Drought report cards for California water districts

Water Report Card

Thomas Suh Lauder for the Los Angeles Times provides you with a way to see how the water district near you is doing relative to the rest of the state. Look up a location. Get a report card.

It's still not looking good for California's drought situation. Lots of brown yards, parks with dying grass, and barren farm lands up for sale. It depends where you are though. For example, the park near where I live is almost completely brown, but in the city next to mine, the parks are oddly lush green.

Makes this local view all the more important.

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Gallons of water to produce foods

Water to produce food

With all the talk recently about how much water it takes to grow almonds, Kyle Kim for the Los Angeles Times took a quick look at home many gallons of water it takes on average to produce other foods.

Although almonds isn't on the chart. Am I missing it?

Update: Pretty sure they're not on there, but here's some back-of-the-napkin math. The LA Times article quotes about one gallon of water per almond. According to the Google, the average almond weighs 1.2 grams, which translates to about 24 almonds per ounce. Therefore, 24 gallons of water per ounce, placing almonds between mangos and asparagus from a per ounce perspective. (Thanks, Kevin.)

In other news, I will be switching to a strict diet of carrots and beer in the interest of saving water for this state.

Update #2: Check out the original piece from the LA Times, which is interactive and lets you create a meal to see how much water was used to produce it. It's not almond-focused. (Thanks, Kyle.)

Plate of food

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Unclaimed remains

Unclaimed remains

People die, and for various reasons many bodies go unclaimed. In Los Angeles county, the bodies go to the county crematory. The Los Angeles Times reports, along with a searchable database of the unclaimed in 2011.

If relatives can be found, they are notified by the morgue or the coroner that their loved one's body is available for pickup by a mortuary. If a family can't afford the mortuary fees, the county handles cremation.

The cost is typically $352 for a case handled by the coroner and $466 for others. Although that must be paid before the ashes can be taken, in some cases a family can ask a county supervisor to waive the fee.

Some families simply don't want to pick up relatives, said Joyce Kato, an investigator at the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

The county keeps remains for three years, so the ashes will receive a mass burial if they are not claimed by the end of this year.

Oof, the remains of 137 unclaimed babies in the database and the drawer of paper bags with their remains struck a chord.

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