Personal Dork Assistant

Sanitation Engineering

Cool Tools usually features obscure but sensible and useful stuff, but sometimes they let loose something strange, just to keep the readers on their toes, I guess. This was not something I needed to see as I browsed the article summary.

The Keeper / Diva Cup

Reusable menstrual capture

Um, eewwwww?

Now, a new-and-improved toilet is something a guy can really appreciate.

Ashish Kulkarni has a doctorate in chemical engineering. He used to develop plastics for General Electric. Now he's in the bowels of a research facility in central New Jersey, dropping golf balls into a toilet.

Why am I not surprised that a toilet company is located in central-NJ? It's silly for them to be profiling an American company anyway. Just like cars, Japan is where the innovation is at in personal sanitation equipment. Namely Toto, Japan's #1 toilet maker. Without their help, the Americans wouldn't have even been able to test their new toilet designs.

Then, during a visit to the Japanese toilet maker Toto, Gauley observed researchers flushing cylinders of brown goop. It was miso, the fermented soy protein used in soup. In performance and appearance, the resemblance to the real deal was almost disturbing in its completeness. But alas, the Toto guys wouldn't divulge the proprietary recipe.

It's a shit-simulator, and it makes a tasty soup base! Anyway, it'll be a while before the American companies catch up with Toto innovations. I'm a little disappointed that our designer decided to not go with Toto for our Taipei apartment. A Kohler just isn't the same.