waterless urinals?

urinals aren’t exactly the type of products you would want to read through the internet, and worry not coz i am not about to urge you to. but it’s still a free country, isn’t it?

it just so happen that after watching a shrug-off movie at sm called sex and the city (which some critics are so fond of baby calling as the sex), i found myself standing in front of that ceramic throne for the male peeing instrument and was caught blank curious on the sign on it that said: waterless.

wait. for those female ignoramuses who have no idea of what a urinal looks like (i honestly doubt that one exists, but who knows), here’s how it looks like:

now after heeding the call of nature, we normally push some button or turn some knob or pull some handle or if a sensor is there, we just move out. and voila, a water springs down and flushes the urine away.

but there i was in front of the polished white invention and there was no button, no knob, no handle, no sensor, nothing. and for a moment i thought it was a prank. yeah it was waterless but what about the urine, what flushed it?

since it was the guy falcon (it just thought it must be a guy) who introduced me to this new thing, let’s take it from him.

“The heart of the Falcon Waterfree urinal system is the cartridge, which acts as a drain trap. The design and use of nonporous materials ensure that all urine passes into the cartridge and through a unique, biodegradable sealant.

The pleasant smelling sealant liquid provides an airtight barrier between the drain and the restroom to prevent odors from escaping. The sealant lasts for the life of the cartridge, so there is no need to add sealant between cartridge changes.

The cartridge also acts as a trap for uric sediment, which could otherwise contribute to drainage pipe clogging. The results are a virtually odor-free environment, clean pipes, and no water waste.

The only maintenance is routine cleaning of the fixture and an easy change of the cartridge approximately three to four times a year.”

if you didn’t get that, let me state it more plainly. the cartridge is resistant to urine as much as a waxed floor is resistant to water. thus, the urine simply slides its way down the cartridge interior. now, there is a sealant there, a good smelling liquid that floats on top of the urine, in the same way as oil floats on top of water. it is this sealant which traps the foul smelling odor and ensures that the urine flows into the sewer pipes.

now imagine this: the regular urinal uses 2 liters of water for every flush, and just how many urinals are there in the world and how many guys are using one in a day? it sure means a lot of water – and money – saving.

i think all the sm malls already have waterless urinals installed. it would be brilliant if all establishments follow. mama earth will be very grateful. =)

beijing marvels

beijing grabbed the hosting title for 2008’s olympic games, beating the more prominent european cities in the competition. and with the effort china is putting in this big event, its obvious she’s up to impress the world.

the water cube

this one is the national aquatic center which will grace the swimming competitions. its design was patterned after the way bubbles can arrange themselves without trapping any air. because of its highly attractive bluish facade, it is of no surprise that it has been nicknamed as the “water cube”

the bird’s nest

look at this massive steel structure. it’s outer shell is made up of tons and tons of steel bars intertwined in a twig-like manner to form a bowlish roof. because of such a design, no cloumns will be needed, and the structure is to stand on itself.

the bird’s nest, as it is fondly called, is to be olympic’s iconic structure. and because of its revolutionary design, it has been cristicized by conservatives while hailed by many widely open minded engineers.

there are other two important buildings in the beijing olymipics. one the z criss-cross, a two-towered building connected at the top by a horizontal structure, and another one shaped like an egg.

beijing designers are really very creative, huh.

board exams

results were out for most of the engineering board exams this year, and it turned that ateneo de davao’s doing a very good job:

- ME : 100%
- ChE: 83%, the best in schools with higher than 10 examinees
- CE : 100% with 2 1st placers, and 1 10th placer

the numbers, as you can see, are pretty impressive.

i don’t know about the other courses, but i’ll post them here as soon as i get the info.

1st regXI engg congress

we just had the 1st region xi engineering congress here in davao. addu and hcdc were the host schools. no less than 10 other schools from all over the region participated in the event. in attendance were uic, usep, cor jesu, um(main), um(tagum), and john paul II, among others.

there were various project exhibits from the different colleges and universities, and some were really good. the greatest number of entries were from uic, but much of them i think were impractical. the list includes a newspaper vending machine, a uv sanitized toilet bowl, a solar powered charger, and a speedometer attached to a bicycle. well, they sure are interesting, but they were innovative playthings rather than real inventions.

some of the more impressive ones came from usep and addu. from the former is an integrated classroom power management system. it can shut off power to any classroom with no scheduled classes. the real score here is that the teacher has the say on which classrooms will be used. he can text in the time when he’ll be holding the classes, and the program registers the sked. if the teacher, however, decides to cancel, he can also do so. the program runs its functions according to the schedule. in such way, power is conserved. the whole thing i guess is connected through a LAN.

as for the addu, it’s this proj calling for LEDs as alternatives for flourescent lamps. i didn’t exactly get what it was all about, but i guess they used something that levels with the power output of flourescent lamps. that something, i believe, is just about anything that emits light. sounds ok.