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#81
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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