Toilet Seat Art Gives Second Life to Old Fixtures

photo credit: Julie Gomoll on flickr.
Barney Smith, toilet seat artist

It all started when retired plumber Barney Smith of San Antonia was looking for something on which to mount a set antlers. Naturally he settled on a toilet seat lid, (The shield-like shape is perfect really, you'd have to agree.) and the rest is kitschy folk art history.

Mr. Smith did not sell his art but instead amassed a collection of hundreds of uniquely decorated seats and lids. His garage served as studio and museum where he received over a thousand visitors a year.

These kind of stories always get us thinking differently about our pile of defunct fixtures out back that are destined for recylcing. (see: Steampunk-style Lamps From Plumbing Parts on this blog)

And, if Barney Smith's toilet seat art gets you feeling a bit less nostalgic about your old but familiar toilet -- like maybe you could change it out after all, send it on to a new life in Art, well we can facilitate that.

Remember, Sonoma County is offering rebates and the Sonoma County Direct Install Program is back.

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Read more about toilet seat art:
Incredible Toilet Seat Art on Environmental Graffitti
King of the Toilet Seat Arts - Gone
The Toilet Seat Art Museum
Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum

The Loneliest Outhouses in the World

photo credit: Nestor Lacie on flickr

When it comes to needing to go, we humans love our privacy. Just check out this amazing collection of photos of the 13 loneliest outhouses on earth that we found on Environmental Graffitti. Even though each one of them seems to be located in the absolute middle of nowhere with nary a soul in sight, someone has still gone to the effort to set them up -- and generally situated them to afford the best view to boot.

Is that how it is for you? Is your bathroom, however humble, your own little away place?

Oh my gosh, there's a snake in the toilet...

photo credit: Matt Cunnelly on flickr.com

Wouldn't this just freak you OUT? Imagine, you lift the lid to use the toilet and there's a lovely but totally unexpected royal python staring up at you. Oh my gosh!

Well that's what happened to a German woman earlier this year. Her immediate reaction was to call the police. Why not? There was an intruder in the house! Sneaking in the back way, no less.

"However, the reptile was in no mood to show itself to the officers so the fire brigade was called in. They opened a manhole in the garden and were able to remove it from the plumbing," a police statement said.

A snake expert was then called in as a reinforcement.
She identified the serpent as a two-year-old royal python, normally not dangerous to humans, and offered to take it home until the owner steps forward.

"Until we have cleared up whom the reptile belongs to, the police have registered it as a lost item," concluded the police statement.

Source: German pensioner lifts toilet lid and discovers royal python

Mining Wastewater for Electricity

Solar-collecting panels / SCWA

At the Sonoma Valley County Sanitation District treatment plant, one-third of the power needs are met by a solar collecting system. It's great that our local wastewater treatment plant can take advantage of all that readily available sunshine to do its work, but what if sewage treatment could actually generate electricity?

That's a question researchers at Oregon State have been investigating -- and they're finding that the possibilities are quite promising. Here's what the Smithsonian Institution had to say recently about the studies on their blog:

Could Sewage Be Our Fuel of the Future?

"Previous methods relied upon anaerobic digestion, in which bacteria break down biodegradable elements in wastewater in the absence of oxygen and produce methane (natural gas) as a byproduct. This gas can then be collected and burned as fuel.

"The Oregon State team’s technology, in contrast, harnesses the biodegradable material in wastewater to feed aerobic bacteria, which digest the substances with the use of oxygen. When the microbes oxidize these components of sewage—and, in turn, clean the water—they produce a steady stream of electrons. As the electrons flow from the anode to the cathode within a fuel cell, they produce an electrical current, which can be directly used as a power source. Additionally, this process cleans the water more effectively than anaerobic digestion and doesn’t produce unwanted byproducts."...

Kind of takes the Reduce, Reuse, Recyle mantra to a whole new level, wouldn't you say?

Aeration ponds / SCWA

You can find out more about how our wastewater is treated these days from this nifty interactive diagram on the Sonoma County Water Agency website.

And read more of the background of the Oregon State work -- as well as other 'Surprising Science' news -- on the Smithsonian science blog.

Here's the article again...
Could Sewage Be Our Fuel of the Future?

Bill Gates Drifts Towards Arrakis in Quest for New Toilet

Bill Gates wants to reinvent the toilet and he's putting the considerable heft of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation behind the effort -- plus German taxpayers are kicking in $10 million to a joint project. According to a report we picked up from Time, "Over the next five years, this project aims to provide 800,000 people in Kenya with access to sanitation facilities and ensure clean drinking water for 200,000.

"The goal is to find "innovative solutions" for sanitation in poor urban areas. Gates says it's time to move on from the era of the classic toilet. He points out that, despite all the recent achievements, 40% of the world's population, or some 2.5 billion people, still lives without proper means of flushing away excrement. But just giving them Western-style toilets isn't possible because of the world's limited water resources."

photo credit: Sand Dunes by David Stanley

Shades of Dune, don't you think? But there's more...

The engineer who heads the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene department at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Frank Rijsberman, is presently working on two projects. With one project, the foundation supports the construction of pit latrines in rural areas and slums without sanitation facilities. With the other, it supports research projects, giving grants to scientists who come up with new ideas for using human excrement. He says there have been experiments to turn excrement into a kind of microwave that can be used as a source of energy.

Isn't that wild?

He says there are biological bacteria that could turn waste into compost, which sounds kind of old school to us, but he also talks about the possibility of toilets actually turning urine into drinking water. In view of the world's limited water resources, both the Gates Foundation and German Development Policy support various projects for dry toilets that do not use water to flush and that separate excrement from urine in order to dry it.

Another method put forward by the Gates Foundation in South Africa is using the urine of 400,000 people to make nitrogenous fertilizer in powder form. A similar albeit high-tech variation is currently being tested by the Society for International Cooperation in Eschborn, Germany. The importance of this research is not always easy to explain, says Rijsberman, because anything having to do with human waste provokes a "yuck factor."

Necessity may be what ultimately overrides the yuck factor. As potable water supplies continue to dwindle relative to demand, we'll see how close we come to Frank Herbert's vision in Dune.

"The Fremen also have complex rituals and systems focusing on the value and conservation of water on their arid planet; they conserve the water distilled from their dead, consider spitting an honorable greeting, and value tears as the greatest gift one can give to the dead. The novel suggests that the Fremen have adapted to the environment physiologically, with their blood able to clot almost instantly to prevent water loss." [Dune (novel) on en.wikipedia]

see:
A Human-Waste Gold Mine: Bill Gates Looks to Reinvent the Toilet from Worldcrunch at www.time.com.

World's Top 10 Toilets? You Decide.

According to some information we found on Reuters, www.virtualtourist.com did a little research and came up with a list of the world's top 10 toilets. (see Travel Picks: Top 10 toilets around the world ) We haven't found that original report, but below is the list Reuters reposted on their site.

We don't know what their criteria might have been, although cleanliness seems to have factored significantly -- along with something unusual that makes the visit a remarkable.

Here's the list:

1. Bryant Park; New York City, NY

Who would have thought that a loo in the middle of such a dirty, noisy, frenetic city would have classical music, fresh flowers, and even an attendant! Visitors report that it's also spotlessly clean.

2. Covent Garden; London, U.K.

If visitors to the public restrooms at Covent Garden don't notice the cleanliness and efficiency of this facility on their own there's a prominent sign on the wall informing them of the place's 2011 "Loo of the Year" award.

3. Madonna Inn; San Luis Obispo, CA

It only makes sense that one of the world's quirkiest hotels would have one of the world's quirkiest restrooms; a waterfall urinal that comes to life when used. We can only imagine the surprise of the uninformed.

4. Thornbury Castle; South Gloucestershire, U.K.

Not only can you walk in the footsteps of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, but you can spend your first few minutes trying to find the hidden bathroom. In an effort to keep the secret we refuse to give away where it actually is.

5. Place de la Madeleine Public Toilets; Paris, France

Even a century of grime can't mar the beauty of the remarkable Art Nouveau facilities at the Place de la Madeleine. Dating back to 1905, this stunner of a lavatory is as worth checking out as any of the city's other more -- pardon the pun -- mainstream attractions.

6. Scholastica Baths; Ephesus, Turkey

The public toilets here not only provide a glimpse into la vie quotidienne of ancient peoples but also a highly unusual photo op as modern day visitors are welcome to take a seat on the no-longer functional commodes.

7. The Outhouses of Elk Falls; Elk Falls, Kansas

An annual contest taking place every November, this competition and tour features outhouses that run the gamut from greenhouse-like rooms to mini-movie theaters. A high-stakes operation, organizers offer a first prize of $60.

8. Opera Toilet; Vienna, Austria

Complete with operatic music, murals of the interior of the city's opera house-proper, show posters, and even stalls referred to as "loges," the Opera toilets are the next best thing to being there.

9. UFO Restaurant; Bratislava, Slovakia

Rest assured that although these urinals face large windows, there is just enough frosted glass to keep the view appropriate to the outside world.

10. Hundertwasser Toilets; Vienna, Austria

Dubbed the "Toilet of Modern Art" this is the second restroom in Vienna to make our list. Its randomly shaped tiles in bold primary colors make this playful room a fun alternative to the average dreary public toilet.

Could You? Would You?

Goodness, that's a rather attractive (and practically invisible) public toilet. It seems people in Houston are really thinking outside the plastic port-a-loo box.

The thing is once you're inside everything seems, well, completely visible!

The toilet's walls are made from one-way glass which means everything outside is visible from the inside and, fortunately, nothing inside is visible from the outside.

But still...could you? Would you?

And then there's this beauty. If this bathroom didn't give you a heart attack just walking through the door...Seriously.

Toilet Paper Goes Tubeless

Would you believe that 17 billion toilet paper tubes are produced annually in the United States? Apparently most people toss those tubes rather than recylce them, and those cast off paper tubes account for 160 million pounds of trash. Stretched end-to-end they would reach a length of more than a million miles - as far as from earth to the moon and back twice.

That's a lot of toilet paper tubes

And that's also why Kimberly-Clark, one of the biggest makers of household paper products decided to develop a tubeless toilet paper roll. They introduced at the end of last year in select outlets in the Northeast, Scotts Naturals Tube-Free toilet paper. It doesn't have that perfectly round hole through the middle, so handy for stashing bathroom miscellany (?!), but they do fit over the roller spindle and are good to the last square.

If the new tubeless rolls prove popular, K-C will distribute them more widely and perhaps adapt the same rolling technique to paper towels.

In the meantime? Recycle those tubes, people!

photo credit: grewlike

Over or Under? That is the Question.

And apparently 'over' is the answer.

We've never come across such a compelling and well-reasoned explanation for why draping the end of the toilet paper over the top of the roll is good and letting it hang over the back of the roll is the wrong way around. Check out the full report here on currentconfig.com. There are diagrams and everything.

The question of how to hang the toilet paper is one that has split almost more families than the War Between the States. Crazy really, because it must be one of the dumbest things to argue about on the planet, but bathroom etiquette and tradition is Big. Read more about it here on en.wikipedia.org if you don't believe us.

We're going to stir the 'other' proverbial pot here and come down on the side of over - while acknowledging there may be reasons to depart from what is correct and go for under. Reasons that involve cats and kids and eccentric tear-off methods, arguably valid in special circumstances but not in the official manual so to speak.

So...can we say it's settled then? ;-)

Urine could be the new power source

There's a new story circulating on the web that's kind of along the lines of the Space Plumber post we ran a few months back and also reminds us of Dune, one of the books on our reading list.

Forget gas, batteries - pee is new power source:
"Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months with new technology developed by scientists from Ohio University."

Wow, that would be amazing - and talk about a continuous fuel source. Of course there could be times when supplies would be reduced to a trickle. Hmmmm....but then imagine what that could do for the beer and coffee markets.

The solutions are out there.

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Boden Plumbing primarily serves Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, and the Petaluma area. We provide a full range of residential plumbing repairs and services.
866-663-7477
www.nodrips.com

The Airplane Toilet Paper Experiment

This is pretty silly but also strangely reassuring. When people dream up - and then go to the trouble of carrying out - such goofy escapades, you know there's hope for the world.

Enjoy.



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Boden Plumbing primarily serves Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, and the Petaluma area. We provide a full range of residential plumbing repairs and services.
866-663-7477
www.nodrips.com

Wonder What Could Be Lurking in Your Sewer?

Mysterious sewer-dwelling creatures filmed in North Carolina sewer pipes... Who knew what strange and gruesome life forms lurked below?!





Bryozoans or tubifex worms -- there seems to be some debate about what exactly is pictured in the video. You can read a bit more about that in the Guardian article Down in the sewer, there's creature discomfort.

In Paris, where part of the sewer system has actually been turned into a museum, you can take tours of the underground tunnel system. (See: Paris Sewers) Hmmmm, could be quite an adventure.

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Boden Plumbing primarily serves Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, and the Petaluma area. We provide a full range of residential plumbing repairs and services.
866-663-7477
www.nodrips.com

Dyno-MO! Plumber Rescues Puppy from Sewer

We all know that plumbers are "Protecting the Health of the Nation", but in England they're protecting the health of their dogs as well it seems.

If you haven't heard the story, a four-year-old boy living near London managed to flush a 1-week-old puppy down a toilet. Apparently he was trying to wash the dog. The fire department was called. The SPCA was called. All to no avail.

Then they called Dyno-Rod, a local plumbing service. The plumber arrived with a camera that is normally used to inspect sewer lines and located the puppy -- still alive but situated out of reach between two access points. He then used the camera equipment to nudge the puppy along the pipe to the nearest manhole where a fireman was waiting to retrieve him.

A veterinarian pronounced the puppy none the worse for the experience, and the little boy now knows not to flush puppies down the 'loo'. (And he's very sorry.) So a happy ending.

You can watch the video here:



Here at Boden Plumbing we have the same kind of cameras, but we've never been called on to rescue anyone or anything with them. (knock on wood) We have used them to solve a lot of plumbing mysteries without too much digging or scratching of the head.

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Boden Plumbing primarily serves Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, and the Petaluma area. We provide a full range of residential plumbing repairs and services.
866-663-7477
www.nodrips.com