Friday 28 September 2007

Hollywood hygiene

Why are some of Hollywood's leading actresses so obsessed with their bowels? And why does Cate Blanchett want to drink her own urine? Mark Steyn wants to know.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

She's taking the piss, surely!!!??

Anonymous said...

PC - did you read the article closely?

I am surprised that you passed on Steyn's inference that Blanchett was going to drink her own piss - surely as an architect, you would be aware that grey-water filtration is not outlandish, but in fact becoming more common. I have no doubt that you would balk at the idea of using such a feature, but I imagine you would be AWARE of grey-water (or 'waste-water') filtration.

However, I am almost CERTAIN that you must be aware that grey-water waste is not shit and piss, and the suggestion (that you gleefully pass on without an iota of qualifying comment) is that Blanchett is recycling toilet waste for drinking. Honestly, this either betrays an astonishing lack of knowledge, a flippant and cursory read of the article, or (my bet) a total disregard for the liekly reality in order to have a good dig at the dumb-fuck greenies.

Highly disappointing.

For the cheap seats: waste-water recycling does not mean drinking your own piss. It means filtration of grey-water (waste from your sinks, wash-hand-basins etc) and is usually reused for laundry and toilet-flushing, but can be filtered purely enough to drink. The smug suggestion that a pipe connects Blanchett's toilet and bar-tap takes a couple of seconds to rationally dismiss. But apparently not for PC.

DenMT

Peter Cresswell said...

Blanchett wants the plumbing be constructed to "allow them to drink their own waste water."

You don't drink the grey water, Den. You use grey water for washing and the like, not for drinking, not when you can get fresh water from the mains or from the roof, not unless you're a fool.

Anonymous said...

PC: Disingenuous. Is it your belief that Blanchett has installed a system allowing her to drink her own piss, or did you simply pass that one along from Steyn without thinking? Other folks may not have an understanding of what 'waste water' is, but you and I should know better, given our profession.

Well?

DenMT

Anonymous said...

PC: That mentality is a flawed one by the way. 'You don't drink grey-water, you get it from the mains' is entirely akin to saying 'you don't install solar-water heating, you power your cylinder from the mains, dummy. That's what people do.'

Alternative methods of energy reduction are not always call for out-of-hand abject ridicule, and I thought you were above such simplification, which is why I spend time reading and responding to your posts.

DenMT

Anonymous said...

Free Water

Now this is ridiculus!

Anonymous said...

And the lunchtime googling confirms:

http://yahoo.domain.com.au/Public/Article.aspx?id=1183833506570&index=propertynews

It's a grey-water scheme. I have yet to hear of any viable black-water filtration scheme producing potable water (apart from those folks on telly a while back who managed to get a journalist sick).

Still amazed that for someone who puts 'rational' thought on a pedestal (and someone working in the industry) you would champion Mark Steyn's fevered interpretation of ONE SENTENCE in a style.com article. All it takes is one iota of reflection.

DenMT

Anonymous said...

DenMT

So some Hollywood slut starts buring coal or oil or fluorine or whatever to run some unfeasibly expensive processing plant so she can drink her own piss. Big deal.

If she's such a green she'd have realised that the creation of her pisswater drinking scheme required much more "harm" to be done to the environment than it is saving. By your standards she is convicted as a profligate consumer and polluter.

And she is still drinking her own piss.

What!

LGM

Peter Cresswell said...

Den, if it's a grey-water scheme she's building then, as I said, it's not for drinking. If she is installing to "allow them to drink their own wastewater" as this non-Steyn story says quite explicitly, then she is a certified kook.

Nice work on the selective quoting by the way. Here's what you said I said: "You don't drink grey-water, you get it from the mains," and here's what I said: "You use grey water for washing and the like, not for drinking, not when you can get fresh water from the mains or from the roof, not unless you're a fool."

See the difference?

To which of course you might add you can also get drinking water from a bore or a local water course, if they're available and if they're clean.

But given the options available even with Australia's socialised water systems, you don't need to drink the grey water.

Unless you're a kook.

Anonymous said...

I replied to this yesterday at length, but somehow the interwebs swallowed it up.

Point-by-point:

-Grey-water recycling is 'not for drinking'. PC, I can assure you, hands down, that grey-water filtration can produce potable water. This is generally via an expensive chemical filtration process, but it is not fantasy, it is used around the world. We have material on it in our library if you continue to doubt - I can scan and email it for you if you wish. I find it incredible that you don't believe grey-water filtration can produce potable water, but can pass on Steyn's 100% incorrect assumption that Blanchett wants to drink her own piss without a problem.

-The 'explicit' mention of piss-drinking in the style.com article. That 'non-Steyn' article contains a single sentence which Steyn used as his source and incorrectly inferred that Blanchett was going to install black-water recycling. I provided a link further up which goes further indepth, explaining that it is a grey-water system, being designed by local architects. I assume you chose not to read this. Again, I am surprised that given your profession you believe 'wastewater' implies black-water.

I see your point on the way I quoted you, which was a bit dodgy in retrospect. However I put it to you that you are very quick off the mark to pour scorn over the attempts of a public figure to 'go green' at the expense of any real thought as to what you are saying (or the value of the opinion you are blindly passing on). There is a very valid argument to be made that Blanchett does not live remotely, so the added resources/energy required to run a grey-water filtration system rated to produce potable water is far in excess of the benefit gained in the reduction of supply-water. That is my position.

DenMT

Peter Cresswell said...

Den, please stop putting words in my mouth, and making too much stew from one very small onion.

On the first point, You say, "I am surprised that given your profession you believe 'wastewater' implies black-water."

I do not say this at all. I posted that non-Steyn article which said explicitly she is installing a system to "allow them to drink their own wastewater."

You may object to that by posting another story which is no more in-depth with another "single sentence" saying that it's a grey-water system she's installing -- in which case, we're down to a battle of single sentences (one from Style magazine and one from the Sydney Morning Herald) saying slightly different things.

That said, I don't say what you say I said, and neither can you say Steyn is "100% incorrect."

Frankly, you are making too much stew from too small an onion.

Let's make it clear for any other readers who are still following this:

* "Black water" is not for drinking. Not unless you're an astronaut.
* "Grey water" is not for drinking either, not unless you're either desperate or a kook.
* We don't know for sure precisely what she's installing in her million dollar eco-renovation in Sydney's North Shore, except that it does involve waste-water recycling and drinking it.
* We do know that Cate Blanchett is a kook. Fine actress, but still a kook.
* There are other sources of non-mains water than your own urine. Roof, lake, river, water bore are four such sources. If for some reason you live on Sydney's North Shore and wish to avoid the mains, then I recommend them. One would be advised, however, not to urinate in any of these if you're using them as a source of drinking water.

Hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

We don't know for sure precisely what she's installing in her million dollar eco-renovation in Sydney's North Shore, except that it does involve waste-water recycling and drinking it.

Only the Style.com article implies they will be drinking it so that is hardly definitive.

Anonymous said...

PC: It seems like this dead horse is well and truly flogged, and that there is no chance you will ever admit fault, so as a final comment I'll just repost a couple of comments of yours. You make the inference.

ORIGINAL PC "And why does Cate Blanchett want to drink her own urine?"

REVISED PC "On the first point, You say, "I am surprised that given your profession you believe 'wastewater' implies black-water. I do not say this at all. I posted that non-Steyn article which said explicitly she is installing a system to "allow them to drink their own wastewater."

DenMT

polderboy said...

Wow.

Are you really an architect? And you take a sentence regarding waste management from a celebrity journalist for a style-section article as accurate?

Wow.