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For all the sea foam of life -- the drama, the shoes, the cars, the jobs, the marriages, the accomplishments and failures -- still there are the basics of the ocean and every once in a while, it seems sensible to check them out.
Yesterday, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and the world's leading philanthropist, gave $100,000 to the California Institute of Technology for its efforts to upgrade the toilet. The lack of sanitation facilities worldwide means an increase in disease and death and today's toilet wastes enormous amounts of water and requires a large and expensive infrastructure.
The Caltech efforts are directed at a solar powered system that "recycles water and breaks down human waste into storable energy." And Caltech is not alone: Britain's Loughborough University and Canada's University of Toronto also received financial support for their advances.
The axioms of life are axiomatic and frequently relegated to the shadows of human activity. Every once in a while, it's nice to bring them into the light and discover anew why they are axiomatic and whether those axioms hold water.
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