17 May 2004, 22:48
Why Water Towers?
Now, I not trying to be a smart ass here - I really don't know - but what's with all the water towers? How do they work and why are they everywhere? Other than a notorious small town in Ontario, I was under the impression that all westernized countries required water treatment facilities and underground water transport systems. I could believe that the water is stored for emergency purposes, but even that seems pretty ridiculous. For example, League City, a town of 45,454 people, has a water tower that holds 200 million gallons of water. Now, let's stay the temperature jumps to 130F, resulting in nasty bugs accumulating in the treatment facility, causing it to shut it down and leaving a whole town of thirsty folk. Considering the human body really only requires 1 litre of water per day to survive, I will generously allot each person 2 gallons per day (maybe they want to cook or something?). This leaves each League City resident with 2200 days of emergency survival. Isn't that kind of overkill? Wouldn't someone step in to help over that 6 year period? And, why is it stored above ground - wouldn't it be easier to build an underground pool-like facility? It would still have the required high pressure and you could still use the force of gravity to transport the water if our freak hot-weather-crazy-bugs scenario actually occurs. Really, I am just curious. Does anyone know?
Completely unrelated and debatably more interesting, I went to an Astros game yesterday - only my second MLB game ever. It was great. The park (as much as an indoor place can be called a park) was filled to capacity and this crazy couple behind me yelled obscenities throughout the last 8 innings. In fact, it inspired me to plan on attending all of their home games, so I can wear my Team Canada hockey jersey and cheer for the visiting team. Anybody want to come? I may be convinced to behave if someone will join me for the All Star game
And finally, the recommended book of the week is unquestionably 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chosbky. If you manage to get through it as quickly as I did, check out Josh's Talking Points Memo for a controversial daily thought.