In the News

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Brian
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In the News

Post by Brian »

Does anyone have any interesting news items to share with us? We had a whole forum section for this on the old site, but maybe a single thread here will suffice for now.

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Here's a short article from my favourite local news site last month which caught my attention. It's in Dutch so below is a quick translation.

http://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/201709/dr ... itiebureau

Drunk man causes road accident and pees in front of police station

AMSTERDAM A drunk man caused the police to have a busy evening yesterday. First he caused an accident, then he decided to pee in front of the entrance to the police station.


The police received a report yesterday evening of a crash between two cars at the junction between Haarlemmerweg and Australiahavenweg. A car had run into the back of another here.

The cause of the accident was quickly clear: the driver who caused it was heavily under the influence of alcohol. The driver himself thought it wasn't too bad. He insisted he hadn't drunk anything, but the breathalyser indicated otherwise. He had an alcohol level of four times the maximum allowed.

Public peeing
The driver was taken to the police station, but turned out to be desperate for a pee. He did not want to wait until he could go to the toilet, so he decided to pee in front of the entrance to the police station.

The man was sent home without his driving licence but with a report for public peeing and a hefty fine. Fortunately the driver was able to go home with an empty bladder.
Fred
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Re: In the News

Post by Fred »

I will have to do some surfing to find some news articles.

Re the one that Brian has posted, I suspect that many of the people who are arrested for drunken behavior need to pee. Alcohol does that. This particular gent had reached his limit, and no doubt when he got out of the police vehicle at the station, his bladder did the deciding for him, and it was a matter of peeing in his pants or on the pavement. He chose the latter. Indeed, most people don't choose to break the law and pee in an illegal location, but alcohol doesn't allow you to hold in your urine for very long, and wet pants can be an unpleasant result.
Fred
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Re: In the News

Post by Fred »

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/worl ... .html?_r=0

EUROPE
Paris Turns to Flower-Growing Toilet to Fight Public Urination
By DAN BILEFSKYFEB. 2, 2017

In cities the world over, men (and, to a lesser extent, women) who urinate in the street — al fresco — are a scourge of urban life, costing millions of dollars for cleaning and the repair of damage to public infrastructure. And, oh, the stench.
Now, Paris has a new weapon against what the French call “les pipis sauvages” or “wild peeing”: a sleek and eco-friendly public toilet. Befitting the country of Matisse, the urinal looks more like a modernist flower box than a receptacle for human waste. You can even grow flowers in its compost.

The Parisian innovation was spurred by a problem of public urination so endemic that City Hall recently proposed dispatching a nearly 2,000-strong “incivility brigade” of truncheon-wielding officers to try to prevent bad behavior, which also includes leaving dog waste on the street and littering cigarette butts. Fines for public urination are steep — about $75.
Even that was not deterrent enough, officials say. A small brigade of sanitation workers still has to scrub about 1,800 miles of sidewalk each day. And dozens of surfaces are splattered by urine, according to City Hall.

Enter the boxy Uritrottoir — a combination of the French words for “urinal” and “pavement” — which has grabbed headlines and has already been lauded as a “friend of flowers” by Le Figaro, the French newspaper, because it produces compost that can be used for fertilizer. Designed by Faltazi, a Nantes-based industrial design firm, its top section also doubles as an attractive flower or plant holder.

The Uritrottoir, which has graffiti-proof paint and does not use water, works by storing urine on a bed of dry straw, sawdust or wood chips. Monitored remotely by a “urine attendant” who can see on a computer when the toilet is full, the urine and straw is carted away to the outskirts of Paris, where it is turned into compost that can later be used in public gardens or parks.

Fabien Esculier, an engineer who is known in the French media as “Monsieur Pipi” because of his expertise on the subject, said the Uritrottoir was more eco-friendly than the dozens of existing public toilets which dot the capital and are connected to the public sewage system.
“Its greatest virtue is that it doesn’t use water, and produces compost that can be used for public gardens and parks,” he said.

So far, Paris’s Gare de Lyon, a railway station that has become ground zero in the capital’s war against public urination, has ordered two of the toilets, which were installed on Tuesday outside the station, and the SNCF, France’s state-owned national railway, says it plans to roll out more across the capital if the Uritrottoir is a success.
“I am optimistic it will work,” said Maxime Bourette, the SNCF maintenance official who ordered the toilets for the railway. “Everyone is tired of the mess.”

He said it remained to be seen whether the toilets were cost effective — he said the SNCF paid about $9,730 for two, while it would cost about $865 a month to pay a sanitation worker to clean the toilets and take away the waste.
A designer of the Uritrottoir, Laurent Lebot, 45, an industrial engineer who has also invented an eco-friendly vacuum cleaner, said Nantes, in western France, had ordered three for the spring. He had also had inquiries from local councils in Cannes, France; Lausanne, Switzerland; London; and Saarbrücken, Germany. A large model can handle the outflow of 600 people; a smaller model absorbs 300 trips to the toilet.

“Public urination is a huge problem in France,” Mr. Lebot said. “Beyond the terrible smell, urine degrades lamp posts and telephone poles, damages cars, pollutes the Seine and undermines everyday life of a city. Cleaning up wastes water, and detergents are damaging for the environment.”

France is far from alone in combating public urination. In San Francisco, a street lamp whose base was damaged by urine recently collapsed, almost injuring a driver. The city has since installed public urinals adorned by plants.

New York has also long suffered from drunken urinating revelers, but the City Council recently downgraded the offense, along with littering and excessive noise, as part of its effort to divert minor offenders from its already overstretched court system. Nevertheless, offenders face a fine of $350 to $450 if they commit a third offense within a year.

In Chester, northwest England, the local government has clamped down on public urination amid concerns it was damaging the city’s medieval covered walkways.

In France, the acrid smell of urine has been a particular blight on the nation’s capital stretching back centuries, and Mr. Lebot noted that the carbon of the straw had the added benefit of combating the odor of urine. His next challenge, he added, was to design an aesthetically pleasing public toilet that women could use.

Among the steepest fines for an act of public urination — about $37,500 — was meted out to Pierre Pinoncelli, a French citizen who urinated on the artist Marcel Duchamp’s Dadaist porcelain urinal “Fountain” in 1993 — considered a masterpiece of conceptual art — before hitting it with a hammer.
Brian
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Re: In the News

Post by Brian »

That's quite an interesting article. It indicates something which I had not quite realised which is that the modern view of why public peeing is so frowned on seems to be the damage caused by urine to buildings and infrastructure rather than any prudishness about public exposure. I notice that the new facility in the picture is placed right next to a public notice board, so it can hardly be used in private!

I wonder whether use of this new eco-friendly invention is still frowned upon at all. Is it only for emergencies, officially? Or will people (men, anyway) use it freely like they would any public convenience?
Connor
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Re: In the News

Post by Connor »

I know I've posted it here already elsewhere, but I genuinely never tire reading about the businessmen who had accidents on busy trains:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transpor ... 67826.html
Fred
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Re: In the News

Post by Fred »

Connor wrote:I know I've posted it here already elsewhere, but I genuinely never tire reading about the businessmen who had accidents on busy trains:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transpor ... 67826.html
I guess I should never depend on having an onboard toilet available on a British train! ;) If toilets are available at most stations (are they?), then the train toilets on less-than-an-hour runs are sort of a luxury. Some of these businessmen may have spent the previous hours at a pub, and after several pints they were reeling their way home with rapidly-filling bladders. Public transportation is preferred to driving when one has had a few drinks, and rapidly-filling bladders is part of that activity. If the trip takes more than half an hour, some inebriated passengers are going to need to go urgently, and toilets should be available.
Do I presume that it's OK to have a workman desperately needing to pee, but it's wrong to make a businessman hold it? :roll:
Fred
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Re: In the News

Post by Fred »

http://www.thesportster.com/entertainme ... mpetition/

Top 15 Athletes Who Have Wet Themselves During Competition

It’s hard to imagine professional athletes as anything other than calm and collected individuals who feel completely at ease once competition begins. Looks can be deceiving, however, and behind every steely thousand-yard stare there is often a bladder that is just quivering with anxiety and threatening to empty at any given moment. It doesn’t help matters much that every athlete is constantly being told to hydrate over and over again, causing even the staunchest of bladders to feel overloaded to the point of bursting in an instant.

While it may seem like the unlikeliest of events to occur on the field of athletic competition, a staggering number of athletes have been forced to relieve themselves during play. Some chalk it up to nerves, others to overhydration, but it is a common occurrence nonetheless. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that former Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Tony Siragusa is now representing Depend for Men given the familiarity the Goose ostensibly had with men urinating themselves while on the field.

Of course, Siragusa’s pitch for the Depend brand is actually quite honorable, as the products the company sells are often geared toward men who experience leakage due to prostate issues caused by cancer. During Siragusa’s playing career, the grown men urinating themselves on the football field were not doing so because of a medical issue, but instead were emptying their bladders as a matter of convenience. As one of the athletes on this list has said in NFL Unplugged, “You’re drenched in sweat anyway. What does it matter? By the time warm-ups are over, you’re overhydrating and you’re drenched. It’s clear. It’s not urine. What’s the big deal?” The 15 athletes on this list also agreed with the sentiment that it is indeed no big deal when it comes to urinating during competition.

15. KOY DETMER

Several former members of the Philadelphia Eagles had unique methods for urinating during the middle of the game. Necessity being the mother of invention, football players are probably among the most innovative when it comes to ways to deal with bladder issues due to the fact that their locker rooms are so far from the field of play. Detmer, the former Eagles quarterback, remedied his need to relieve himself during games by pissing into a bottle in the ice shanty that was kept on the team’s sideline.

14. NATALYA NEIDHART

The WWE Diva lost control of her bladder during a match, an incident that was relayed to Jon Cena by his girlfriend and Diva Nikki Bella. During an episode of Total Divas, Bella tells Cena of the incident, saying, “Did you hear about Nattie? She peed her pants in her match, a lot!” Cena, unfazed, went on to relate to the incident by telling Bella about the time he had food poisoning so bad that he crapped his pants and vomited underneath the ring during a match.

13. HENRY WALKER

Walker, perhaps better known as Bill Walker during his time in the NBA, recently resurfaced in the league with the Miami Heat as Henry Walker. Perhaps he decided to make the change in an effort to hide the fact that he once peed into a few hand towels while still on the Kansas State bench during a collegiate game. The fact that Walker did this without much effort at hiding what he was doing led to fans holding up signs that read “Bill Walker Pisses Excellence.”

12. NICK BROPHY

While Brophy is a fictional character played by former pro hockey player John Gofton, he makes the cut due to the hilarity of the scene in which he appears in the classic hockey film Slap Shot. Brophy comes to center ice and immediately tells Reg Dunlop (Paul Newman) that he is drunk and will piss himself if he is checked into the boards. Of course, Brophy is checked into the boards shortly thereafter, and he skates slowly away while trying to obscure the fact that he just pissed himself just as he had said he would.

11. GREG MONROE

Monroe’s pissing incident didn’t happen during a game, but his ranks up there as one of the most embarrassing on this list. According to MLive.com, after Monroe was arrested for impaired driving by Huntington Woods Police, the police released additional information regarding the Pistons forward’s arrest that added another layer of embarrassment to the incident, as the police report included the fact that Monroe “urinated on himself during the booking process.”

10. AVONDALE RUGBY PLAYER

It’s one thing to urinate yourself during competition because of a nervous bladder or due to the fact that your bladder is simply full, but it is a whole other level of strange when the urinating is done intentionally for the purpose of gaining a competitive advantage. Apparently, an Avondale rugby player was accused of doing just that by an opposing team, as the President of the Wollongong Vikings suggested that the Avondale player “peed in his pants or has applied some liquid to that area of his shorts so as to provide the same inference,” according to The Daily Telegraph.

9. JON RITCHIE

The former NFL fullback had an entirely different view of urinating on the field, regarding it as not just normal but also completely healthy. After noting that he was drenched in sweat anyway, Ritchie relayed that he was so hydrated that he was merely urinating water and that it was not something to get all that worked up about. What was the reason for Ritchie constantly urinating himself on the field? A bag he kept that included, “Seven bottles of water in it at all times. I took it with me everywhere. I was always completely bloated. Always sloshing around in my stomach. I heard somewhere that was when your body was in peak condition. I think everyone is obsessive about something. I just didn’t want to pull something blocking a guy.” With that level of water consumption, it should come as no surprise that Ritchie was a frequent on-field urinator.

8. EVERY SURFER EVER

Any surfer who has ever donned a wetsuit while surfing in cold water knows the guilty pleasure of a good pee session while braving chilly ocean waves. The warming effect is quite nice, and the fact that the surrounding water whisks the urine away relatively quickly cuts down on the inherent nastiness of the act. There is one downside to advancing wetsuit technology, however, as newer suits are becoming a bit too efficient at keeping urine trapped inside the suit, and no one wants to bathe in their own urine for any extended period of time.

7. JEFF GARCIA

Garcia tried to use Henry Walker’s method of sideline urination during his first season in the NFL, but didn’t have too much luck doing it. While Walker succeeded in relieving himself on the sideline, Garcia had a very different experience, one that he relayed in NFL Unplugged, saying, “My first year in the league, I tried the towel thing. It was in a preseason game. Second half. I figured, ‘Well, I’ll try it with a towel. Just pee into the towel.’ I had to go pretty bad. As soon as I felt the warm pee touch my leg, I shut it down. I said, ‘I can’t do this.’ It’s just nasty. I couldn’t follow through with it. Players try all sorts of tricks to relieve themselves out there.”

6. IDITAROD MUSHERS

Mushers in the world’s most famous sled-dog race are so focused on the efficient use of time that they have taken to using a product that is literally called “Pee Pants.” The Iditarod, a 1,150-mile endurance race, requires razor-sharp focus and winning the event means finding creative ways to cut down on time, including eliminating as many bathroom stops as possible. The Pee Pants product allows the musher to urinate in their pants without getting wet, which could be quite disastrous given the frigid temperatures they frequently experience during the race.

5. MOISES ALOU

Alou is another player who falls into the intentional urinating category, but the rationale Alou gave for pissing on himself is perhaps the most absurd of anyone appearing on this list. Alou chose to piss on his own hands, and he did so because he believed that his urine would help him toughen up his hands, believing so resolutely in this method that he credits the practice with helping him to bat .303 over the course of his 17-year MLB career. Alou is apparently not the only baseball player to use this particular practice, as there are several other well-known ballplayers who have adopted this routine.

4. KERRY WOOD

Wood, the former Cubs fireballer and a teammate of Alou’s, apparently also believed that urine could be something of a cure-all, using his own urine to relieve blisters that cropped up on his throwing hand. But Wood and Alou are not the only believers, as former Yankees catcher Jorge Posada went so far as to offer fair warning to those around him, saying, “You don’t want to shake my hand during spring training.”

3. MARK SCHLERETH

It only makes sense that the man who owns the nickname “Stink” would appear on this list. Schlereth has been at the center of many nasty lineman stories, and part of the reason he earned his nickname had to do with his penchant for frequently pissing his pants. In NFL Unplugged, Schlereth, a native of Alaska, explained how he came to be called “Stink” in an article with Deadspin, saying, “I was telling them about stinkhead (an Eskimo dish in Alaska) and it just so happened I regularly peed my pants. Pretty much every game I did. I was already drenched in sweat so it was no real difference to me. So later the nickname got shortened to just Stink. Hey — I was miserable anyhow out on the field, I wasn’t going to hold it in and become even more miserable.”

2. WAYNE GRETZKY

There are many reasons that the 1987 Canada Cup is still remembered by fans and players alike, and Game 2 is certainly one that is particularly memorable. After all, the exhibition was one that saw Gretzky and Mario Lemieux playing together on the same line. Gretzky, who considers Game 2 among the greatest games he has ever played, can simultaneously claim the game as one of his most embarrassing due to the fact that The Great One pissed himself on Team Canada’s bench during the game. Gretzky, apparently so exhausted during the game’s first overtime, couldn’t control his muscles to such a degree that he urinated himself just before being called upon by the team’s coaches. He entered the game without saying a word about the incident, waiting until after the game to tell his teammates.

1. CHANNING CROWDER

Crowder, a former NFL linebacker who played six seasons with the Miami Dolphins, pissed himself every single game of his career without fail and was quite proud with himself for having done so. Crowder, speaking to NFL Films, happily revealed his weekly Sunday ritual: “I peed down my leg during any game. I never went to the bathroom in a toilet. Six years straight I peed down my leg. I would just be in the huddle and just pee. You wouldn’t even notice. Nobody in the stands would know unless you look down like, ‘That’s not water man!’”
GottaPeeNYC
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Re: In the News

Post by GottaPeeNYC »

It's rather funny, as a New Yorker, to hear talk of a train toilet being closed or one station on a line not having a bathroom. We just don't have train or station toilets, period. And commutes often take 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on where you're going. Add to that the severe lack of public restrooms available anywhere in the city and it's a wonder I don't see accidents happening every day! I suppose we must be a rather dehydrated city lol.
How bad do you have to go, man?
Connor
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Re: In the News

Post by Connor »

In the UK, metro type trains such as London Underground, Glasgow Subway etc. don't have toilets. Although on some Underground lines you technically could take quite a long journey, I suppose most people don't. On the majority of trains though their are onboard toilets, although as demonstrated in that news story access to them may not always be guaranteed! Also not all stations have toilets - it really varies. Small commuter stations might only have a couple of platforms and a ticket machine, some stations have free toilets, and some mainly bigger city stations may require you to pay - there was a fuss a while back I think about Victoria station charging 50p, although I think 30p is more normal.
Fred
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Re: In the News

Post by Fred »

Public toilets are scarce, not only because they are expensive to install, but particularly because they are expensive to maintain due to vandalism. We can even read posts at some w/s sites where people describe how much they enjoyed doing this vandalism! However, I think toilets are necessary in public transport stations, and while charging 50p may help to filter out the casual vandal, it causes problems for someone who urgently must go and doesn't have the proper change. Privacy laws won't allow CCTV to supervise rest rooms, and I have read that the stations on the newer Docklands lines are totally unmanned (and that the trains have no drivers!) Until we can change human nature, I guess the taxpayer and the transit rider will just have to bear the expense.
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