toilet

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev 

In Rural India, Mr Right Must Have a Toilet

Brides-to-be insist suitors offer indoor plumbing

(Newser) - India's economy may be booming, but 665 million people in the world's second-largest nation have no access to indoor plumbing—not only an inconvenience, but a health hazard that leads to diarrhea, typhoid, and malaria. But these days, newly assertive rural women are insisting that suitors have a toilet before...

Pinched Writer Picks Up the Toilet Brush
Pinched Writer Picks Up
the Toilet Brush 
COMMENTARY

Pinched Writer Picks Up the Toilet Brush

(Newser) - Even with two degrees and a book deal, Rebecca Golden has had a tough time keeping her bank balance above zero, she writes for Salon, so she's turned to an edifying, if often terrifying, sideline: cleaning houses. “I suppose I could find other ways to make ends meet,”...

Pee in the Shower, Save the World: Brazilian Group

(Newser) - A Brazilian environmental group is running TV ads encouraging citizens to save water by urinating in the shower, the AP reports. SOS Mata Atlantica says a household can save more than 1,000 gallons a year by going No. 1 straight into the drain. The humorous ad is “a...

Taiwanese Toilet Snake Nips Man Where It Hurts

'Snake's mouth not the cleanest,' says doc

(Newser) - A Taiwanese man had an unpleasant encounter with a snake that nipped him on his penis as he sat on his toilet, reports Reuters. He "reacted instinctively and jumped up" when he felt a sharp pain and spotted "the big snake," reports the China Times. He's in...

Dylan Outhouse Odor Blowin' in the Wind

Neighbors press Malibu officials to end noxious smells making them sick

(Newser) - Odors from a portable toilet for workers on Bob Dylan's Malibu estate are blowin' in the wind, and neighbors are none too pleased about it, reports the Los Angeles Times. Sea breezes are delivering noxious smells that are making neighbors ill, they claim, and they're pressing local officials to take...

Airline Eyes Charging for Toilets

Irish budget carrier may put coin slots on lavatory doors

(Newser) - Just when you thought the airlines had figured out how to wring every penny out of flyers, budget carrier Ryanair announced it was mulling a new fee: a $1.50 charge to use the toilets. The Irish airline's CEO said today he was considering "putting a coin slot on...

Anti-Bulimia Ads Catch College Women In Act
Anti-Bulimia Ads Catch College Women In Act
ANALYSIS

Anti-Bulimia Ads Catch College Women In Act

German firm gets edgy, plastering undersides of toilet seats

(Newser) - A German women’s advocacy group is employing crafty means to get bulimics’ attention, Animal New York reports: Pro Mädchen (translated as “for girls”) is smacking pink splatter stickers, with a phone number and the tagline “Bulimia is curable,” onto the undersides of toilet seats...

Old Library Gets New, Uh, Reading Room

Patrons no longer have to go somewhere else when they, er, have to go.

(Newser) - The library in Roxbury, Vt., installed wireless Internet ages ago, and last week finally caught up with 20th-century technology by adding indoor plumbing. “I used to say, ‘We’re the Wi-Fi library without a pot to p--- in,’” the library director tells the AP. Since 1934,...

Toilet Summit Tackles Issue of 'Potty Parity' for Women

Organizations discuss worldwide sanitation in Macau

(Newser) - The World Toilet Summit began in Macau today, as UN agencies, civil-society groups and the World Toilet Organization discuss how to provide sanitation for the 2.5 billion who still lack access to a clean lavatory, LiveScience reports. The summit will also address the issue of “potty parity”—...

Amid Selloff, Gold King Won't Flush His Throne

Hong Kong merchant melts down palace to capitalize on rising prices ... except for toilet

(Newser) - With gold prices hovering around $1,000 an ounce, one Hong Kong jeweler is melting down the shining palace he spent a decade building, unloading chandeliers and armored knights—everything but his 24-karat toilet, the Wall Street Journal reports. "I don't care if gold hits $10,000 an ounce,...

Now They Can Boldly Go
 Now They Can Boldly Go 

Now They Can Boldly Go

Astronauts finally fix space station toilet

(Newser) - A Russian astronaut worked like a space janitor for two hours to finally fix a toilet aboard the International Space Station yesterday, the BBC reports. The space shuttle Discovery delivered a new pump for the broken toilet, which has dominated NASA press conferences. "It's something perhaps everyday people can...

Houston, We Have a (Potty) Problem

The space station's toilet is broken

(Newser) - The three-member crew aboard the International Space Station has a delicate problem—the toilet's on the fritz. The station's liquid-waste collector—a tricky system involving fans and the lack of gravity—is kaput, the New York Times reports. (The solid-waste collector still works.) Astronauts are working on a backup...

Poo-Poo to Navel-Gazing: Look Lower

Enough navel-gazing; looking lower will yield clues into your inner workings

(Newser) - Poop isn't just joke fodder, Leslie Crawford writes in Salon, it can also be a vital way to assess your health and well-being, and Americans are being prompted to scrutinize (and rhapsodize over) what they produce in a variety of media. From Oprah to the popular book What's Your Poo ...

Germaphobes Get a Handle on Bathrooms

Inventors help the wary leave the loo without touching doorknobs

(Newser) - For germaphobes, few sights elicit as much terror as doorknob in a public bathroom. Sure, you washed your hands, “but then someone else didn’t wash their hands and you have to touch the same door handle,” explains the inventor of the SanitGrip, an L-shaped, elbow-operated handle that...

New Yorkers Inaugurate First Public Loo

Potty puns swirl at 'first flush' ceremony in Madison Square Park

(Newser) - If you can't hold it on the streets of New York, it's no longer necessary to sneak into a cafe john, the Times reports. The city opened the first of 20 pay toilets today, complete with a toilet-paper-cutting inauguration and "first-flush" ceremony. Until today, New York was one of...

German Woman Flushed Hubby Down the Toilet

Neighbors heard banging, lot of flushing

(Newser) - German police are searching for a woman they believe hacked up her husband and flushed the pieces down the toilet, Der Spiegel reports. Neither wife nor husband have been seen since just before Christmas, when neighbors report hearing hammering, strange noises, and repeated flushing. The woman reportedly told her grown...

Technology Goes to the Toilet
Technology Goes to
the Toilet

Technology Goes to the Toilet

Japanese fixtures warm, clean, massage and disguise noises

(Newser) - In a country obsessed with both technology and cleanliness, it should be no surprise that  Japanese toilets set the standard for high-tech hygienic services, ranging from pre-warmed seats to artificial flushing sounds that drown out bodily noises without wasting water. More than 60% of all Japanese households are now equipped...

Highest Toilets In Europe Top Mont Blanc

In the Alps, they're striking a blow against yellow snow

(Newser) - Now there's a new reason to climb Mont Blanc—to experience Europe's highest-altitude toilets. Local officials installed the facilities for the over 30,000 climbers who trek up the 14,000-foot peak each year. The mayor of a nearby town explained that local snow was becoming a few shades tawnier...

China Opens Giant Public Loo
China Opens Giant Public Loo

China Opens Giant Public Loo

Visitors take their pick from 1,000 toilet stalls

(Newser) - Time for tourists to ditch the Great Wall and head for the city of Chongqing in southwest China, which recently opened a startling new attraction: a sprawling public restroom. The free facilities lie behind an Egyptian facade that conceals 1,000 toilets spread over four stories and almost 33,000...

Physicist Wants To Wipe Out Toilet Paper

New one-ply TP is a step to a paperless bathroom

(Newser) - A German physicist is engineering toilet paper that he says is more efficient  and softer than the familiar white roll. TP visionary Siegfried Hustedt claims a single ply of his new paper—which can "hold its shape longer under pressure"—will be sturdy enough to do the job,...

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev 
Most Read on Newser