Practical Inventions : The Frontal Cortex

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Jonah Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired. He's also written for The New Yorker, Seed, Nature, and the New York Times and is a contributor to Radiolab. He's the author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist. His new book is How We Decide.

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Practical Inventions

Posted on: July 1, 2008 1:48 PM, by Jonah Lehrer

An Onion classic:

Is there no morality in science? Last night I tried to have a barbecue on my back patio and I ran inside before the spicy shish-kabobs were even half-grilled because of the mosquitoes. With all that chemical engineering going on today, with all that military technology, I should at least be able to sip a sloe gin and sour without getting run out of my own yard by something smaller than my fingernail!
I hear jabber-jabbering about the discovery of new subatomic particles. What good is a quark to me? Three and a half minutes it takes to cook a bag of microwave popcorn. Three and a half minutes!

Someone is spending a billion dollars a minute to send radio messages into space, and I have to choke down a bag of Pop-Secret kernels that are only half buttered, some not even popped to full puff. God, I pray for a future when the inventor is the friend of mankind.

DNA fingerprinting--that's what they're doing now. And still strawberries at Bergmann's are $2.99 a quart. It's ludicrous. It's as if we live in the Dark Ages.

Speaking of practical inventions, I just used my first dual flush toilet. Now why did that take so long to invent?

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Comments (9)

Dual-flush toilets are extremely common here in Europe. I have one in my flat, there's one at work, and in fact the last time I recall not using one was in a rather old hotel with roman-era plumbing. (Well, no, it didn't really date back to ancient roman times; it only looked like it did...)

Posted by: blf | July 1, 2008 2:26 PM

Really? I lived in England for a few years a few years ago, and never used a dual flush toilet. Of course, that could be because I lived in an ancient flat and whenever I visited the continent stayed in fleabag hotels...But I guess it's also possible that i just never noticed the two buttons because i didn't know what they did...

Posted by: Jonah | July 1, 2008 2:33 PM

Ah-HA! so THAT's what those two buttons were for on all those toilets I saw in Europe! I could never figure it out. (Okay, yes, I suppose I am an ignorant American.)

They should put little notes in the bathrooms explaining them--the way they do with the linens. "Please place linens you want washed on the bathroom floor. Hang up linens you will use again."

Posted by: Dr. Kate | July 1, 2008 4:20 PM

Dual Flush toilets have been around for a while. Caroma, an Australian company is the Manufacturer of a complete range of some of the most aesthetically pleasing and technologically advanced bathroom products in the world. Caroma set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties.
Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. Caroma toilets can save up to 40% (approx. 4600 gallons) compared to today's standard 1.6-gallon single flush toilets. On an average of 4/1 uses a day, Dual Flush toilets Caroma Dual Flush toilets have the lowest water consumption of all � 0.96 Gallons per flush. Proven through performance and acceptance by use in major hotels around the world, our award winning toilets are both user friendly and, with a full 4" trap way, virtually blockage-free!

Here is a link to a video explaining the difference between US toilets and Caroma toilets http://www.caromausa.com/site_assets/www.caromausa.com/images/dynamic/videos/caroma_washdown_siphon_flush_v8.wmv

If you are interested in finding out more, please visit www.caromausa.com or email me at sales@ecotransitions.com. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli, ecoTransitions Inc.,

Posted by: Andrea | July 1, 2008 7:57 PM

Sources claim that most of the plumbing in England seems to date from about Roman times, which may relate to the dearth of dual-flush toilets there.

Posted by: El Christador | July 1, 2008 8:35 PM

Dual flush toilets have been around since I was a kid at least. Next you're going to say you don't use washlets in the US?

Posted by: Janne | July 1, 2008 9:28 PM

japan has a much lower tech solution to do the same thing. pull the flush lever toward you for a full flush. push the lever away for a small flush. there is a cam behind the lever inside the tank that prevents the plunger from being pulled up all the way, so only a little water is allowed to flow.

Posted by: greg | July 1, 2008 10:41 PM

Yes, Japan kicks ass when it comes to toilet technology. I just came back from there and I miss the heated toilet seats already. Seriously, their toilets are covered with buttons. There's the buttons for the flushes, of course, and one that makes a noise like a flush (to cover other noises), and one the sprays water on you, one that sprays perfume on you, etc. Just about does everything but give you a massage.

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