Free Republic

An Italian couple has won a two-decade-long court battle that invoked an international treaty signed after World War II in order to prove the acceptable volume of a toilet flush. The ordeal started as a typical neighborhood quarrel, yet spanned nearly two decades and eventually made its way up to Italy's Highest Court this week, Rome daily La Repubblica reports. It all began in 2003, when four brothers built a new toilet in their apartment located in the La Spezia province of northwest Italy. The husband and wife living next door soon complained that the toilet was used frequently during...

Three armed suspects reportedly used the subway to commit a multi-borough robbery spree on Thursday, allegedly victimizing four individuals in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the New York Post reported Saturday. The incident began just prior to 8:00 p.m. at the Lafayette Avenue station in downtown Brooklyn, according to law enforcement. Video footage showed the suspects, one wearing a yellow hoodie and yellow shoes, another in what appeared to be a black hoodie and white shoes, and another individual wearing a dark colored hoodie and red shoes. The Post article continued: The masked suspects approached a 33-year-old man on the C train,...

Brace yourself for inflation where you least expect itin Pennsylvania’s bathrooms. That was the conclusion state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe came to Monday while chairing a hearing of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, which heard testimony about the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) plan to revise requirements for its Biosolids Beneficial Use General Permit. This is a permit for anyone who deals in the land application of biosolids— livestock manure on farms, and the stuff you flush in the bathroom that ends up in a septic tank or a wastewater treatment facility. Biosolids can be used in mine...

A rare toilet cubicle from the First Temple Period, which was part of an ancient royal estate that operated at the end of the Kings of Judean period (7th century BCE), was discovered on the Armon Hanatziv promenade in Jerusalem, where the Israel Antiquities Authority and the City of David, about two years ago, uncovered the remains of a magnificent building which overlooked the City of David and the Temple Mount, including the private toilet cubicle.

Details are still scarce as to what happened with the space toilet, but the anomaly involved its suction fan, according to Reed. The suction fan is responsible for removing waste products. Historically, crews that have ridden aboard the Dragon were in transit to the International Space Station and so only stayed in the spacecraft for 24 hours or less at a time. The facilities likely saw more use during the Inspiration4 mission, since this crew lived inside the Dragon capsule for approximately three days. Dragon's toilet is located near the craft's nosecone, which is also where the cupola window is...

A man in Austria was bitten by a 5 1/4-foot python during an early-morning visit to the toilet at his home on Monday, police said. The 65-year-old victim "felt a ‘nip’ in the genital area" shortly after sitting on the toilet at home in Graz just after 6 a.m., according to a statement from police in Styria province. He then looked into the toilet and discovered the albino reticulated python. The snake apparently had escaped unnoticed from the apartment of the man’s 24-year-old neighbor. It wasn’t immediately possible to figure out how it escaped and how it got into the...

U.S.—With more and more public bathroom facilities now allowing biological men in women's restrooms, women are dealing with the frustrating problem of always walking into a bathroom stall and finding someone has left the toilet seat up. "We're sick of it!" said one probably transphobic woman. "We women have to deal with this all the time at home with our husbands or boyfriends, and now this? What's it gonna take for you men-- er, women, to stop leaving the toilet seat up?" Some facilities had previously addressed this problem by gluing down the toilet seats but were later told...

At the onset of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, store shelves were quickly emptied of toilet paper, revealing the commodity’s prominent, yet unspoken role in modern-day society. Although humans have cleaned their bottoms for as long as they have walked the Earth, “three-ply” and “extra-soft” didn’t always describe toilet hygiene. Before the introduction of mass-produced, commercially available toilet paper in the mid-1800s and the continued improvements made into the early 20 century, people relied on less luxurious ways to wipe their bums. From Seashells to Communal Sponges Through history, local customs and climate often dictated how anal hygiene was carried out....

As several Obama-era officials return to the White House under President Joe Biden, their reunion comes with fuller pockets and deeper ties to corporate interests, new financial disclosure reports show. According to ABC News' analysis of the most recent disclosure reports, many of Biden's top White House officials, including Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, and coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients, have substantially multiplied their wealth over the past few years. Rice, who is among the wealthiest members of the Biden White House team, dramatically increased her wealth since...

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul brought to light a $6.9 million provision for a “smart toilet” that was part of his annual federal government waste report that tabulated $54.7 billion in government waste in the past year.

A Michigan prosecutor will not pursue felony charges over a homeowner who displayed a toilet with a sign reading “Place mail in ballots here.” Ingham County election clerk Barb Byrum (D) reported the Lansing-area display to police, saying taking illegal possession of absentee ballots is a felony, according to The Associated Press. However, county prosecutor Carol Siemon (D) said the display appeared to be “an effort to make a humorous political statement” rather than any intention to violate the law.

A local official in Atush, Xinjiang, confirmed to Radio Free Asia (RFA) in an interview published Thursday that Chinese officials had built a public toilet at the site of a demolished Uyghur mosque. The public bathrooms were reportedly not yet in use, nor was there any clear need for more public toilets in the area, the anonymous official reportedly said. China launched a campaign in 2016 to demolish Uyghur mosques throughout Xinjiang, China’s largest and westernmost province. Officials also used other initiatives to erase Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic minority culture, including restrictions on wearing Islamic clothing in public, limits...

Lunar gravity is approximately one sixth of Earth’s gravity, so bodily fluids and the like will “fall down,” but more slowly, which brings its own icky challenges. There’s $35,000 in prize money up for grabs, plus the unending personal glory of being able to say you helped designed a moon toilet. There’s also a junior category for under-18s. There’s a fairly extensive list of technical requirements for the sought-after toilet, and creators will have to take into account a host of factors including female needs and sickness. For example, while the preferred method for capturing vomit will be emesis bags...

The audible flush happened Wednesday while Roman Martinez, an attorney for the American Association of Political Consultants, was speaking. Martinez did not miss a beat as a toilet flushed in the background

Upon examining a wealth of existing research dating as far back as the 1950s, the authors of the paper explain that flushing a toilet that contains fecal matter can produce bioaerosols that remain in the air for an extended period of time. Much of the research suggests the material remains in the air for up 8 minutes after the toilet was flushed.

It started with an unsubstantiated rumor. “You can laugh now,” Johnny Carson said on The Tonight Show on December 19, 1973, “but there is an acute shortage of toilet paper.” There wasn’t—but it didn’t matter. The broadcast sent America into a mass panic. Millions of shoppers swarmed into grocery stores and began hoarding toilet paper. Ex nihilo, a shortage was born. The Scott Paper Company urged people to stop panic-buying the product. Nevertheless, for four months, toilet paper—absent from shelves—was bartered for, traded, and even sold on the black market....Some experts regard the toilet-paper shortage of ’73 as a...

A kid who licked toilets as part of the #CoronaVirusChallenge says he's now in the hospital with coronavirus. @gayshawnmendes was also just suspended from twitter

Senator Bernie Sanders likes his hotel rooms cold and does not like slow flushing toilets, according to a leaked tour rider from his 2020 presidential campaign. Referred to as the 'Senator Comfort Memo,' the document offers specific arrangements that need to be met for Sanders' hotels, food, drink, family and staff. Marked 'confidential: for campaign staff use only, not for circulation,' the two-page memo is dated April 10, 2019 and was first reported by the Smoking Gun Wednesday. **SNIP** Sanders requests that rooms have a down comforter or at least one extra blanket and also asks that they come stocked...

Gerold Woodberry, 42, is alleged to have robbed banks in New York's Midtown Manhattan, Harlem, West Village and the Upper West Side, since December 30 He was accused of passing notes to tellers and got away with $1,000 twice before cops on patrol nabbed him on Thursday But he was released under the city's new 'no bail law,' which doesn't require bail to hold a suspect accused of non-violent felonies, including robbery 'I can't believe they let me out,' sources said he boasted as he left the New York Police Department's headquarters. 'What were they thinking? 'Woodberry was then alleged to...

LAS VEGAS - CES 2020 officially kicks off here in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and companies from around the world are rolling out the forklifts to build out some of the massive exhibits that will be on display for the 170,000 attendees at this year’s edition of the tech industry’s trade show. But we’ve already got a good idea of the kinds of major announcements we’ll get during the biggest week in tech. Here’s what to expect, from 8K TVs to smart toilets to smartphones with foldable displays. As usual, some of the hottest news will come from the TV...