Welcome to Il Sanitario
A bathroom is a place of pleasure, a relaxing environment, but also fun; not only a place for bodily functions that can often be a starting point to address different topics, such as Science, Technology, Art, Design, and History. Without excluding hacks, viral phenomena, and more or less funny news.
So welcome to this blog to explore the bathroom from different points of view trying to break down the taboos about the place most people are ashamed of, but everybody attends.
So have a seat!
Latest posts
8 July 2024Ancient grottoes meet modern tech
According to CNN, China’s Yungang Buddhist Grottoes, with their 51,000 statues carved 1,500 years ago into 252 caves and niches, are unquestionably breathtaking. However, the facilities at this World Heritage site, designated by UNESCO, have drawn more attention lately than the scenery.
A video that circulated on Chinese news and social media platforms depicts timers positioned above a row of female restroom cubicles, each equipped with a digital counter.
The pixelated LED screen turns green to indicate that a stall is empty. When in use, it displays how long the door has been locked in minutes and seconds.
A visitor is said to have taken the original video, which they then transmitted to the local newspaper published by the state, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.
“I found it quite advanced technologically so you don’t have to queue outside or knock on a bathroom door,” the paper quoted the visitor as saying.
“But I also found it a little bit embarrassing. It felt like I was being monitored.”
The Xioxiang Morning Herald was informed by an attraction staff member that the timers were put in place to handle the surge in visitors to the attraction, which included the facilities within the tourist site.
“They aren’t there to control the durations you could use the bathrooms,” the staff member was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
“It’s impossible that we would kick someone out midway. And we aren’t setting a time limit such as five or 10 minutes for how long one could use the toilets.”
According to a park staff member, the timer has been in place since May 1st, 2024, and is primarily a safety precaution, “ensuring the well-being of all guests, in case some guests use the toilet for an extended period of time and an emergency occurs,” as reported by the state-run newspaper Nanchang Evening News.
Discussions around the announcement have been very active on China’s social media platforms. The new timers were backed by several internet users on the well-known microblogging site Weibo, who claimed that they would deter customers from sitting in the stalls and scrolling through their phones.
“A tourist site isn’t an office – who would spend their time in the toilets? Is it really necessary?” said one netizen.
“Why don’t they just spend the money on building more washrooms?” said another.
Others claimed that it would benefit people who may not be able to contact them for help in the event of a true medical emergency.
Record-breaking visitor numbers
One of the main draws in Shanxi province, northern China, is the Yungang Buddhist Grottoes, which was inducted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
A record 3 million people visited the ticketed scenic area in 2023, a considerable rise from 1.98 million visits in 2019, the site’s second busiest year.
Not only have the restrooms at Yungang Buddhist Grottoes been updated, but so have other areas. To increase the area’s appeal, organizers have added additional mini-attractions and new events in recent years. [...]
1 July 2024Diarrhea in the cockpit
In peacetime as well as during earlier conflicts, diarrhea was a prevalent and debilitating medical condition that many US troops suffered from in Vietnam.
The risk of experiencing this was higher for helicopter pilots and other individuals flying propeller aircraft from mainland airbases than jet pilots, also known as jet jockeys, especially those based in Thailand or serving on carriers who only contracted it while on RnR in-country.
Diarrhea, the fighter pilot’s greatest fear
Tim Hibbetts, a retired US Navy A-6 Intruder and F/A-18 pilot, recalls on Quora:
‘HOLY S—T!’
‘Sorry for the outburst, but this is the pilot’s greatest fear. Even beyond enemy aces, missile batteries, or parachuting into a sea of sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads!’
‘Let me get this right out in front: not only did I never experience this, I never even urinated while in a tactical aircraft. I didn’t want to let my body know that this was a thing, having heard too many tales of pilots having to go several times each flight.’
Crapping in a glove aboard an F4U Corsair
‘Anyway:’
‘My favorite university instructor, CAPT (ret) George Faulkner, USN, started his career as an F4U pilot in ’46. He told me about dash-5 in an 8-plane formation, who’d slipped out and was flailing away a bit behind the rest of the formation. After the lead instructed him—as dash-2—to go find out the matter, he flew over and looked down into the cockpit. The other pilot had his flight suit down around his knees and was crapping in a glove. Several minutes later, he rejoined. I never found out if he got a new callsign out of that.’
F-14 Tomcat declaring physiology emergency
‘During one of my early at-sea periods, we had an emergency pull-forward, where all the aircraft parked in the landing area were quickly unchained and moved forward in order to allow a plane to land. As a junior LSO, just learning the role, I raced up there to help wave the guy aboard, expecting a damaged bird, or at least a single engine. But as he came in on a short straight-in, he called the ball, “203, Tomcat ball, 6.2, emergency, physiology.” I didn’t even hear it right, but some of the saltier paddles sprouted huge grins, “Roger ball, 10 knots, down the angle.” BAM! Trap, over to parking, and shut down.’
In naval aviation, a “short straight-in” approach refers to a direct path to land on an aircraft carrier, bypassing the usual circular pattern. As the pilot nears the carrier, they “call the ball,” indicating they’ve visually acquired the optical landing system. The “paddles,” or Landing Signal Officers, guide the aircraft to a safe landing. A successful arrested landing on the carrier is called a “trap,” where the aircraft catches an arresting wire with its tailhook. After landing, the pilot moves “over to parking,” taxiing to a designated area on the flight deck. Finally, “shut down” refers to turning off the aircraft’s engines, completing the landing process.
‘Even before the chains were completely tied down, the canopy was coming up and the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the back was leaping from the cockpit. They said that he almost made it to the head that’s right inside the base of the island.’
S-3 Viking back-seater sacrificing his helmet bag
Hibbetts continues;
‘One of the department heads of the S-3 squadron, a back-seater, was out on a routine hop passing gas when Nature called. Of course, the way he described it, Nature sent a dozen Jehovah’s Witnesses on meth with AK-47s and a fresh will to spread the Good News. He clambered into the little space where you board the plane. He was ready to sacrifice his really nice helmet bag, like the ones these boys are toting:’
‘Like these E-2 bubbas, the Viking guys wore neither oxygen masks nor G-suits (which was likely the downfall of the F-14 RIO of the last paragraph). While the pressure was building to fantastic heights, he was able to go to one-quarter mast—flight suit around the knees— and opened the bag just in time. He underestimated the explosive power, though, and shot high, hitting everything except the inside of the bag.’
‘When they landed about 30 minutes later, the whole crew was very noticeably wearing their oxygen masks. To his credit, after the rest of the guys tumbled out, he warned off the plane captain and deck chief, taking almost an hour to clean the inside of the plane, then tossing his bag and flight suit into the sea and soaking his survival vest and harness for hours. Even the fate of his boots was a toss up.’
Horror, shame, and a terrific shambles
Hibbetts concludes;
‘I’ve heard similar stories from Air Force buddies, with fewer details, but the tale is always the same: horror, shame, and terrific shambles. There are so many nooks and crannies in a cockpit as to make removal almost impossible if things aren’t well-contained.’
‘On top of the nasty after effects, the condition is usually accompanied by severe cramping. At the wrong time, this could certainly bode ill for a pilot, be it during a landing or in combat. There’s just no knowing if we’ve lost anyone to gastrointestinal distress, but I wouldn’t like to think about it. That’s not the way I’d want to go. I prefer a newspaper and a quiet few minutes.’ [...]
24 June 2024Ancient parasites discovered in 200-million-year-old reptile poop
Researchers have shown that although extinct reptile predators that resembled crocodiles today were fierce hunters, parasites were able to withstand their scaly armor and sharp teeth.
According to CNN, an unusual case of parasite infection in a reptile that lived between 252 million and 201 million years ago during the Triassic Period has just been discovered by paleontologists. The creature might have been a phytosaur, a short-limbed, long-snouted predator. Instead of finding the parasites in the teeth or bones of phytosaurs, researchers extracted them from a coprolite, which is a fossilized excrement nugget.
Scientists discovered microscopic organic structures that resembled eggs when they dissected the preserved excrement that was discovered at a site in Thailand that is around 200 million years old. Upon closer inspection, the 0.002 to 0.006-inch (50 to 150 micrometer)-long objects were found to represent at least five parasites.
The scientists published their findings in the journal PLOS One. This is the first indication of parasites in a Late Triassic terrestrial vertebrate from Asia. Additionally, the specimen is unique among coprolite samples from this era and location in that it contains several parasitic species, including nematodes, a class of parasitic worms that are still in existence today. Contemporary nematodes are known to infect a wide range of animals and plants, including fish, amphibians, reptiles (such as crocodiles and alligators), and mammals.
“Our results give us new ways to think about the environment and way of life of old animals,” said lead study author Thanit Nonsrirach, a vertebrate paleontologist in the Department of Biology at Mahasarakham University in Kham Riang, Thailand. “In previous studies, only one group of parasites was found in a single coprolite. However, our current study shows that a single coprolite can contain more than one type of parasite.” According to the research, the animal had many parasitic infections.
‘Hard, smooth and grey’
The coprolite was collected by scientists in 2010 from the northeastern Thai outcrop known as Huai Nam Aun. According to Nonsrirach, during the Triassic period, this would have been a brackish or freshwater lake or pond inhabited by a variety of animal species, such as shark-like fish, progenitors of turtles and other reptiles, and primitive amphibians known as temnospondyls.
“Such conditions were conducive to the transmission of parasites,” he said.
About 3 inches (7.4 centimeters) long and 0.8 inches (2.1 centimeters) in diameter, the fossilized poo had a cylindrical shape. The surface of the specimen under study was described by the study’s authors as “hard, smooth, and grey in color.” Although coprolites may not have an impressive appearance, paleontologist Martin Qvarnström, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University in Sweden, claimed that hidden inside them are mysteries regarding “who ate whom” in ancient ecosystems. Qvarnström did not participate in the recent study.
“Surprisingly, coprolites often contain fossils rarely preserved elsewhere,” Qvarnström said in an email. “These include muscle cells, beautifully preserved insects, hair, and parasite remains. But despite being treasure chests in this regard, coprolites are opaque, so identifying their inclusions can be challenging. Detective work is also needed to find out who produced the now fossilized droppings, which is arguably the trickiest part of studying coprolites.”
Scientists can determine which ancient animal group may have created the poop by looking at the coprolites’ size, shape, location, and contents. For instance, according to Nonsrirach, some fish have spiraling intestines that eventually produce spiral-shaped coprolites. Furthermore, he clarified that reptiles and amphibians typically generate coprolites that are largely cylindrical.
The absence of bones in the coprolite suggests that the owner’s digestive system was strong enough to break them down. Although crocodiles are known to possess this physiological characteristic, the study notes that crocodile fossils have not been discovered at this site and that the earliest crocodilians would not appear for another 100 million years or so.
However, according to Nonsrirach, “it’s plausible that the coprolite originated from an animal similar to crocodiles or one that evolved alongside them, like phytosaurs.” Furthermore, fossilized phytosaur remains were previously discovered close to the location of the coprolite excavation.
Eggs and cysts
Upon initial observation, phytosaurs and crocodiles appear to be nearly identical. Both have large bodies covered with stiff scales at the top, long, powerful tails, and elongated, toothy jaws. According to the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley, one obvious distinction is that crocodiles have nostrils at the end of their snouts, whereas those of phytosaurs are perched on a bony ridge behind their eyes.
Despite the fact that these animals resemble each other essentially, they are not closely related. Convergent evolution, in which unrelated creatures independently evolve similar traits, is the cause of their copycat body plans.
The coprolite was cut into thin sheets, which the scientists then examined under a microscope. What they discovered was that there were five different kinds of organic structures—some ellipsoid, others spherical. An egg of a parasitic nematode in the order Ascaridida was discovered by the researchers after slicing one object in two and discovering an embryo inside.
According to the study, another object had “a well-developed shell and organized bodies within the shell”, and might be a different kind of nematode egg. The remaining ones were found to be cysts from single-celled parasites and eggs from unidentified worms.
“Studying the remains of parasites in coprolites is important since it provides us with rare insights into ancient parasite-host relationships,” Qvarnström said. “Thanks to the coprolite data, we can investigate when such parasitic relationships arose and how parasites and their hosts may have co-evolved through time.”
Nevertheless, Nonsrirach noted that it is unclear if the reptile became ill as a result of having the parasites.
“The determination of the animal’s health status cannot be determined by only the observation of the parasite contained within its coprolite,” he said. “Parasites can use their host as a way of development without causing disease to the host animal.”
According to the study, the reptile may have picked up its parasite community by consuming various kinds of infected animals.
“This event raises interesting questions about how prey animals and parasites interact with each other. It suggests that parasites may have been inside the bodies of prey before they were eaten,” Nonsrirach said. “This new point of view gives us a deeper understanding of how past ecosystems were connected and how they affected the lives of prehistoric animals.” [...]
17 June 2024A fascinating showcase of fossilized feces
George Frandsen has the world’s largest collection of fossilized poop; therefore; he decided to open a Poozeum.
At least that is what he has named his recently opened museum in Williams, Arizona. The roughly 8,000 pieces that comprise his coprolite collection—also referred to as fossilized poop—are freely accessible to visitors.
“Initially, many people react with a ‘yuck’ face or laughter when they first hear about the Poozeum. However, after witnessing the collection, their reactions often shift to shock at the diverse and intriguing nature of coprolites,” Frandsen told Guinness World Records.
“Given that most people have little to no experience with coprolites, it’s enjoyable to introduce them to this fascinating world and share the wonders they hold.”
As reported here, since he was eighteen, Frandsen has been enthralled with dinosaurs and fossils, and his fascination even grew when he saw fossilized excrement on a visit to a rock and fossil shop in Utah.
“Instantly, I found it both hilarious and fascinating,” he said. “This sparked my curiosity, leading me to learn everything I could about coprolites. I soon realized that these peculiar prehistoric ‘time capsules’ offer direct insights into the diets, behaviors, and environments of ancient creatures.”
When he learned that fossilized feces were frequently not exposed in public spaces, he decided to build a traveling exhibition that would be on display in museums across the United States. He first established the museum in 2014 as an online resource center.
“The enthusiastic response from visitors to these temporary exhibits highlighted the demand for a dedicated space where coprolites could be prominently showcased and their scientific significance thoroughly explored,” Frandsen added.
In order to follow his “crazy idea” of launching a Poozeum, he abandoned his job at a large healthcare company, sold his property, and relocated 2,000 miles to Williams, which is known as the Grand Canyon’s gateway.
There, tourists can see pieces such as the largest known fossil of a carnivorous animal’s stool, which measures 67.5 cm (26.6 inches) by 15.7 cm (6.2 inches) and most likely originated from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Additionally, the collection includes some coprolites that have biting marks on their surface or teeth embedded in them. [...]
10 June 2024North Korea escalates tensions with South Korea
North Korea released waste and poop from balloons over crowded streets, in front of homes, and other public areas throughout South Korea, in Pyongyang’s most recent escalation of tensions with its southern neighbor.
As reported here, the military of South Korea claimed to have found over 260 balloons carrying trash and animal waste, accusing North Korea of carrying out an “inhumane and low-level” act. The balloons appeared to have been dispersed across the country, as local media reported seeing them as far south as Jeolla Province, which is close to the southernmost point of the South Korean mainland.
Images that were made public by the South Korean military revealed a variety of trash objects, some of which were combined with an undisclosed brown substance, lying around on front porches and in the streets, including in Seoul, the country’s capital. The military of South Korea warned in a statement that the acts are against international law and pose a major risk to public safety.
Some South Koreans living in bordering areas received text message notifications cautioning them not to go outside due to things they suspected to be from North Korea. Earlier this week, North Korea pledged to take “tit for tat action” in response to a well-known human rights activist launching anti-North Korea pamphlets and USB flash drives into the country that contained South Korean pop culture content.
Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called the waste-filled balloons a “genuine ‘gift of sincerity'” and an act of “freedom of expression” on the part of the North Korean people in a sarcastic statement.
The statement seemed to make fun of remarks made by South Korean officials, who have stated that they cannot be held responsible for their failure to prevent specific activists from distributing flyers in the North. Kim claimed that North Korea would send “dozens of times” more balloons into the South in response to similar leaflet launches in the future. The remark was posted to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Balloon wars
For an extended period, the dictatorial regime of North Korea has voiced complaints over South Korean activists who float anti-Pyongyang materials and other goods into the country. The leaflets, which are occasionally bundled with valuables like dollar banknotes or USB flash drives, frequently make fun of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, or the country’s record on human rights.
Park Sang-hak, a prominent human rights activist and defector from North Korea, has come under heavy fire from North Korea, specifically for sending roughly 20 big balloons into the country. It was Park’s first launch following the repeal of a regulation prohibiting such launches by the Constitutional Court of South Korea.
During the administration of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who attempted to strengthen ties with North Korea, the law was passed. President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who succeeded him, has adopted a more aggressive attitude against the North. Even though it hates the leaflet launches, North Korea sent its own propaganda into the South for decades in revenge.
The host of the NK News Podcast on North Korea-related issues, Jacco Zwetsloot, is headquartered in Seoul and stated that the North’s leaflets were a part of a decades-long campaign to win over South Koreans and foster mistrust toward their government. However, he claimed that the most recent balloon releases containing excrement seem to signal a shift in North Korea’s strategy against the South.
“Once you send poop — or poopy toilet paper or trash — that’s liable to get the people offside rather than on side,” Zwetsloot said. “It could be part of the strategy of finding South Koreans hopelessly tainted and unworthy of being part of future unification plans with the North Korean populace.”
Pyongyang officially abandoned its long-standing objective of Korean reunification earlier this year and declared the South to be its permanent adversary.
Wider tensions
The actions align with North Korea’s growingly belligerent discourse towards the South, prompting several observers to surmise that Kim might be arranging a more serious provocation, potentially involving a cross-border conflict.
It is unclear, meanwhile, if Kim will go beyond his current practice of sporadically waging “gray zone warfare” methods, which are not the same as acts of war. In a particularly risky action, North Korea crossed the border with five small reconnaissance drones in late 2022; one made it as far north as Seoul, the country’s capital.
North Korea announced that its most recent attempt to send a military spy satellite into orbit had failed because the satellite’s rocket exploded soon after takeoff. As part of its attempts to keep an eye on the US forces stationed in the area, North Korea successfully launched its first spy satellite last year and has pledged to launch several more too.
The deputy minister of national defense for North Korea accused the United States and South Korea of “openly intensifying” their air espionage and naval patrol operations close to the inter-Korean border in a statement. According to the statement, the army of North Korea was directed by its “supreme military leadership” “to take offensive action against the enemy’s provocative encroachment.” [...]
3 June 2024Miklós Kiss’s neo-pop work combines art with toilets
Pop&Roll invites people to enter an immersive art gallery and store that also functions as a public restroom in Budapest. The space features vivid colors and a variety of neo-pop art references. Every element, from the interiors and graphic design to the concept and function, captures the lighthearted sensibility of Miklós Kiss’s fine art works.
As explained here, nearly 100 of his artworks are on exhibit, with the walls, furniture, and each of the 20 restrooms acting as canvases. The images are inspired by the pixel-based games of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the interiors of Budapest’s Eastern European spas and swimming pools. The distinct spatial experience is a public artwork in itself, an avant-garde approach to art exhibitions that ignites creativity in one of the most unexpected places.
The Art Gallery, Art Shop, and Art Toilet are the three separate yet related areas that make up Pop&Roll. Each piece created by Hungarian artist Miklós Kiss aims to provide a fresh, fascinating, and accessible way to interact with and experience the world of contemporary art. The restroom area is a multisensory experience that is enhanced by carefully chosen music and scent. The music transports players to the realm of a fictional video game as they advance through a dungeon battle scene and eventually reach victory. The centerpiece of the Art Shop is a massive toy monkey with its limbs and legs changed into seats so that guests can relax. Its facial characteristics spell out ENJOY.
Goldenroaches and Emograms, originally graphic visuals and NFTs by Kiss, are dotted throughout Pop&Roll. A word’s letters make up the faces of the figures, which can be used to convey feelings, ideas, or just self-reflection. The pieces are displayed as though they are museum artifacts at the front by storage cabinets.
The irony of living in the era of social media also permeates the entire interior. This is also implied by the humorous caption of the enormous mouth mural that greets guests at the entrance: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY LIKE. The walls inside are covered with likes.
‘How many likes will this space get?’ Miklós Kiss playfully asks questions. As a result, the area takes on new meaning as a result of its daring combination of design, art, and functionality that encourages guests to pull out their phones, take a picture, and post it online.
Photos by Daniel Herendi [...]
27 May 2024Toilet bowls can be a good garden decoration
According to BBC, with his lavatorial garden display, a humorous and inventive resident has the villagers enthralled. The 58-year-old Andy Maddams of Manea, Cambridgeshire, repurposed two ancient toilets into plant pots.
Though “not particularly green-fingered,” he felt the first abandoned loo would make an eye-catching planter when he came across it while tidying his garden. The porcelain pair now occupies a prominent position in his front garden, which he stated served as a useful signpost for the rural village’s delivery vehicles.
“I was clearing my garden a few years back, after moving here, when I came across a virtually new unused toilet bowl,” said Mr. Maddams.
“It was in mint condition, so I didn’t want to chuck it in the skip.”
“I had a ‘lightbulb moment’—I used to have a wheelbarrow as a planter, so I thought I could do the same with the toilet. I put a conifer in it, and it looked quite nice.”
He continued: “Then a year or two later, my neighbor, Jim, was re-fitting his bathroom, and he came over to see me and gave me a second, almost identical loo. I couldn’t resist it, so now I have his and her toilets.”
“I sometimes get delivery drivers phone me when they can’t find my place, and I just mention the two toilets, and they track me down easily.”
“It’s a great way to locate my property; cyclists and runners know them very well. People go past giggling, it’s a bit of fun.”
“They are weighted down with stones, so are pretty heavy”.
When Mr. Maddams entered the local scarecrow competition two years ago, he made an effigy of Albert Einstein, the scientist, sitting on a toilet with his trousers around his ankles.
However, the day before the judging, someone stole his head, which Mr. Maddams admitted had “rather spoiled the effect”.
The use of strange objects in gardens is a focus of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Its chief horticulturist, Guy Barter, said: “Found objects can make great planters, for negligible cost and can often induce a very satisfying, startled double-take in passers-by.”
“Old drums from washing machines, wellington boots, socks, jeans, oil drums, old water tanks, airing cupboard copper cylinders cut down, even brassieres – suitably supported—as long as there is ample drainage and a suitable potting compost, free of peat, will support plants.”
“Sanitary ware is no exception, but do take the greatest care with disinfection.” [...]
20 May 2024The video went viral but more explicit clips were removed
As reported in this article, German politician Martin Neumaier recorded a video of himself licking public restrooms inside a railway station. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) candidate for the Ostalb district was shown in the video that went viral on social media putting his face into a toilet and licking the toiletries, which included a brush. In addition, the controversial figure posted videos of himself engaging in sexual activity online. The website took down the majority of the videos that went popular on X; however, in one of those videos, Neumaier is shown “masturbating rectally with a sex toy” and singing the German national hymn from the Nazi era.
He licked the metal fixtures of a urinal and a seated toilet, which disgusted many users on social media, including native German speakers. In the video, Neumaier is heard stating that it was a part of his “punishment,” although he doesn’t go into much more detail. In another video that has since been taken down from social media, he played the former Chancellor Adolf Hitler and created a mustache out of poo.
Das hier ist Martin Neumaier, Listenplatz 2 für den Stadtrat. Die Kommunalwahl Aalen/ Ellwangen findet am 09.06.24 statt.Er leckt auf den Bahnhofsklo das Pissoirs und Klobürste ab🤮 pic.twitter.com/ATdvtBHTEx— Marlyn (@AngelikaStratm6) May 15, 2024
In the upcoming local elections in the Swabian city of Aalen, where 70,000 voters are expected, Neumaier is the FDP’s candidate. Videos showing Neumaier ridiculing the holy texts of religion and the German national anthem before the city’s council election startled a lot of people.
No one knows how the video was leaked to the public, and the guy hasn’t said why he was doing that.
Dr. Gareth Nye, a medical expert, explains the impact of the man’s actions.
“Toilets, especially public ones, are not something I would ever recommend someone licking. This goes even more for toilet brushes and other related tools. The good news for this person is that they are extremely unlikely to pick up many STIs (sexually transmitted infections) from this activity, with viral-based STIs not surviving more than a few seconds on a surface like a toilet seat.”
“It wouldn’t be likely to die from doing this activity, but you are certainly going to be quite unwell and likely have some nasty gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea.”
And another medical expert, who didn’t want to be named given the grotesque nature of the story, said: “Rubbing poo is going to give you a rash because it’s dry and irritant, which will be painful. It can put you at risk of developing candida, which is a fungus bacteria and can be painful to treat.”
A spokesman for the FDP said: “We have decided to end support for the candidate in question with immediate effect. In order to fully investigate the incident and impose appropriate sanctions, we have initiated party regulatory proceedings to expel you from the party. We are committed to transparency as this investigation progresses and will provide regular updates on our progress.” [...]
13 May 2024The unpublished photos were taken in 1998 for COLORS Magazine and are about human and animal poop
As reported here, a new exhibit by the famous Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani (born in 1942 in Milan) about poop took place at Galleria Lampo in Milan from February 21st, 2024, to March 24th, 2024.
“Poop is the only thing a human being takes without copying others; there’s nothing more personal, and every time it’s a work of art,” said the photographer.Human and animal stools (such as those of chimpanzees, cows, giraffes, hyenas, pigs, lions, ducks, goldfish, pythons, buffalos, tigers, and crickets) are the protagonists of ‘CACAS: Non è tutto oro quel che luccica‘ (Poops: Not all that glitters is gold).
Cow poop
Guinea pig poop
Llama poop
Nicolas Ballario who organized the exhibit, says: “With the title ‘Not all that glitters is gold’, we want to warn people that things are not as they seem. Toscani subverts fear and uses these words positively, showing that art can fascinate everything, including poop, which stands out in his photos.”
CACAS presents some works made by COLORS in 1998 (the magazine Toscani and Tibor Kalmon founded in 1991 and published until 2014) that haven’t been shown. However, the tidbit was the sponsor: Sebach, an Italian company leader in renting portable sanitation solutions, which not only promoted the exhibit but also created a custom set-up for the occasion. But it wasn’t the first collaboration with Toscani. In 2006, the photographer restyled the brand using an upside-down heart, which marked a breakthrough in the company’s communication.
Oliviero Toscani has worked for the most famous magazines and brands in the world, creating pictures and advertising campaigns for Fiorucci, Toyota, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Environment and Health, Artemide, Croce Rossa Italiana, Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, …
He collaborates with magazines such as Elle, Vogue, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Stern, Liberation, and L’Espresso moving between Parigi, Milano, Londra, and New York. Above all, he created the identity of the United Colors of Benetton brand, shifting the communication strategy towards messages of peace and tolerance, social problems like AIDS and the death penalty, integration, and equality.
He conceived and directed COLORS Magazine, including the Fabrica research center, and founded La Sterpaia, a laboratory on modern communication. He was awarded prestigious awards such as four times the Leone D’Oro at the Festival of Cannes, twice the Gran Premio d’Affichage, the Gran Premio of UNESCO, the Creative Hero Award of Saatchi & Saatchi and several awards from the Art Directors Club from all around the world. [...]
6 May 2024An eco-friendly treasure
Paper is a significant source of waste generated in homes, workplaces, and educational institutions. It is essentially limited to using two sides before it degrades into another piece of rubbish. An estimated 2 million trees are felled every day in the world, most of which are used to produce the paper we use daily. The good news is that an increasing number of wood pulp paper substitutes are being developed daily, using a variety of resources like cotton, fruits, seaweed, and elephant dung.
How is it made?
Elephant waste is simply raw cellulose because they are herbivores.
According to this article, there are multiple phases involved in the process of making elephant poop paper. To get rid of bacteria, elephant dung is first gathered and steam-cleaned. After the dung has been cleansed, it is combined with gray paper pulp, which is made by tearing up old maps and soaking them in water. The boiling and cooking process helps separate the lignin and acts as a disinfectant. To increase the strength of the paper, fillers like cotton rags are occasionally added.
After that, the mixture is stretched over a mesh frame to create a rectangle, which is then flattened with a rolling pin and sandwiched between two pieces of dry felt. Elephant poop paper is produced by absorbing excess water and letting it dry for around 24 hours. This is an environmentally beneficial and sustainable substitute for paper products made from traditional trees.
All the things they make contain about 70% recycled paper and 30% dung, so it’s a completely natural substance.
Why is it eco-friendly?
Elephant dung may not have been the first material that came to mind if you were searching for environmentally friendly products. However, given that an adult elephant can produce up to 200 kg per day, they are definitely not in short supply! Even the process of making elephant dung paper, which is a very ecological choice, requires less water, energy, and carbon emissions than the technique used to make ordinary paper.
Poop paper and environment
Elephant dung paper is produced in an environmentally safe way, therefore, it is free of acid and chlorine. Since 1997, Maximus, a company based in rural Sri Lanka, has been making paper made from elephant dung.
The excellent Maximus Elephant Conservation Trust (also known as Eco Maximus) is a Fair Trade organization. It is dedicated to the principles of sustainable development and the well-being of people, animals, and the environment.
Farmers and rural people now gain economically from the coexistence of elephants since they can earn money from collecting elephant dung, which is now used to make paper. In order to further the mutually beneficial relationship and improve the lives of both humans and elephants, they also hire and teach local artists to design the products.
As if that weren’t enough, a portion of the trust’s profits are given to the Millennium Elephant Foundation (MEF), a small charity that looks after sick, old, and disabled elephants. The elephants at the foundation are especially vulnerable without the attention they receive there. By buying and using elephant dung goods, you’re actively enhancing the future of Sri Lanka’s magnificent elephant population. [...]
29 April 2024When fashion meets bodily fluids
High fashion has always been known for pushing boundaries, but “pee-stained” jeans kind of win the prize, especially considering how expensive they are, which is a reality now.
As explained here, Jordanluca is a clothing brand that sells jeans online. They go by the name “Stain Stonewash,” and they currently have a lighter wash pair available for $608 instead of the $800 they often go for.
And no, we’re not kidding when we say these things look pee-stained—that’s precisely how they’re meant to look. And as it happens, people are interested in it since these items are almost completely sold out right now!
The Jordanluca jeans made their fashion debut during the F/W23 at Milan Fashion Week, and it seems they left a mark, as they are still in high demand.
Even though you could often feel ashamed to urinate on your clothes or leave any trace of a tinkle behind, it appears that fashion-forward thinkers are embracing it.
The general response online is a resounding “nope” to these jeans, although high-end fashionistas have obviously been blowing their cash on them. Even though some people on X are complaining, the truth is that they’re undoubtedly well-liked.
One more amazing thing about this is that comedian Tim Robinson actually touched on this idea previously, doing a whole TV sketch on it.
His show “I Think You Should Leave” made fun of the notion of a website that offered pissy pants to help guys hide the fact that they might have been a little messy. It has now sprung to life. Another instance of life imitating art. [...]
22 April 2024The reason behind their attraction
The saying “flies on poop” is quite well-known, however, it normally uses a coarser word than “poop.” We probably haven’t ever questioned the deeply rooted belief that flies are drawn to excrement, as it is part of our common sense. After all, flies like to congregate around the dirtiest things—from dead animals and rotten food to overflowing trash cans. But, as the Western Exterminator points out, flies are also interesting animals. They are not like humans in the way they move, breed, or eat.
For example, because they can’t chew solid food, houseflies usually only consume liquids. According to this article, they regurgitate digestive juices onto solid foods and these juices break down the food into small pieces, allowing them to use their mouth-parts, called proboscis, to drink the meal. Because their chemonsensilla, or receptors, are found on their feet, flies can literally taste with them. In other words, flies basically land on something to eat it.
Flies find poop delicious and helpful
When flies land on anything tasty, like your food or anything else, “They will often wander around to give their next meal a good taste before consuming it.” To provide their larvae, or maggots, with food when they hatch, flies also frequently deposit their eggs on a variety of surfaces, including rotting fruit and carcasses. Naturally, this indicates that flies are not very hygienic. They only need to land on food or dishes to spread all kinds of bacteria, such as salmonella and E. coli.
To put it simply, flies are attracted to the smell of excrement, according to Matan Shelomi, a PH.D. in entomology, who answered a question on Quora. Meanwhile, a reader points out that because feces are so nutritious, flies are typically drawn to them. It’s suggested that “Feces contain large amounts of dead and alive bacteria, fats, proteins, indigestible carbohydrates (like cellulose — fiber), minerals, and trace amounts of other nutritious goodies.” Despite having no nutritional benefit for humans, flies have special needs. For them, excrement serves as both a secure nesting site and a nourishing food. [...]
15 April 2024The Mariko Aoki phenomenon
According to this article, Harvard-trained gastroenterologist Dr. Saurabh Sethi caused a stir on social media when he posted on TikTok about how going to your favorite big-box store, bookstore, or coffee shop could signal your intestines when it’s time to go.
@doctorsethimd Doctor Explains Why Shopping May Trigger Urgent Restroom Trips 🤯 Ever felt an urgent need to rush to the bathroom while browsing through bookstores or relaxing in a coffee shop? Is this phenomenon familiar to you? Share your stories in the comments. #shoppingaddict #healthtips #medicaltiktok ♬ original sound – Doctor Sethi
“A lot of my patients have shared with me that they have also experienced the same thing.”
The Daily Mail claims that the unusual event got its name from a woman who, while visiting a bookstore in Japan, would get the sudden urge to go to the bathroom. Even though other people acknowledged having the same experience, it doesn’t seem like anyone was able to identify the exact cause at the time.
According to Dr. Sethi, it might be because of specific odors, like those of books and coffee. He claimed that being around coffee might, in a sense, speed things up, even if you don’t drink it.
Therefore, going to Target—many of which have Starbucks locations right at the door—or Barnes & Noble—which of course has its requisite cafe—may have you searching for the closest restroom.
Another notion suggests that the smells of ink and paper together could function as a natural laxative, although further research is needed to confirm this. Additionally, the way we browse for books—often stooping to reach lower shelves—may speed up a trip to the restroom.
Furthermore, excessive relaxation or anxiety can trigger the unexpected emotion that comes with shopping, according to Dr. Sethi. The doctor described how the occurrence is almost a blessing for some constipation sufferers, knowing of individuals who “visit specific stores daily to make their bowels move.”
“Yes! Barnes & Noble, and also my favorite supermarket,” one commenter exclaimed.
“Library in college always did it to me,” recounted one.
“Happens with me every time I am shopping,” another confessed.
This condition is known as the Mariko Aoki phenomenon. As mentioned before, a Japanese woman first wrote about experiencing this in 1985, describing feeling a strong urge to have a bowel movement upon entering a bookstore, even if she had no previous need to go.
This phenomenon is a relatively common experience, with many people reporting similar reactions in bookstores and libraries.
The exact cause is not fully understood, but it is thought to be related to psychological factors and associations between books/reading and the digestive system. It is not considered a medical condition, but rather an unusual physiological response triggered by a specific environment.
While not harmful, the phenomenon can be inconvenient or embarrassing for those who experience it unexpectedly when browsing books. It is discussed and recognized, particularly in Japanese culture, where Mariko Aoki’s original account helped bring widespread attention to the phenomenon.
However, I think this phenomenon is not strictly related to bookstores; it deals more with a sort of psychological relaxation effect that happens when our mind undergoes relaxing stimuli, a bit like hypnosis, in which it is transported to unrestrained thoughts, and the body relaxes as a result. So it can happen when we are in the supermarket wandering the aisles carefree, in a bookshop, or even looking at an old house that takes our mind to distant but pleasant thoughts. I, therefore, believe that the effect is about being surrounded by exclusively positive stimuli that cause a complete relaxation effect, which consequently also causes a bowel movement. [...]
8 April 2024Understanding and mitigating toilet aerosol plumes
Each time you flush a toilet, small water droplets are released into the surrounding air in plumes. These droplets, known as aerosol plumes, have the potential to expose users of public bathrooms to infectious diseases and spread pathogens from human waste.
As explained here, because aerosol plumes are generally invisible, scientific comprehension of their propagation and public knowledge of their existence have been hindered. With the use of high-power lasers, John Crimaldi, Aaron True, Karl Linden, Mark Hernandez, Lars Larson, and Anna Pauls were able to picture and measure the spread of aerosol plumes from flushing commercial toilets in great detail.
Up instead of down
During the flush cycle, water is forced into the bowl’s contents, causing a thin spray of particles to fly into the air.
Within eight seconds of the flush beginning, researchers discovered that a standard commercial toilet produces a powerful upward jet of air that travels at speeds greater than 6.6 feet per second (2 meters per second). This jet quickly carries these particles up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) above the bowl.
In their lab, they installed a standard lidless commercial toilet with a flushometer-style valve, which is widely available across North America, in order to view these plumes. Flushometer valves distribute water into the bowl through the use of pressure instead of gravity. They lit the area from the top of the bowl to the ceiling with a thin vertical sheet of laser light created by using sophisticated optics. The aerosol particles scatter enough laser light to become visible after flushing the toilet using a remote electrical trigger, which enables us to photograph the particle plume with cameras.
They were taken aback by the force with which the jet expelled the particles from the bowl, despite their expectation that they would be present.
A related study predicted the creation of aerosol plumes using a computational model of an idealized toilet; the model showed that particles would travel upward above the bowl at a rate of roughly 3.3 feet per second (1 meter per second), which is about half of what they saw when using a real toilet.
Why lasers?
For many years, scientists have been aware that aerosol particles can be released into the air when toilets are flushed. Nevertheless, to determine the quantity and size of particles that toilets produce, experimental research has predominantly relied on devices that collected air samples at fixed sites.
Although these previous approaches can verify the existence of aerosols, they don’t tell us anything about the physics of the plumes—that is, how big they are, how quickly they move around, or how they look. The development of mitigation techniques to lessen the creation of aerosol plumes and their potential to spread disease depends on this information.
Using lasers to determine the many ways that complex fluid flows move different things is a field of John Crimaldi’s laboratory as an engineering professor whose research focuses on the linkages between fluid physics and ecological or biological processes. These things are frequently invisible until we use lasers to illuminate them.
One benefit of measuring fluid flows with laser light is that, in contrast to a physical probe, light does not interfere with or change what is being measured. Additionally, since humans are visual creatures, employing lasers to make invisible objects visible helps in their understanding of the complexities of the dynamic environment they live in.
Aerosols and disease
Important human disease vectors are aerosol particles that carry diseases. People may be exposed to respiratory problems from smaller particles that remain in the atmosphere for a while. When larger particles come into contact with the hands or lips, they can easily settle on surfaces and spread intestinal infections like norovirus.
Pathogen concentrations in feces-contaminated toilet bowl water can last for dozens of flushes. Whether or not toilet aerosol plumes pose a risk of transmission is still up for debate.
Limiting toilet plume spread
The experimental methodology employed here lays the groundwork for future investigations testing various solutions aimed at reducing the potential for disease exposure resulting from toilet flushing. This might entail evaluating modifications to the aerosol plumes emitted by newly designed toilet bowls or flush valves that alter the length or force of the flush cycle.
There are techniques that reduce human exposure to toilet plumes in the meantime. The obvious tactic is to close the lid before flushing. This does not, however, totally remove aerosol plumes, and many public, commercial, and healthcare restrooms lack lids. In the bathroom, exposure to aerosol plumes could potentially be reduced via UV disinfection systems or ventilation. [...]
1 April 2024Redefining the bathroom experience with a sculptural, functional masterpiece
Designer Samuel Ross created his first toilet for the bathroom brand Kohler with the intention of defying preconceived notions about what a lavatory should look like. The toilet will make its debut during Milan Design Week.
As explained in this article, the Formation 02 smart toilet has a striking orange color with an asymmetrical shape reminiscent of the sharp angles and edges of brutalist architecture.
Its porcelain bowl is encircled by a recycled epoxy resin shell featuring a craggy texture and portions that resemble natural rock, along with some surprising cutouts.
Formation 02, which is slated for limited production, is an attempt, according to Ross, to elevate the common toilet to the status of a “functional sculpture.”
“It has such an intensity that pulls you in by use of the colour and by use of the asymmetry,” he said. “So I would argue that it’s actually closer to a sculpture.”
“It’s also a new price band for that type of product, which will retail at roughly around $25,000 per unit,” he added.
“So it places itself in this incredible grey area in design at the moment, between object and artefact and design object versus functional object.”
After the unveiling of the angular Formation 01 tap at Design Miami last year, Kohler and Ross’s industrial design studio, SR_A have been working together to create several projects; the toilet is the most recent.
Ross, who came from the fashion industry and worked for Off-White under Virgil Abloh before starting his own streetwear brand, A Cold Wall, in 2015, views the collaboration as a chance to rethink the conventional sanitaryware market.
“There hasn’t necessarily been an aberrant on the shape and form that has been disruptive really since the 1960s or 70s,” he said. “It felt like there was such a familiarity with the object that it was one of the last unturned stones within service design.”
“What it is to be a designer, fundamentally, is to be on the edge of risk when it comes to proposing new ideas,” Ross added. “And this was about having a sense of risk and elastic thinking applied to a functional category.”
With this goal in mind, Ross approached the project more like a piece of art than a design assignment, sketching forms on paper rather than CAD files and KPIs.
“I wanted to produce forms that had not been seen before,” he said. “So I wanted to start from a very pure standpoint, which was pen and paper, feeling, and emotion, to determine where we should go in the process.”
In addition to being bright orange, Ross claims that the final design is more “extroverted” than a typical toilet since it is higher and significantly wider. Kohler developed a recycled epoxy resin that was molded into unique moulds and fitted around the ceramic base of the toilet, giving it its various facets and rough, textured sides.
“If we think about the use of textured or recycled epoxy in toilets, it literally doesn’t exist,” Ross said. “So what we’re proposing is pretty much category creation within sanitary solutions.”
“The way in which texture comes into play, the amount of concaves and convexes that have been worked into on the epoxy, which we actually patented as part of the partnership between SR_A and Kohler—all of these advents are new.”
Together, Ross aspires to help the user initially perceive the toilet as a sculpture, prior to learning about its operational capabilities and technological integration. This comprises a nightlight, a heated seat, and a touchscreen control that may be used to operate the bidet, in addition to opening, flushing, and cleaning the toilet.
The Milanese art and design gallery Spazio Maiocchi will be the toilet’s first permanent location after being unveiled as part of a temporary installation during Milan Design Week.
“For the most part, if we’re being really honest, they’re going to be put into galleries, into museums, into high-value corporations, that have an affinity for the arts or value aesthetics,” Ross said.
Other recent attempts to reinvent the toilet have mostly concentrated on functionality. For example, Samsung and Bill Gates collaborated to create a toilet that burns waste “into ashes,” while Swedish bathroom brand Harvest Moon introduced a compost toilet that doesn’t require water. [...]
25 March 2024Be careful using leaves as toilet paper
Deep in the rainforests of eastern Australia lies one of the world’s worst botanical nightmares: the Dendrocnide moroides, more commonly called the Australian giant stinging tree or “devil’s toilet paper plant.” This simple tree packs an incredibly potent sting, delivered by needle-like appendages on its leaves and bark.
The intense pain caused by brushing up against a giant, stinging tree has been described as a fire rapidly spreading over the affected area. The anguish can last weeks or months, with the initial sting causing severe redness, swelling, and throbbing. Some unlucky souls who encountered the plant have been temporarily paralyzed or landed in the hospital.
So why is it called “devil’s toilet paper”? Because using the large leaves as makeshift toilet paper in the bush would be among the worst ideas imaginable. The silica-tipped needles that cover the plant can become lodged so deeply into the skin that trying to remove them often breaks off the tips, making the wound worse.
The tree’s unique defense mechanism evolved to ward off browsing animals. The needles act like miniature hypodermic needles that deliver a potent neurotoxin cocktail when they penetrate flesh. This venom causes exquisite agony by targeting the same pain receptors as those activated by red chili peppers or self-defense sprays.
The initial intense, burning sting can last for up to several hours or even a full day. This has been described as an incredibly severe, throbbing, swelling rash. After the initial sting, the affected area can remain painfully sensitive to cold and heat for many days or even weeks afterward. In some cases, the intense pain has been reported to last for months or over a year after being stung before fully subsiding.
There are a few recommended remedies that may provide some relief if stung by the Australian giant stinging tree:
Remove residual hairs/needles. Carefully remove any plant hairs/needles still stuck in the skin using sticky tape or a wax hair removal strip. Don’t try to pull them out, as this can break off the tips under the skin.
Apply diluted hydrochloric acid. Carefully swabbing a diluted hydrochloric acid solution (like you’d find in gastric/stomach acid) can help neutralize the toxic pedunculate venom.
Taking over-the-counter antihistamines like fexofenadine or loratadine can help reduce inflammation, itching, and swelling from the sting.
Use hot wax. Applying industrial hot wax or gunk remover can allow the resin to cool and peel off, removing trapped needles/toxins.
Pain medication. For severe, throbbing pain, OTC anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen or even prescription pain meds may be required, particularly in the first few days.
Anesthetic creams. Topical anesthetic ointments containing ingredients like lidocaine or benzocaine can temporarily numb the area.
Seeing a medical professional is highly recommended, as the intense sting can potentially cause anaphylaxis in some cases. Most home remedies only provide partial, short-term relief from the immense agony inflicted by this tree’s stings.
Coyote Peterson, a wildlife educator and adventurer known for his daring encounters with various creatures and plants, volunteered to get stung by the Devil’s Toilet Paper plant to raise awareness about the excruciating pain caused by its sting. Peterson’s experience with this plant was documented in the following video, where he demonstrated the effects of the sting and provided valuable information on how to treat it. [...]
18 March 2024The evolving landscape of toilet design and public perception
As reported here, in Wim Wenders’ most recent film, Perfect Days, we follow Koji Yakusho’s character Hiroyama as he cleans the restrooms of the Tokyo Toilet Project. The restrooms in question are housed in buildings created by legendary architects Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma, and they are undoubtedly far superior to even the most luxurious public restrooms in the country or anywhere else.
The Tokyo Toilet Project was started by retail executive Koji Yanai in 2020, and it was intended to gain international attention during the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, the pandemic destroyed those plans. Yanai then reached out to the directors he admired to see if they would be interested in collaborating on the project.
The New York Times reports that Wenders, a longstanding “admirer” of Japan, fell for the ruse. Perfect Days has gotten mainly positive reviews and is nominated for a 2024 Academy Award. However, some reviewers have quickly pointed out that Wenders is essentially fetishizing Japan and blue-collar workers. Still, the toilets themselves—aside from Yakusho—are the true stars of the film.
Although Wenders probably wanted viewers to contemplate motionlessness, slowness, and the indescribable beauty of the ordinary, what’s most intriguing about the movie is the respect the toilet receives. Though there have been some initiatives, at least in the US, to improve their state, public restrooms are generally not in a place where you want to spend a lot of time.
In 2017, Bryant Park’s restroom received a makeover thanks to a $300,000 private funding project. New flowers were placed on the countertops, classical music was played on the speakers, and restroom attendants made for a pleasant experience using the public bathroom.
People might use public restrooms more frequently if they were spotless and felt less like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Any attention paid at all to the plight of the toilet, both aesthetically and functionally, is good news. Sure, it will take some time for the rest of the world to catch up to the level of cleanliness, service, and hospitality provided by, say, a public bathroom in a Taipei train station (very clean).
Fascinatingly, the possibilities for toilet developments in your home have become wide-ranging and, to be honest, weirdly fascinating, even though it will probably be a while before the state of public restrooms improves in any appreciable way.
Toilet closets, essentially a small room in the bathroom where the toilet lives, are a mainstay of HGTV renovations and real-life renovations alike. Toilets are traditionally white porcelain eyesores and a part of the bathroom that many designers hide. This is because no one wants to look at or think about a toilet and what happens in it.
However, not every renovated or pre-existing house has the room to conceal the toilet, because everyone poops—to borrow a phrase from a well-known children’s book. There are plenty of choices if you play around with the toilet and make it the center of attention.
To commemorate their 150th anniversary, Kohler brought back colors from their past in 2023. They offered tubs, sinks, and toilets in Peachblow and Spring Green, two muted pastels similar to those you could find in a bathroom with colorful vintage tiling. For 2024, they rooted around in the archives and reissued three greens: Aspen Green, an on-trend, soft sage; Teal, a dark and moody blackened green; and Fresh Green, an almost-avocado hue that suggests the eternal optimism of spring.
You might have come across Bailey Hikawa’s 3D phone cases if you’ve been on Instagram for any length of time. Her newest obsession has been with toilets—resin seats covered in hair and cell phones from the year 2000. If you’re not comfortable remodeling your entire bathroom to accommodate a dark-colored toilet, think about going with a minimalist bathroom with a maximalist toilet seat as a simple way to embrace the ridiculousness of the piece itself.
Hikawa’s recent forays would feel at home in an industrial bathroom in a cafe serving adaptogen-infused lattes; there’s a nasty and subversive quality to her creations that begs the user to linger.
If the toilet is usually white porcelain and has no other color, texture, or finish, it feels especially impractical. Perhaps this is a sign that we’re moving away from the staid and toward an aesthetic that’s a little more playful and, dare I say, practical. It’s never fun to clean a bathroom. These manufacturers appear to be arguing that if your home expresses your personality in so many other ways, your bathroom ought to as well.
Toto and other Japanese toilet manufacturers are notoriously luxurious because they provide customers the feeling of a true spa experience right in the comfort of their own home. Even though they have a generally pleasing appearance, they have a cold, sterile feel that conveys utility rather than fun. While Toto’s high-end products may seem to be the pinnacle of toilet innovation, several brands recently introduced choices that truly combine style and functionality.
Just three items are available from the French bathroom brand Trone: two wall-mounted toilets and a matching wall-mounted plate that regulates the flush. Released in 2021, Callipyge is exquisite enough to serve as the focal point of the bathroom while having a slight resemblance to the Guggenheim. The toilet bowl is rimless, but it doesn’t have the bidet features that Toto and other high-end models have. In a traditional toilet, water flushes from under the bowl’s lip when you flush, but in a rimless model, the water flushes horizontally along the sides, making cleaning easier.
With the Numi 2.0, for example, which has a slight resemblance to a nice garbage can and is equipped with all the expected bells and whistles—LED lights, warm air blasting on your nether regions, temperature-controlled water in a bidet function that cleans both your front and back—Kohler has also taken this on. Perhaps most important, though, is integration with Alexa.
Then there are the companies that combine style and elegance. Agape Design, an Italian sanitaryware brand, features work from designers such as Studiopepe, Angelo Mangioratti, and Patricia Uriquola, whose 2015 Shimmer Table for Glas Italia has now been copied to the point of feeling ubiquitous. Agape Design treats sinks and toilets with the same thoughtful consideration one might give a kitchen or a primary suite. Pears 2, the 2019 toilet she created for Agape, has a rather conventional appearance to reduce confusion in the bathroom, but it sticks out because of its striking hue and simple lines.
Although Agape and Trone’s European minimalism is one direction the bathroom has gone, plenty of individuals are experimenting with kitsch as well.
It’s noteworthy that while so much innovation of private space is happening in private homes, we’ve stalled out on the private ones in public spaces The idea behind the development of a project such as the Tokyo Toilet Project is more similar to the choice of toilet you might make for your home than it might initially seem. That is, everyone should be able to find some beauty in the ordinary, because only then can we break up the monotony of a typical, everyday life. [...]
11 March 2024Pros and cons of drinking your own urine
It’s probably making you gag just to think about it. But if you’re interested in wilderness survival, you’ve undoubtedly wondered about the consequences of drinking urine.
As reported here, it is legitimate to ask: A person can expect to live for around three minutes without air, three hours without shelter in bad weather, three days without water, and three weeks without food, according to the commonly cited Rule of Threes. Getting a drink of water should be your top priority if you’re actually stranded far from a creek or pond. You may even find your thirst stronger than your gag response after a day or two.
However, “should you drink your own pee?” and “can you drink your own pee” are two different questions. Anyway, no, consuming your output won’t make you sick.
However, that only works if you’re well-hydrated, and that’s not the topic at hand. Contrary to what you may have seen on television, drinking pee can quickly drain your life force—it contains even more salts and minerals than seawater. After all, it’s wastewater; part of its purpose is to remove urea and other toxic materials from your body. Using a standard backpacking filter won’t help you at all. It also gets increasingly concentrated the longer you consume it.
Are you desperate or determined enough to go ahead and do it anyway? Urine must be allowed to evaporate completely before it can be collected. Pour the waste into a big container, add heat, capture and condense the vapor, and then transfer the clean water into another container. If you have a stove or a campfire, tinkle in your cookpot, put a cup inside (on a flat rock), cover the whole thing with your lid inverted so the handle points into the cup, and boil away.
Alternatively, you can build a solar still: Create a foot-deep hole and fill it with pee and any greenery you find. Place a cup in the middle. Cover the entrance with plastic, pull it taut, then use dirt and rocks to seal the edges. To ensure that the water drips into the cup, weigh the sheet over it with a stone. While the stove is quicker, the still might be able to extract more water from the soil. Anyway, you will only receive a small portion of what you put in both cases, and the water will taste like pee either way.
Distilling your own urine is not the best approach to obtaining water in an emergency. Rather, wait until the evening when the temperature drops and use that energy to look for any puddles or watering holes you may have missed (hint: animals tend to congregate around water sources in arid regions, so follow their footprints). Better yet, prevent the drama entirely by planning and packing more water than you think you need, informing someone where you left and when you expect to return, and carrying a satellite communicator if available. [...]
4 March 2024How access to sanitation boosts health, safety, and more
Despite having various names, including the loo, the WC, the lavatory, the privy, and the porcelain god, the toilet is one of the most commonplace items in life and is essential to civilization.
However, the issue of not having access to even a rudimentary pit latrine—which affects almost a third of the world’s population—may worsen. According to recent statistical research, there will be 11 billion people on the planet by the year 2100. Therefore, here are five ways that toilets improve the world, from promoting education to reducing illness:
1. Keeping people healthy
According to this article, improperly disposed human waste can result in serious illnesses. People who lack access to toilets commonly defecate outside, frequently close to residential areas or rivers that provide water for bathing or drinking. For example, the World Health Organization estimates that every minute, 290,000 gallons, or 1.1 million liters, of raw sewage enter India’s Ganges River.
Diarrheal diseases like cholera are brought on by contaminated water and affect a large number of individuals chronically. A fatal cholera outbreak that left over 25,000 people sick and over 392 people dead occurred in 2012 as a result of latrines in Sierra Leone and Guinea flooding due to heavy rains, according to news reports.
Fecal contamination-related diseases also result in stunted growth, low birth weight, malnourishment, and cognitive issues. Two out of the three main preventable causes of death for children under five are related to poor sanitation.
2. Preventing blindness
The primary cause of preventable blindness, trachoma, is spread by flies that only lay eggs on human feces. The bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, which also causes the sexually transmitted disease Chlamydia, is the cause of the illness. The disease can be spread by flies and contact with an infected person’s ocular discharge.
The World Health Organization estimates that 21.4 million people worldwide suffer from trachoma. Approximately 2.2 million of them are blind, while 1.2 million are visually impaired.
3. Keeping women safe
Women who live in areas without restrooms have to go farther to relieve themselves, which puts them at risk for sexual assault. Many women use “flying toilets”—basically, plastic bags they store in their homes—to minimize that risk. Flying toilets are an ideal habitat for pathogenic microorganisms, including the bacteria that cause trachoma.
4. Promoting school attendance
It’s still taboo to discuss toilet issues in many countries, especially with women. If the facility does not have private restrooms, young girls may decide not to go to school, which eventually restricts their access to education.
However, it’s not always an easy fix. As an example, some humanitarian workers have proposed building public restrooms. In November 2008, however, men were twice as likely as women to use the toilet blocks that had been built in Bhopal, India, as part of research.
5. Saving energy
The biomechanical energy in toilet waste is approximately ten times greater than the energy required to treat it. To recover drinking water and save energy, scientists and engineers are creating new methods of processing wastewater.
To develop sanitary waterless toilets that don’t require energy or a sewer connection and would cost less than five cents per user per day, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge.
A toilet has, therefore, several purposes beyond just holding waste. [...]
26 February 2024Innovations in toilet technology and sewage systems
Think about the toilet, that insignificant porcelain bowl that discreetly disposes of our waste multiple times a day. It’s not a design darling, nor is it a piece of technology that receives frequent dazzling improvements (though options like dual flushing, seat warming, and electronic bidets can surely make it more luxurious).
However, many designers, environmental engineers, and sanitation specialists wanting to bring about a paradigm change contend that toilets, along with our entire approach to sewage, are in dire need of modernization.
According to CNN, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that roughly one-third of indoor water use in US households is attributed to our wasteful practice of flushing. The use of water toilets has become more risky in many parts of the world because of climate change, which is bringing harsh droughts and flooding that overflow septic tanks and back up sewers. Innovation is especially needed in areas without access to running water or in disaster areas.
There may be a benefit to reevaluating our waste management practices: waste can be recycled to produce electricity, heat, and fertilizer.
“Waste is not waste, it’s a resource,” stated Finnish architect and artist Arja Renell, who introduced the subject to the Venice Architecture Biennale as the curator of her nation’s pavilion the previous year. Although she was not an authority in the field, she was concerned to discover that a portion of Venice’s wastewater is dumped straight into its canals and wanted to highlight the “dry” toilet as a circular approach to sanitation.
Renell told CNN over a video call that dry toilets, also known as “Huussi” in Finnish, are very common in remote summer cottages in Finland. They separate urine from stool and are vented to keep odors out. After using the restroom, users add peat or sawdust to the toilet bin. When the bin is filled, they transfer the waste over several months to a larger, airtight container to ensure that any microbes are eliminated.
Instead of using the typical synthetic fertilizer that emits greenhouse gases, the residual material, which is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, can be used as a natural fertilizer.
Those who live off the grid will be familiar with the dry composting process. In the US, people who cannot afford to build a neutralizing septic tank—which may cost thousands of dollars—or live in rural residences without access to a sewage system have traditionally constructed dry compost toilets as an alternative to flush toilets. According to environmental engineer Kelsey McWilliams, whose company Point of Shift installs circular sanitation systems around the nation, the demand for sustainable solutions will only increase in regions affected by flooding or drought.
“There are multiple states right now where people are working on changing the current building codes to allow not only compost toilets but more innovative solutions for people who want them,” she said. “Septic tanks are great—they served a purpose. They’re a very old type of technology, and they still generally protect our wells from human waste and bacteria. But there are better solutions.”
However, there are several obstacles to overcome before dry compost toilet use can be widely adopted, ranging from county or state laws to individual preferences. Installing and maintaining them in urban environments can be challenging, especially for larger homes than single-family homes. There’s also the issue of time: Many people may be put off if they have to wait up to a year for their waste to be safely recycled, and the repulsive feeling may be difficult to overcome.
“It’s asking people to care about something that they’re biologically attuned to be averse to,” McWilliams said.
Disappearing act
However, what if your waste could largely vanish from your toilet? Change:WATER Labs, a startup run by scientist and entrepreneur Diana Yousef, is posing this question to patent an evaporative material that has the potential to minimize waste buildup by up to 97% in a single day.
“We have developed a technology that we lovingly term ‘shrink wrap for crap,’” Yousef explained.
The “iThrone,” a low-cost, completely waterless portable toilet from Change:WATER Labs, holds human waste in a bag lined with special material. Yousef stated that the remaining material only needs to be recovered once every one to two months, but it still needs to be gathered and processed because it is recyclable but not neutralized.
The iThrone has been tested in disadvantaged communities in Uganda and Panama that lack access to safe sanitation since it was founded in 2018 by the Humanitarian Grand Challenge, an international acceleration award. Change: WATER Labs intends to expand the project’s scope. About 3.5 billion people, or 43% of the world’s population, were estimated to lack access to a toilet or latrine that was connected to wastewater treatment or safe disposal by the WHO and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Programme last year. Of those, almost a billion use buckets or dangerous pit latrines, or they defecate outside.
“When you shrink the waste at the point of production, essentially, you do a better job of containing it hygienically, so it cleans up communities”, Yousef said. “But then, on top of that, you are not using, or polluting, any water.”
Excrement isn’t currently processed by the iThrone, but Yousef claims that as time goes on, the device will “get more sophisticated” and that in the future it might be able to turn evaporated moisture from urine or feces into drinkable water or turn the leftover stored waste into renewable energy.
“I don’t think anyone living in a house with a flush toilet is within five or 10 years of saying, ‘Yeah, I want to give that up,’” she said. “But there are so many other applications. And they’re not all just for low-income or distressed, fragile populations. There’s public sanitation, green building, transportation. And there are so many places where people are tied to septic tanks.”
Upcycling waste
Sewer systems that are well-developed in cities can cause drastic changes that are invisible. For instance, San Francisco now mandates that new construction over 100,000 square feet have on-site wastewater recycling facilities, even as California struggles with an increasingly severe drought. Local startup Epic Cleantec is expanding its system to residential buildings, corporate campuses, factories, and hotels around the state. Epic Cleantec developed the first graywater reuse system in the city in the opulent high-rise Fifteen Fifty.
Meanwhile, a conventional sewage plant in a brand-new coastal development in the Swedish city of Helsingborg has undergone a complete makeover to become a cutting-edge new treatment facility known as RecoLab, which stands for “Recovery Lab.” RecoLab is a striking structure that uses air vents to dissipate odors. It is connected to all buildings in the new district via a three-pipe system that recycles and separates water that contains human waste (also known as blackwater) from low-water vacuum-based toilets, graywater from washing machines and bathtubs, and organic matter from food disposal systems. When the housing complex is finished in 2030, RecoLab will provide homes for 2,500 people.
“When you’re ‘source-separating’ the wastewater, it’s the same principle as when you’re separating plastic from metal—it’s easier to recycle,” explained Amanda Haux, business developer at RecoLab.
“Ninety-four percent of the wastewater in our cities is actually very easy to clean,” she said, but mixing in blackwater contaminates what could be a reusable resource.
RecoLab converts nitrogen and phosphorus from human waste and food compost into fertilizer pellets at a nearby facility, just like dry composting toilets do. While recycled water is used in the community swimming pool, biogas from recycled waste is converted for use as heating. Because of stringent Swedish government laws prohibiting the reuse of wastewater for human use, the plant does not currently recycle graywater. Haux, though, is hoping that will change—especially in cities where climate change may make water shortages more frequent.
Haux intends to someday build a rooftop garden and restaurant on RecoLab’s property, using its recycled water and fertilizer to grow ingredients, in order to showcase the project’s circularity. “The purpose is to raise awareness about wastewater as a resource. We shouldn’t hide it away in our cities,” she said. “This is actually a low-hanging fruit when we’re talking about circulation.”
Renell invited Haux to present at RecoLab at a fall seminar on innovative waste management techniques during the Venice Biennale. Even though they are on different ends of the spectrum, a large-scale urban sewage system and a simple dry toilet are both solutions to the same issue.
“So many people get so excited about this topic,” Renell said. “Of course, the urban scale feels a bit more daunting, but even within that, there are these amazing examples going on.”
“Going to the toilet needs to be quite simple,” Renell said. “If we want to compete with the current system, we need to provide something equally easy.” [...]
19 February 2024How bodily waste shapes emotions, disorders, gender roles, and moral views
As reported here, the flush toilet is ranked ninth in the history of inventions by the British public, slightly above the combustion engine, according to a 2010 survey. At number 22, toilet paper is at number 62, and diapers are preferable to sliced bread, which comes in at number 70. Do these rankings make a significant contribution to our understanding of human issues, or are they merely another example of British perversity?
If they are, psychology has overlooked it. The psychobiology of eating, sleeping, and sex has been extensively studied by psychologists, who have also dedicated a large number of journals to this subject. The movement of chemicals from the outer to the inner has been studied, but the traffic in the opposite direction has received less attention.
Rumors circulated by an enraged former Nazi leader claimed that Adolf Hitler‘s romantic life was hindered by a urine fetish. Charles Darwin suffered from “extreme spasmodic daily & nightly flatulence” for decades, with ringing in the ears preceding each episode. Carl Jung had a vision as a young student of God dropping “an enormous turd” on a cathedral while sitting on a golden throne. Seated on the privy, Martin Luther received his own spiritual revelations, suffered from constipation and urinary retention, and denounced the devil with a wide range of scatological terminology. In addition, another sufferer of constipation was Sigmund Freud.
Psychologists are more likely to come across excrement through Freud’s theories than through his digestive issues. Psychology students are well aware of the psychoanalytic movement’s founder’s assertion that toddlers find pleasure in holding onto and expelling their feces and that conflicts during this developmental stage may manifest as adult conflicts in an anal character structure. Fewer people are aware that Freud also described a urethral personality type that was characterized by “burning ambition” and hypothesized that repressing the urge to urinate on fire was a crucial step in the evolution of primitive man into a civilized species.
In the same way that people attempt to erase excrement from their memory, they also want to hide their bodily waste and prize the items that allow them to do so—flush toilets are ranked 73 positions above Facebook. Nick Haslam wrote the book Psychology in the Bathroom (Haslam, 2012) because he suspected psychology did the same thing—that is, it avoided looking at the toilet. “Imagine if 10% of human nature had been walled off by an irrational taboo. Wouldn’t you want to peek in and see what was hiding back there?’ Of course you would,” as social psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes in a review
It turns out that there is a significant amount of work on the psychology of excretion; however, it is frequently cryptic and scattered throughout the field. Scholars have examined an astounding array of phenomena related to excrement, such as various psychopathologies, personality traits, sexual aberrations, emotions, prejudices, and linguistic practices.
Mental disorders
To begin, let us consider psychopathology. Excretion plays a role in a variety of mental health conditions, including tics, paraphilias, obsessions, compulsions, and delusions. Strong anxieties about urinating in public, known as “paruresis,” are widespread and frequently limiting, restricting a person’s movements and inflicting humiliation and pain. One sufferer blacked out and even fell to the ground while attempting to find relief at a public restroom.
Despite sharing many characteristics with social anxiety, paruresis is distinct enough for one author to suggest a new category of phobias called “sphincteric phobias.” A study that measured men’s pee streams at a public urinal using a periscope in a nearby restroom stall proved that milder types of bashful bladder are common. The time to begin urinating increased steeply the closer another user stood to the unwitting participant (Middlemist et al., 1976).
Olfactory reference syndrome patients experience a distinct kind of anxiety when they worry that they are giving off an offensive, frequently faecal, stench. These phobias are obsessive-compulsive in nature and can occasionally become delusional. Patients have been known to interpret gifts of perfume or even nearby dogs’ barking as proof of their “alimentary stench.” In one well-known case, farting started to inspire safety rather than terror. According to Jungian analysis, a youngster employed flatulence as a means of constructing a “defensive olfactory container” to shield himself from worries of persecution and disintegration, thus forming a “protective cloud of familiarity” when threatened.
The ability to control one’s bowel and bladder in children is an important developmental step and a source of worry for parents, to the point where “accidents” are sometimes used as an excuse for the maltreatment of children. According to a recent study, adults who were forced to drink five cups of water and were not allowed to urinate were better able to resist unrelated temptations, like making rash financial decisions, than adults who had an empty bladder. Parents frequently seem to view toilet training as a model example for developing self-control, and this conclusion is not entirely without merit (Tuk et al., 2011).
Through history and throughout cultures, there has been great variation in approaches to achieving continence. In the Middle Ages, one cure for ‘pyssying in the bedde’ was eating ground hedgehog, and among the Dahomeans of West Africa, repeat offenders had a live frog attached to their waist to better control their behavior or gain self-control. According to shifting trends in child care, the pendulum has swung between strictness and laxity throughout contemporary Western history. While some psychologists formerly thought that childhood bedwetting, setting fires, and animal abuse were all related to adult criminality, more recent research has disproved this theory.
Coprolalia, which translates to “shit speech,” is a common symptom of Tourette’s disease. Scatological expressions are the most popular, while other kinds of profanities and impolite phrases may be used. The Marquise de Dampierre, a woman with “distinguished manners” who was originally documented by Jean Itard in 1825, would occasionally yell “shit and fucking pig”; another of Gilles de la Tourette’s initial instances was a kid who had a preference for “shitty arsehole.”
Excremental language seems to be preferred in many cultures, but there are exceptions, such as the peculiar Japanese term kusobaba (shit grandma).Given that scatological utterances are “the undisputed leader among the taboo themes” according to cross-cultural studies of swearing, the prevalence of excremental blurting in Tourette’s syndrome is undoubtedly not by coincidence (Ljung, 2011, p. 135). Abuse phrases with anal themes are extremely common, notably in the USA and Germany. The former relationship, according to controversial folklorist Alan Dundes (1984), was part of a larger pattern that also included a purported cultural affinity for flatulent music (such as wind and brass), toilet humor, and faecal foods (such as sausage). His analysis did not spare the USA, also finding anal themes to be rife in American football.Coprophilia and coprophagia are disgustingly literal, but coprolalia simply refers to excrement metaphorically. Eating excrement is common in a number of illnesses, such as psychosis, dementia, and intellectual disability. It has even been recorded as a spectacular form of malingering in the case of a defendant facing a third conviction under California’s ‘three strikes and you’re out’ law who stockpiled his excrement for several days before eating it in dramatic fashion. This was documented as an impressive example of malingering. Remarkably, young toddlers do not naturally oppose this behavior; according to research, two-year-olds willfully placed fake dog poop made of peanut butter and smelly cheese in their mouths (Rozin et al., 1986).
There is also evidence of fetishistic enjoyment of excrement, although perversions involving touching, sniffing, or peeing on other people or their belongings are more common.
Bowel and bladder complaints
Researchers in the fields of gastroenterology and psychosomatic medicine have proven that a significant psychological component is present in many complaints related to the bowel and bladder. For instance, a relatively prevalent illness called irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is characterized by constipation and chronic or recurrent diarrhea, along with discomfort, bloating, and abdominal pain. It co-occurs with a wide range of somatic diseases, such as dyspepsia, asthma, chronic fatigue and pain, dysmenorrhea, and fibromyalgia and has no clear organic origin. Individuals with IBS frequently report histories of maltreatment, somatize their distress, have trouble asserting themselves, and score highly on neuroticism measures (Talley et al., 1998).
Individuals with the illness often experience increased sensitivity to pain and visceral sensitivity; this feature is usually measured by slowly inflating a rectal balloon. According to brain scans performed during this type of distension, people with IBS exhibit abnormally high levels of pain center activation; however, these activations can also be partially attributed to anxiety and depression (Elsenbruch et al., 2010). It follows that the brain’s representation of emotion states influences visceral discomfort, contributing to the top-down mechanism of IBS rather than only the bottom-up.
Not all somatopsychic events related to excretion are related to digestive problems. Bladder issues can also have psychological causes and manifest as conversion symptoms in certain situations. For instance, it is widely known that experiencing physical or sexual abuse is highly linked to urine retention and other voiding disorders; survivors of abuse also exhibit higher rates of incontinence (e.g., Link et al., 2007). In summary, disrupted excretory functions are a common physical manifestation of adversity, stress, and suffering.
The anal character
Excretion has been linked to a wide variety of psychological disorders. It is also indirectly related to a normal personality. The most glaring example is Freud’s idea of the anal character, which is considered a discredited folly by the majority of modern personality psychologists (Haslam, 2011). The so-called “anal triad” of orderliness, obstinacy, and parsimony, according to Freud, are characteristics that group together in people who remember getting pleasure from holding back and emptying their intestines when they were young.
According to his theory, these characteristics—which include tightness with money, a rigid conscience, stubbornness, and a cleaning obsession—represent sublimations or reaction formations against these bowel habits. Afterwards, Ernest Jones and Karl Abraham added embellishments to Freud’s depiction, speculating that anal individuals are perfectionistic, pedantic, preoccupied with detail and classification, easily disgusted, work-obsessed, and joyless (Jones, 1918/1950).
Freud suggested that early bowel habits or toilet training would be linked to anal traits; however, research has not been kind to his theory, even though these features appear to be connected to an aversion to bodily waste. In perhaps the most entertaining study of this type, participants with anal features did poorly on a hand-eye coordination task while their arms were elbow-deep in a foul-smelling, “fecal-like” mixture of flour and used crankcase oil (Rosenwald et al., 1966). Nonetheless, notwithstanding Freud’s error regarding the genesis of the anal character, there is persistent proof that its characteristics do, in fact, constitute a coherent pattern.
Indeed, the anal character lives on as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), whose eight diagnostic features mirror it strikingly. Individuals diagnosed with OCPD exhibit a number of traits, including an obsession with details, rules, and lists, a perfectionistic nature, an excessive dedication to work and productivity, an inflexible and scrupulous moral code, rigidity, stubbornness, reluctance to delegate, thriftiness, and the incapacity to part with worn-out or worthless objects. A number of interconnected characteristics that are mainstays of contemporary personality psychology, such as perfectionism, authoritarianism, disgust-proneness, and conscientiousness, also bear traces of the anal character. The anal character stubbornly endures.
Excretion and morals
Excretion is particularly relevant to social psychology, even if it is evidently related to concerns that clinical, health, and personality psychologists find troubling. Despite being a very personal subject, it also touches on public emotions, moral judgments, and prejudices. Within the affective domain, excretion is most strongly associated with disgust and shame, two hitherto disregarded feelings that are tightly related to our bodies’ inherent unreliability and dirtiness (Nussbaum, 2004) as well as to each other (Giner-Sorolla & Espinosa, 2011).
Disgust indicates that something outside of oneself is contaminating, either symbolically—such as with rotten conduct—or literally—such as with feces and rotten food. Shame, on the other hand, conveys the belief that one is filthy or spoiled. Rules of sacredness and purity are broken, and moral revulsion is the result. The feeling can intensify moral condemnation, even in cases where it has nothing to do with the object of the condemnation. In one experiment, disgust caused by fart spray or hypnosis, for instance, caused participants to show a greater dislike for a variety of morally questionable behaviors (Schnall et al., 2009; Wheatley & Haidt, 2005).
It is a short step from excretion’s connection to moral judgment to its correlation with social views. There is compelling evidence linking prejudice with disgust-proneness. For instance, research by Yoel Inbar and colleagues (2009) has demonstrated that people who are sensitive to disgust are particularly prone to holding anti-gay attitudes. Others have connected xenophobia and ethnocentrism to being disgust-prone. According to Thornhill et al. (2009), there has been a recent argument suggesting that cross-national variations in intolerance and closed-mindedness are caused by excretion. Specifically, nations with higher levels of parasite stress, which are linked to psychological disgust and material poor sanitation, are less likely to have strong democracies, individual freedom, equitable distribution of economic resources, and gender equality.
Gender is a social construct, closely linked to excretion. Compared to men, women are typically more repulsed by bodily waste, more censorious of flatulence, more worried about hiding their sounds and odors when using the restroom, and more inclined to wash their hands afterward. Males are less likely to take offense to scatological language and more likely to use it themselves. Compared to women, toilet graffiti is typically shorter and less conversational, as well as more libidinous, aggressive, and excrement-focused (Green, 2003). It appears that masculinity, femininity, and the societal norms that uphold them are closely related to the bathroom.
The fact that women’s excretion is more hidden, emotionally charged, and suppressed than men’s is a prevalent theme among these disparities. Jonathan Swift’s poem “The lady’s dressing room,” which depicts a suitor breaking into his beloved’s room and seeing signs of her dirty corporeality—such as perspiration-stained clothes, beslimed towels, and encrusted combs—clearly illustrates the incompatibility of femininity and excrement. He retreats in terror as he realizes she is hiding her chamber-pot, lamenting, “Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!” An American student states, less poetically, that “women are supposed to be non-poopers” (Weinberg & Williams, 2005, p. 327). Even with today’s progressive views on gender equality, women are still held to a higher standard of purity than men are for transgressing this ideal.
In a specific study (Goldenberg & Roberts, 2004), a female experimenter who excused herself to use the restroom received a lower evaluation than those who excused themselves to get some paperwork; no such difference was observed for experimenters who were male.
Results like these highlight the depth and interest of a subject that could initially appear to be merely puerile. Excretion, whether puerile or not, is one of the overlooked and undervalued subjects in psychology, which Paul Rozin (2007) calls a “hole” in the discipline. The “hole hole”—a psychology of body orifices that has been mostly abandoned since psychoanalysis’s partial eclipse—was singled out by Rozin for special attention. Even though this field isn’t yet ready for the Journal of Toilet Psychology, it could be time to start filling the gap.
Writing on the wall
Toilet graffiti, which one academic called “latrinalia,” has attracted the interest of numerous researchers and theorists over the years. Many of them have concentrated on gender, examining sex differences in the shape and content of these scribbles by using public restrooms as laboratories. One of the first researchers in the field, Alfred Kinsey, examined the walls of over 300 public restrooms in the early 1950s and discovered that the content in the women’s restroom was more romantic than the erotic in the men’s. Subsequent studies have revealed that men are also more likely to write scatological, offensive, biased, and image-based graffiti. They are also less likely to give advice or otherwise address earlier remarks.
Differences like these have proven difficult for theorists to explain. Kinsey, in keeping with the times, attributed them to women’s alleged lower sexual reactivity and higher respect for social norms. Psychoanalytic writers suggested that men who wrote graffiti did so because they were secretly envious of women’s ability to bear children or because it was a type of “phallic expression.” Men’s bathroom graffiti, according to semioticians, expresses and signifies political supremacy, whereas women’s graffiti reacts to their subjugation. Social identity theorists proposed that gender differences in latrinalia reflect the salience of gender in segregated public bathrooms: men and women polarize their behavior in these gender-marked settings to emphasize their maleness or femaleness rather than merely revealing their real, underlying differences.
Women produced fewer latrinalia than men, according to an early study, but subsequent investigations revealed that they had caught up to or even surpassed men in terms of quantity and explicitness. Even more lately, there appears to be less graffiti in restrooms. It may be argued that there is no purpose in writing taboo ideas on toilet walls in the internet age. Why scribble for a meagre one-at-a-time audience when you can make equally vulgar anonymous comments on a public discussion board or chatroom? [...]
12 February 2024Decoding the graffiti on pub bathroom walls
“I’m in love with my friend, and I’m not sorry.” “Join a union.” “Dogs should be able to vote.” “ABORTION RIGHTS.” “Don’t trust Midwest emo men!”
As The Guardian reports, these are all scribbles found in the women’s restrooms at Sheffield’s traditional Rutland Arms, a yellow-bricked pub. Grey-haired residents mix with blue-haired students in this dependable and warm place, where the cheapest pint costs £3.30.
Its restroom stalls are entirely covered with graffiti, just like so many pubs around the nation. The walls, ceilings, and doors are all covered. Sprawling proclamations of women’s empowerment intersect with confessions of self-harm. This network of enigmatic relationships is both endearing and reassuring, as well as ominous and spectral. The male restrooms are similarly decorated, with indistinguishable handwriting in every color of the rainbow next to introspective statements.
Pub loos are both public and private spaces, so while it’s unlikely that someone will be caught doing graffiti, it’s quite likely that their work will be noticed. Scholars refer to markings produced in public restrooms as latrinalia. For centuries, individuals have been fascinated by this topic. Although American folklorist Alan Dundes first used the term in his 1966 essay, Here I Sit. Scatological graffiti was also found in Pompeii’s latrines.
Numerous theories have been proposed as to why we add these scribbles in the first place. These range from social identity theorists’ suggestion that it serves to accentuate stereotypical gender characteristics in segregated bathrooms to psychoanalytic interpretations of toilet graffiti as a form of “phallic expression.” Numerous research on latrinalia from China, Zimbabwe, Jordan, Canada, Cuba, and other countries have examined the graffiti found in university restrooms.
High theories aside, though, there is certainly something to be said about being in a confined space and expressing yourself as inappropriately or as vulnerably as you like.
“In any period of history, there’s a need to leave a mark—an utterance—and to have a sense that people can hear you,” says Richard Clay, professor of digital cultures at Newcastle University, who wrote and presented the documentary A Brief History of Graffiti. “A toilet cubicle is a space where you can get this slightly transgressive utterance, which is often dressed up in humour.”
Pub restrooms are very unique places, if we set aside the bodily aspect of it all. People can graffiti there with confidence since it’s a unique case of a place that is both public and private, increasing the likelihood that their work will be noticed rather than being discovered. When a place chooses to accept its graffiti, a dialogue that is frequently political arises.
For Clay, these conversations are manifestations of the underground culture that has grown up around the venue: “They have their own self-selecting group who more or less share similar values and likes and music tastes, so you get a snapshot into a moment in the life of a specific public interest.”
The pictures might be funny, poignant, or scary. You can find a lot of graffiti regarding tattoo artists, global warming, and landlords in north-east London.
A note on the wall of The Crooked Billet, a popular pub for young professionals and creatives in the gentrified Clapton neighborhood, says, “Please consider a vegan lifestyle for the animals and our planet… thank you.” The word “vegan” is crossed out, and “bacon” is written in its place with a thick black marker. The next line was written in a light ballpoint pen, “Girl shut up, I bet you do coke.”
The majority of studies on latrinalia have usually compared graffiti in male and female restrooms because mixed-gender restrooms have only become more prevalent in the past ten years. Scribbles in women’s restrooms tend to be more vulnerable, discuss relationships, and demonstrate solidarity, whereas men are more likely to write derogatory messages and draw pictures.
James A. Green noted the following in his 2003 analysis of 723 inscriptions from the central library of the University of Otago in New Zealand: “Females discussed body image more than males did. There was also a difference in focus: females listed their height and weight, whereas males listed their penis size.” That same paper also claimed that the most dominant topics in male toilets were politics and tax, while inscriptions in female toilets tended to ask for personal advice and, bleakly, “discussed what exact act constitutes rape.”
After twenty years, what has changed? It’s challenging to be certain. There isn’t much written about graffiti in mixed-gender cubicles, but it’s obvious that fresh discussions are happening. “Gender segregated toilets, why?” reads an all-caps statement posted in the women’s restroom of the Dog House in Edinburgh.
Men tend to scribble offensive words and draw pictures in women’s restrooms, whereas women’s restroom scribbles express vulnerability and solidarity.
In The Ventoux, a buzzy pub in Edinburgh with fish tanks on the walls and bicycles on the ceiling, someone writes in the female loos: “Trans women are women.” Another pen scribbles out the last “wo”, turning the word to “men”, before someone definitively rewrites “wo” in thick red marker. Across town in Marchmont, in The Argyle and Cellar Bar, a door in the women’s says: “A transgender person peed in this bathroom, and nothing bad happened… we are not your scapegoats, and we are never going away.”
The reason why most venues will monitor their graffiti is due to hate speech. Co-owner and general manager of the Rutland Arms Chris Bamford adds, “There’s a few things that have surprised us by being transphobic or something like that, in a pub that’s very supportive.” “If anything is offensive, we’ll get rid.”
In addition to exposing some of the most divisive topics in our culture, toilet graffiti also has a melancholic undertone. In the female restrooms, topics such as depression, loneliness, and surviving sexual assault are frequently discussed. A notice alerting people to potential neighborhood predators is posted in the Art Bar, which is close to Dundee’s art college. However, there might also be a certain comfort in witnessing strangers interacting with their community—think of them as unidentified friends—interacting with them.
Jodie, 25, from Edinburgh, was having a night at a dive club in east London when she noticed graffiti in a run-down toilet. The question “Are you having a good night?” was splayed over two columns labeled “Yes” and “No,” with supportive remarks all around it. Twenty or more tally marks were made in each of the two columns; some were scratched, and some were written in various pen or lipstick colors.
“Throughout the night, you saw different tally marks being added, and it made you feel like you were part of the night in a broader way than just the friends you’d come with, in this community of contributors,” Jodie says. “What was important was that the comments were all quite varied, so there were lots of people who were ultimately on the same night out but with different experiences. It made you feel like whatever you were feeling that night was valid.” Later that night, Jodie went back to the same cubicle with eyeliner in hand. “I marked the ‘Yes’ column, but I remember thinking that I had been on nights out where I haven’t been having such a good time, and seeing that would have really made me feel happier or less alone.”
‘It’s soul-destroying to have one customer on a Saturday’: Is the party over for the UK’s pubs and clubs?
It becomes more difficult to identify latrinalia in the UK. Venues are getting facelifts and any signs of damage are being quickly painted over as gentrification infiltrates more and more areas of cities. And the spaces themselves are diminishing. Over 150 bars closed across England and Wales in the first three months of 2023 as a result of rising energy costs, while the nightclub industry saw a 12% fall in sales last year, according to new information from the Night Time Industries Association.
The graffiti adorning the walls of our restrooms reveals the degree of reverence these areas hold at night. We are driven to connect in these uncomfortable, stench-filled cubicles for some reason, even though we can hide behind keyboards and find groups online. Maybe because latrinalia is so anonymous and unmediated, it feels authentically appropriate. Or perhaps it’s because talking to strangers can be consoling in its solidarity. Loo graffiti, in whatever form it takes, is like a love letter to the venues themselves, even if it only consists of a penis drawing. [...]
5 February 2024The newly designed, Instagram-worthy area celebrates defecation while incorporating a cutesy Japanese flair
An immersive exhibition celebrating “adorable poop” premiered at Melbourne’s new Unko Museum. You can find yourself thinking about the significance of excrement and our relationship with it while you relax with a furry poop creature named Jenny, browse the shelves of a poop supermarket, and have a poop tea party.
As reported here, the first Unko Museum in Australia is located across the road from the former site of Melbourne’s first public restroom, which opened its doors in 1859. Over the past five years, Unko Museums have sprouted up throughout Shanghai and Japan (the word “unko” is a play on words for “doo-doo”). At $23.50 (or $18 for each child if you’re dropping the kids off), admission consists primarily of a collection of Instagrammable set pieces and a few crappy games.
The poop featured here, arranged in a play area, suspended from the ceiling, and shining sinisterly in a dimly lit hallway, embodies the quintessential soft-serve shape of poop, surpassing even the much sought-after but elusive Type 4 on the Bristol stool scale, which is described as “like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft.”
When describing the shape’s allure, Masaru Kobayashi, director of T Museum, the organization that created Unko Museum, references both the tiered pagodas of Kyoto temples and Euclid’s golden ratio.
He mentions Akira Toriyama’s Dr. Slump manga series from the 1980s, in which an android girl struggles with her insatiable drive to poke poop with sticks and finally comes across a variety of endearing sentient objects.
“For Japanese people, it is an ordinary thing to enjoy as a kind of entertainment,” explains Kobayashi. This is partly because of the kawaii style of Japan, which manages to make even “very dirty stinky things” cute. “You can find something kawaii in anything,” he asserts.
He also emphasizes how important agriculture is to Japan and how “poop as fertilizer” has helped de-stigmatize it. However, over half of Australia’s land is used for agriculture, and here, we mainly just ignore the subject or get unhealthily fixated on it.
That Unko Museum has pulled the rope in a city that was dubbed “Smellbourne” in the 19th century due to its neglect of maintaining a proper sewerage system is, in a sense, fitting.
The Unko Museum does not have any such taboos. One installation encourages viewers to stomp on colorful turds in order to earn points for a game. In another, three kids yell “poo!” into a microphone, causing one of them to light up on a screen. Although the actual restrooms are hidden at the rear, numerous others are prominently displayed. In fact, some of them even reward you with a plastic representation of your accomplishments when you sit on them and pretend to squeeze. Children are delighted, and adults giggle as they cautiously poke a turd or two. Some couples take a romantic picture while seated next to each other on the toilet.
It must be said that stigma plays a part in the 38% of Australians who report having incontinence; of these, the majority do not seek medical attention from a professional, and nearly a third say that their incontinence negatively impacts their mental health. One study found that simple praise can help one in five youngsters who struggle with stool-potty training. So picture what would happen if everyone in the room applauded as you pretended to win a toy by squeezing one out.
Nowadays, scientists are looking at how a more literal acceptance of feces—in the form of transplants—might aid in the treatment of anything from cancer to gastrointestinal issues. In 2022, Australia was among the first nations globally to grant approval for the treatment.
There’s more at risk than just our bodily well-being. The conservation biologist Joe Roman proposes using animal excrement as a strategy to address the climate catastrophe in his book Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World, published in 2023. The vibrant color displays of Unko Museum become less bizarre as Roman relates his more than two decades of collecting whale feces. With a poetic flourish, he adds that “at times, they sparkle with scales, like the sun glinting on the water.” “Whale fecal plumes can be neon green or bright red.”
Whale scat is more than just a pretty face; it nourishes other creatures and pulls carbon from the ocean’s surface. This is just one of the many diverse ways that many animals respond to nature’s call to sustain life, repair ecosystems, and keep the earth cool.
The Pooseum, Australia’s other poo museum, is located in Richmond, Tasmania, and offers “education about defecation”—an info dump with a stronger scientific bent. You’ll discover more information at the Unko Museum.
However, Unko Museum is worth a visit if you’re looking for a lighthearted, breezy thirty minutes to mess around and snap some pictures.
Photo by Unko Museum [...]
29 January 2024Despite containing up to 25% human poop, the clay bricks remained strong after testing
Researchers have discovered a way to turn leftover human stools into bricks. Currently, sewer sludge is given a thorough treatment and dried out, but the leftover “biosolid” material is wasted and dumped in landfills.
According to this article, a breakthrough technique has been created to produce a unique sort of building material by combining feces with clay. Researchers made bricks using 25% poo and the remaining portion of regular clay, and they discovered the block nevertheless passed rigorous strength tests. They are also better insulators and more porous.
30% of the sewage that is currently dumped in landfills or stored could be reduced by combining the biosolid material with clay for use in brick manufacturing.
In their most recent work, which was published in the journal Buildings, researchers from RMIT University in Australia claim that the process “is a practical and sustainable proposal for recycling all the leftover biosolids worldwide.”
‘Utilization of only 15 percent of biosolids in brick production would reduce the carbon footprint of brick manufacturing whilst satisfying all the environmental and engineering requirements for bricks.’
The bricks can withstand the most stringent building rules and need less energy to be made. Both the financial situation and the carbon footprint will benefit from this energy decrease. Common bricks are created in kilns that are over 2,500 °F and release a significant amount of CO2.
‘Using biosolids in bricks could be the solution to these big environmental challenges,’ explains RMIT engineer Abbas Mohajerani, ScienceAlert reports.
‘It’s a practical and sustainable proposal for recycling the biosolids currently stockpiled or going to landfill around the globe.’
However, the idea of producing bricks out of poop is not new. The Italian shit museum displays an example of homemade clay made of poop called ‘merdacotta’.
Although further research is required before the bricks are manufactured, the initial results seem encouraging. It has also been discovered through similar investigations that it is feasible to transform human urine into bricks.
Students in Cape Town collected human waste from university department urinals and combined it with bacteria and sand. Compared to firing clay bricks, the microbial carbonate precipitation technique produces the construction materials at room temperature, which is significantly more energy-efficient.
Instead, the new process yields potassium and nitrogen that can be sold as commercial fertilizers. In innovative urinals that also produce fertilizer, urine is collected and used to manufacture a solid industrial product. The liquid is then used to make bricks.
Through a chemical process, bacteria in the form of urease break down the urea in liquid urine to produce calcium carbonate. This solidifies the sand into the required form, which could be a rectangular building brick or a column.
The process is called microbial carbonate precipitation. Researchers described it as similar to the way seashells are formed. Loose sand is colonized with bacteria that produce urease.
The bacteria could make the brick stronger by ‘growing’ it for longer in the mixture of sand and urine.
Photo: RMIT [...]
22 January 2024A technique according to an acupuncturist
TikTok is an odd and bizarre place. So oddball that you can find clever techniques to promptly induce bowel movements by discovering intriguingly presented old ideas.
Anyway, it’s intriguing that acupuncturist Anita Tadavarthy, also known as empiricalgraceacu, shared a viral post on TikTok claiming that constipation can be cured by using acupressure from traditional Chinese Traditional Medicine (CTM). As explained here, specifically, she suggested rubbing the soft skin between your thumb and forefinger together for a few minutes, either while you’re on the toilet or a few times throughout the day.
@empiricalgraceacu Did you know? 💩 #constipation #bloating #digestions #hemorrhoids #diarrhea #constipationrelief #digestivehealth #gas #acidreflux #acupressure ♬ original sound – Empirical Grace Acupuncture
Is it really that simple? Giving it a try, particularly because the video appeared to have garnered conflicting feedback, some people praised the hack’s effectiveness, but experts dismissed it as pseudoscientific. The strategy seemed to work; it’s not sure if it was just the anticipation that it would work or the fact that the process of rubbing your hands together forced you to sit up a little straighter on the toilet.
To be fair, when we tried it, we weren’t constipated, but even though we tried later in the day when we normally don’t go to the bathroom, it seemed to get the bowels moving. This specific pressure point, sometimes referred to as the Joining Valley or Large Intestine 4, is highly recommended by acupuncturists. How does it work?
In the opening line of her video, Anita Tadavarthy asks her audience, “Did you poop today?” She continues by saying that about 20% of people get constipation (the National Institutes of Health estimates that percentage at 12%).
“It (the prevalence) blows my mind,” the acupuncturist continues. “All you’ve got to do is just do this,” she adds, providing an example of the hand rubbing technique that is derived from traditional Chinese acupressure, which uses pressure points on various body areas to treat pain, digestion problems, and other ailments.
Acupuncture without needles is called acupressure. Among the numerous pressure points linked to the alleviation of constipation is the Large Intestine 4. Touch the soft skin between your thumb and forefinger by stretching out your hand with your thumb pointing outward and your other four fingers close together.
Large Intestine 4 is this. You don’t need to massage both points together with your thumbs pointing outward and the rest of your fingers in a ball like in the TikTok video; instead, you may just apply pressure on this spot in circular motions, first on one hand and then the other, according to Healthline.
“Couple minutes, couple times a day, or while sitting on the toilet, and you’ll have a bowel movement. So easy,” Tadavarthy shared. She said in a BuzzFeed News interview that she discovered this trick in graduate school and that she has personally witnessed it help patients who came to her free clinic in the Hyderabad, India area.
It is significant to note that Tadavarthy advises against using this TikTok trick on pregnant women due to the possibility that stimulating Large Intestine 4 may also cause labor.
“Constipation is when stool gets stuck and cannot pass through the colon,” she said. “Acupressure/acupuncture accesses various images through our body, like reflexology. There are connecting points on the hand that connect to the colon. It is key to bringing blood flow and stimulation to the affected areas.”
According to one acupuncturist, you can induce a similar motion of contraction in your colon by rubbing the pressure point of the Large Intestine 4 back and forth to help move things along, but her TikTok advice for that doesn’t stop here.
She has further videos where she discusses various acupressure points, such as Stomach 36, which is situated beneath your knees, and one where she applies pressure to an area beneath her mouth.
Understandably, medical experts are divided on TikTok’s viral video, but we think it’s because they have different approaches. Every person is different, and therefore, what works well for some may not work for others. Nevertheless, if instead of discrediting what seems new to us, we approached it from the right perspective, perhaps we would enjoy new benefits. [...]
15 January 2024The PureWash E930 bidet seat from Kohler adds voice control, smartphone connectivity, and additional sprays to your existing toilet to make it smarter
The majority of people find it a bit excessive to throw away $10,000 for a complete smart toilet. For those who have always desired a high-end toilet, Kohler is launching a more affordable option at CES 2024. With the $2,149 PureWash E930 voice-controlled bidet seat, you can upgrade your old toilet to a much smarter one.
Bidet seats are appealing since they allow you to upgrade your plain toilet to a much more opulent one at a far lower cost. While Kohler’s bidet seats have been around for a while, the PureWash E930 stands out due to its connectivity with Google Home and Amazon Alexa. This allows you to use your preferred virtual assistant to turn on the bidet spray, warm air dryer, and UV cleaning features. The best part is that nothing needs to be touched. You can customize the defaults and preferences by using the Kohler Konnect app.
In addition, the PureWash E930 boasts multiple spray settings, a heated seat, adjustable water pressure and temperature, and a remote control. This contains a full-pressure “boost” spray and a softer, gentler child mode. Kohler claims that the water is constantly heated for “consistent comfort” and that there is also an oscillating or pulsing spray. According to Alfred Richardson, the director of channel marketing and commercialization at Kohler, the E930 should suit the majority of elongated toilets because the manufacturer prioritized a low profile and slim design. Additionally, the E930 does not economize on some of the trendier smart toilet bells and whistles. It contains LED lights, just like the Numi 2.0, so it may be used as a nightlight. To put it another way, you can obtain the functionality of a whole smart toilet without really having to purchase a new one.
Kohler has additional smart bathroom technology planned for CES. The $266 Atmo bathroom fans combine smart lighting and ventilation. The smart fan can sense the humidity and temperature in your bathroom automatically and adjust its on/off time accordingly. Using the Kohler Konnect app, you can also adjust the light’s color temperature and fan speed to conform to circadian lighting.
In the meantime, you can now customize your shower experience and keep an eye on your water usage with Kohler’s latest addition to its Anthem shower controller series. Anthem Plus, which costs $2,800, comes with four extra features. Now, you may add up to 12 water outlets, such as a rainfall shower head or a detachable shower head, and fully regulate the lighting, sound, and steam. Similar to Kohler’s other devices, Alexa and Google Home allow voice control. Nine presets are also included for different situations, like right before bed, right after a workout, and right before morning.
Wellness at home
Kohler made an impact at CES this year with their shower technology, which helps transform a home bathroom into a spa. Updated from the original Anthem ($441), the Anthem+ Digital Control is essentially a bathroom display hub that allows you to adjust water temperature, pressure, and other settings from a sleek wall-mounted screen. Different kinds of showerheads and other connected devices in your bathroom, such as music and light controllers, can be connected to the Anthem+.
The Stillness Bath, a range of smart tubs from Kohler that automatically fill, heat, and drain, is an example of this kind of technology. With light, scent, and fog, you can create relaxing experiences that are immersive.
It is noteworthy that the key component of a fully intelligent bathroom appears to be the smart valves, which must be installed in the waterline itself. However, once you have smart valves installed, operating them with an app or physical interface is simple. [...]
8 January 2024The smelly science behind protein farts
There’s one thing that both Reddit scientists and nutrition professionals can agree on: protein makes gains. Hard-boiled eggs and strip steaks help build muscle, but they also have the unintended side effect of making protein farts stink worse than your armpits after a workout.
According to this article, protein by itself does not appear to cause gas, according to Mike Shea, founder of Hierarchy Nutrition. It can, however, make your farts stink. What then causes the protein to induce a fart? How can you avoid farting after consuming a protein shake?
Certain proteins include sulfur, which when digested and metabolized produces an eye-watering gas. Others ferment in your stomach and release gases.
Eating the proper proteins that contain the right compounds in the right proportions is the greatest strategy to prevent episodes of gassiness that occur too frequently. Different compounds found in plant and animal protein sources may influence how frequently you experience gas and the stench that follows.
Animal Protein
Meats and eggs
Sulfur is a mineral found in turkey, beef, eggs, and chicken. It is required for the synthesis of insulin as well as collagen and keratin, a protein that forms and strengthens skin, hair, and nails.
Additionally, sulfur is necessary for the synthesis and recycling of glutathione, a vital antioxidant that may help lower inflammation and stop oxidative stress-related cell damage.
According to Shea, the sulfurous smell of rotting eggs is caused by the breakdown and metabolism of animal proteins. This process can also lead to the formation of gas.
Sulfur is also present in some essential amino acids, such as methionine, which is found in animal protein, according to Shea. These amino acids’ sulfur content also plays a part in the generation of gas.
Dairy
Lactose, a sugar present in milk, can also be found in yogurt, and certain dairy-based protein powders, such as some brands of whey concentrate and casein.
Lactose is transferred to your large intestine, where bacteria ferment the sugars, causing gas and bloating when your small intestine is unable to produce enough lactase, the digestive enzyme needed for your body to absorb lactose.
Animal-based protein powders and bars with flavors have a double gas punch since sugar alcohols like sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol are frequently used to sweeten them and your gut won’t easily digest these taste enhancers that are low in calories.
Plant Protein
Short-chain carbs are found in plant protein sources such as beans, lentils, and chickpeas. They can go through your stomach and the small intestine may not absorb them well. The gut bacteria in your large intestine ferment these when they get there in order to use them as fuel, which results in the production of gasses like carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane. Certain gases are recycled by bacteria, some are released through breathing, others are absorbed, and some are forced out of your body through expulsion.
Plant foods like oats include soluble fiber, which is a type of fiber that dissolves in water to create a gel-like substance that slows down digestion and may cause an increase in gas because it is more fermentable.
Because the soluble fiber has been removed during processing, plant-based protein powders are less likely to produce gas than whole food plant sources, according to Shea.
However, Shea notes that if your plant-based powder has sugar alcohols added for flavoring, it may cause protein flatulence.
Change your protein powder
Whey isolate is the better option if you enjoy whey protein.
“Whey isolate protein contains less lactose, carbohydrates, and fat than whey concentrate”, Shea says.
That could be a huge help if you have trouble digesting lactose. A whey isolate is frequently tolerated by certain individuals who are lactose intolerant, according to Shea.
Try a lactose-free plant-based protein powder like pea protein if dairy doesn’t sit well with you. An added benefit: you won’t consume less protein. Up to 20 grams of protein for every 100 calories can be found in one scoop of pea protein isolate powder, which is comparable to the quantity found in most whey isolate powders.
Add herbs
Certain herbs could calm and control your upset stomach. An increasing amount of research has shown that peppermint relieves indigestion, gas, and calms stomach muscles. Ginger may help with digestion, preventing food from fermenting and making you feel bloated in your stomach.
Psyllium husk
According to Shea, psyllium husk—a fiber that keeps you regular by soaking up water in your stomach—may lessen flatulence.
Psyllium decreased inulin-related gas generation in 19 individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to a small study published in the journal Gut, but it did not directly slow down fermentation.
Eliminate gas-inducing carbs
There are other factors than a high protein diet that can cause foul-smelling farts. Certain carbohydrates include sugars like fructose, which can be found in some whole wheat and oat morning cereals, and raffinose, which is mostly found in beans but is also present in smaller amounts in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts. You may become bloated and gassy if your digestive enzymes aren’t working well enough to break down these sugars.
Don’t eat quickly
If you breathe in more air when you swallow your meal or drink your protein shake all at once, there’s only one way this can come out if you’re not burping it out.
“Eat slowly and close your mouth while you chew. This reduces how much air you take in and decreases your chances of flatulence”, Shea says.
The right protein dose
People frequently overindulge in protein, especially protein powders, when they alter their diet or workout regimen, according to Shea.
Protein powders are frequently overeaten, and if you ingest more protein than your body requires, you may get protein farts. Eating one gram of protein for every pound of body weight each day is a typical guideline.
If you want to increase muscle mass while reducing gas, divide your daily protein consumption into four to six smaller, more regular meals.
For gym gains, “you want a steady intake of amino acids periodically throughout your day”, says Shea. “Leucine is in all animal proteins and catalyzes muscle protein synthesis which signals growth and muscle repair”.
Because plant-based proteins generally include fewer essential amino acids, animal proteins have higher levels of leucine than proteins from plants. Leucine supplements may aid in optimizing muscle building if you’ve gone vegan or switched to a plant-based powder.
Protein farts are not so much a health issue as they are an embarrassing annoyance. Your flatulence might disappear if you switch up your protein powder, incorporate herbs into your diet, eat mindfully, and keep an eye on how much protein you consume.
See your doctor or speak with a gastroenterologist if you continue to get protein farts along with symptoms like diarrhea, cramping, bloating, or abdominal pain, advises Shea. You may have an intestine disorder like lactose intolerance or IBS, which calls for further medical guidance. [...]
1 January 2024A brand-new aviation company has created a jet fuel that is completely composed of human waste
James Hygate, Firefly Green Fuels CEO, said: “We wanted to find a really low-value feedstock that was highly abundant. And of course, poo is abundant.”
According to this article, independent testing conducted by international aviation authorities revealed that this fuel was almost the same as regular fossil-fuel jet fuel. The Firefly team examined the fuel’s life-cycle carbon impact in collaboration with Cranfield University. It was determined that the carbon footprint of Firefly’s fuel is 90% less than that of regular jet fuel.
Despite being chemically identical to fossil-based kerosene, Mr. Hygate, who has spent 20 years exploring low-carbon fuels in Gloucestershire, said the new fuel “has no fossil carbon; it’s a fossil-free fuel.“
“Of course, energy would be used (in production), but when looking at the fuel’s life cycle, a 90% saving is mind-blowing, so yes, we have to use energy, but it is much lower compared to the production of fossil fuels,” he added.
Flying is responsible for about 2% of the world’s carbon emissions, resulting in climate change. Even though it is a tiny portion, it is expanding quickly. Eliminating carbon from aviation is among the most difficult tasks. Electric planes are being developed, with a company in the Cotswolds promising hydrogen-electric-powered flights for a dozen passengers by 2026.
However, it may take years or even decades before entirely new technologies are used to power mass air travel. It has thus become a global gold rush to discover new, cleaner ways to produce kerosene without employing fossil fuels.
Twenty years ago, Mr. Hygate started producing “bio-diesel” for cars and trucks using rapeseed oil on a small farm in Gloucestershire. His company, Green Fuels, currently serves clients worldwide and offers equipment for converting cooking oil into biodiesel.
He then began searching for ways to produce green jet fuel. They experimented with leftover food, oil, and even farm garbage. They then used human waste in their experiments. He collaborated with Dr. Sergio Lima, a chemist from Imperial College in London, to create a method that turns poop into energy.
First, they create what they call “bio-crude”. It appears gloopy, viscous, and black like oil. Above all, chemically, it behaves just like crude oil. In addition to being Firefly Green Fuels’ research director, Dr. Lima stated, “What we are producing here is a fuel which is net zero.”
Dr. Lima was thrilled to see the outcomes at first.
“This is so exciting because it was produced from a sustainable feedstock, to which all of us are contributing.”
The scientist’s lab included a miniature replica of the huge fractional distillation columns that rise over oil refineries. His one functions in the same way. After heating the liquid, the gases are extracted at certain temperatures to get the proper “cut” for various fuels. A new clear liquid fills the collection pipes drop by drop.
“This is our biofuel,” he says with a smile. “Seeing the final fuel is something amazing.”
In collaboration with Washington State University, the DLR Institute of Combustion Technology at the German Aerospace Center is currently conducting independent testing of the bio-kerosene.
The UK SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuels) clearing house, located at the University of Sheffield, will also conduct additional testing in the future. According to the initial findings, the fuel’s chemical makeup is almost the same as that of A1 fossil jet fuel. The group has been given a £2 million research grant by the UK Department of Transport for the lab to produce kerosene in a test tube. That’s a long way from kerosene being the standard in airports across the world.
He estimates that every person generates enough sewage annually to make four to five liters of bio-jet fuel.
The yearly sewage of 10,000 people would be required to operate a passenger jet from London to New York. And there are ten thousand more to return. Said another way, the whole sewage supply of the United Kingdom could cover roughly 5% of the nation’s total aviation fuel use.
It may sound small, but he insists, “That’s pretty exciting.”
“There’s a 10% sustainable aviation fuel requirement; that’s a legal mandate. And we could meet half of that with poo.”
Sustainable Aviation Fuels are fuels derived from waste oils, corn oils, or other non-fossil sources. Experts estimate that this represents an 80–90% reduction in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, even if the aircraft emits the same amount of carbon dioxide since the plants used to produce the oil collected CO2 throughout their growth.
Environmental activists argue that rather than using crops to produce jet fuel, people should simply fly less and use them for food or energy. They are more in favor of sewage-based fuel because, in the words of Cait Hewitt, policy director of the Aviation Environment Federation, “human waste is perhaps the one form of rubbish that society really can’t avoid producing”.
Still, according to the International Energy Agency, sustainable aviation fuels are “critical to decarbonizing aviation”.
Sir Richard Branson recently made a flight from London to New York using fuel made from waste oils and corn waste products to demonstrate what is feasible.
However, hardly 0.1% of aviation fuel is “sustainable” at this time. In contrast, Mr. Hygate’s 5% aim seems rather lofty. Furthermore, he is making use of a universal feedstock that no one else wants.
“Although it’s been developed here in the southwest of the UK,” he says, “it’s a global opportunity”.
The company seeks funds to construct a large-scale demonstrator factory in the UK. Mr. Hygate explained, saying, “The opportunities in very populous cities are enormous. The amount of fuel we can create is huge.” [...]
25 December 2023An unusual and realistic artwork on an external faculty wall that shows the artist marking his territory
Tisseren, or “The Pee-er,” a 2005 bronze sculpture by Claus Carstensen, may look lifelike at first glance when it is placed outside Copenhagen’s academic Panum Building next to a red brick wall. As you go closer to the male figure urinating, your initial amusement turns to wonder as you see the minute features that resemble a human statue performing on the street. The experience of this realistic public artwork is therefore strange.
Beyond just being visually striking, Carstensen’s sculpture explores the idea of “territories.” The artist’s self-portrait depicts a distinct facet of the human condition: marking territory. This bronze impression defies conventional notions of outdoor art by commenting on power, self-expression, and human instincts.
According to this article, prominent Danish artists praised the Panum Institute for installing the thought-provoking artwork by Claus Carstensen. They thought it was daring yet modest at the same time, made more notable by the fact that it was a sculpture that seemed to relieve himself within the university’s building.
Tisseren is one of three sculptures by Carstensen that belong to this series. The other two, a few feet away, depict the artist similarly. One is depicted as “The Pointer,” standing firmly on a chair and gesturing forth as though to claim ownership. The other, known as “The Crouched One,” is sitting in contemplation with its hands covering its head and is engrossed in a conflict within.
“Tisseren” is open around-the-clock and is situated outside the Panum Building, which houses the Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences. Take bus 6A, 15E, 150S, 184, or 185 to the bus stop outside Nørre Campus (Tagensvej) to get there, or take the red M3 circle line metro to Nørrebros Runddel and walk 15 minutes from the station. [...]
18 December 2023The evolutionary origins of the human butt
Look around in the animal kingdom. Not even gorillas, bonobos, or chimpanzees, our closest surviving relatives in the great ape family, have butts that are proportionately larger than ours. Our distinct style of locomotion is most likely the primary cause of this. We are the only extant mammals whose primary mode of locomotion is bipedalism. And turning into erect bipeds has had some significant consequences for our posteriors.
According to this article, the anatomic component commonly referred to as our “butt” is composed of fat, or adipose tissue, positioned over our gluteal muscles, which are attached to the bony pelvis. The shape of our butts is ultimately determined by the structure of our pelvis, a group of bones that has changed significantly over the previous six million years or so.
The sacrum, two innominates (sometimes known as “hip bones”), and one other comprise the pelvis. The ischium, pubis, and ilium are the three bones that comprise each innominate and fuse during growth and development. And the true factor that separates us from our ape relatives is the ilium.
The ilium of a chimpanzee has flat, rather tall, sides that face both forward and backward. Our pelvis is shaped like a bowl because our ilia are short and more curved to the sides. The evolution of bipedalism and the reorganization of our gluteal muscles, which enable upright walking, are linked to these changes in size and shape.
The gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus are the three gluteal muscles (the word “gluteus” means “butt” in Latin, thus that’s “biggest butt,” “medium butt,” and “smallest butt”). Compared to other primates, our gluteus maximus—especially the upper portion of it—is incredibly large. It gives us strength when we run or climb stairs, and it extends and retracts the thigh. And that’s what largely determines the shape of our behind. Nonetheless, in other apes, the gluteus maximus need not be a key participant because the so-called “lesser gluteals” (gluteus medius and minimus) perform much of this function.
Instead, when we stand on one leg—as we do every time we take a step forward—our smaller gluteals are keeping our hips from falling to the side. Their ability to do so is made possible by the ilia’s curved shape, which modifies the location and function of those muscles. Rather than power, our smaller gluteals provide stability.
From the 4.4 million-year-old early human relative Ardipithecus ramidus (possibly—this fossil’s pelvis was in pretty bad shape when it was discovered), to australopithecines like Lucy, and finally to Homo erectus, we can trace this change in ilium shape and inferred gluteal function throughout our evolutionary history. Throughout time, the ilium has typically grown shorter, wider, and more curved, meaning that our butt has undergone a multi-million-year transformation to become the anatomical feature that it is today.
The fat on our bums is the final characteristic that makes them special, and it may also play a role in our evolution into bipeds. The brains of humans are comparatively large and energy-intensive. For a non-aquatic mammal, our bodies store energy as fat, and we have a comparatively high amount of it. Anthropologists have concluded from this that body fat protects our metabolically costly brains from periods of famine.
We seem to be able to accomplish this because moving about on the ground while walking is an energetically efficient activity. It also avoids the drawbacks of living among trees, which would take a lot of energy to sustain our entire weight on tree branches and be dependent on gravity. Given their strength, flexibility, and limb proportions—not to mention their opposable large toes—orangutans do fairly well at this.
All of these improvements sound amazing, but there is one significant drawback to having human-like amounts of muscle and fat on our posteriors: we poop more messily than most other primates. Imagine a quadruped, such as a chimp, with its legs and trunk meeting at an angle, with its anus facing more outward and the butt at the corner. Furthermore, the aperture isn’t confined between the big buttcheeks. For us, there is only a straight line—no angle. We increased the padding around the anus and rotated it to point more downward by standing up. Hence, a messier defecation thanks to evolution. [...]
