Quoted
Thu Jun 11 2009
Post a comment— Robert O. Keohane, Professor at Princeton, in Neorealism and it’s CriticsThe larger the domain of a theory, the less accuracy we expect…. The domain of theory is narrowed to achieve greater precision. Thus the debate between advocates of parsimony and proponents of contextual subtlety resolves itself into a question of stages rather than either-or choices. We should seek parsimony first, then add on complexity while monitoring the adverse effects this has on the predictive power of our theory: its ability to make significant inferences on the basis of limited information
Quoted
Sat Jun 6 2009
Post a comment— E.B. White, author ofCharlotte’s Web and Stuart Little.Surely the [Writers’ War] Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee.
Are Sewers a Significant Source of Greenhouse Gases?
Wed Jun 3 2009
Post a commentI want to talk to you a little bit today about a presentation that I was lucky enough to be in the audience for last September, which struck me as a good, solid piece of work and a valuable contribution. The talk I went to was given at the 2008 World Water Congress in Vienna, which is a big conference held by the International Water Agency (aka IWA) every couple of years – Montreal, Canada is the host for 2010.
Anyhow, the talk in question was given by Prof. Zhiguo Yuan, from the University of Queensland, Australia, and focused on examining the potential for sewer systems to be a significant source of greenhouse gases, and particularly methane. There had been some work done on this issue in the past (e.g. Minami and Takata, 19974), but then again, the 2006 IPCC report’s position on the issue was, essentially, that this is a non-issue (Eggleston et al., 20062):
Sewers may be open or closed. In urban areas in developing countries and some developed countries, sewer systems may consist of networks of open canals, gutters, and ditches, which are referred to as open sewers. In most developed countries and in high-income urban areas in other countries, sewers are usually closed and underground. Wastewater in closed underground sewers is not believed to be a significant source of CH4. The situation is different for wastewater in open sewers, because it is subject to heating from the sun and the sewers may be stagnant allowing for anaerobic conditions to emit CH4. (Doorn et al., 1997).
(emphasis added)
