Gerardine Botte, an Ohio University professor, sees the liquid as a solution thanks to the particular composition of its major component, urea. Its make-up, a 2-to-1 ratio of hydrogen and nitrogen, is convenient because hydrogen can be extracted from nitrogen using much less electricity than that needed to, say, pull apart hydrogen and oxygen. (It’s a matter of 0.037 Volts versus 1.23 Volts, if you really need to know.)

They’re still working on the logistics of it, but I look forward to the day when I’ll be using a toilet that powers the phone I’m using while sitting on it with my own emissions. The future is at hand! [Discovery via PopSci]

According to the Courier Mail, two teenage boys were home alone for the weekend when their house caught fire, which was traced back to a laptop. Apparently the boys let the cat out, but it somehow got back inside, peed on the laptop and burnt the house down.

Both boys evacuated the house after smoke detectors went off. The well being of the cat is unknown.

I hate to state the obvious but it just goes to show: cat pee and electronics don’t mix.

[Courier Mail – Thanks Matt!]
[Image Credit: Wabisabi2015]

The Foot Pee! Pack, essentially two ziplock bags intended for your feet, supports an age-old philosophy that one’s pee can have benefits to their skin. Now I’m no expert, but I’ve been accidentally urinating on stuff for years now, and I can’t say that my crotch, toes, knees, backyard bushes or bathroom walls look any younger because of it. [Toyko Times via Tokyo Mango]

Also note the products tagline: “Easy & Surprise”

RunPee is a movie review site.

However, it won’t tell you about how bad Terminator Salvation is. It won’t tell you about how bad the Terminator Salvation plot is. Or about how bad is the script it. It won’t tell you about its crappy editing or its awful direction or the stupid John Connor trying to pull a Batman while shouting at everyone and everything.

No. RunPee will tell you what are the best parts to leave the movie for a few minutes, so you can run to the loo. Unfortunately,the site is down now, but I’ll review Terminator Salvation for them here, so they can put it online later:

Stay at home and poop for the duration of the movie. You will end with the same result, and a much satisfying experience. [Runpee via A Welsh View via The Daily What—Thanks Rebecca]

Here’s what we think. This takes place in Madrid, Spain. Jesus frequents Madrid. This person likes peeing. Jesus is known to pee from time to time. Thus, this is in fact, most definitely, Jesus Diaz. QED. I rest my case. [Google via Street View Gallery - Thanks Mark!]

The story said the watergun was filled with Fox urine, which according to commenters in the know, can be bought at stores as a rodent repellent. Good to know! Although the man is facing charges, I hope he gets off. Although in some cultures, if convicted, he’d almost certainly be facing a firing squad of urine filled water guns. Think about that for a second. [twincities via obscure store]

Well, not quite. In actuality, the machine passed its initial tests, but they won’t start drinking processed pee and sweat until next year. First, samples of the water it produces need to be tested down here on Earth, where non-pee water is plentiful and delicious. If the water is deemed acceptable, the crew of the ISS, soon to double in size, will be able to partake of their own delicious nectar.

The future is here, and it’s kind of gross. [Breitbart]

An early fix was attempted today by shuttle captain Michael Fincke and fellow astronaut Don Pettit (*no $US100,000 tool bags were harmed in the making of this repair). The two astronauts reported hearing a “new sound” from the machine after the repair, and three hours later it shut down again. It was able to process “about a gallon of urine” in that time period. Under optimal conditions, the recycler is supposed to run four hours a pop.

Now, we joke about drinking urine, but this is actually a pretty serious issue—especially if the ISS crew is going to double from three to six in 2009 as planned. Theoretical missions to Mars will also rely on the prototype, because water is heavy, and lugging it between planets is prohibitively expensive.

And, making matters worse is the fact that this urine-cleansing uber-gadget is one-of-a-kind. There is no cosmic Home Depot that NASA can go to for a replacement.

“We haven’t started talking about when we’d stop troubleshooting on orbit and decide to bring the unit home,” Courtenay McMillan said. “That’s a pretty big decision to make.” Indeed. And so is taking that first sip of urine water. Cheers! [MSNBC]

From the man himself:

not photoshopped…it was years ago…some wild eyed guy was blurting out questions at a Shoreline Amphitheater concert and he asked if I went to the urinal on my Segway. What would you say? I answered “yes.” Always say “yes” when someone is excited with a weird or impossible question. Then this guy asked how I did it. I was stalling to think of some funny reply when he asked if I stood on it backwards and held the handlebar so I said “yes” again.

Then I went into the urinal and set up the photo with friends. I posted it myself on urinal.net.

Later that night I showed the photo to a friend and told him how I turned the Seway backwards because of splash from the Segway stick. I then rubbed the stick and commented that it was still a bit sticky and asked him to rub it too but he would have nothing to do with that.

It was a fun evening!

Waste reclamation systems aren’t new, but usually operate on a much larger scale (sorry Payson, AZ and Los Angeles, CA). They’ll be a vital component of any long-term human forays into space, including trips to other planets, which might cause “Astronaut” to cede its lead in the “What Children Want to Be When They Grow Up” race to “Cowboy” or “Dinosaur”, both of which generally require minimal urine intake. Of course, there is a beverage-related silver lining: a new refrigerator, which will the the ISS’s first. The new equipment will launch with the Endeavor in about an hour. [NYT]