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

How about we ban people's grass on their lawns and tax meat consumption/animal products? [t]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e3-vQy4Wzpw/U-PNye4x6AI/AAAAAAAAJMc/U7g-OMDLJzE/s1600/meat-water-use.png[/t] People are getting fined for not watering their grass during a severe water shortage. [url]http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/24/3650937/california-prohibit-brown-lawn-fines/[/url] [quote]When water is extremely precious, a green lawn should be a mark of shame, not a mark of pride. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1979, when they had a severe drought (and this one is even worse), and anyone in my subdivision with a green lawn was looked on with scorn. People would water some of their plants with their gray water, but let the lawns go. And no HOA (let alone a municipality) would ever mandate lawn watering -- that would be considered the height of stupidity. My, how times have changed, when HOAs now consider keeping subdivisions pretty and green to be more important than other uses for scarce water.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Velocet;48453436]How about we ban people's grass on their lawns and tax meat consumption/animal products? [t]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e3-vQy4Wzpw/U-PNye4x6AI/AAAAAAAAJMc/U7g-OMDLJzE/s1600/meat-water-use.png[/t] People are getting fined for not watering their grass during a severe water shortage. [url]http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/24/3650937/california-prohibit-brown-lawn-fines/[/url][/QUOTE] Dead grass is a fire hazard just so you know

[QUOTE=Velocet;48453436]How about we ban people's grass on their lawns and tax meat consumption/animal products? [t]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e3-vQy4Wzpw/U-PNye4x6AI/AAAAAAAAJMc/U7g-OMDLJzE/s1600/meat-water-use.png[/t] People are getting fined for not watering their grass during a severe water shortage. [url]http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/24/3650937/california-prohibit-brown-lawn-fines/[/url][/QUOTE] Water used for agriculture =/= water found in city reservoirs used for drinking.

[QUOTE=Paramud;48455956]Dead grass is a fire hazard just so you know[/QUOTE] Then provide a tax incentive to get rid of it in favor of that fake grass. It uses too much water.

[QUOTE=Velocet;48455969]Then provide a tax incentive to get rid of it in favor of that fake grass. It uses too much water.[/QUOTE] Thats already in place...

[QUOTE=Velocet;48455969]Then provide a tax incentive to get rid of it in favor of that fake grass. It uses too much water.[/QUOTE] It's much more cost effective to just eat the money it takes to provide that water.

[QUOTE=DogGunn;48448590]Won't they just have a problem with anaerobic crap now?[/QUOTE] Lack of oxygen ? Why would that be a problem

[QUOTE=Velocet;48455969]Then provide a tax incentive to get rid of it in favor of that fake grass. It uses too much water.[/QUOTE] Or fine the people not removing their grass because taking a shovel to some grass on a weekend isn't the end of the world.

[QUOTE=Paramud;48452348]Get a white parasol, put it up. Get a black parasol, put it up. See if the colour makes a difference.[/QUOTE] I was under the impression that black color makes the balls last longer as white plastic degrades faster in the sun.

[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;48456316]Or fine the people not removing their grass because taking a shovel to some grass on a weekend isn't the end of the world.[/QUOTE] That would make people very unhappy, but I'm sure if it was "you either take out your grass or you cause a war over water", people would understand.

[QUOTE=Paramud;48452348]Get a white parasol, put it up. Get a black parasol, put it up. See if the colour makes a difference.[/QUOTE] They act as heat sinks. The same amount of energy would hit the water regardless of the balls being there or not. The only difference now is that the balls act as an energy storage medium until night when they'll start cooling down. This way the energy is transfered to and retained by the plastic balls rather then causing the water temperature to rise.

[QUOTE=Megadave;48447831][video=youtube;0_bx8bnCoiU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_bx8bnCoiU[/video] This comes to mind[/QUOTE] Favorite advert ever, hands down.

[QUOTE=Kyle902;48459807]They act as heat sinks. The same amount of energy would hit the water regardless of the balls being there or not. The only difference now is that the balls act as an energy storage medium until night when they'll start cooling down. This way the energy is transfered to and retained by the plastic balls rather then causing the water temperature to rise.[/QUOTE] UV is only absorbed by the black balls, and the point of this is that they are trying to block the UV from forming carcinogens with oxygen radicals and trace bromine in the water. White balls are transparent to UV. This doesn't really have anything to do with storing energy

Why not just spend the money on damming up rivers for artificial lakes.

[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] you have your physics wong. a perfect absorber is also a perfect emitter

Big, black balls