[OT] Interesting trip

[David Bandel]

On 3/15/07, Chong Yu Meng <chongym at cymulacrum.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-03-15 at 08:01 +0100, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
> > On Thu, 2007-03-15 at 10:29 +0800, Chong Yu Meng wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2007-03-14 at 12:49 -0700, Bill Campbell wrote:
> > > >  Their first attempts failed because the
> > > > automatic safety features shut things down so they disabled five safety
> > > > systems in order to make the tests.
> > >
> > > There's a lesson in there somewhere! My first job was in a factory -- a
> > > wafer fabrication plant to be precise -- and we had all kinds of safety
> >
> > You fabricated water?
>
> LOL! That's WAFER, not water. It's a silicon disc that has DRAMs
> literally made on it. Though strangely enough, "fabricated water" would
> make sense in Singapore now. There is a new initiative here, where they
> are building water recycling plants that recycle -- among other things
> -- human waste fluids into drinkable water! It's called NEWater
> (http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater_files/index.html)! Something else for the
> Yanks to laugh at us about -- until they come here and have to drink
> it! :)
>
> Bottom's up!
>

Actually, the waste treatment plants in the US (at least the newer
ones), put cleaner water back into the rivers than reach the taps
(after the water taken from the rivers has been treated).  The only
reason the US doesn't do the recycled water bit is the reaction most
folks have to the thought of it -- along the lines of what you allude
to above (the "yuck" factor).

But any long term space station will also be doing it.  Nothing must
be wasted (where would you dump it anyway?).  So folks will have to
get used to it sooner or later.

I just hope these plants run on Linux/UNIX and not Winders.

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
            - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto