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Seattle Flushes $5M High-Tech Toilets

Posted by kdawson on from the siruis-cybernetics-corp.-was-here dept.

theodp writes "Hopes were high back in 2004 as Seattle's posh public potties opened for business. But four years later, city officials have said good riddance to the five high-tech toilets, self-cleaning and cylindrical, that had cost Seattle $5 million. The city unloaded them on eBay for just $12,549. The commodes had become filthy hide-outs for drug use and prostitution."

13 of 433 comments (clear)

  1. Just Remember... by bistromath007 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We're talking about Seattle, so most of the people there would've been cool with that if the janitor had just visited more often.

    God, I wish I didn't have to move. ;_;

    1. Re:Just Remember... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey, the homeless get free showers and the prostitutes stop being dirty*.

      Win/Win.

      *Of course, she might have to do a little gymnastics depending upon the location of the cleansing jets.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Just Remember... by db32 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hitler was effective government. Stalin was effective government. You sir are clearly living in the safest place on the planet due to what is probably the most innane and ineffective government around. Be happy.

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
    3. Re:Just Remember... by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Bathrooms that automatically dispense coke and hookers.

      Just like the ones at Robert Downey's house.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Tragic. by dangitman · · Score: 5, Funny

    And common.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  3. Open the pot bay door, Hal by wisty · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sorry David, I can't do that.

  4. Re:Amsterdam by Loibisch · · Score: 3, Funny

    Amsterdam's toilets look like a 404? What, do you have to piss into the hole between the two fours?

  5. I hear Google is offering a replacement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google is offering the use of a new set of public gToilets in exchange for the ability to scan your waste for leftover products and potential diseases and then offer you contextual ads while you're in the unit.

    1. Re:I hear Google is offering a replacement by Lord+Ender · · Score: 4, Funny

      It appears there is blood in your waste.

      Shopping results for colon cancer:
      (did you mean inflamatory bowel disease?)

      • Buy colon cancer NOW on ebay!
      • Imitation colon cancer cheap!
      • Garaunteed lowest prices for cancer (google checkout)
      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
  6. toilet homour by Smivs · · Score: 3, Funny

    So Seattle's authorities were flushed with success untill their 'Big Idea' went down the pan!

    --
    Smivs on the intertubes!
  7. New tag line by edittard · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot - news of turds, stuff that splatters.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  8. Prostitution in public toilets by FornaxChemica · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does that mean they just had sex there or that the ladies were actually soliciting the clients from inside the toilet room? And most important of all, were they dubbed "high-tech prostitutes" as a result? I wonder if there's any geek among the old profession who will be kind enough to provide the technical details...

  9. Re:Meanwhile, 3 hours by car away... by The_Mr_Flibble · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The park is a popular gathering place for tourists, but also for the mentally ill, vagrants, alcoholics, and drug addicts. Public inebriation, nudity, and calls for assistance for unconscious individuals are common; a fall-off due to increased policing in the 1990s proved shortlived. There are a lot of drug-related misdemeanors and even minor felonies, though there have been no homicides."

    Hey I'm british
    That describes just about any sort of park I visit