Hey Kids! Fun Facts About Urine!
by Justin Teerlinck- Runners sometimes drink urine to replace electrolites
- U.S. Navy Seals sometimes urinate in their pants during cold water training exercises, in order to stay warm.
- In Pre-Colonial Peru, the Inca washed their children's hair with urine as a remedy for head lice.
- Urinating on someone or being urinated on for enjoyment is known in fetish parlance as "water sports."
- In Minnesota, the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association has initiated a campaign to prevent or eliminate public urination, which is considered a "quality of life" criminal offense in most U.S. cities.
- In northern Scandanavia, Laplanders consume a hallucinogenic mushroom called amanita muscaria, also know as Fly Agaric. The mushroom's hallucinogenic compound "muscanol" is excreted in the urine intact. When the mushroom is in short supply, people who have consumed the mushroom will urinate into a pot. Someone without any mushrooms can then drink the urine and experience the same effects.
- Wolves, bears, apes and other mammals use urine to claim territory, communicate eligibilty for mating, body size and other individual characteristics.
- In addition to hair and blood, urine is used to test people for illicit drug use.
- In his final book, Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud claimed that civilization became possible only when ancient peoples resisted the impulse to extinguish their campfires by pissing them out.
- Drinking urine is part of many non-traditional remedies used today, especially in Ayurvedic medicine.
Justin Teerlinck is a 28 year old freelance writer who resides in St. Paul, Mn. His bathroom reviews are founded on a bedrock of 20 solid years of independent toileting. You can find his work in the Double Dare Press, and in the Whistling Shade. Teerlinck has experience with travel writing, social commentary, movie reviews, miscellaneous reporting, short fiction, novels, animal stories, and fake advertisements but he mostly considers himself a humor writer above all. Teerlinck welcomes your non-threatening input. Write to him at Here_Leezard@msn.com.
