U.S. mayors agree to phase out bottled water

“The change could mean people at city council meetings around the
country in the future could more often see pitchers of water instead of
clear plastic bottles on the tables of local legislators.”
This sends a clear message to consumers and it is a great message for the mayors to endorse. The question is where is the FCM on this issue. How can we get a similar resolution on their agenda?
Article is here.

Great lakes follow up

The Toronto Star writes up an argument for paying the real price of water. The idea is that water pollution is an externality to the economic pricing of goods and services. If we raise the price of using water to better reflect the cost of using it, the theory is that the quality (and quantity?) of water will improve.

The story is adapted from the soon to be published book, “Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America” by Chris Wood. I’ve not read the book yet so I can’t comment on it but when a journalist writes stuff like this, “… the greatest threat to the Lakes, however, comes from the insidious amplification of evapotranspiration (ET)” I get mildly annoyed. Evapotranspiration is one of the advanced topics of thermodynamics and part of an engineering hydrology course. It isn’t insidious in any way but fundamental to the hydrologic cycle. Without evapotranspiration, we’re screwed. So when a journalist describes fundamental science phenomena using language that inflames the reader’s unease, it isn’t serving anyone’s interest. There is a key word in there and that is amplification. Evapotranspiration is one of those things that is pretty tricky to measure accurately. It can also vary significantly within short distances and depends on a great many variables. So extrapolating from single measurements is very inexact. What we do know is that evapotranspirtation is proportional to degree days (to non corn growers out there, a degree day is a measure of heat for growing crops. Hmm wikipedia has a more general and better description than that). So as warmer temperatures are anticipated so too could evapotranspiration. However, as I said this is a not a simple process and we don’t know exactly how this will change.

Guess I’ll have to read the book to see where the argument goes.

The academic library and the future

“if libraries had shareholders, would they, like newspapers, be in the midst of a gut-wrenching, brake-screeching exercise in redefinition?”
Full story here. I like libraries but I’ve not been in an academic library in years. This info puts into question what role these libraries will serve in the community in the future.

I should draw a differentiation between the fact that I like libraries and I don’t like newspapers (should preface that by saying modern newspapers). Libraries are a collection of information that exist in a sort passive relationship with their patrons. You must search out and discover your interests in the collection. You, the reader, get primary and direct access to information and where a reference is listed, you may follow that reference further.

Newspapers, in contrast, solely exist to parse information for a readership profile. Newspapers apply a value filter that I dislike and distrust. Newspapers, in the modern age, seldom if ever connect me to direct sources and rarely pass references to follow further. Television news is by and large even worse.

This is not to say that I don’t read newspapers, occasionally I do and I do watch TV news but I pay for neither. My expectation is not that I shall be informed but that I will be entertained. With any newspaper, I always head first to the comics section and occasionally that is as far as I get.

So the quote I’ve put above is more in reference to another of society’s institutions that is being impacted by the Net than a comparison of like institutions.

Lastly, I can recall a story told by my father, who described a man that became jobless in the dirty thirties. He unlike his peers did not stand in long lines only to discover that there was no work. He went to the library day after day and read as much material as he could. He did this in the face of considerable criticism and ridicule. The result was that he was able to find work with a newspaper while his contemporaries were still seeking lines to stand in with the hope of discovering work. He went on to a distinguished career in the newspaper business. The library was the catalyst for this success. The point being that if he had read a newspaper every day instead of going to the library would the result be the same? Not likely and therein lies an important distinction.

Don’t judge each day
     by the harvest you reap,
     but by the seeds you plant. 
          Robert Louis Stevenson

Resistance is futile

Condi has a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee in hand. Surely a Tim Horton’s coffee will smooth a few wrinkles out. See the way she is holding the cup? Do you suspect that is to cover up the TH logo? Nope, she’s just trying to warm up I bet. Check out the SS action on the local. What’s with that? Is he getting a pat down for a hidden WMD?

Resistance is futile

Condi has a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee in hand. Surely a Tim Horton’s coffee will smooth a few wrinkles out. See the way she is holding the cup? Do you suspect that is to cover up the TH logo? Nope, she’s just trying to warm up I bet. Check out the SS action on the local. What’s with that?

Blog vs News Publishing Cycles

I liked this story for it's analysis of the distinction between publishing cycles and Blog cycles. This rings true to me as a valid distinction and worthwhile consideration as a fault of newspaper composition. I mean I like to read newspapers every once in a while but they are so space limited as to have difficulty providing a worthwhile in depth analysis.