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Ms. Answerman: Dark Water


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Shinotaku14
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 09 Aug 2003
Posts: 233
Location: Greenville or Rock Hill, SC
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:56 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Hey Mrs. Answerman!
I've got a question for you concerning something that I have seen done in several anime. I have on occasion seen people pouring water out in front of their homes or small businesses. They just seem to be wetting the ground, however, since I imagine there's some reason for this, I was hoping you could shed some light on the subject for me. So, What is that whole thing about?
Thanks for you help!
Shin-Sensei
(Shinotaku14)

Why did the boy throw water out the window? Because he wanted to see a waterfall! (Yes, this is supposed to be a popular joke).
In reality, this was an extremely common sight hundreds of years ago when buildings started becoming taller and indoor plumbing was the last thing on people’s minds. The ‘water’, however, didn’t consist of savory things and lead to the spread of disease and sickness. As time passed and toilets became popular, this unique form of water disposal was reserved for water used to wash smaller things such as clothes (which were then left to dry on a balcony or window). Some also toss water out onto friends or family as a joke, though one they hopefully saved for the summer and not the winter time.


I believe I may have been misinterpreted here. What I meant is that you see people litterally just spredding water in front of their homes or businesses, sometimes with a garden hose or a bucket and a laddle. I'm pretty sure in those cases they aren't doing away with waste. I believe they are just trying to make the ground wet.

I will try to find a picture of what I mean, but I was well aware that people didn't always have indoor plumbing. I mean, I'm not dumb.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 11:15 pm Reply with quote
Fantastic Four wasn't as bad as I expected, but it could've been better. I'll probably just rent the original Dark Water, eventually.
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Raja



Joined: 30 Jul 2003
Posts: 68
Location: Tottori
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 11:29 pm Reply with quote
Shinotaku14 wrote:
I believe I may have been misinterpreted here. What I meant is that you see people litterally just spredding water in front of their homes or businesses, sometimes with a garden hose or a bucket and a laddle. I'm pretty sure in those cases they aren't doing away with waste. I believe they are just trying to make the ground wet.

I will try to find a picture of what I mean, but I was well aware that people didn't always have indoor plumbing. I mean, I'm not dumb.
I know what you mean. I see people doing this during the late summer months, especially shopkeepers. I always assumed that it was for keeping the dust and dirt from blowing around in the wind.

For an anime example, think of the "ladle lady" that always nailed Ranma with an ill-timed toss of water.
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Pat Payne



Joined: 08 Feb 2004
Posts: 45
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 11:48 pm Reply with quote
Shinotaku14 wrote:

I believe I may have been misinterpreted here. What I meant is that you see people litterally just spredding water in front of their homes or businesses, sometimes with a garden hose or a bucket and a laddle. I'm pretty sure in those cases they aren't doing away with waste. I believe they are just trying to make the ground wet.

I will try to find a picture of what I mean, but I was well aware that people didn't always have indoor plumbing. I mean, I'm not dumb.


It may be a religious thing -- purifying the entrance to the store in a Shinto mini-ritual --, much like the pans of salt that are placed outside the doors of Asian businesses.

Or as Raja mentions, it could also be a way of controlling dust.
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ampersand



Joined: 01 Apr 2005
Posts: 31
Location: Brampton, ON
PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 11:48 pm Reply with quote
I remember seeing on Japanese lease-time programming (thank goodness for that!) a scientific discussion "chat" show, where, every week, they talked about science and more practical (but unthought-of) ways to use science in our daily lives. One episode was discussing the physics of tennis, another discussed how to find out where to hit bowling pins to generate the highest likelihood of strikes, and so on.

One of these episodes (I really wish I remembered the name of the show; it's been at least three years) discussed how urban centers as an environment actually contribute excess heat in the summertime to atmospheric temperatures.

They mentioned how, yes, laying down water helps keep dust and dirt from flying into the air during the dryer months of the year, but the Japanese hosts also said there was a secondary benefit to doing this: water evaporation. Laying down water on asphalt, concrete and even soil during extremely high and parched temperatures helped promote evaporation, which would take some of the heat into the air as water evaporated on the hot ground.

Score another point for Japanese TV for teaching me something new!
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 3904
Location: CO
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:27 am Reply with quote
My parents used to water the deck and front porch in the summer. That way, when the water evaporated, it would cool off the house, and anyone standing outside. It sounds ghetto, but it works well.
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:28 am Reply with quote
Can we all point and laugh at the dumbass who bought the HK Samurai Champloo DVDs? He even went back to complain, was lied to, and kspt it contently. Ha. Somewhere, PT Barnum is smliling.

Oh and what was this link that was deleted and what type of schoolgirl bondage did it involve?

-Xenos
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Shinotaku14
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 09 Aug 2003
Posts: 233
Location: Greenville or Rock Hill, SC
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:32 am Reply with quote
Raja wrote:
\

For an anime example, think of the "ladle lady" that always nailed Ranma with an ill-timed toss of water.


Exactly
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Rebecca



Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 57
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 7:40 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I believe I may have been misinterpreted here. What I meant is that you see people litterally just spredding water in front of their homes or businesses, sometimes with a garden hose or a bucket and a laddle. I'm pretty sure in those cases they aren't doing away with waste. I believe they are just trying to make the ground wet.


Looks like everyone has answered it for me! I've added an extra note to the column, so everyone gets an extra answer for the price of one.

Sorry for getting the question mixed up too Embarassed (I didn't think you were dumb, promise!)
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Angel Of Death



Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Posts: 176
Location: Harper Woods, MI
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:17 pm Reply with quote
I'm still aghast at the teachers allowing a tardy student to be crushed to death by the gates. I only hope they were properly prosecuted.
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Shinotaku14
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 09 Aug 2003
Posts: 233
Location: Greenville or Rock Hill, SC
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Rebecca wrote:
]

Looks like everyone has answered it for me! I've added an extra note to the column, so everyone gets an extra answer for the price of one.

Sorry for getting the question mixed up too Embarassed (I didn't think you were dumb, promise!)


It's cool. Don't worry about it. ^__^;
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Cowpunk



Joined: 03 Nov 2004
Posts: 168
Location: Oakland - near the Newtype Lab
PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:15 pm Reply with quote
Last year there was an article in, I believe, the Japan Times on Tokyo neighborhoods organizing to sprinkle water on the streets in the evening to cool the ground.

I have a printout of this article buried somewhere and will add an entry on this to the Anime Companion Supplement when I update that group of pages in mid to late August.

http://www.koyagi.com/ACPages/ACmain.html

The technique works. I used to do this to our front yard on hot summer evenings when I was in high school. Then we could sit outside in the shade and chat with neighbors.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 4:12 pm Reply with quote
That plonker who couldn't find any info about conventions in the UK must live in Stornoway on the Outer Hebridies. ( a group of small wind swept rocky islands off the North West shores of Scotland). Bloody great sheep shagger. Rolling Eyes
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Andromeda



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 119
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:20 am Reply with quote
I feel a bit dumb, but... where exactly was the bad reference that you were owning up to? I couldn't distinguish it from the rest of the column.

Also - on the bootlegs thing. It actually sounds like the guy did not honestly have a hint that the bootleg was a boot. I have actually heard cases of anime stores (OUTSIDE of Chinatown, too) knowingly or unknowingly (or so they claim) selling bootlegs. If it wasn't in Chinatown, and since he DID mention it was a "store", not even a booth, there is a chance that it's a normal comics and collectables or anime shop that happens to be selling bootlegs.

And you know, they're tricky buggers!

I saw a site that had the Witch Hunter Robin boxset with only English subtitles, and with a dub, using the real boxset art, etc... but the only clues it was a bootleg (unless you were to buy it, in which case I'm sure you'd be able to tell somehow) were that it was being sold for like $20 for the entire series, and because it was on a site that included some sets and DVDs that had Chinese subtitles listed in the descriptions.

Additionally, the video could have been seemlessly lifted from the Japanese DVDs (who knows, maybe the English subtitles were, too - I've heard of some Japanese DVDs including English subs) and the English audio from a modified DVR's recording of the dub on cartoon network (it's possible, at least). If he hadn't seen Kyle Pope's Edit List for it or the release notes for the DVD releases... maybe he just had no idea of what he was buying. ESPECIALLY if it included the English dub and only English or English and Japanese subtitles, since most boots just do subtitles and usually include Chinese ones. It's only recently that they've wised up and started including dubs and excluding Chinese subs from their DVDs too further fool the more gullible buyers, I think.

In short... while informing him that it was a bootleg was incredibly important, I wouldn't have been QUITE so harsh, as while he was a tad gullible, he may not have been as dumb as it seems. Then again, that is just me. Anime smallmouth + sweatdrop


-Jamie
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.Sy



Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 1266
PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:48 pm Reply with quote
The bad reference was made in Ms. Answerman's previous collumn, though I imagine the link must've been removed by now.
Andromeda wrote:
And you know, they're tricky buggers!

Bootlegs these days are getting really good. And I don't mean that in the positive way. But once you've seen a type of bootleg with a particular layout, it's hard to fall for it again. I have a few sets of bootleg DVDs, and the quality of the video and packaging isn't lacking at all. You've got more expensive and harder to spot bootlegs nowadays, which has me only buying off sites people have said are safe. A lot of people just don't care, as long as it's cheap. A whole lot of bootlegs also come with holographic stickers on them, which isn't all that great either.
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