite sure that they have "German toilets" in (some
parts/locations/whatever of) Oz, and I'm quite sure I've seen a few
"German toilets" during our recent trip in the US (California). Whether
one *calls* them "German toilets" is another matter, but they are of
*essentially the same design*.

I promise, next time I will pay special attention, make notes and
report back! :-)

but in the hope of ending the subthread quickly...

Mike O'Sullivan:
"Not so the German toilet. The excrement lands on a bone-dry horizontal
shelf, mere inches beneath one's posterior. Repeated flushings are
required to slide the ordure off the shelf ..."


Frank Slootweg:
I still don't understand it! The "shelf" is a little hollow, not flat.
Do the Germans use special water which magically flows *up*hill?


When you flush, the flush water is dumped onto the "shelf", moving
fast enough to overcome the slight slope of the hollow and wash it
(hopefully) clean.


Yes, of course. But *after* that, the last bit of water is supposed to
*stay* in the hollow area. At least that's what our (Dutch) toilets do,
and - while we travel a lot in Germany (and Austria) - I've never
encountered the mentioned shelf-is-totally-dry problem with German
toilets.

So all in all, I think the whining is about *broken "German toilets"
or/and from people with a dietary (sp?) problem.

[...]
 




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