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In Germany nobody drinks tap water. Just the notion makes as much cultural sense to them as drinking water from the toilet cistern does to you. It is just not t

In Germany nobody drinks tap water. Just the notion makes as much cultural sense to them as drinking water from the toilet cistern does to you. It is just not the done thing. Have you tried their beer? And why are you asking for water in the first place? They always serve beer with extra consideration and thought put into the bierdeckel. You just don't get bierdeckel everywhere, this is quite a German thing, a matter of pride, customer service and a job well done. However, walk into an American bar and ask for a bierdeckel and you will get a blank stare. Even though bierdeckel are 100% safe, American waiting staff just don't want to do the kindness. To them any insistence on a free bierdeckel is just weird. As for air-con in Europe. This is the last thing we need. There was a time before air conditioning when it was possible to heat and cool buildings. The trick to it was not difficult, you just needed a stone or other robust building that takes a while to heat up during the day. A breeze running through the building due to having attic windows open and the front door open did a better job than any 110v fan. This was convection, just normal heat rising, with no external breeze needed. This also worked well during winter albeit without the windows open for the cooling breeze. The physical mass of the building would keep it warm inside even if there were no fires in the hearths overnight. America is different in that buildings are made from a few bits of wood and some PVC decorative covers. The specific heat capacity isn't right for natural cooling and, with the more southern latitude, the only way to survive is with air-con. This applies to the clammier parts of the American South as well as the dryer desert areas. Living there needs air-con. This is probably why people didn't live there in such vast numbers in the days before air-con. But air-con is like a disease. People get used to it very easily and have to spend the rest of their lives with it. People are also vastly more spherical than they used to be and their lives are sedentary. As a consequence they can't regulate their own body heat. Their only option is to not enjoy the seasons and splendid weather, to be boxed in behind their noisy air-con machines with the windows closed and none of that natural temperature management that used to go on in former times. As soon as the fatties that need air-con completely take over then that is game over for buildings that have served us well over the centuries with well considered solutions for natural temperature control.

jonwinstanley 7y ago
Countries are getting hotter. Most of the hottest years ever have been since 2000. So countries, buildings, laws and customs need to change quickly.
skore 7y ago
> In Germany nobody drinks tap water. German here - drink pretty much exclusively tap water. Ordering tap water in a restaurant definitely IS frowned upon (the restaurant has to choose putting it on its menu and/or accommodate your request) , but I have yet to meet another German who would take offense at drinking Kraneberger. I guess there may be regional differences, but it's very clearly not universal. > There was a time before air conditioning when it was possible to heat and cool buildings. There are a lot of old buildings with thick walls as well as special building styles (like the Fachwerk that we apparently have a lot of, compared to other countries) that deal very well with heat and, I must admit, have a much superior air quality and just overall feeling of climate than any air conditioned building I have experienced so far. Perhaps those are adjusted to a very particular temperature profile, though, and if the climate changes, AC might start to make more sense. I don't think we have very good experience with installing AC, though. Just an anecdote, but at my $JOB, we're housed in a very "modern" building with light materials, large windows from floor to ceiling, exposure to sunlight from dawn till dusk and a hilariously impotent AC (supposedly fed by an innovative ice storage something or other). The people in charge do a marvelous job of pretending, for years now, that it's a complete mystery why the ac keeps failing to move the needle - at the record heat of 39°C outside, the temperature inside climbs well beyond 32°C. But I guess that makes sense if you were responsible for making as basic a mistake as "building the walls too thin". > As soon as the fatties that need air-con completely take over then that is game over Aber sag uns doch endlich mal was du wirklich von den Amerikanern hältst, Klaus-Dieter.
- Theodores 7y ago
  Your skills with the German language are exemplary. We really have lost it with this air conditioning. It should be evident that the feedback loop has gone wrong when, after centuries of buildings serving us well, we can't enter them without the aircon, lighting and everything else turned on, with all doors and windows shut. It is like summer comes along and we have excuses for wasting as much electricity as possible, then winter comes along and we do it again. There is no let up to it and people aren't necessarily directly paying for air-con and other demands. They are also not aware that they are heating up their environment considerably with this over the top lifestyle. Modern offices are absurd alien places. The water can't come out the tap, it has to be brought by a man in a van. You can't wash and re-use a cup, cups and eating utensils have to be single-use disposable. Need an expensive fizzy drink? Have as many sugar rushes a day as you want, there is a vast refrigerator full of the junk, humming away, not too far away, all of it for free. The noise of ad-hoc air-con solutions and the moaning people make about air-conditioning is a phenomenon deserved of study. A lot of people really do have this overly corn-fed obesity problem that can't be spoken of because to do so would be 'able-ist' and possibly a sackable offence. However, if you had to provide A/C for a group of fit people or for a group of fatties, which do you think would have the lower electricity bill? Also, why should those that can stay off the snacks have to endure these fattie-friendly alien workplaces?

jonwinstanley 7y ago

Countries are getting hotter. Most of the hottest years ever have been since 2000. So countries, buildings, laws and customs need to change quickly.

skore 7y ago

> In Germany nobody drinks tap water. German here - drink pretty much exclusively tap water. Ordering tap water in a restaurant definitely IS frowned upon (the restaurant has to choose putting it on its menu and/or accommodate your request) , but I have yet to meet another German who would take offense at drinking Kraneberger. I guess there may be regional differences, but it's very clearly not universal. > There was a time before air conditioning when it was possible to heat and cool buildings. There are a lot of old buildings with thick walls as well as special building styles (like the Fachwerk that we apparently have a lot of, compared to other countries) that deal very well with heat and, I must admit, have a much superior air quality and just overall feeling of climate than any air conditioned building I have experienced so far. Perhaps those are adjusted to a very particular temperature profile, though, and if the climate changes, AC might start to make more sense. I don't think we have very good experience with installing AC, though. Just an anecdote, but at my $JOB, we're housed in a very "modern" building with light materials, large windows from floor to ceiling, exposure to sunlight from dawn till dusk and a hilariously impotent AC (supposedly fed by an innovative ice storage something or other). The people in charge do a marvelous job of pretending, for years now, that it's a complete mystery why the ac keeps failing to move the needle - at the record heat of 39°C outside, the temperature inside climbs well beyond 32°C. But I guess that makes sense if you were responsible for making as basic a mistake as "building the walls too thin". > As soon as the fatties that need air-con completely take over then that is game over Aber sag uns doch endlich mal was du wirklich von den Amerikanern hältst, Klaus-Dieter.

Theodores 7y ago
Your skills with the German language are exemplary. We really have lost it with this air conditioning. It should be evident that the feedback loop has gone wrong when, after centuries of buildings serving us well, we can't enter them without the aircon, lighting and everything else turned on, with all doors and windows shut. It is like summer comes along and we have excuses for wasting as much electricity as possible, then winter comes along and we do it again. There is no let up to it and people aren't necessarily directly paying for air-con and other demands. They are also not aware that they are heating up their environment considerably with this over the top lifestyle. Modern offices are absurd alien places. The water can't come out the tap, it has to be brought by a man in a van. You can't wash and re-use a cup, cups and eating utensils have to be single-use disposable. Need an expensive fizzy drink? Have as many sugar rushes a day as you want, there is a vast refrigerator full of the junk, humming away, not too far away, all of it for free. The noise of ad-hoc air-con solutions and the moaning people make about air-conditioning is a phenomenon deserved of study. A lot of people really do have this overly corn-fed obesity problem that can't be spoken of because to do so would be 'able-ist' and possibly a sackable offence. However, if you had to provide A/C for a group of fit people or for a group of fatties, which do you think would have the lower electricity bill? Also, why should those that can stay off the snacks have to endure these fattie-friendly alien workplaces?