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The World's Most-High Tech Urinal

Mudzy writes "In an effort to handle its nighttime public urination problem, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is considering installing high-tech urinals that disappear below street level during the day. Then at night, an operator comes by with a remote and the Urilift hydraulically lifts to sidewalk level in about two minutes. Then the unit is ready to serve all the nighttime party animals who don't mind peeing in a very exposed public urinal. The $75,000 system has been installed across the Netherlands, and have spread to London and Belfast, but Victoria will be the first North American city to try them out."

8 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Re:they're cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    A girlcanpee standing up. All you have to do is insert your middle and ring fingers between your fanny lips, to hold them apart and so keep a clear path for your stream; and press your index and little fingers either side to aim. It's easiest to find the correct position by squatting down just the very first time you try it, so as your "gates" open naturally, then standing up with your hand in place; but once you've found the correct position, you can do it every time and not even get your fingers wet.

    Practice in the shower and use a mirror if you can't see how you're going wrong. It's well worth mastering the technique -- it can be handy for scaring away the wrong sort of guys!

  2. Re:they're cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    >..snip..girls who are ... jealous because they can't stand up to do it..

    Don't be to shure of that. I live in the Netherlands and in 'my' city's center there are a few a these installed as well. A fair number of ladies now use a 'plastuit'. I don't know a english word for that gadget. Check out http://www.plastuit.nl/ It takes a bit of getting used to, but it does work. And then there are those whom have mastered the art of doggy like lift-one-leg style of pee. I'll leave the details of that to your imagination. But it must be said that it does work.

    Martin.

  3. Here's real high tech for urination by megazoid81 · · Score: 2, Informative

    First, there is the computational urinal from the MIT Media Lab, called You're In Control (Urine Control). More information at the project's web site. The urinal has a screen above it, and you can play video games by appropriately directing your urine stream.

    Then, less high tech, but still very useful is the p-mate, which is a device that permits women to pee standing up. Now, if only there could be a device for men to get multiple orgasms.

  4. Re:I have a legitimate question by kirun · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why? Ask The Straight Dope. (Text on page is NSFW)

    --
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  5. Re:they're cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I mean, one time I was in this French nightclub with about 3 toilets between about 3000 people. So I went out on the fire escape for a "tinkle". Second time I had to go, a member of staff called after me [in French, I'm translating], "excuse me, miss ....." I ignored him and went out onto the platform, hitched up my skirt and commenced Operation Windermere. The fat Frenchman caught up with me, saw what I was up to, said "Very sorry, sir" and left me alone the whole rest of the evening!

    In Britain, by the way, the waste plumbing is always on the outsideof the house. The WC pipe goes out horizontally through the wall, and connects into the main sewer pipe which rises up to just above roof level to act as a vent. The waste pipes from the basin and bath come through the wall and can clearly be seen joining into the same pipe. So if you do a wee in the shower, it definitely goes to the same place.

  6. Re:they're cool by hattig · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Britain, by the way, the waste plumbing is always on the outsideof the house.

    That's for older houses up to the sixties - either they were so old they used to have external toilets, and the process of converting a room into an inside toilet is made easier by running the waste pipe externally, or they didn't think better of it.

    Most (all?) modern houses have the waste pipe inside, in a corner of the house, although the vent still goes up through the roof.

    I'm sure the bath/shower and toilets use the same waste pipe however.

    Future houses may have to incorporate a grey-water storage tank underneath, which will use sink and bath outflows to reuse for toilet flushing and garden watering. Dunno how they'll deal with the soap issue for the latter...

    God, why did I spend a few minutes writing a post about British waste pipe engineering?!

  7. Re:they're cool by dargaud · · Score: 3, Informative

    Also known as 'Freshette', sold as a medical device but often used by female mountain climbers. Take a look at the pic of my wife and her friends using one... Yeah, who'd had thought that a group pissing pic could be relevant to a /. discussion...

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  8. Re:But what about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    women can direct their pee standing up, it's just that a lot of them don't know how. . . i read a newspaper article about it that was taped to the wall of my local bike shop and told a couple of friends about it. . . they had to practice the technique in the shower a few times but now whenever we go barhopping they're up against the wall with everyone else. . .