• rowinxavier@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    They have a device which progressively shines a light on a piece of paper while moving across the page and converts the brightness of the reflected light into an audio signal. Once it reaches the edge the paper is incremented and the process repeats. Each of these segments of sound are sent via a standard telephone connection to a similar device on the other end which uses the sounds to reproduce the image on the original paper on a new sheet of paper. This can be used to send forms, letters, black and white pictures, and even chain letters. It also forms the basic underpinning of a significant fraction of formal communications with landlords, employers, medical systems, government offices, and so on.

  • odium@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    On the flipside, something most developed countries consider normal but would blow Japanese minds is the ability to do all “paperwork” on your phone or laptop without any paper ever being printed anywhere. Japan is somehow still a country of fax.

    • Bappity@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      don’t tell America. pretend it’s multiple automobiles welded together and they’ll like it

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    sorry this is gross:

    i do not understand american’s aversion to the bidet. why would i want to wipe my ass with dry fucking paper rather than water? why why why. like it’s somehow ‘gross’ to use water. but scraping at wet shit with fucking tissue paper is hygienic and normal?

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Pretty much every thread we have in this community, someone comes along to say “you should pressure-wash your asshole”. I’m mildly bemused that this is what Lemmy obsesses over.

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’ve always heard it explained like this (which I wholeheartedly agree with). Imagine you’re hiking a trail in the forest, and you trip on a rock and fall. By chance, you land on turd of excrement, luckily it only smears part of your arm and elbow with shit. Would you be fine just taking a piece of toilet paper and scraping it off? Or, would you feel compelled to wash it off with water, perhaps also soap?

        Why wouldn’t you just use paper, if you scrape hard enough it wouldn’t even smell and be just as clean, arguably?

        If you would at least use water, why do you extend to your elbow a courtesy that you don’t extend to your anus?

        The point is that there’s a lot of people who walk through life with a dirty asshole, but then try to act morally superior regarding personal hygiene, and I think that that’s not right.