Recently, I’ve been trying to finish up Dead Space. I made it to the ninth level before having to quit to review the mess of other games that came out this fall. Because of an issue beyond my control, I lost my all my saves on my Xbox 360. The end result is that I have to play through the vast majority of the game over again.

I was angry about it until a few minutes ago, when I noticed something amazing. The bathrooms on the Ishimura lack urinals. For the majority of males, the urinal is a wonderful thing to pee in.The urinal is a no-nonsense, quick and efficient tool that drastically improves bathroom time. They also keep males away from other bodily function containers that may have barf or other funky stuff on the floor around them.

Excluding tavern urinals, because those are always nasty.

What does this say about the people in Dead Space’s alternate future? Had mankind evolved to the point where urinating was done unilaterally with the same device? Is this a statement of solidarity between female and male space miners? Or did the traditional male urination stance shift from standing to sitting as humans began exploring the cosmos?

Curiously, the sinks are rather low.