On one of my last visits to Pakistan, I asked Dr. Sono if he would take me to see some of the drip irrigation in the Thar Desert.

This program is conducted under a bidding process using a formula where farmers request a certain percentage of cost share for an improvement such as drip irrigation.

The drip irrigation system had to be small enough that a farmer only had to risk a quarter acre, even if he had two, because it was too frightening, given all that he had at stake.

The wackiest plan and I'm not making this up would put what is essentially a garden hose 18 and a half miles high into the sky, suspended by balloons, to spew sulfur dioxide.

A more likely scenario is that Europe muddles through by drip feeding Ukraine. Ukraine does not collapse, but the oligarchs reassert themselves and the new Ukraine begins to resemble the old Ukraine.

These simple water clocks, which were of the outflow type, were stone vessels with sloping sides that allowed water to drip at a nearly constant rate from a small hole near the bottom.

Water scarcity could be addressed through modern water conservation techniques in agriculture (such as drip irrigation, on farm water management, lining of watercourses and canals, etc.) and through more traditional techniques (such as rainwater harvesting).

With the drip feed of QE induced liquidity now at risk, the recent spasms in financial markets leave little doubt about the growing dangers of speculative excesses that had been building.