Now that I might have enticed a few of you into reading this blog it's time to turn to the dark side of Technical Sceptical and that side is....the crapper!
Yes, you read right, it's the low down on the smallest room and why we are so particularly bad at the design, management, cleaning and use of toilets. Sometimes I will be referring to toilets in other countries but the majority of my wrath will be aimed at the good old fashioned British bog.
This particular article will likely never reach a conclusion which is why this is only Part 1 of bog knows how many parts.
Why is this such a thing with me? Well, to be honest, it's to do with the notion that
the civilization (or let's call it the level of its development) of a nation is proportional to the occupying peoples' ability to separate themselves from their own human waste
That doesn't sound unreasonable does it? It seems to represent itself quite well nowadays. Those countries which suffer levels of low development and poverty seem to be the ones doomed to suffer from cholera and other diseases often caused by the fact that they have no public health systems in place (by that I mean sewage facilities). The more "developed" countries always have a range of toilets, sewers and processing plants to deal with their effluent.
So what's up? Why the blog?
My contention is that while we pride ourselves with this kind of facility (and bloody important it is as well) we seem to frequently, and I mean nearly always, fall short of actually putting it to proper use and making sure that we are separated from our human waste as quickly and cleanly as possible. This might seem a bit prissy and precious and I can only ask you to believe that I have worked, elbow deep, on chemical toilets and domestic toilets so I am not in any way squeamish. I just can't stand the fact that we are crap at maintaining these assets in the fashion that we deserve. I think, and I hope, that my argument on this will become clearer as the blog develops but in the meantime let's look at our first case study, Robert Lowe Sports Centre, St Georges Hospital, Tooting, London...
Here we have an example of STupid Utilization Failure (Fuckwit!) or STUFF.
The toilets at this sports centre are actually quite well built and designed. I imagine that in the morning they are cleaned quite well as the rest of the changing areas is spick and span. Every single time that I go there though (which is quite a few Saturdays in the last year) there is always some idiot who decides to shred and drop toilet paper all around the back of a toilet cubicle (there are only two cubicles). Why he does this is completely mysterious. As you can see from the photo the toilet bowl width is greater than the gaps at the side and is brightly coloured white. My only conclusion is that the person that does this should be put on a large pyre of toilet paper and burned alive because clearly too stupid and too selfish to exist among other members of the human race.
Yes I am angry. Not because this incident has happened but that it happens, as far as I can discern, EVERY SATURDAY, and possibly as I am not there during the week to monitor, every day. The photo above was taken last Saturday and is actually quite moderate compared to what I have seen there before. If anyone can explain why this person does this then I would be delighted to know. If anyone knows who this person is please feel free to post their name all over Facebook.
Anyway, I promise to skip this topic for a few posts but be warned, it will be back!
