“When Nebia woos investors, it invites them to take a shower,” Brian X. Chen reports for The New York Times. “The strangely intimate sales pitch has proven effective. The six-person start-up in San Francisco, which has developed a water-conserving shower head, already has received funding from some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. Its first investors, most of whom have showered with the product, include Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple. In addition, Nebia has received funding from Michael Birch, a founder of the members-only club the Battery, and from the Schmidt Family Foundation, which was co-founded by Eric Schmidt, chairman of [Alphabet Inc., formerly Google].”
“Nebia said its shower head, which looks like a circular street lamp hanging from the base of an aluminum iMac, reduced water consumption by as much as 70 percent,” Chen reports. “The product uses nozzles to break water up into tiny droplets, which increases the surface area of where the spray can go. While the average shower takes 20 gallons of water, Nebia said its product used six gallons.”
“Apple declined to comment, except to say Mr. Cook’s stake in the start-up was a personal investment. Nebia declined to say how much money it had raised,” Chen reports. “Since October, Nebia has tested prototypes of the shower head inside locker rooms in some Equinox gyms and on the campuses of Apple, Google and Stanford University.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like a recipe for a clogfest from calcium and other mineral deposits found in many water sources.
We can see why the environmentalist Cook would invest and install these on the Apple campus (California is in the midst of a crippling drought), but it’s funny that Eric T. Mole has invested in a shower head when no matter how many showers he takes, he’ll never be clean.
Room for both of them in THAT shower. Get it get it woot! woot!
Have you ever seen this anywhere? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Which for some, might include the pursuit of ‘appeeness.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
On toilet paper, before the skid marks. Was written by some hypocritical slave owners I vaguely recall.
The fact it was written at all indicates progressive and enlightened thinking. Bashing the current pope for not fixing all the church’s problems is equally idiotic. They can’t possibly fix every failure in the system at once, especially those rooted deep in society and affecting those with power.
Enlightened thinking has been around for a while, some of it preceding not only the written word but human kind itself. In the long standing tradition of many North American tribes, “speaking with a forked tongue” has meant lying, and a person was no longer considered worthy of trust,
The fact it was brought forward also indicates progressive and enlightened thinking.
Either way, enlightened thinking needs to be coupled by enlightened action, without it, you end up with the current situation of skid marks on a great toilet paper print.
Now the left field with about pope and religion, well I never made a mention about that and it seems to be well just smoke and mirrors.
Bringing in the pope was to bolster the idea that whether it was done 200+ years ago or it’s going on now, it’s idiotic to criticize progressive thinkers and doers for “not doing enough” when the culture they’re working under has many powerful people with entrenched views.
Were the founders hypocrites for writing about freedom yet owning slaves? By today’s standards, yes. But recall that women, never mind African Americans, were not recognized as legal autonomous persons until many decades after the USA was created. And like the 2nd Amendment, the original meaning of the written words has been expanded or reinterpreted as time passed.
You want coupling words with enlightened action? How about the whole American Revolution against British rule? That’s about as dramatic an action as you can get to back up a Declaration of Independence.
Ah thanks mossman for bringing into perspective the idiocy of criticizing progressive thinkers and doers for “not doing enough” when the culture they’re working under has many powerful people with entrenched views.
Even with that perspective it is not idiotic to positively criticize humane shortcomings. Criticism was certainly involved in the recognition that slaves are to be recognized as legal autonomous persons, that women are to be recognized as legal autonomous persons. Discussion, dialogue, sometimes protests and even a war were involved in this recognition.
I appreciate your idea of coupling words with enlightened action. The example you give of course is a classical one, and yes in perspective it was a great leap forward to recognize the rights of “some people” but today, it still falls short, failing to recognize the rights of “some folks” and allowing this once great nation to practice barbaric acts that is a black mark on all of humanity.
Since 1949 prisoners of wars have been protected during armed conflicts by the enlightened idea of the Geneva convention. Recently the united states circumvented this enlightened idea by creating a concept of “enemy combatants” thus giving carte blanche for horrific acts of torture at special american resorts such as Guatanamo Bay.
The presidential comments of “We tortured some folks.” acknowledges that, and it was followed up by a “look forward, not back.” approach. That’s a very unenlightened approach as it basically lets those responsible for such torture totally off the hook. No charges for crimes against humanity, no criminal charges of any kind. It might be in your view idiotic to criticize such action and as a positive alternative bring forth the idea of “shut those bases down, let those people go or at least give them a fair trial, and bring those responsible to justice.” Forget that they are not protected under a seemingly precious constitution, they are human beings and when a nation treats human beings in such a manner they are acting in a very unenlightened fashion, regardless of what lovely words they might put forth.
Be it today or 200 years ago there were people who believed that people should be treated with a certain decorum, be it white, black, woman or whatever. The united states, by its actions did not get it just right back then, and they certainly don’t get it right now.
So my original statement stands, the declaration may read “We the People” for it’s ideas but for its practice it’s still “Weeeee the poophole.” The walk did not follow the talk then, it doesn’t follow the talk now. People of good conscience will criticize this, protest, go to war, spill blood until this is set right.
It is not idiocy to aim for such goals, it’s humanity moving forward. Being enlightened both in thought and in action, with respect for fellow human beings, even if that respect as in the case of less enlightened nations such as the united states is not mutual.
Hey Mr Warrior, we’ve gots LOTS of enlightened thinkers here in Australia. You should come over here for a visit! 🙂
I have had that privilege sir, thank you very much and I agree with you.
There is a common belief often explained using the expression “hey, it’s my way or the highway.” a corollary of “you are either for us or against us.” yet it wasn’t until I actually lived on the island that there are those that have actually eliminated the high way.
Now that’s purity of thought.
You’ve offered the visit, and I shall do the same, please, get off the island, go visit somewhere, and I’m not talking about a weekend jaunt to Bali. If you’ve done so already well encourage others to do so. Those Australians who have traveled abroad, do have flair.
Constructive criticism about historical shortcomings through a modern lens is fine. Criticizing the backwards slide in treatment of humans and the tearing up of the Constitution by the last two administrations is fine. Aiming for something better than what we have today is fine.
However, your original comment was a very succinct, unconditional condemnation of the people who wrote those lines, devoid of any context, and no recognition that despite being products of their time, they had some very progressive and enlightened ideals that were backed by the strongest actions possible. They were revolutionaries, not angels and certainly not saints.
I tend to agree with your point “Constructive criticism about historical shortcomings through a modern lens is fine.” though I am pretty sure that there some dialogue about it at the time. Perhaps one of the slaves who signed the constitution would comment, oh wait, no slaves signed the constitution.
Gee, let’s see there was an original comment from churbles was a bit of fun humor in my opinion. Silverhawk’s original comment was a typical “let’s make this topic about america”. Tell me mossman, do you see any Australians, British, Canadians, New Zealanders posting quotes from their constitution at this site? No, but you see americans do it all the time, shove the issue aside and make it about something americas. There is some context for you.
Yes, there were some progressive and enlightened ideas of the time expressed in the constitution. The talk did not follow the walk then and it certainly doesn’t now, yet you continue to quote it as if it was the words of some deity. Oh and I didn’t condemn anyone, I just pointed out the hypocrisy of the document and expressed an opinion. Besides those who wrote it are dead, so it would be useless to imprison them. I certainly would not torture them, as I am from the free and civilized world. We aren’t angels nor saints but we are bright enough to realize that slavery and torture are not enlightened expressions.
Thanks for the exchange, the responses are getting kind of narrow. Enjoy your day.
No women signed the Declaration or the Constitution either. Nor poor people.
I’m also not American, and am very critical of many of their current policies. That doesn’t keep me from recognizing that those documents were significant, positive works in world history, similar to the magna carta (which isn’t without its own shady problems) and Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses which helped spark the Protestant split from the Catholic church.
Yay for man-on-man anal sex!! Pretty sure that’s exactly what the Dec of Indep writers had in mind lulz
Again with the anus preoccupation.
Again with ignoring that huge numbers of gay men don’t engage in anal sex and huge number of heterosexual men do.
So… how long does it take for the hot water to reach the shower head with the reduced water flow? Seems to me that their claim of 70% water savings goes “down the drain” while waiting for the water to get hot enough to use the shower. Only solution for this is a point of use hot water heater. An additional expense.
That’s not the only solution. A hot water re-circulation pump can be installed for less than $200 and uses less energy than a small light bulb and can be put on a timer as well. A small additional expense, but long term ROI is good.
If you install a pump operated recirculation system, it takes hardly any time for the hot water to reach the shower head. Much cheaper than a point of use heater.
Who knew Moles take showers?.
MDN: Good one.
Yes; it is not obvious how designers suppose to solve this.
They can just position this shower head as only fit for low-mineral water use. This would dramatically limit their market, but where it fits it might indeed save a lot of clean water.
Good idea. At $399, the price is on the top end. But here in CA it would be a good way to reduce water usage.
And good on them for having a go at making low-water shower heads pleasant. Are people in CA taking buckets into the shower to fill and flush toilets with yet?
This Nebia technology doesn’t go far enough. Water is not necessary. Cleansing chemicals are not necessary, either.
Soon to be announced: Skinba — Roomba for the Skin
As seen in Horrible Bosses 2?
Well, maybe the Mole takes shower only through the clogged Nebia shower head. Think different! Ha! 😉
“water-conserving shower head”
I’m out. Those fucking things take forever to get me rinsed off.
-jcr