Thursday, 13 August 2015

Shade Balls

Yeah another off-topic special: "Genius invention combats water evaporation". Doesn't exactly sound like a Sideburn blog worthy news but check out the video below of 96,000,000 black plastic balls bouncing down into an LA reservoir and tell me you are not a little bit turned on. Ok maybe not as captivating as Magali Noël singing Rififi but still.
If you are into black plastic balls as much as me you can read more about them in the LA Times.
Something with two wheels and an engine will be along shortly. BP
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6 comments:

  1. Kirk13 August 2015 at 17:14

    Loading the truck must have been interesting. Brilliant concept, although this is a place where people hose down their driveways rather than sweep them so 'too little too late' comes to mind.

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  2. Sideburn Magazine13 August 2015 at 18:57

    Kirk - too little too late? Are you saying the planet's screwed? No amount will save it. Don't we need lots of littles before it really is too late? G

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  3. Diedre Greenshields13 August 2015 at 21:00

    I can never have enough black balls.

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  4. Unknown14 August 2015 at 15:04

    James Lovelock thinks its too late. Unless we get to grips with the exponential population growth, then i think we could be the first "intelligent" beings to make themselves extinct.
    would be interesting too see what the balls are made of, and how resistant to UV degredation they are. they do mean that the raw water supply is now not available for local wildlife.
    i think education on economical water useage within the population is where i wouldve started....

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  5. Kirk14 August 2015 at 19:32

    No, not on the big scale but as far as the California drought goes it's a drop in the bucket of what's needed so to speak- there's developers writing their own ticket with construction so limited water resources (this is a desert basically) have been absorbed by overbuilding and a horrible 'it's not my problem' attitude here- from people hosing driveways rather than sweeping and demanding a green lawn despite temperatures hitting the high 30s up to new housing developments with golf courses being approved constantly. The bottled water companies have been taking water from the supply, filtering it and selling it back while getting a break on water prices- it's pretty corrupt and insane and has been since the city sprang up- there's a great book called Cadillac Desert which gives a terrifying history of it all. And I wonder about the balls too Stevie- that's a lot of petroleum/non bio degradable plastic there although they apparently should last 25 years and are a 10th the cost of the old style shade covers! Brilliant idea really, and hopefully inspiring to everyone else

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  6. Anonymous24 September 2015 at 18:25

    drinking water & plastic, permanently exposed to the sun? sounds like a bad idea. I wonder which type of plastic.

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