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Gotta Go (But You're Not At Home)? There's An App for That
Photo by Henryk Sadura via Shutterstock
The makers of the app Cloo are trying to solve a problem as old as modern plumbing: so many full bladders, so few accessible toilets.
The app makers have come up with a solution (that sounds like it's ripped from the pages of the Onion). Users can rent out their bathrooms to anyone who is connected to them through their social media networks.
Here's how it works: if a friend of your Facebook friend has gotta go, he can send you a request. If you accept, he'll come up to use your commode. He pays a little, you earn a little. His bladder is empty and, hopefully, your bathroom is no worse for the wear.
Bryan Merchant, a Brooklynite at Treehugger, likes the idea of the app. We share our cars, our DVD rentals and we let couch-surfing strangers spend the night, he says. Why not open up our bathrooms?
Here's why I like this app: it reflects an fantastically optimistic vision of humanity. Its founders view the world as being full of people who will happily let strangers in off the street to poop in their bathrooms. And it's really not such a bad idea — the lack of public restrooms in cities like New York is a real problem.
Maybe this is the sort of thing that might work better in New York? The stereotypical Angeleno driving in his car might have less trouble finding a place to pull over.
Or maybe most of us will still be totally creeped out by the app, like Gizmodo writer Sam Biddle: "Unless I need spare dollars to feed the worst heroin addiction mankind has ever known, or am conducting a social experiment to see how many times I can be strangled to death, I don't want strangers in my apartment using my bathroom."
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Here's the video, complete with some sexy salsa music to get you in the mood for toilet-sharing:
CLOO' from Hillary Young on Vimeo.
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