Los Angeles is combatting the California drought through the use of lots of balls - Polidicks

[url]http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/96-million-shade-balls-rolled-into-los-angeles-reservoir-as-water-protection-1.3188818[/url] [quote=CBC]Los Angeles is hoping that a 36-cent plastic ball — well, 96 million of them, to be precise — could help the city protect and conserve its drinking water amid California's historic drought. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti released 20,000 so-called "shade balls" into the Los Angeles Reservoir on Monday, bringing the total number of balls floating on the water to 96 million.[/quote]

At least one good thing came out of tmblr con. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUpzucJQHhA[/media] [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74Ev9Oa1A8[/media]

[QUOTE=Ithon;48447782] [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74Ev9Oa1A8[/media][/QUOTE] The shots of the balls after everything is deployed made me laugh. It just looks ridiculous but if it works, it works.

looks like they're going all-out with dashcon 2

[video=youtube;0_bx8bnCoiU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_bx8bnCoiU[/video] This comes to mind

Forgive me if I'm misinformed and ignorant, but to me it makes me wonder wouldn't it be possible for these balls to release whatever they are composed of slowly into the the supply? I mean, aren't the plastic balls composed of various petrochemicals and wouldn't the sun beating on them all day, regardless, cause some of that to slowly release?

[QUOTE=I'm A Ho;48447911]Forgive me if I'm misinformed and ignorant, but to me it makes me wonder wouldn't it be possible for these balls to release whatever they are composed of slowly into the the supply? I mean, aren't the plastic balls composed of various petrochemicals and wouldn't the sun beating on them all day, regardless, cause some of that to slowly release?[/QUOTE] Yeah, I remember this being a pretty huge deal because some of those were found to cause cancer. Plus what about all that stuff about plastic particulates in the ocean from it breaking down, isn't that going to be a factor here as well as the plastic breaks down in the heat?

[QUOTE=I'm A Ho;48447911]Forgive me if I'm misinformed and ignorant, but to me it makes me wonder wouldn't it be possible for these balls to release whatever they are composed of slowly into the the supply? I mean, aren't the plastic balls composed of various petrochemicals and wouldn't the sun beating on them all day, regardless, cause some of that to slowly release?[/QUOTE] I doubt the company behind this would use plastics with a habit of photo degrading. Also reservoir water is filtered and treated before its pumped to houses anyways. [editline]12th August 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=draugur;48447956]Yeah, I remember this being a pretty huge deal because some of those were found to cause cancer. Plus what about all that stuff about plastic particulates in the ocean from it breaking down, isn't that going to be a factor here as well as the plastic breaks down in the heat?[/QUOTE] Again its not like they pump the water directly into houses. They treat it and filter it first.

Wouldn't the color also be a problem? Because I could see all those black balls getting hotter than shit in the sun here. Wouldn't it have been better to have made them white?

[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;48448048]Wouldn't the color also be a problem? Because I could see all those black balls getting hotter than shit in the sun here. Wouldn't it have been better to have made them white?[/QUOTE] Black absorbs energy well, which means less of the reservoir evaporating.

the same feature of black that causes it to get hot in the sun also makes it cool off quickly when it's wet.

They're not there for evaporation reasons. Yes, making them black seems like a p.stupid idea as they'll absorb all the sunlight and heat up considerably quicker, but the reason they were deployed was due to algae development; somehow the balls interrupt / disrupt the feeding of the algae causing it to die off.

This is why i think damns should be built underground, you don't have this problem then.

[QUOTE=Instant Mix;48448457]They're not there for evaporation reasons. Yes, making them black seems like a p.stupid idea as they'll absorb all the sunlight and heat up considerably quicker, but the reason they were deployed was due to algae development; somehow the balls interrupt / disrupt the feeding of the algae causing it to die off.[/QUOTE] they're used to block the sun getting to the algae

[QUOTE=Kyle902;48447959]Also reservoir water is filtered and treated before its pumped to houses anyways. Again its not like they pump the water directly into houses. They treat it and filter it first.[/QUOTE] I know this, just saying it's still a thing to consider really. Also never underestimate a company's ability to cut corners for profits, dumber shit has happened than corner cutting on which chemicals are in the plastic. After all water bottles had those chemicals in them for years and many still do.

Won't they just have a problem with anaerobic crap now?

Now how much water was used in producing those balls?

[QUOTE=wickedplayer494;48448166]Black absorbs energy well, which means less of the reservoir evaporating.[/QUOTE] It absorbs, yes, but it also transmits/conducts. As the plastic balls absorb the heat, they'll gradually release the heat into the water beneath them, because higher concentrations of heat will always find their way into areas of lower heat concentration. So all that heat they're hoping to prevent going into the water, if absorbed, will find its way there anyway. [editline]13th August 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=butre;48448265]the same feature of black that causes it to get hot in the sun also makes it cool off quickly when it's wet.[/QUOTE] It's them getting wet that allows them to cool off quickly, because water has more capacity for heat than the plastic does.

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48449174]It absorbs, yes, but it also transmits/conducts. As the plastic balls absorb the heat, they'll gradually release the heat into the water beneath them, because higher concentrations of heat will always find their way into areas of lower heat concentration. So all that heat they're hoping to prevent going into the water, if absorbed, will find its way there anyway. [editline]13th August 2015[/editline] It's them getting wet that allows them to cool off quickly, because water has more capacity for heat than the plastic does.[/QUOTE] I'm assuming the balls will absorb heat during the day and radiate it when it starts getting dark. This way at least a portion of the heat will be trapped in the balls instead of the water and thus won't raise its temperature. You gotta figure that the water would be getting the same amount of sunlight (thus energy) with or without the balls. The balls are simply another medium for the heat to accumulate in that won't raise the temperature of the water.

It looks like Nibbler's poop from Futurama

I hope nobody pisses in that ball pit.

Not gonna lie; wouldn't a better solution be just stopping people from watering things like grass fields and such? [editline]13th August 2015[/editline] The place was naturally arid, its going to be better in a arid state.

1. Use illegals to build lockless canal between salton sea and pacific 2. salt from salton drain 3. profit

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;48449174]It absorbs, yes, but it also transmits/conducts. As the plastic balls absorb the heat, they'll gradually release the heat into the water beneath them, because higher concentrations of heat will always find their way into areas of lower heat concentration. So all that heat they're hoping to prevent going into the water, if absorbed, will find its way there anyway.[/QUOTE] Get a white parasol, put it up. Get a black parasol, put it up. See if the colour makes a difference.

[QUOTE=Killuah;48448631]Now how much water was used in producing those balls?[/QUOTE] Surely it wouldn't matter as long as they weren't produced in Cali? It's not like the whole USA is currently having a drought.

First flouride, and now the government is dipping their balls in our water!?

[QUOTE=Swilly;48451863]Not gonna lie; wouldn't a better solution be just stopping people from watering things like grass fields and such? [editline]13th August 2015[/editline] The place was naturally arid, its going to be better in a arid state.[/QUOTE] Telling people to stop watering their lawns isn't going to stop our reservoirs from evaporating.

[QUOTE=Swilly;48451863]Not gonna lie; wouldn't a better solution be just stopping people from watering things like grass fields and such? [editline]13th August 2015[/editline] The place was naturally arid, its going to be better in a arid state.[/QUOTE] Irrigation water is leagues different from drinking water.

So they spent roughly 3.5 million on plastic balls instead of trying to strickly enforce their drought laws. Something tells me there might have been a better way of going about this. I mean what's the plan on the long term? Let them sit until water levels rise then use expensive equipment to try and pick them up? Sounds like an expensive bandaid solution to a much bigger problem.

Wouldn't this technically make this the world's largest ball pit?