Hmmm — in a culture where Brittany Spears’ underwear gets 100 times the media coverage as our healthcare crisis or the war in Iraq… you are worried about the topics of one academic conference?

Have you been to a public toilet recently? Or looked for a public toilet when you really really had to go? Worried about who might come in to the public restroom while your child was in there?

If this conference resulted in some new approaches to public restrooms — including the value of the French self-cleaning toilets on the streets of San Francisco — I think that would be a good thing.

Would you rather they be debating Britteny Spears’ parenting style?