The state of California's water system, what the strong black woman represents today, ‘Ghost in the Shell’ lukewarm box office sales

Thompson: We probably did as well as could be imagined.



In this particular year, we did a pretty good job in avoiding the floods.



At the same time, we've taken as much of that water that has been available and have stored it for purposes of this year and future years.

Kightlinger: We've done a good job down here. Metropolitan has built up a good resource of storage options where we can put water into groundwater banks and surface water reservoirs.



We are looking at putting more water in storage in 2017 than we have in our entire history.



One of the challenges is that while we've continued building and preparing for droughts here in Southern California, you haven't seen that same emphasis statewide. 

Marcus: I think we cut some things a little too close on fish and wildlife protection.



We lost a couple years of a three-year salmon run, which is really pretty serious, and the fishing industry is going to feel that for many years to come.   

Thompson: Some of the cities in the rural areas are highly dependent upon groundwater.



In the most recent drought, we drew down on that groundwater.



That lowered the groundwater table to a degree that those rural areas could no longer get the groundwater that they needed to supply their domestic populations.

Marcus: For small communities, there still remains the very large issue of how to help subsidize their operations and maintenance costs.



Some of these small communities simply don't have the wherewithal to pay for modern treatment systems, even if they do have water.



When it comes to storing, I do think that legislation is going to put us on a path to more sustainable groundwater use.



But we also have to think more and more intentionally, as many folks are trying, to find out how we can get that water into the ground faster.

Thompson: We have a number of reservoirs in California. They're designed both to store water as well as to avoid floods, which means keeping that space in the reservoir open so that when you have a big storm or you have that snowmelt, you're able to capture that and avoid the flood risk downstream.



So one thing we need to do is figure out how to better operate the reservoirs we have already.



That might mean, for example, you might have a reservoir that, if you're forced to release water from that reservoir, you might be able to store that water somewhere else. 



The second thing is to create more storage capacity. We have a lot of natural storage capacity in groundwater aquifers throughout the state, so we have to start thinking about those.



That's both a question of making sure our laws are in place to permit that, as well as having the conveyance facilities necessary to move the water where it might be available to where those groundwater aquifers exist.

Kightlinger: Probably the number one challenge in California is our conveyance system. We don't have the ability to move water where we need it to when we need to.



So we're going to need more off-stream reservoirs, and then of course there's the governor's California water fix, his idea of moving water to bypass the delta system through tunnels.

"One thing I've heard from folks at Paramount is that they had done focus groups on this issue to see at what extent do audiences care about it. One thing that they found is that while it is a very talked about issue among folks like me, people who cover film, film critics, it's not as big of an issue for audiences.



So, I think they thought maybe audiences wouldn't care that much... and interestingly even less of an issue for audiences in Asian countries. Seems worth noting that this movie opened at number one in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It'll open on Friday in Japan and China, presumably do fairly well there..."

"The Academy is kind of at crossroads and I wrote about this for Vanity Fair last week. The president of the Academy Cheryl Boone Isaacs who has run the organization for the last four years is terming out, so she will not be able to lead starting at the end of the summer. 



And the CEO Dawn Hudson has her contract up for renewal this month. These are two people who have really spearheaded the biggest changes at the Academy including diversity initiatives and the Academy museum, so it should be interesting to see what happens next."

"I know Joss Whedon is the creator of the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' TV show, much beloved, strong female lead. And as you say, he's got an Avengers background, so this is him jumping teams from Marvel to DC. Big deal in the comic book world."

"I'm a strong black woman, and I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be undermined. I cannot be thought to be afraid of Bill O'Reilly or anybody."

I think that the notion of the strong black woman comes out of slavery. Black women were workers along with men and did the same kind of work that men did. And so, African American women have been thought of as being physically strong, but also emotionally strong because they've had to endure certain kinds of oppressions that perhaps all other women in the United States have not had to.

That's certainly true. African American women in the public imagination often do come off as being angry or aggressive and that is the other side of the "strength" image.



If you are not a submissive person as women are — or used to be at any rate — then you are considered to be angry. Being in command of yourself, being in control of your job, being in command of your home if you are the breadwinner in the family or if you are the only adult within the household — that is something that people have often thought of as being angry.

Often, when people deal with women who are in possession of themselves, who speak out for themselves, the thing to do is undercut the woman by making some remark about the way that they look. The way that they speak. The kind of hair that they have. It's a very typical sexist remark that undercuts the power of that particular woman at that moment.