4 ms·

Window screens and indoor plumbing are the 2 greatest improvements for our daily lives.

• allhacks 7y ago
  Since OP didn’t provide reasons, I will. Window screens: malaria prevention. Indoor plumbing: make sanitation so convenient that you don’t have any reasons not to use it (vs throwing the old night bucket outta the window). Obviously city scale sanitation == no dysentery, cholera...etc.
  • nickserv 7y ago
    Sanitation systems are really old, though. I was impressed with the sophistication of the one present in Glanum, a small (but wealthy) Roman provincial town abandoned in the 2nd century. The sewer system runs underneath the main street: baths, villas, and the abatoir connect to it. To say nothing of the ones in major cities of the time.
• phamilton 7y ago
  Except window screens still aren't common in Europe.
  • indentit 7y ago
    That doesn't mesh with my experience. When I moved from the UK - where windows open outwards and its not really possible to have screens - to the countryside in mainland Europe where mosquitoes and flies are much more common, one can buy mosquito nets for windows from the supermarkets. I don't regret that purchasing decision at all - being able to have the window open at night in summer means I can actually get some sleep :)