Hey Big John,

The East grid encompasses a good portion of Canada, the whole East coast and goes as far west as Chicago.

Each region has it's own operators that divide up the power and send it along. There is a large transfer station up at Niagra Falls which is where everyone believes this whole mess started.

No one really knows though. They'll probably come back and say a squirrel was chewing on the lines.

It was the wrong kind of electrons.

I think someone did something they shouldn't have and is now hiding in a very deep hole.

Speaking of deep holes, there are 170 miners stuck in a mine in Canada. Some are close enough to the surface that they will be able to climb out but quite a few are to deep to climb out. Many have now been in those mines since 7am yesterday, over 24 hours.

I've been to Niagra Falls several times and I will tell you that those are NOT the wrong kind of electrons! :) It's really neat to stand near there and just breathe in the oxygenated air. Almost ozone like...fresh and wonderful. And there is a definite electrical charge in the air. In fact, I always walk around there looking like I've got my hands on a Van deGraff machine (you know...those globes with the lightning inside...) But each time I've visited the Falls, I always leave feeling... (mind the pun)...energized. LOL

And as for those miners in Canada...if ya gotta be stuck, at least the temperature underground is nicer than what's outside right now! But let's hope they get them outside soon!

Just in case anyone is confused, there IS only one kind of electron. They're remarkably uniform in properties. But British Railways (or whatever) would always be able to blame them if their power went down, I can assure you.

Say what you like about the Britain's railways (they deserve it!) but, like Dante said up there - although we have a National Grid here in England and a number of different electricity suppliers, the worst that ever happens is an area of a few square miles goes without power at any one time. Certainly not entire cities.

Unless/until the unions concerned start getting bolshie, as they did on several occasions during the 1970s, again...

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"God rot Botchkamos Istochnik!"



Post Edited (08-15-03 16:39)

True enough but even then it wasn't areas the size of a small European nation that got hit simultaneously! I was working in the MoD at the time (military intelligence - don't all laugh at once) and we all got issued with candles & little cast iron war-department candle holders in our office so we could carry on working when the lights went out.

I stumbled across the one I was originally issued with again recently, and for a while had it sat on top of my VDU (just in case, y'understand...)

I still keep a box of candles handy, with one sitting ready in a jam-jar, just in case.

************************************************************

"God rot Botchkamos Istochnik!"

well, power loss on this grand of a scale is exceedingly rare! In fact, the last time there was anything close was 1977 when it was almost the identical area. California had rolling brownouts and blackouts a couple years ago, but that's because of price gouging between power providers and because they really need a few more generators. They aren't having those problems now.

(and by the way, Dave, I KNOW there is only one kind of electron...silly! I did finish high school you know...might have been a high school in a backwards town, but I still know at least that much! hehehehe)

But electrons, surely, are fermions, therefore they obey the Pauli exclusion principle. That means that every electron is, in its own small way, unique...



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Sarah wrote:

> But electrons, surely, are fermions, therefore they obey the
> Pauli exclusion principle. That means that every electron is,
> in its own small way, unique...
>


LOL - I found myself reading that with the voice of Lisa from the Simpsons in my head!

Oh, dear... I've been compared to Lisa before, too!



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Well, I just got my power back, but I'm not sure how long it will last.

Apparently a power generating station in Niagara Falls got hit by lightning and that's what started the whole sorry mess.

Getting home last night was a whole pile of fun - what is usually a 10 minute commute took me 1.75 hours. It the boiling heat. With no air conditioning in my car. You could have wrung me out by the time I got home.

Still, could be a lot worse, I know. I keep thinking about those poor people in Toronto and NYC who were stuck in a rush hour packed subway car when the power went off. That wouldn't be much fun, to say the least.

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone!

Welcome back to civilization, Jen. <Did I just refer to this fforum as civilized?>

We missed you last night.

I missed the chat last night too. Once it got dark outside, I was relegated to reading my book in the car with the overhead light on. My roomie had a good chuckle at that.

Welcome back Jen. Glad to hear you've lived thru the ordeal unscathed.

We heard the whole lightening thing too but all the weather people say there was none. Ah well.

Stay cool.

I heard about the power cut yesterday and though 'typical Americans; have to do everything bigger and better than anywhere else' :)

You can't just have 50,000 or 500,000 or even 5 million people cut off, can you ? No, has to be 50 million. Tchah !

Finally got my power back at 6pm on Friday, it having gone out at 4pm on Thursday. Haven't yet been brave enough to open to freezer and see what's become of the ice cream.

Details on how this effected my moving effort, in my moving thread (once I get round to posting them).

Hey Mags, glad to hear you're ok. My ice cream is perfectly fine (sorry). Hope the move is still on track.