Dog Urine and Lampposts/Steet Lights

Dog urine would be the easiest to collect, given that they have Bo; Brian's dog.

Dogs are also the only animals I can think of that are likely to urinate against street lights, which would explain why they get blamed.

Cat urine is likely to be more acidic than dog urine, since cats have to eat more meat than dogs* and have more concentrated urine**. But they are far less likely to be urinating against street furniture.

(*Dogs are omnivores, and not only can but should eat vegetable matter as part of their diet to remain in good condition. Cat's however have to eat meat as it contains nutrients they can't produce on their own.)
(**Cat's evolved in a desert environment, so they produce concentrated urine and fairly dry excrement to retain water. This is also why cats can overeat if only given dry food, as they evolved to get most of their water from their food rather than by drinking)

Observation; MB used dog poo for testing 'Poo hits the fan', although that was for developing a stand in for poo rather than for the tests themselves for several understandable reasons. It kind of makes sense to move on to using dog urine from there as a 'Welcome to Mythbusters, where you will be expected to at least dry heave once a season if not actually vomit.'

Thought; Maybe MB could design and place collectors at the base of a couple of street lights in their area to collect runoff to see what is actually collecting at the bases? That way they could figure out exactly what the metal might be exposed to and maybe how much dog urine is there.

We are omnivores but have to eat meat to get some vitamins we cannot produce ourselves, B12 is one.
Well strictly speaking we can get it from certain plants but you have to make a habit of including them in your diet, it's one reason many vegans suffer from B12 defiecency.

But vitamins are basically chemicals we need in the diet but cannot produce ourselves, vitamin C for example famously is enriched in sauerkraut and citrus fruits.

Collecting dog urine, IIRC guide dogs for the blind are trained to go to the toilet on command and in the UK are trained to urinate into a gutter grate,I don't know if US dogs are similarly trained. If they were you could set up a false drain with a sumo underneath get a guide dog and get it to urinate when asked to by its owner.

A neighbor had a dog that always peed on the air conditioner. After a few years, the condensing unit completely disintegrated on the side where the dog would relieve himself.
We had a lamp post in the downtown district that fell over after a bicyclist leaned on it waiting for the traffic light to change. They blamed it on road salt.

Can we take a moment to discuss the lamp posts....

In our street a few years back they replaced the sodium light old Iron lamp posts with taller brighter not orange but "white" lights... and when I say taller, I mean taller?.. we have the best illuminated roof lops in the whole of Manchester with the 40ft monsters the put up on the main road.
And they are Aluminium rather than the old cast iron, on the grounds that they wont need repainting every few years.

So... testing must include old Iron lamp posts, and newer Aluminium posts.
And also include old iron that hasn't been painted against painted.

And then when the find out that the Iron NOT painted degrades faster than the painted one, someone do a bean count to see if painting the older posts that still are about is cheaper in the long run, as they used to do, rather than replace them with newer Aluminium ones.

I also note the subject of cast Al against sheet welded Al... is there a difference in how its made and does that allow "rust", in aluminium oxide, to form due to the presence of oxidisers, water, dog pee, human pee, etc.

There is a thought; Could this actually be electrolytic corrosion at work?

Metal street fixtures, such as street lights, are known to be capable of building up static electrical charges. And in the case of street lights there is also electrical power flowing through it for several hours which I'm wondering might not build up a faint charge in the metal.

If there is an electrical charge in the metal casing then when a dog urinates on the pole that charge may be discharged through the urine, which being acidic would presumably be a good conductor.

This might also explain the salt angle as well, given that salt water is an electrical conductor.

Is tarmac or concrete electrically conductive when dry?

Hmmm... erm... Well.... I suppose having 480~240 V A/C running through street furniture would be "Bad"?...
AFAIK, All street furniture must be "Double insulated" at the power outlet AND earthed, therefore, belt and braces, so as not to have a build up of static or any other kind of electricity.... especially on those parts small children can lick in the cold to stick their tongues to it?..
The locks on the base of the things are extremely difficult to get into if you dont have the right tools.

And after the questions above, ya think ya may wanna stop them doing that?..

But saying that.

Question for any that may know, and how would you find out anyway, just how many lightning strikes happen on street furniture daily around the world, and if you get a billion volt courtesy of Mjolnir, would it A] blow the bloody circuit, B] cause damage, or C] both?..

Does the mere fact that they have electrical currents and therefore possibly a [possible?] magnetic field through them make them attractive to rust/oxidisation?.

in my own lightning strike experience, I went out on a house that had been struck. our primary job was assessing damage and replacing the TV cable that had been destroyed - I also noticed that the metal corner flashing had been quite literally knocked off of the house and was lying a few feet away from the walls. OTOH, my carpenter friend has been on a sailboat that got struck. he said it was louder and brighter than hell, but once they got themselves reoriented, they were able to go on like nothing had happened.

when lightning gets involved, all bets are off.

it is also where there is a wet/dry cycle. wood tends to rot most quickly just below ground level, too. the decorative lampposts we have fail, fail just above the decorative base - which is part of why I suspect cars may sometimes be involved. and standard mounting for anything bigger than a street sign tends to be with bolts embedded in concrete - either with a breakaway flange, or not.