by Jay Lund
How do California’s engineers see a partially-full water glass? Mostly the same as they did in the original 2012 version of this post, but we’ve added a few more perspectives over the years.
Depending on your outlook, the proverbial glass of water is either half full or half empty. Not so, for engineers in California.
Civil engineer (and George Carlin): The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
Flood control engineer: The glass should be 50 percent bigger.
Army Corps levee engineer: The glass should be 50 percent thicker.
Mexicali Valley water engineer: Your leaky glass is my water supply.
Delta levee engineer: Why is water rising on the outside of my glass?
Dutch levee engineer: This water should be kept in a pitcher.
Southern California water engineer: Can we get another pitcher?
Northern California water engineer: Who took half my water?
Lower Colorado River water engineer (outside of California): California took half my water.
Lower Colorado River water engineer (inside California): Sorry for shortages in other states.
Tulare Basin water engineer: I’m saving that empty storage to capture floods for recharge.
California Water Commission engineer: Would a bigger glass provide public benefits?
USBR CVP or NOAA engineer: Is that water cold?
Consulting engineer: How much water would you like?
Environmental engineer: I wouldn’t drink that.
Ecosystem engineer: This is not enough water for fish.
Water reuse engineer: Someone else drank from this glass.
Groundwater engineer: Can I get a longer straw?
SGMA regulatory engineer: Put the rest back by 2040!
Google engineer: As of March 15, 2023, we will no longer sell Glass Enterprise Edition
Academic engineer: I don’t have a glass or any water, but I’ll tell you what to do with yours.
Lawyers, NGOs, managers, regulators, and elected officials also seem to have different views of glasses at 50% of their capacity. We can start a collection of these perspectives.
Agency program manager: My agency and program clearly need more staff and funding.
Legislative Analyst Office: This agency has too much space.
Philosopher: If we pour some sand into the glass, is it now more than half full?
Professor: The ‘glass half full’ problem remains an area of active research.
Scientist to others: We have made good progress, but more research is needed. We think filling the volume with BitCoin for my research will solve the problem, but this needs to be tested.
Student: Sorry, I spilled some.
NSF Program Officer: We are looking to fund transformative research into the water-volume-percentage nexus.
Mom: Another dirty glass. Won’t the kids ever learn to clean up and put things away!?
Dad: Oops, that was mine. Sorry.
Kids: Do we have any juice?
Quote Investigator has a more scholarly view of the subject. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/04/08/wrong-size/
Jay Lund is a semi-distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering and former half-director of the Center for UC Davis’ Watershed Sciences.
Further reading
Partridge (2023), Announcing the best lab liquid award, ErrantScience, 22 September 2023
Munroe, Randall. Glass Half Empty. xkcd.com
Quote Investigator (2022),” Optimist: The Glass Is Half Full. Pessimist: The Glass Is Half Empty. Comedian: The Glass Is the Wrong Size,” https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/04/08/wrong-size/
Earlier californiawaterblog.com versions:
Lund, J. (2022), How engineers see the water glass in California 5, CaliforniaWaterBlog.com, May 15, 2022
Lund, J. (2018), How engineers see the water glass in California 4, CaliforniaWaterBlog.com, March 18, 2018
Lund, J. (2016), How engineers see the water glass in California 3, CaliforniaWaterBlog.com, December 5, 2016
Lund, J. (2014), How engineers see the water glass in California 2, CaliforniaWaterBlog.com, November 24, 2014
Lund, J. (2012), How engineers see the water glass in California, CaliforniaWaterBlog.com, December 56 2012
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