Bathroom Stuff

Here is something that most of us probably have never thought about.

“The remote town of Musiri in the Tamil Nadu state has hit upon a unique idea to teach its residents proper hygiene: Pay them money each time they use the toilet.

Users can make up to $0.14 a month to relieve themselves in a specially constructed toilet. Not a princely sum, but it’s extra cash flow that low-income residents can make just for answering nature’s call.

The government-backed program serves two purposes: It encourages people to discard age-old practices of urinating and defecating in the open, leading to diseases. And the waste products go into research to test their effectiveness as fertilizers.

“We’re motivating people to know the value of their urine,” said Marathi Subburaman, who came up with the novel idea. “The urine that is collected goes into fields for paddy crops, and of course the feces becomes good compost in a matter of months.”

Aid groups estimate that more than 330 million people in India do not have access to proper sanitation facilities. And in the case of Musiri, many residents relieve themselves on river banks, leading to infectious diseases such as diarrhea.

And while both governmental and non-governmental agencies have taken on projects to build toilets in rural areas, they also have had to undertake campaigns to encourage people to use them.

The Musiri plan seems to be working, Subburaman said. About 150 residents use the eco-sanitation toilet daily. It has special chambers that collect the fecal matter that researchers then use as fertilizer.

It’s a win-win scenario, said Subburaman.

His nonprofit Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education (SCOPE) has teamed up with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, and the two are studying how much urine is needed to fertilize a field.

“Next year, we can install urine banks so we can sell the urine to farmers,” he said.”

Here are some more bathroom tales from the blog:

Jack’s Experience In the Ladies Room
For A Good Time Call…
New & Improved Toilet- Fish ‘n Flush
Urine For a Tale- Or Pissed Off About Peeing
High Tech Toilet Seat

Here at the Shack we are proud purveyors of news about all sorts of things, including bodily functions. We have a certain appreciation for the call of nature and have wondered about how pilots take care of this.

There is something somewhat comical about the image of the tough fighter pilot waltzing off his plane with a big stain in their flight suit. Anyway, CNN has the details about a potential solution to this problem.

Is it just me or does the Advanced Mission Extender Device sound like a sex toy.

“WASHINGTON (CNN) — Where do fighter pilots traveling faster than the speed of sound go when they really need to “go”?

Until recently, the answer has been: into a bag.

But it’s not a great solution. “Piddle packs” — heavy-duty bags containing absorbent sponges — have been blamed for at least two crashes over the years, and they’re not always tidy.

A few years ago, after enduring years of complaints from pilots, the Air Force let it be known that it was looking for an answer.

A small medical equipment development company in Milton, Vermont answered the call.

“The DoD put out a list of projects they needed solutions for,” said Mark Harvie, president of Omni Medical Solutions. “Bladder relief for pilots was one of the items on the list and we were looking for a new project,” he said.

After four years of testing by the Vermont Air National Guard and the Air Force and about $5 million in government and private funds, AMXD is spelling relief for pilots aloft.

Under the old system, pilots routinely avoid liquids before taking off to prevent the unmentionable. But dehydration can make them more susceptible to the G-forces typically seen in fighter aircraft, Harvie said.

When nature’s call becomes too pressing to ignore, a pilot has to fly and unbuckle the harness at the same time — while using both hands to maneuver around in a seat to which he or she is virtually molded.

The aerobatic maneuver is even harder for female pilots.

On long or cold-weather flights, the amount of gear and clothing made the maneuver nearly impossible, and pilots would sometimes have no choice but to relieve themselves in their flight suits.

In the AMXD, a cup for a man and a pad for a woman is strategically placed before the pilot dons a flight suit.

An instructional DVD tells pilots: “When the time comes to urinate, unzip the flight suit, remove the hose…. The control unit will pump the urine from the cup to the collection bag, where it will be chemically gelled.”

Remind me not to touch the gel. 😉 BTW, if you are interested in reading more of the bathroom news you just can’t live without you can click here or here.

Yesterday I learned more about one of the guys at the gym then I wanted to know. Here is the scene.

I walk into the locker room and head to the bathroom. As I enter the room I see “Tom” walk out of a stall. He is barefoot and completely naked. Apparently he doesn’t worry about athletes foot, but why should he.

Within moments of leaving the stall he manages to pick his nose, scratch his tuchus and then stick his hand out in greeting.

I look at him and tell him that it is nothing personal, but I’d rather he wash his hands first. But what I really am thinking is that if he ever invites me over to dinner I am going to be busy that day.

I am not easily grossed out, but that whole scene was bad.

I have had moments where I have spent more time in the bathroom then I’d like, but this is too much. Am I the only one who thinks that the boyfriend is weird.

WICHITA, Kansas (AP) — A 35-year-old woman who sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for so long that her body was stuck to the seat had a phobia about leaving the bathroom, the boyfriend said.

“She is an adult; she made her own decision,” said her boyfriend, Kory McFarren. “I should have gotten help for her sooner; I admit that. But after a while, you kind of get used to it.”

The case drew nationwide attention after Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat in the two years she apparently was in the bathroom.

“We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,” Whipple said. “The hospital removed it.”

McFarren, 36, said he can’t be certain how long Pam Babcock stayed in the bathroom because “time just went by so quick I can’t pinpoint how long.” He said beatings she received in her childhood caused her phobia.

McFarren said he finally called police February 27 after he became worried because Babcock was acting groggy — like she didn’t know what was going on, except she was awake.

What emergency responders found when they went into bathroom has left residents of this small western Kansas town buzzing, and law enforcement officials incredulous.

Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to mid-thigh. She was “somewhat disoriented,” and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.

“She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body,” Whipple said. “It is hard to imagine. … I still have a hard time imagining it myself.”