This newsletter comes out every other Thursday and hopefully provides you with thought-provoking content about the mundane, wacky, and weird. I will be writing until the 75th edition. If you know someone who may enjoy the newsletter, share it with them here.
It’s a sight common at airports, stadiums and bars arounds the world. Women waiting in a long line for the restroom, while men whizz in and out.
Why is it that men can hurry through the bathroom quicker than women? One of the main reasons are urinals.
Urinals have been around for centuries dating back to France’s use of Pissoir’s in Napoleon III’s day. They have remained a staple of bathrooms around the world for their practicality. They remain sanitary, while taking up less space, using less water, and getting people in and out of the restroom faster than any other tool.
Urinals took off in the United States after the Civil War in Northern factories. The increase of industry and influx of immigrants made the outhouses cumbersome. As there were mostly men working at the factories, building urinals was a possibility and a better solution than adding in a lot of toilets. The first urinals were patented and implemented by Andrew Rankin in 1866. Below is his description. I find the formality of 19th century patent writing to be funny.
The average person pees 6-8 times a day and poops once a day. There are wider ranges, but that is merely the average. The point is, people pee a lot more than they poop. A new company called “Peequal” has created a women’s urinal and it has proclaimed to be 6x faster than a toilet. We have seen similar savings in time for men using the urinal instead of the toilet.
Longer lines for the women’s restroom has often been a frustration for women. There have even been policy’s passed that have tried to reach potty parity by requiring all bars and arenas to have a 2 to 1 ratio of women’s to men’s stalls.
Urinal Designs
There are a lot of interesting urinals around the world. There is a urinal called “outdoor pissoir of Dolores Park” in San Francisco, that I had to check out. Here is my photo before I tried it out for myself.
As I approached it, water jets shot out on either side. It felt like I was doing something illegal despite the fact it was a specifically designed urinal paid by San Francisco taxpayers like myself. I kept looking over my shoulder in hopes that no one would walk right behind me. Overall, I feel like free public urinals should be much more common and have more options for all genders. Something like Peequal’s design works great for outdoor events.
There are a few idiosyncratic differences between urinals and toilets. One common issue is splashback. A nifty design feature is a painted bumble bee located in an ideal spot to minimize spalshback. Men can’t help but aim for it. There are often urinal cakes or some type of deodorizer at the bottom of the urinal to neutralize the smell.
Another urinal peculiarity, are ads. Because you are staring straight ahead for 60 seconds, some enterprising companies take advantage of that interrupted time. Below are electronic ads in a Texas restaurant.
In Japan, long known for their toilets, they take it a step further. In some restrooms they have games set up where you get more points for aiming in particular parts of the toilet 😂
Urinals have remained popular because they are mundanely practical. They take up less space, get people through the restroom faster and save a lot of water. Traditional urinals use water like a flush toilet, where the water swirls around and pushes the water and urine down the pipes.
In the past decade the use of waterless urinals have risen in popularity. These work similarly, but use a special sealant (mix of oils). The different densities of urine and oil (urine is denser than oil - oil floats!) mean that the urine sinks through the sealing liquid and the oil floats on top of the layer of urine below. It is estimated that one waterless urinal can save up to 40,000 gallons of water a year. One study of a high rise building estimated that they saved $15,246 in water savings annually by switching to waterless urinals.
What role will urinals provide for women? What about for the countries that struggle with clean drinking water? I’m excited to see what innovations come for this practical everyday utility like the urinal.
Tea I’m enjoying
Breathe Deep tea. I unwind at night by enjoying a cup of Breathe Deep. I love the sweet and earthy taste. I’ve had two house guests love it so much they ordered some for themselves.
Calvinball
My favorite comic of all time is Calvin and Hobbes. One of the “games” they play is Calvinball.
I love the idea of Calvinball’s unstructured play. I’ve been getting into more unstructured play as a way of getting out of my always on, productivity mindset.
Previously, I had noticed that every new hobby I picked up, I took on as a project to get better at, which isn’t necessarily bad. For instance, about a year ago, I started playing tennis more and then found myself hiring a tennis coach and reading books about tennis. Constantly, trying to find ways to be good enough to beat my friend Sam.
Going on long bike rides with friends? I suddenly felt like I need a better bike. Should I also get bike sleeves for this Northern California weather? All of this to an extent is good, but I noticed that all of this structure and self improvement had crowded out space for imagination, play and wonder.
Quote I’m pondering
“People come to him saying congratulations we’re about to have a baby and he says no you’re not you’re about to have a person”.
-General Stanley McChrystal
Pic of the Week
I biked up Mt. Diablo with my friends Adam and Tim. It was a grueling day with the temperature pushing 107 Fahrenheit, but we got out early enough to beat the worst of the heat. Mt. Diablo is the tallest mountain in the Bay Area and it felt great to get to the top after missing the summit about a year ago.