[Travel] Interesting maps

[Seagull on the Hill]

I’m not surprised the Germans are high on the shitometer. How often people shit and the texture, quality and quantity thereof is a national obsession over there. And rightly so.

When I worked in Germany in the 1990's I was surprised to see toilet bowls with a "shelf" just above the waterline on which you deposited your bowel movement for inspection before flushing it away!
Are these still a thing in Deutschland?

 

[Bodian]

When I worked in Germany in the 1990's I was surprised to see toilet bowls with a "shelf" just above the waterline on which you deposited your bowel movement for inspection before flushing it away!
Are these still a thing in Deutschland?

Common in Holland as well. We called it the 'poop shelf'.

 

[Comrade Sam]

When I worked in Germany in the 1990's I was surprised to see toilet bowls with a "shelf" just above the waterline on which you deposited your bowel movement for inspection before flushing it away!
Are these still a thing in Deutschland?

It's nasty, your turd sits there all stinky out of the water. The idea is you can inspect your stool before flushing, but unsubmerged faeces has a remarkable stench.

 

[Seagull on the Hill]

It's nasty, your turd sits there all stinky out of the water. The idea is you can inspect your stool before flushing, but unsubmerged faeces has a remarkable stench.

Yes,I know.
Having worked on building sites for 50 years I am used to stinky toilets, but I didn't expect to find that experience in pubs and hotels!

 

[Giraffe]

Watching Yellowstone and prequels and therefore was researching Native American reservations. Had no idea there were so many reservations left.

 

[Shuggie]

Watching Yellowstone and prequels and therefore was researching Native American reservations. Had no idea there were so many reservations left.

View attachment 204504

I’d recommend Dee Brown’s tragic record of the treatment of Native Americans in the second half of the 19th century ‘Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.

Why are there virtually no reservations in eastern US? See “The Indian Removal Act” (1830) for forced relocation and ‘The Trail of Tears”. Basically, ethic cleansing to poorer lands.

What about Texas? It didn’t become a state until 1845 and had adopted a more ‘robust’ (incredibly violent) strategy, viewing all Native Americans as hostile. The bloodiest Indian wars happened there.

The map probably shows the inverse of the original population distribution. It is a chilling story: early settlement and disease; later settlement and absorption/displacement; ethic cleansing in the East including forced relocation; betrayal and abuse driven by westward expansion.

 

[Skuller]

When I worked in Germany in the 1990's I was surprised to see toilet bowls with a "shelf" just above the waterline on which you deposited your bowel movement for inspection before flushing it away!
Are these still a thing in Deutschland?

I don’t want to get serious (squeamish people might want to look away) but I remember using such a toilet in Germany in 2017. What I observed in all its glory (without the camouflage of water) finally persuaded me to take professional advice. This was followed by a year of operations, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, ileostomy bags and every degradation the wonderful NHS could inflict on me. I’m still breathing eight years later, but not sure if I would be without that toilet.

If you see blood in your poo, go to the doctor.
If you’re sent a bowel cancer testing kit, use it.