Doodle 4 Google 2014 winner draws a water purification system

June 9, 2014 the Doodle 4 Google 2014 winner was on the home page.  All of you google search users saw it.  For those Bing users, this is what was on the page.  What is it?  It is a water purification thing drawn by 11 year old Audrey Zhang when she learned not everyone has clean water.

"To make the world a better place, I invented a transformative water purifier. It takes in dirty and polluted water from rivers, lakes, and even oceans, then massively transforms the water into clean, safe and sanitary water, when humans and animals drink this water, they will live a healthier life."
- Audrey Zhang, 11

Here is a video for the contest.

The Performance of Water Based Cooling Systems have Problems Because of Bad Words, No Don't Listen to Gwyneth Paltrow

I like discussing water in relation to data centers.  So I pay attention to when water shows up in the news.  Didn’t expect this one though.  Water’s performance is affected by bad words according to Gwyneth Paltrow.

I am fascinated by the growing science behind the energy of consciousness and its effects on matter. I have long had Dr. Emoto's coffee table book on how negativity changes the structure of water, how the molecules behave differently depending on the words or music being expressed around it. Below, Dr. Sadeghi explores further.

The Dr. Sadeghi says.

In his experiments, Emoto poured pure water into vials labeled with negative phrases like "I hate you" or "fear." After 24 hours, the water was frozen, and no longer crystallized under the microscope: It yielded gray, misshapen clumps instead of beautiful lace-like crystals. In contrast, Emoto placed labels that said things like "I Love You," or "Peace" on vials of polluted water, and after 24 hours, they produced gleaming, perfectly hexagonal crystals.

So maybe what’s wrong with the performance in mechanical systems is the staff doesn’t spend enough time saying “I love you” and “Peace."

Gwyneth spoke at the Code Conference and said bad social media comments are like war.

Green Beret slams Gwyneth Paltrow: ‘Twitter hate is not war’

Got the Message? Water is going to get more expensive as it gets scarce

If you look at the White House Fact Sheet for Climate Change impact and look for “water”  it shows up 20 times.

Energy and Water are interconnected.  The smart data center people think about the long term water use in their facility as it is going to get scarcer and more expensive

• Energy: “Extreme weather events are affecting energy production and delivery facilities, causing supply disruptions of varying lengths and magnitudes and affecting other infrastructure that depends on energy supply. The frequency and intensity of certain types of extreme weather events are expected to change. Higher summer temperatures will increase electricity use, causing higher summer peak loads, while warmer winters will decrease energy demands for heating. Net electricity use is projected to increase. Changes in water availability, both episodic and long-lasting, will constrain different forms of energy production. In the longer term, sea level rise, extreme storm surge events, and high tides will affect coastal facilities and infrastructure on which many energy systems, markets, and consumers depend. As new investments in energy technologies occur, future energy systems will differ from today’s in uncertain ways. Depending on the character of changes in the energy mix, climate change will introduce new risks as well as new opportunities.” (NCA Highlights: Energy Supply and Use)

• Water: “Climate change affects water demand and the ways water is used within and across regions and economic sectors. The Southwest, Great Plains, and Southeast are particularly vulnerable to changes in water supply and demand. Changes in precipitation and runoff, combined with changes in consumption and withdrawal, have reduced surface and groundwater supplies in many areas. These trends are expected to continue, increasing the likelihood of water shortages for many uses. Increasing flooding risk affects human safety and health, property, infrastructure, economies, and ecology in many basins across the United States… Increasing resilience and enhancing adaptive capacity provide opportunities to strengthen water resources management and plan for climate-change impacts.” (NCA Highlights: Water)

Water tips the use of Power in NSA Utah Data Center

Crawling public records for evidence of data centers being built is common.  Another thing you can do is use public records of utility use.  It is tough to get the amount of power used in public records, but water use is not considered as confidential.  Well, until Salt Lake Tribune reported on the water use of NSA’s Utah Data center.

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NSA paying for water it’s not using at Utah Data Center

Records » It could be evidence the data center in Bluffdale is not operating at anticipated capacity.

By Nate Carlisle

| The Salt Lake Tribune

 

First Published Apr 28 2014 03:10 pm • Last Updated Apr 29 2014 07:30 am

The National Security Agency’s Utah Data Center has been paying for water it’s leaving in the tap.

A review of the data center’s recently released water bill shows that since at least July, the NSA has been paying its mandatory minimum bill. In July, the NSA paid Bluffdale $28,596 for 6.2 million gallons of water.

There are rumors there are problems in the electrical systems in the data center which limit the power used.

The water bill is further evidence the Utah Data Center is not operating at anticipated capacity. The Wall Street Journal reported in October the facility was suffering from electrical problems, delaying full-scale operation. The NSA has refused to discuss the status of the Utah Data Center, even to say if it’s operational.

We’ll see what the water use is in July 2014 for get a year to year usage.

Californian's Know Your Water Rights - A Smart Atlas of Water Governance in CA

Here is a web site to help Californian's understand water in the state.

Understand Water in California

Presenting real-time, interactive visualizations of how we use, manage and understand water in California. By visualizing and promoting water data for the state, we are making it possible to understand our cumulative usage of water and how this effects the many farms, individuals, governments, and businesses that rely on water availablity for healthy economies and ecosystems.

As the needs of our state shift with the changing demands placed on us by population growth and climate change, we want to give the gift of broad insight and clear communication to the many professionals and concerned citizens who work so hard to protect and deliver one of our most precious resources.

Water is a shared resource; as such, it is managed by the state on behalf of the people. To achieve our interdependent goals of healthy ecosystems, economies, farms and cities, we strive to bring you up-to-date, clear and accurate information to inform your decisions.

 

The water rights section works.

THE RIGHT TO BEAR KNOWLEDGE

“If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.”

Peter Drucker

The primary challenge with water in California is not its scarcity, but rather how we manage it. Many experts have mutually concluded, that a major first step to improving our management of water is by reforming how we account for it. Whether a lack of adequate statements of diversion for surface and subsurface waters, or the existence of a fine grained environmental monitoring network, it is clear that we could do a better job of recording and measuring. New instruments and institutions are necessary to accomplish this. It is not a question of technology, but one of techniques. The technology is available and affordable, but the institutions and practices of how we measure and document our water resources are not fully mature. We must get control of our understanding of what is in the system at any given point. We owe it to ourselves, our economy, and our ecosystem. This effort benefits all stakeholders.