Cleaning and the urine problem.

[fearwig]

I can't believe I didn't think of this before, especially considering its real-world origin.

Can't get up a lather without water, yeah? That's a problem! I've emoted spitting on my sweat-stained jacket, pouring some water on it, et cetera. What a waste!

Feel bad wasting all that precious liquid in a desert environment? Pee actually was used historically, even pretty widely, as a detergent and an oral antiseptic. Crazy, eh? Well, when you're emoting using that soap on your jacket, you can...

No, really! It's sterile for hours after it leaves the body. It was even once shipped across oceans because silly rich ladies thought swarthy Porteguese urine was the best oral antiseptic. Of course, by that time, it was probably teeming with bacteria.

Okay, listen! You'll get laughed at, but...

Ah, hell, who am I kidding? That's it, screw you guys. I am doing this!

[Ghost]

Hmm.. Sand is a cleaning substance as well.  So is salt.  You rub your dirt with them, it gets better.

Urine stinks.  Was it really used?  I did not know.  But then how do people get rid of the smell?  Maybe it cleans the dirt, but there is the "smell dirt" there.

[Whira's Luck]

Most of the smell of urine is actually caused by the bacteria that grow in it after it becomes unsterile (unless you already have a bacterial colony growing in your urinary tract). Fresh urine usually doesn't have much of an odor though, but it might if it's very concentrated, which if you're not drinking enough water, it may be. I'm sure if you didn't let it linger, but wiped it off right away...  But it's pretty unsavory with our modern mentalities, I admit. I can't find myself washing my hands in my own urine in-game. Possibly men would have an easier time of it.

[Spoon]

*snicker*

There are a number of infections that will be present in a diseased person's supposedly 'sterile' urine.

Personally, I don't care how quickly you pee on your clothes, it's still damn filthy.

[Whira's Luck]

Well no, -fresh- urine is prety sterile (usually). You wouldn't want to pee in an open wound to clean it, but I'd wager that if you peed on your clothes, after the first hour it wouldn't qualify as sterile. I was thinking more along the lines of washing your hands, inferred by the original poster. Urine-soaked clothes are pretty stinky.

[bracken]

Yeah, stale urine is a good grease stripper...releases ammonia   :lol:

[xX_Cathedral_Xx]

Most of the smell of urine is actually caused by the bacteria that grow in it after it becomes unsterile (unless you already have a bacterial colony growing in your urinary tract). Fresh urine usually doesn't have much of an odor though, but it might if it's very concentrated, which if you're not drinking enough water, it may be. I'm sure if you didn't let it linger, but wiped it off right away...  But it's pretty unsavory with our modern mentalities, I admit. I can't find myself washing my hands in my own urine in-game. Possibly men would have an easier time of it.

Are you sure? I notice every time after smoking a good deal of marijuana in my pipe that my urine will have a heavy stench, just to provide one example. Another would be similar such as eating asperagus which also tends to cause your urine to differ in smell, or so I've heard.



-Cathedral

[Angela Christine]

If you are using a soap that requires a lather and rinse, then I can see using urine or other waste liquids as part of the lather phase.  You then rinse away the soap and the urine with real water rinse phase (and the used rinse water is saved for the next lather phase).  That assumes that you are prosperous enough to want to wash things, but not so wealthy (or perhaps just too frugal) that you are willing to "waste" too much grade A water on the process.

Various kinds of urine have been used as "beauty treatments" in the past, so a little urine in your wash water might not be considered disgusting.  Many modern skin creams, moisturizers and cosmetics contain Urea, which is naturally found in urine.  At least one estrogen replacement product, Premarin, is made from the urine of tortured female horses.  Urine is everywhere!


Angela Christine

[Anonymous]

Tortured horses?  I have this image of a Nazi like butcher commanding his men to cut the horses slowly and painfully because the urine will be useless otherwise.

[Bestatte]

Most modern skin applications (with the specific exception of the ones that say "no animal products") contain diazolidinyl urea, which is processed from urine. It is used as a microbial agent (anti-bacterial preservative). One google link shows 831 products in their database containing the stuff. I've no doubt there are hundreds more that just didn't make the database.

Also, since we're talking about various animal waste product..heh..

Did you know that quality cone incense is made from camel shit? It's incredibly clean, easily de-scented, and burns extremely well when compressed. It makes me wonder which critter in Zalanthas we're getting our incense from in the game, and if there's a way to make it craftable.

[Sokotra]

Kank dung! There, you made me say it.  Happy now?

I imagine it would be whatever is most readily available and just always in the way so much that it would make people want to use such a thing for a good purpose.  I guess.. I don't know.. Camel dung or horse-shi...schtuff... is/was around in great quantities in certain parts of the world.  

Anyway, yeah.. I'd say kank dung could be easily foraged or just picked up from any passing kank and used to make fuel for fires or some kind of incense/candle or maybe a nice dungface mudmask for those exfoliatory facial treatments those noble ladies seem to love...?  Wha? Okay... maybe I just want to see a giant dung beetle rolling a hughnormous round boulder of brown poo over the dunes, perhaps with a few arms and heads poking out from the wandering scavengers/hunters/elves that he happened to pick up on the way.. ya know, the snowball effect thing... or pooball... I'm done.

[Maybe42or54]

And then you can piss on your feet when you are in the shower to cure.. Athlete's foot.

[Dracul]

Some german people still -today- don't waste bedsheets when their kids wet them. At least...my moms friend did. But ahh...well...whatever.

[Angela Christine]

Tortured horses?  I have this image of a Nazi like butcher commanding his men to cut the horses slowly and painfully because the urine will be useless otherwise.

Where is the derailment thread when I need it?  Oh well.

Ok, torture may have been too strong a word, but only slightly.  Pregnant horses are kept standing in concrete stalls, so that all the precious urine can be collected.  They are only allowed outside in the sunshine for exercise a couple hours a week.  When the colts are born they are usually removed immediately, so that the mare will soon become fertile again, because they are only making money when they are pregnant.  A career as a perpetually pregnant piss factory sounds pretty close to torture to me.

http://www.horseofct.org/Premarin.html
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3995076


Angela Christine

[bracken]

http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/aa01/aa012101.htm
:twisted:

[fearwig]

I noticed that someone said urine would no longer be sterile after an hour--what do you suppose makes urine spoil more quickly than, say, milk, which is a fantastic breeding ground?

No, it's not that quick. In fact, I would wager that in the dessicant of Zalanthas, urine-soaked clothes would be entirely safe, and while I wouldn't necessarily wash a wound with urine, I might sterilize one with it, if I had no other option and there was a tradition of its use to soothe any fears.

There's the issue of odor, and an underhydrated individual would probably have very concentrated urine. For one thing, this makes it very potent--for another, though, it does make it smell, namely of ammonia. I don't think that would bother our hardened Zalanthans too much, if it served a valuable purpose. Water is scarce to the poor, and you can't drink it--you find something else to do with it to keep from wasting more water than you are already. No matter what.

Really, peeing in a street wouldn't be much of an issue in a world where water escapes into the air as quickly as sand runs through your fingers. Water is one ingredient absolutely necessary for something to become spoiled. Most of our urine-fears are actually psychologically rooted (and by the fact that we are constantly faced with the unpleasant odor of trace spoiled urine from restrooms).

That's not to say pee is a wonderdrug (though that is a funny phrase), but it's got its uses in sanitation. Especially, as I said, because it will dry and become a very poor medium for culture not long after it serves its purpose. Especially true in a situation where it's combined with soap, of course.

Mostly I just think it's an interesting point to be made, in general. I like to explore the more minor differences that might exist between our worlds.

[fearwig]

And then you can piss on your feet when you are in the shower to cure.. Athlete's foot.

Yup. And vultures do it while feeding in a carcass, likely as a first line of disinfection (and reportedly to keep the parasites off their legs).

[Lohan]

OK, well here is some skinny for you. just a few examples of the amazing powers of URINE!

drinking urine is quite common in harsh climates. not only to recoup moisture to prevent dehydration; but to also aleaveate the loss of certain minerals and protiens. mostly calcium,vitamin C, D, B complex 6&12, folic acid and also magnesium. Meaning its healthy (In a weird way) to drink your own urine.

Ok! now in olden times since their is ammonia in urine you can boil it down to create an anti-septic; It was a common cure for wounds used by the Vikings in battle and also to be rubbed on a woman's genitals after birth by a midwife.

Lastly is my favorite. In Hati and in some other countries where potable water is sometimes a rare commondity its very common to have your family pee in a bucket and your mother to soak the finished floors or tiles before sopping it up and buffing it with a soft cloth.

cool huh?
there are examples of everything documented both in textbooks and popular media works. here is a few more known examples
1.The Eaters of the Dead by Micheal Crition
2.Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis
etc etc

Anyways! In the desert though most use sand to clean up. The Bedouin use it to clean their bodies, hair included; by rubbing it vigorously to exfoliate the dead skin cells (like using a luffa sponge or rag on your back to make your skin smooth) before wiping clean with a piece of cloth.

just some cool stuff!
-lohan