What's some amazing technology they have in Japan that's very normal to them but would blow our minds here in the US and western world?

egitalian@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 220 points –
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There was an article published last year, maybe the year before, where they tested the touch screen kiosks in McDonald's. Every single one of them has traces of faeces on it.

Even if that wasn't true, it takes me significantly less time to tell someone my order than to scroll through however many sub menus the restaurant has decided to put their food into, and then select the options for each item and add it to my basket, then check out.

Everything has traces of faeces on it, this fixation on it seems irrational when you put it into context. The burger meat comes from a dead animal that spent it's life wandering in a field and trampling it's own shit. The fries come from the root of a plant grown in the dirt. The bun is made from wheat which was probably infested with mice. You yourself are a biological machine that turns food into energy and discards the waste. Your body has a tube filled with faeces right now.

Yes, we try to keep waste separate from food, but the world is not a clean-room.

You also have a skeleton inside you. The body is a terrifying place.

All of those things are cleaned before being consumed. The touch screen menus are one of the last things you touch before touching and eating your food.

The world may not be a clean room, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to deliberately interact with someone else's faeces, especially when I'm about to eat.

Doesn't matter. There's feces everywhere. When you smell a bad bathroom, a fart, your own poop it is because it is in the air all around you. You're nose is actually detecting the particles of shit in your nostrils. It is on your clothes, on your skin, on your face, on your hands.

The test used to detect trace amount of feces would likely find feces on door knobs, stove dials, clothes or anything else often touched in your house right now.

Please be one of those people that washes their hands instead of this functioning as some broad, sweeping excuse because "it's already everywhere." I don't know how else fecal matter would be expected to travel to a stove dial.

I wash my hands all the time. I'm not voluntarily gross. The tests will find trace amounts but if you don't wash your hands after going to the bathroom, you are a gross person passing on loads of bacteria that is exponentially more than the testing will find.

I appreciate the distinction though. There are definitely people that live like that. There used to be a guy at a place I used to work who used to dig in those big trail mix jars people put out sometimes instead of dumping them into something or even dumping them into their hands. Once I was in the bathroom (washing my hands) and saw him leave the stall and just walk straight out. Now I can't see those without thinking about that. I'll never touch those things again.

I didn't even consider that, America is just filled with 'people' who barely even qualify as such. it's no wonder we can't have nice things.

That's because there's feces on every person all over them. Your nose works because it detects chemicals of something. If you smell feces it is because it is inside of your nose. Feces is in the air. Smell a fart? It's now on you. Bathroom smells like shit? It is in the air around you and on you.

Just about 20 years ago when all those soda fountain dispensers tested always had feces detected on them, it wasn't because some bandit was going around the world smearing shit on them every day, it is because it is always every where.

According to the BBC article that talks about the McDonalds touch screen, they say the same thing.

As someone that has to work in very close proximity to feces, smelling it is a good sign. Not smelling it is the alarm bell.

Having to crawl through multiple menus to order is not that big of a deal for restaurants. They don't value your time, they value their staff time (because they have to pay for it). There is probably very little ongoing cost to double the number of order kiosks while every additional human taking orders needs to be paid minimum wage. The restaurant owner watches with hate as their money slowly melts away while you decide if you want pickles, fried onions, and jalapenos on your burger.

That's a good point. I could be in the restaurant for an hour trying to order, and as long as there are other kiosks available, it wouldn't make a difference to them.

This is not a good point. This is just a company making us their unpaid employees.

Yes, that's the point that TAG made. It's something that I hadn't considered, and it's a good point.

The fact that it's something shitty that businesses do doesn't affect the fact that TAG made a good point.