Potty Talk

Remember a few years ago (well, actually it was 1992, and I was in high school) when Congress mandated low-flow toilets, because the old high-consumption toilets used over 3 gallons of water. It seemed like an environmentally-friendly law that would make everyone happy, but instead, noone had realized that the toilets didn't work, because manufacturers didn't have time to perfect the product before the law came into effect. There was even a fine for smuggling toilets from Canada!

Since then, the technology has advanced, and I saw a cool example in Austin this week (and yes, I was the weirdo who took pictures in a public bathroom stall.)

This is a dual-flush toilet -- apparently they have been available in Australia for some time, but I've never seen them before. It came with directions for use:

I especially like the use of the colloquialisms #1 and #2, with the definition in parentheses for the more refined among us.

This seems like such a simple (one might even say ... elegant) that I can't believe we don't see more of it. Good job, AT & T Conference Center for bringing this little technological marvel to Tejas. They also had recycling bins next to their garbage cans, which made me sad that I didn't have anything to recycle.