Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by tzs on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @03:54PM
(#12307842)
If you ever do that somewhere other than home, be careful. I ran into a toilet at an office where some idiot had installed an elongated seat on a regular sized bowl. It was not difficult to end up in a position where you felt properly positioned based on previous elongated toilets, but in fact your penis was in front of the bowl, aimed right down into your pants.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by microcolonel on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:11PM
(#12306863)
I find that when I sit down to pee, my penis can touch the rim of the toilet if I'm not careful, it's kinda uncomfortable. It's also very space-inefficient in an office environment. My office is mostly full of men, and we would have serious problems if we didn't have the urinal in addition to two toilets on every floor. A urinal can relieve twice or three times as many people in the same time it takes for a toilet stall to relieve one.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by banachtarski on Friday August 19, 2016 @03:45AM
(#12318523)
I think if you have roommates or housemates at some point, or live with a girlfriend or wife, it isn't entirely out of the question. This isn't something I'd open with at a bar or something.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by mercer on Friday August 19, 2016 @05:02AM
(#12318773)
Sitting for a pee was one of most unexpected and difficult cultural barriers I had to deal with when I lived in Germany.
My German flatmates were very serious about it, and most houses I visited, most of them multi-nationality, had signs imploring visitors to always sit. Took me a while, and quite a bit of 'public shaming' to remember to sit.
The weirdest part was that whenever I'd have non-German male visitors, we'd usually end up in an argument about the practice because it was perceived to be emasculating! And more than once my guests, otherwise perfectly polite, would just pee standing up anyways.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by hourislate on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:04PM
(#12306782)
A lot of men don't like to admit to sitting down to piss but as you age your hydraulic pressure seems to decrease and you wake more during the night to piss. Sitting down while half asleep prevents a mess and empties your bladder more thoroughly.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by arm on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:30PM
(#12307078)
Back when I was a kid, on some mornings, I did try sitting down to urinate a few times (basically whenever I was feeling too tired to stand), but I stopped doing that after a while since it would usually hurt (I’m guessing due to the force of all the urine coming out (quite a bit does accumulate after sleeping for 8 – 10 hours) combined with my sitting posture). Since it never hurt while I was standing, I ended up just sticking to that after a while.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by tgb on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:31PM
(#12307092)
This article misses some of the most pressing questions! Do I aim for the water or the porcelain? Why are there a million varieties of urinals but all toilets are essentially identical in shape? What can we do to mitigate those terrible moments when a stray hair or something causes what should be one stream to become two? How can we best use a urinal at an airport while being forced to take our luggage with us in hand?
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by mercer on Friday August 19, 2016 @05:06AM
(#12318795)
Toilets seem to come in a ridiculous amount of shapes, at least where I'm from. There's the difference between splash and have-your-poop-on-display type toilets, there's the pull-cord-to-flush, push-a-button-on-the-wall, and more common push-button-on-top-of-basin types of toilets. And then there's the squat toilet.
Urinals, on the other hand, are all basically the same and only differ slightly in shape.
And now I'm wondering why I bothered to write a comment defending toilet varieties.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by Jtsummers on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @01:59PM
(#12306737)
One of the manufacturers in the article, Duravit, is mentioned as using this approach to indicate where the "sweet spot" is for aiming to reduce splash.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by fizgig on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:00PM
(#12306749)
They didn't address the horrible troughs at old sports stadiums?
BTW, I don't know if those still exist. I think Louis CK had a bit about his boy being traumatized by these on his TV show. I recall urinating at "the trough" at a local ball game as a kid (70s or 80s, not 100% sure). It wasn't a pleasant experience.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by abcanthur on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:32PM
(#12307103)
Troughs are great! I'm impressed by the simplicity of it, "this thing must be a cinch to clean! ten seconds of hose, air dry!" I despise the frequent click bait articles about "how to use maths to choose which urinal to use." Use any urinal! Grow up and don't mind your fellow men satisfying their natural impulses just like you. Overcoming "stage fright" is a marker of growing up; I for one admire the old guys who turn into the brass section of a marching band once they enter the bathroom. If you can't let loose in the bathroom after 2 hours at the mall, where is the safe space? The food court?
I don't think that being a total priss about these things is the obviously correct way to move forward. Not every man needs the toilet of a Japanese emperor (especially when your half acre of fescue hidden behind your picket fence is the ultimate urinary domain).
Also bidets are a joke, end up using twice as much paper just to dry off.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by bitwize on Thursday August 18, 2016 @02:15AM
(#12310698)
Troughs are commonplace in Australia. Despite some of them having a continuous trickle of water, they invariably reek -- much stinkier than individual urinals.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by basch on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @04:26PM
(#12308156)
troughs are so much better than urinals, gets you in and out without waiting for a specific size unit to open up, way more people peeing at once, much bigger target to aim for.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by bobajeff on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:00PM
(#12306750)
Let's break the toilet taboo already. I'm tired of every public restroom I go to being pull to open. Sometimes even the stalls are pull to open (which is hard to do in such a tight space).
Also, how about those self cleaning toilets Japan has? And paper seat pads that actually fit the seat they are intended for. Maybe put some elastic band in the paper to hold the paper on the seat.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by gmiller123456 on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @03:25PM
(#12307583)
The "open inwards" issue is due to building codes prohibiting doors from blocking traffic in a hallway. I think you'll find that most doors that aren't in hallways actually do open outwards.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by theandrewbailey on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:19PM
(#12306969)
"Pull to open" is ambiguous, as doors that pull to open are push to open when you go the opposite direction. Which way does the door swing (into the room or out)?
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by tracker1 on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @04:34PM
(#12308238)
Lack of paper towels always kind of irks me... "but the trees" they're a renewable resource... With paper towels you can wipe down the handle after washing, toss the towel and you're good and the handle is cleaner.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by Jtsummers on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:21PM
(#12306993)
Pulling towards you as you exit. Particularly with stalls: This means you're unhygienic hands are touching a handle that everyone else will have to touch (and has touched). With respect to the bathroom exit: Somehow grown men (and women? Don't use their bathroom so can't say for certain) haven't learned to wash their hands after using the toilet. At least I know who not to shake hands with in my office, and who isn't allowed to touch my workstation.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by jmulvi on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:12PM
(#12306873)
Those plastic mats you find in urinals don't seem to do much to prevent splash back in my experience. It seems like the urinal shown at the end of the article with more of a vase or jug design has a better chance of preventing urine splashing back all over your shoes and pants.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by takk309 on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:08PM
(#12306823)
At the university that I attended, there used to be sinks in every dorm room. However, the sinks were removed from the men's and co-ed dorms after too many guys were using them as urinals.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by Jtsummers on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:01PM
(#12306759)
Most office and public restrooms (for men) have a ratio of 2:1 or 3:2, urinals to stalls, from my estimation. Sitting down isn't an option when there's a line.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by Jtsummers on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:24PM
(#12307024)
Not always feasible. The brilliant designers of my office gave us a total of 8 urinals/stalls for the men on this floor (same for the other floor, approximately). The ratio here is terrible, about 5:1 men to women (probably worse, actually). There are 200 of us on this floor, 800 in the building. The after lunch bathroom rush means you stand around uncomfortably while waiting for a stall, or use a urinal and get back to your desk.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by ekianjo on Thursday August 18, 2016 @08:31PM
(#12317233)
I guess it depends on folks. Usually i plan my bathroom visits outside of the rush hours and i dont wait to have to pee to go. This allows for more flexobility but again maybe not everyone can do that.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by tracker1 on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @04:28PM
(#12308191)
The low splash urinal is a great idea... I've had it several times over the years, I just then think of how often restrooms are actually updated, and how many years it would be before such a thing became common. Kind of sad really.
Re:The Unfortunate Physics of Male Urination
by tajen on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:30PM
(#12307083)
It's great to see an article treating the subject seriously! It diverges from the usual explanation "Men are so stupid that they will stop peeing on the floor if you draw a fly in them". Nonobstant that we pee on the floor because said toilets are so dirty that we'd get an STD by getting to close.
I only think you're a little weird for telling them.
My German flatmates were very serious about it, and most houses I visited, most of them multi-nationality, had signs imploring visitors to always sit. Took me a while, and quite a bit of 'public shaming' to remember to sit.
The weirdest part was that whenever I'd have non-German male visitors, we'd usually end up in an argument about the practice because it was perceived to be emasculating! And more than once my guests, otherwise perfectly polite, would just pee standing up anyways.
Urinals, on the other hand, are all basically the same and only differ slightly in shape.
And now I'm wondering why I bothered to write a comment defending toilet varieties.
BTW, I don't know if those still exist. I think Louis CK had a bit about his boy being traumatized by these on his TV show. I recall urinating at "the trough" at a local ball game as a kid (70s or 80s, not 100% sure). It wasn't a pleasant experience.
I don't think that being a total priss about these things is the obviously correct way to move forward. Not every man needs the toilet of a Japanese emperor (especially when your half acre of fescue hidden behind your picket fence is the ultimate urinary domain).
Also bidets are a joke, end up using twice as much paper just to dry off.
Also, how about those self cleaning toilets Japan has? And paper seat pads that actually fit the seat they are intended for. Maybe put some elastic band in the paper to hold the paper on the seat.
In a stall, it's hard because there's no space. For the main door, it's unsanitary, especially if there are no paper towels (but rather air drying).
Wow
Mrs. Weiner. That got me chuckling like a 12 year-old boy!