Library installing toilet alarms to stop readers having sex

Ananova ^ | Nov 03 2001

[2Trievers]

Makes you wonder, how big the handbasket will have to be, to transport us to our demise.

[SamAdams76]

I'm not the most romantic guy in the world but even I would never consider a public toilet rendevous. Pretty disgusting place for that sort of thing.

[NautiNurse]

How can a sensor know when more than one person has entered a toilet?
Makes me think of those driveway spikes at the car rental lots--

DO NOT BACK UP! Bathroom alarm will sound.

[Endeavor]

Very poetically put.

This was a problem at the U of Minn library back around 1990 - gay men were using the bathrooms in the library for "expressing" themselves. Can't people just "get a room?"

[xm177e2]

What I really want is an alarm installed outside the bathroom that goes off whenever anyone leaves without washing their hands (Gary Larson thought that idea up in one of his Far Side cartoons)

:: DID NOT WASH HANDS!! ::

[Vigilanteman]

GOTTA AGREE. I enjoy it at the proper place, but a public biffy?? These people are SICK!

[Viet Vet in Augusta GA]

In Singapore they got tired of people urinating in elevators, so they wired them. Now, if the sensors detect moisture, the elevator cage locks, the elevator comes to a halt, a loud alarm rings and the police come. Violators also get their photos on the front page of the local newspaper the next day.

[Dataman]

This was a problem at the U of Minn library back around 1990 - gay men were using the bathrooms in the library for "expressing" themselves.

I remember that. They called select toilets "tea rooms" and people were afraid to use the public restrooms because of what they might find in there. But hey... they're just like you and me except for their bizarre sexual practices.

[bwteim]

Library bosses in Aberdeen are installing alarms in the toilets to stop readers having sex in them.

1. Does that mean if they don't take reading materials with them to the toilet, it's OK??

2. Makes you wonder, how big the handbasket will have to be, to transport us to our demise.

Probably not too big, we're more than half-way there already : (

[Aquinasfan]

.. they're just like you and me except for their bizarre sexual practices.

Shouldn't we be celebrating diversity?

[Iowa Granny]

I'm wondering if the sensor will be "height sensitive"? Having raised 3 boys,,, I know all to well where every public restroom in the County is,,,,. So, young mothers can't take small children into the restroom with them? What if somebody nabs the kids as they're playing in the wastebasket while their mother is in the stall? This solution is problematic, I believe.

[djf]

Sounds like the joke I heard recently...

Two guys at a conference are standing in the john doing their business. One guy get done, and heads for the door.
The remaining guy says "I went to Harvard, they taught us to wash our hands when we're done!"
The other guy heads out the door and says "I went to Yale where they taught us not to pee on our hands!"

[Endeavor]

Yes, I must say I don't understand why gay men seem to gravitate towards multiple partners and sex through holes in bath house walls. I guess being a girl and being straight, I don't have a reference point to know whether to attribute their behavior to a strong sex drive or to perversity. I'm out of my league here, but heterosexual men do not seem to have the same need for multiple partners in strange places. Do they? I am not meaning to get into a "blue" discussion here, I'm just trying to figure out if the gay male behavior generates from a natural sex drive or from the perversity of the practices, and/or is typical of sexual addictions which can plague heterosexuals and gays.

Sheesh! It's kinda early in the morning for this kind of discussion, isn't it?!

[TheLionessRN]

Homosexual men tend to be very promiscuous in general...but I think it is because they are dealing with other men. My general take on the male critters of our species is that they want it all the time, and putting two of them together in a gay situation just amplifies it. But, being a straight girl myself, it is only a guess....

[ExiledInTaiwan]

What I really want is an alarm installed outside the bathroom that goes off whenever anyone leaves without washing their hands

Now you've got my dander up! (Odd expression, don't you think?)

Here in Taiwan. the bathrooms usually don't have soap or paper towels. If I just take a whiz, I never stop to wash my hands. Reasons:

1. - I can't help thinking of the thousands who wiped in the stalls and then used the same fingers to turn on the faucet. You wash and then touch this same faucet to shut off the water. The Horror!

2. - Taking a whiz can be done without touching anything except clothing and zipper. I trust these are much cleaner than any faucet!

As an aside: Once read an interesting article in Reader's Digest by some professor (I think he was called Dr. Toilet) on the phenomenon of "Aerisolization" when the toilet is flushed. Because of this, some nasty germs can be cultured up to six feet away and six feet high, from any toilet. The DOUBLE HORROR!!

[VRWC_minion]

The law of unintended consequences dictates that sticky knobs the microfiche machines will occur because of this.

[Endeavor]

That's probably a pretty good assessment. Thanks.

[ExiledInTaiwan]

What if somebody nabs the kids as they're playing in the wastebasket while their mother is in the stall?

One of my students, here in Taiwan, told me the following: While on a trip in Mainland China, one of the tour group had to use the washroom. As everyone in Taiwan knows, the toilets in China have no doors and are squat affairs. The man took his suitcase with him, to prevent it being stolen, as thievery is quite common in China. As he was squatting a thief picked up the suitcase and just ran out with it! Of course the tourist realized, too late, he was in no condition to give chase!

Not a kidnapping, but something to be aware of, if you travel.

[VRWC_minion]

I'm out of my league here, but heterosexual men do not seem to have the same need for multiple partners in strange places.

If you were male and watched Gilligan's island you would understand.

[ExiledInTaiwan]

More Horror!