Word: waterous
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Toilet Day - an event hosted by the World Toilet Organization to raise awareness for the 2.5 billion people around the world who live without proper sanitation. But even for those of us with access to modern plumbing, how often do we really think about our toilets? From outhouses to water closets - even former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain's $35,000 "commode on legs" (technically a table, not a toilet) - humans have been devising creative ways to go to the bathroom since, well, the first person crossed his legs with an urgent need to go. (See the top 10 environmental...
Bathroom technology really took off in the 20th century. Flushable valves, water tanks that rest on top of the bowl rather than above, toilet-paper rolls (invented in 1890 but not heavily marketed until 1902) - these minor improvements seem like necessities now. And if you think the toilet hasn't changed recently, think again: in 1994 Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, requiring common flush toilets to use only 1.6 gallons of water, less than half of what they consumed before. The "low flow" law left a lot of consumers dissatisfied (and a lot of toilets clogged) until companies developed...
...mainland dating back to 3,000 B.C., features stone huts equipped with drains extending from recesses in their walls - a feature that historians believe were for residents' bathroom needs. The Palace of Knossos on Crete, built around 1,700 B.C., features definite latrines: large, earthenware pans connected to a water supply that ran through terra-cotta pipes. Europeans had nothing of comparable sophistication until well into the 16th century...
...England lept into modern sanitation when Sir John Harrington, godson of Elizabeth I, published Metamorphosis of Ajax, in which he described a new kind of water closet: a raised cistern with a small pipe down which water ran when released by a valve. The Queen installed Harrington's invention in her palace at Richmond, but it took another 200 years before a man named Alexander Cummings developed the S-shaped pipe underneath the basin to keep out foul odors. At the end of the 18th century, the flushable toilet went mainstream...
...civil war ended 17 years ago, but Marquez is again leading groups through these forested hills with guerrilla warfare on her mind. Only now, those following her are Salvadoran students and American and European leftists stepping gingerly in their Reeboks and khaki shorts, and stopping frequently to drink bottled water. Welcome to El Salvador's new guerrilla-tourism industry. (See pictures of Colombia's guerrilla army...