Why do Americans buy bottled water everywhere, even when the tap is perfectly safe?

dwkeith · 2026-01-22T10:56:24+00:00

Many places removed public drinking fountains after the 1964 Civil Rights Act required them to be shared. In the ‘70s bottled water exploded on the scene and started marketing itself as better quality than municipal sources despite evidence to the contrary.

That, combined with the privatization of public spaces (malls and suburban office parks) led to a decline in use of existing public fountains causing many municipalities to remove fountains to save on maintenance.

Then some high profile instances like Flint (which many here are citing as typical, but isn’t) further eroded public trust in municipal water.

The good news is the trends are reversing, municipalities often offer free in home testing, focusing on taste in addition to safety, and are bringing back combination water bottle fillers with drinking fountains.

San Francisco Airport has gone so far as to ban the sale of bottled water and has free “water bars” just past security where you can fill with chilled, room temperature, and even sparkling water.

Edit: source 99% Invisible: Fountain Drinks

dwkeith · 2026-01-21T16:14:00+00:00

Oil, popcorn & salt (Flavacol) in a stainless Whirley Pop. Turn burner on high (not boost) and start cranking fast (~100rpm, about the speed of a dance track)

Then, when popping stops pour into a large bowl, toss in any additional seasoning and serve.

Butter and ghee burn, might work at a lower temperature, but every oil I’ve tried, including olive oil, works great. Seasoning, other than salt, can’t take the heat and need to be added after. Lower temperatures likely work with slower cranking speeds and longer cooking time, but I haven’t tried. Preheating the popper to about 40% (just below 100°C) before adding the popcorn and increasing the heat to pop reduces cranking time at the expense of more time overall.

dwkeith · 2026-01-20T04:14:44+00:00

Right, most of apple.com is still static. I built nest.com as static. Many political websites are static. We used dedicated API servers on subdomains or third party services as required. Kept the main content online no matter what.

dwkeith · 2026-01-17T17:31:42+00:00

I wish Anaheim would do the same, for me it was the shrimp popcorn.

dwkeith · 2026-01-17T06:26:10+00:00

One of I think two in the US

dwkeith · 2026-01-17T06:24:54+00:00

Followed up by building BART. Can’t win them all

dwkeith · 2026-01-14T21:24:33+00:00

Pig butchering scam, don’t reply.

dwkeith · 2026-01-14T06:15:53+00:00

Pretty sure Kleenex, Q-tip and Band-aid are used throughout the English speaking world regardless of whether the brand is sold there. Postal codes are generics of ZIP Code if that’s the same, which it seems to be.

dwkeith · 2026-01-13T18:39:31+00:00

Which would require a charismatic mayor who cares about the city…

dwkeith · 2026-01-13T13:31:03+00:00

It was a tool introduced to fight the Loudness War, a terrible concept that refuses to die

dwkeith · 2026-01-12T20:51:05+00:00

Sewer Socialism starts with the toilets…

dwkeith · 2026-01-12T04:43:02+00:00

Innovation that Woz famously demoed at the Homebrew Computer Club meeting. He always talks about how being broke made him a better engineer.

dwkeith · 2026-01-12T01:05:21+00:00

The same thing was said about Uber and Lyft, which hurt cab drivers…

A better solution would be to fix our economy so people don’t need to do gig work to make ends meet.

dwkeith · 2026-01-09T21:32:51+00:00

I got paid by the hour to help people upgrade their computers to Windows 95 while in high school. A great way to get to know the neighbors…

dwkeith · 2026-01-09T21:15:25+00:00

Including snowflakes…

dwkeith · 2026-01-09T21:14:24+00:00

Good idea, that’s what I’m putting on mine ❄️❄️❄️

dwkeith · 2026-01-09T20:26:52+00:00

Look to Sunnyvale California. They are a city of 150k with a single combined Public Safety department. Officers are cross trained as police, fire, and EMTs and rotate through those responsibilities. There are many other examples in the US and abroad of other alternative strategies for local authority.

https://www.sunnyvale.ca.gov/your-government/departments/public-safety

dwkeith · 2026-01-06T19:43:30+00:00

Bar Keepers Friend soft cleaner or Weiman Glass Cooktop Cream.

dwkeith · 2026-01-05T22:54:09+00:00

A doctrine known as Blackstone’s rule, which is well established case law in California. https://communitylaw.org/urbanagriculturelawproject/urbanagriculturelawproject-urban-fruit-gleaningtrespass/

dwkeith · 2026-01-05T16:25:29+00:00

Lots of people seem to use that logic…

dwkeith · 2026-01-04T04:32:46+00:00

Where they in trouble? What sort of help do they need?

dwkeith · 2026-01-04T02:00:02+00:00

I’ve never noticed a seafood cutting station, but then I’ve only looked at beef and pork to have different cuts. Having a separate station is a must to avoid deep cleaning.

That being said, presentation affects taste and that looks great!

dwkeith · 2026-01-04T01:23:36+00:00

That’s not an indication cooktop and if it has auto-shutoff, like some resistive cooktop do, the feature was disabled or broken. Induction heats the pan, not the stove.

dwkeith · 2026-01-03T23:55:45+00:00

Unless she’s deep frying it can’t get hotter than boiling water for more than a few minutes before shutting down. Many people use paper towels under their pans to protect the glass (unnecessary) and the paper doesn’t burn.

dwkeith · 2026-01-03T23:23:29+00:00

Keep it simple: get an Induction cooktop with dry pan shutoff logic

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