Two toilet-related posts in a week. Oh dear. Today I’ve been downtown admiring the majesty of the sweeping rows of portable toilets. There’s an article in the paper about this mass porta-potty migration to the nation’s capital. It contained the phrase “an epic of septic,” which made me laugh, so I decided to share it with you. I’m really really tired so I’m pretty easily amused, sorry.
Tag Archives: toilets
shark week
It’s summer in Australia and there have been an unusual number of shark attacks clustered together. Time ran a short piece with comments from shark scientists about why some of the explanations being bandied about don’t really hold water. They also point out that more people are going into the water and they’re swimming in more areas than in the past – putting more people into contact with more sharks. The claims of commercial fishermen – that environmental protections on sharks are causing them to multiply rapidly – are easily debunked by noting that the species in question has few young and takes 20 years to reach maturity, the very reasons they’ve been protected in the first place. The article also refutes the idea that a shark develops a taste for human flesh or learns to hunt humans. Despite all of this level-headed reporting, the article bears the sensationalistic headline, “Sharks Rampage in Australia’.
To learn more about shark attacks, I recommend the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.
I’m fascinated by this chart: A Comparison with the Number of Injuries Associated with Home-Improvement Equipment. People had a lot of accidents involving toilets (43,687) and toilet-bowl products (1,567) in the year surveyed than I’d ever imagined. Number of shark-related injuries or deaths for that year in the United States: 13. Not that I spend a lot of time imagining toilet-related home improvement injuries. Still, I’m surprised that toilet-related injuries outnumbered chainsaws (13,458) so dramatically. I suppose people are more cautious when operating a chainsaw than when installing a toilet.
I checked the Consumer Product Safety Commission site to see if some of these accidents might have been drownings, but they don’t. “CPSC has received reports of 16 children under age 5 who drowned in toilets between 1996 and 1999.”
Check out the University of Florida’s Ichthyology site. It’s much more interesting than the CPSC, and significantly less disturbing. Although these images of a shark leaping out of the water near these surfers at New Smyrna beach might give you pause.
Seattle tries to sell toilets on ebay???
I’m not in the habit of copying an entire article into a post, but this one is short and too bizarre to even pull a quote from. Each detail is it’s own little gem. I hope my friends at the AP will forgive me:
Seattle’s five problem-plagued public toilets could be yours if you’re flush.
City officials decided to pull the plug on the multimillion-dollar self-cleaning toilet stalls and instead put them on the auction site eBay.
Starting bids are $89,000 apiece.
Neighbors and city-commissioned analysts said the unisex facilities attracted drug users and prostitutes, and were less cost-effective than regular public restrooms.
On May 19, the City Council voted to remove the problem toilets. Council President Richard Conlin said although people were using the high-tech, self-cleaning silver stalls, they also fostered illegal behavior, such as prostitution and drug use.
The German-made automatic, high-tech toilets were installed in 2004 and have cost the city about $5 million. Each has handsfree washing and drying ability and an emergency button that automatically dials 911.
The automated doors on the impact- and graffiti-resistant toilets will close Aug. 1, said Andy Ryan, a spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities. The auction will last for 10 days.
As of Thursday morning, none of the toilets had received any bids.