Love those japanese!!!

Good god, I want one!!

Now that is just so awesome!!!!

Slightly off subject, but between this awesome invention AND something I saw on the telly this evening, I'm pondering the imponderables. (Holy crap, that's a real word?!) The point made on tv was that the water flushing from a toilet in Australia goes the opposite direction of ours in North America. To get into the science of it all, it's a northern hemisphere vs southern hemisphere thing. Go south of the equator the water spins the other way...plain and simple.

SO...first ponderable: (sure, THAT's not a real word...) if someone placed a working toilet directly drop-dead-center on the equatorial line, would the water then not spin at all?!

Next...cuz this came to me as I was trying to mentally analyze the concept...IF the water doesn't spin at the equator, would that mean that the closer a toilet gets to that imaginary line, the speed of the spin slows? I mean, would toilet water halfway between the north pole and the equator spin twice as fast as the toilet water directly at the equator?

Do we know anyone at or near the equator we could ask? Maybe get a little webcam thing going like? Like flush here and squeeze a few drops of food coloring to visualize the speed...then get our anonymous contact at the equator to do the same...maybe another body in florida?

Two awesome articles coming to us from the Japanese isles...
And just so we're clear, I want one of each

http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1256373

http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1257515

Just read your July posting about the equator. The water rotates vertically, either clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on how it is faced; clockwise if the toilet bowl is running parallel to the equator, counter if perpendicular. This is truly a sight to behold, watching the water rushing up from the bowl, and looping back down inside, the turds moving as surf boards.

Love both these articles! Amazing how similar the first one is (the ball), and the second is just... wow. The US Army's been developing an exoskeleton for how many millions and millions of dollars, and yet here we have an artist who made one from scratch with only a cost of 1.3 million?

Did you read the comments section? "I'd hate to be an enemy of Japan 5 years from now."

I love the fact that the ball only costs $5000US and seats 4! Of course, I didn't see many details about foodstuffs or other survival goodies. May have to buy two balls.

I started skimming the comments after both articles. Did not see the one you mentioned, but I did enjoy all of the people agreeing with us that a silly simple artist throws together a damn nice ride, and it does look pretty damn cool. So it only shoots soda bottles? Well, soda bottles can hold LOTS of different stuff, and if velocity is high enough, those LOTS of different stuff would be just fine for home defense... you know, balls of mercury, depleted uranium, straight up gunpowder, flesh eating insects... HA! Or just share a molotov cocktail with your frenemies!

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I never could understand the reasoning for having a happy time fun song on all the anime. Sure, some / most are geared for kids, but the song rarely ever matches the theme of the show.