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Tag: toilet paper

  • Tsunami In Japan Is Not Happening After 5.6 Earthquake

    Even though buildings in Tokyo were shaking because of the latest 5.6 earthquake that hit Japan yesterday, no Tsunami warning was sounded. That’s because experts in Japan were positive a tsunami was not going to happen. And it didn’t happen.

    “There was no abnormality in our monitoring at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the earthquake. Also, we have not received any reports of damage from the latest quake,” Spokesman for the the Fukushima nuclear plant Keisuke Murakami told AFP. Nothing unusual was noted.

    The Japan Times reported that most of the injuries involved people falling or items falling on people. In Maebashi, a car was buried by a mudslide, and the bullet train was stopped for a moment, but most damage was nominal.

    Still, experts are wary about the dangers of aftershocks.

    One of the unexpected aftershocks wasn’t geological, but financial. In the currency market, the Australian dollar dipped below 90 American cents, according to AAP. Sue Trinh, senior currency strategist for RBC, said the news caused investors to abandon the risky Australian dollar and seek refuge in the steady American dollar.

    Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the Japanese government is encouraging its citizenry to stock up on toilet paper. 40% of the nation’s supply comes from high risk earthquake areas. The government has its own minister in charge of paper products. He has been warning the country to be prepared for earthquakes by having an emergency supply stocked at home. His name is Toshiyuki Hashimoto. And he has not forgotten the lessons of the 2011 quake that caused a major tsunami.

    Even though there was no tsunami with this quake, it may have served as a reminder for those in Japan to stock up on essentials such as toilet paper.

  • The Japanese Are Once Again Needlessly Innovating And It’s Awesome

    I love Japanese scientists and inventors. They needlessly innovate in areas that we all thought were done with innovation years ago. The toilet? They made it better. The shower? They made it better. I think I’m starting to see a trend here and today’s innovation continues that trend in bathroom ingenuity.

    Meet the Camitool, a hands-free automatic toilet paper dispenser. After years of automatic paper towel dispensers proliferating across the world’s bathrooms, it seems odd that an automatic toilet paper dispenser took so long. It makes perfect sense too. Why would you want to touch toilet paper in a public place that’s been touched by everybody else’s stank hands? It’s gross.

    The Camitool is currently being used in hospitals across Japan. That’s the obvious first place you would put these little guys at, but it should be popping up at more locations across the country. It might even show up in the U.S. at some point. I highly doubt it though as we still don’t have those fancy Japanese toilets that put our archaic slabs of porcelain to shame.

    Interested buyers can get a plastic or even wooden Camitool for $750 or $1,200 respectively. The price might be why we won’t see these guys popping up in bathrooms across the world. I guess we’ll have to deal with grabbing toilet paper that’s already been handled by who knows what.

    [h/t: Geekosystem]