toilets

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96-Year-Old Looking for Heir for His Toilet Seat Museum

Barney Smith has 1,350 decorated toilet seats on display, but it's time for him to pack it in

(Newser) - FOR SALE: One tiny kingdom, with many thrones. But it doesn't come with a title. That belongs to Barney Smith—the undisputed "King of the Commode," reports the AP . "There's a lot of me in there," he says, in front of the garage he'...

The Weapon: a Soda Bottle. The Victim: This Town's Toilet

Sheboygan suspect has been shoving bottles into community commodes for a year and a half now

(Newser) - "This is very strange … and gross, but that is the reality of life." So laments a Facebook post Tuesday from the Sheboygan Police Department in Wisconsin, filling the public in on what the Sheboygan Press has deemed a "curious commode caper." The crime: "Over...

Archaeologists on the Hunt for Paul Revere's Poop

They're searching for Boston outhouse that patriot may have used

(Newser) - No. 1 if by land, No. 2 if by sea? Archaeologists are excavating what they believe was the site of an outhouse next door to Paul Revere's home—and the "privy," as the colonists politely called their potties, could be flush with artifacts. Historians say people typically...

500K US Homes Can&#39;t Afford Plumbing


500K US
Homes
Can't Afford
Plumbing
longform

500K US Homes Can't Afford Plumbing

It's yet another threat faced by rural communities trapped in poverty

(Newser) - Americans living in nearly 500,000 homes in the US don't have what the New York Times —in an eye-opening piece—calls "basic dignity." That basic dignity includes running water, a bath or shower, or a working toilet. It's that last one plaguing rural black...

10-Foot Python Bites Man's Penis During Morning Bowel Movement

And that sucker did not want to let go

(Newser) - Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the toilet. Coconuts Bangkok reports Thai resident Attaporn Boonmakchuay was five minutes into his "usual bowel movement" Wednesday morning when a huge python bit him on the penis. The 10-foot snake had, well, snaked its way through his...

Ants Have Toilets, Too
 Ants Have Toilets, Too 

Ants Have Toilets, Too

Humans by no means invented waste management

(Newser) - Humans aren't the only species to have waste management down. Naked mole rats, honeybees, and spider mites have all developed various means of disposing of waste, with piles of poo typically forming outside their living quarters. Now researchers in Germany are reporting in the journal PLOS ONE that black...

Almost All the Bathrooms in This Country Are 'Wrong'

Rick Paulas explains why

(Newser) - You have until tomorrow to vote on the winner of this year's " America's Best Restroom " contest, but Rick Paulas has news for you—nearly all of the bathrooms in America are complete failures. He runs down his reasoning at Pacific Standard :
  • The toilet: It's actually
...

Brides in India Ditch New Husbands for Lack of Toilets

At least 6 return home because new residences had none

(Newser) - At least six newlywed brides in India have left their husbands because their new homes lacked a toilet, reports the Times of India . The six returned to their parents' homes in protest and vow not to go back until their in-laws get proper plumbing. The newspaper describes the women's...

1B Around World Defecate in Public, Warns UN

It's a huge health risk, says new study

(Newser) - A new UN report warns of an under-the-radar health risk: It estimates that 1 billion impoverished people around the world still have no access to toilets, reports Reuters . While that number is down from 1.3 billion in 1990, it still leaves far too many who "defecate in gutters,...

In One Sochi Men's Bathroom Stall, 2 Toilets

And the Twittersphere erupts!

(Newser) - They're the toilets seen 'round the world, in a photo taken and tweeted Monday night by the BBC's Moscow correspondent of the men's restroom in a Sochi Olympics venue. What it shows: one stall, two toilets. "Seeing double in the Gentlemen's Loo at the...

Carnival Plagued by Another Toilet Problem

Crown Princess suffers clogged toilets

(Newser) - Carnival? Toilet woes? Again? Yes, another ship was beset with toilet problems last week during a seven-day Caribbean cruise, the Houston Chronicle reports. A blockage caused toilets in 410 of the Crown Princess' staterooms—about a quarter of its cabins—to stop flushing, forcing passengers in those rooms to use...

Bill Gates' Latest Buy: Fake Poop

Inventors of self-powered toilets vie for funding

(Newser) - Bill Gates has so much money that he's apparently now dropping it on fake poop. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has ordered up some 50 pounds of the stuff, made of soybean paste, that will be used to test out high-tech toilets designed to function without electricity or...

Singapore Scientists Invent Remarkable Toilet

It uses 90% less water and turns your, ahem, No. 2 into electricity

(Newser) - Imagine if every time you went the bathroom you did a little good for the planet. That green dream could soon be entirely possible, thanks to a new invention out of Singapore: a toilet system that transforms human droppings into electricity and fertilizer and uses 90% less water per flush...

$6B Navy Carrier Has Lousy Toilets

Vaccum commodes often don't work

(Newser) - The Navy Times has a tale of serious toilet woe aboard the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier, which is currently deployed to the Persian Gulf. The $6.2 billion carrier has 130 bathrooms with 423 commodes, but many of those commodes are frequently on the fritz at any one...

Bomb-Proof Toilets Coming to Russia

New concrete johns will be nigh indestructible

(Newser) - Take comfort, tourists: Russia's public toilets will soon be bomb-proof. The country plans to roll out some nigh-indestructible über-johns by the end of the year; they'll be made of fibrous concrete, with fittings fashioned from a mixture of steel and heavy-duty plastic, CNN reports. “If somebody...

San Francisco Battles Odor of Low-Flow Toilets

It's going to start treating wastewater with lots of bleach

(Newser) - The good news is that San Francisco's embrace of low-flow toilets has cut annual water consumption by 20 million gallons. The bad news is the smell. Because the water doesn't have enough oomph to push waste out of sewer pipes, a not-so-pleasant odor wafts throughout the city at times, explains...

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