MASSIVE FUCKING BLACKOUT

[Admiral Valdemar]

London is getting several fuel-cell powered buses to test much like the propane ones already used, but they cost over £1M making them the most expensive vehicles on the road.

Tanks routinely drive on British roads and cost quite a bit more then a million pounds.

I was expecting someone to bring something like that up, congrats, you get a cookie for my Most Predictable Reply Post Award.

Tanks ain't civilian issue last I checked though.

[Admiral Valdemar]

*steps into thread, doesn't bother to read the other 300 posts*

I'mmmm Baaackkkk!

AND NOW A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MARK PENDER:

"The powers all gone, the generators grinded to a halt. I don't know what caused it, but its probably Canada's fault...SCREW YOU CANADA! SCREW YOU CANADA!! SCREW YOU CANADAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

*Watches Mike's hand hover over the "ban" button which in actual fact sends a powerful electrical pulse down the phoneline thus vaping the person targetted.*

[Demiurge]

*steps into thread, doesn't bother to read the other 300 posts*

I'mmmm Baaackkkk!

AND NOW A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MARK PENDER:

"The powers all gone, the generators grinded to a halt. I don't know what caused it, but its probably Canada's fault...SCREW YOU CANADA! SCREW YOU CANADA!! SCREW YOU CANADAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

BLAME CANADA!
BLAME CANADA!

[Sea Skimmer]

Tanks ain't civilian issue last I checked though.

Actually there are a number of privately owned tanks, Chieftains and Scorpions mostly, in the UK that are street legal. And then there's that guy who drives a bright yellow Abbot 105mm SP gun in London.

[zombie84]

My history teacher owned a tank. I think he only drove it around his farmland though. Its not like a cop would have pulled him over if he wanted to go shop for grocerys though.

[Montcalm]

*steps into thread, doesn't bother to read the other 300 posts*

I'mmmm Baaackkkk!

AND NOW A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MARK PENDER:

"The powers all gone, the generators grinded to a halt. I don't know what caused it, but its probably Canada's fault...SCREW YOU CANADA! SCREW YOU CANADA!! SCREW YOU CANADAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

BLAME CANADA!
BLAME CANADA!

[Sarcastic]Yeah right its always Canada`s fault[Sarcastic]

And by the way did you noticed that the creators of South Park are fucking idiots.

[Enigma]

Well, I'm back online. Ottawa was a hell of a mess during the first little bit (I work right in the downtown core a few blocks from the Hill), but people were unfailingly polite and things cleared up quick.

I spent a couple of hours right away with a flashlight helping people out of our building (no emergency lights in the stairwell, and no windows either. What the hell is THAT?), and helped direct traffic near our house courtesy of the City of Ottawa, who were taking any help they could get, especially in the evening. Power came back on here at around 2:00 AM (all this in case Karma means anything. ).

Overall, it was more annoying than dangerous here thanks to the good nature and patience of Ottawans; I haven't heard if larger metropolises had it worse or no.

Who do you work for? I've made many pickups and deliveries all over the downtown core.

[NecronLord]

To Wong: Who needs phone lines, you need your own sattelite connection...

http://www.skynet.com

(Sure, it's expensive, but if you ask nicely they'll give you a T-800 endoskeleton )

Incidentally, the BBC had a fundie preacher in NY on the television...

"God shut ye down. He sent an angel to shut ye down!"

It doesn't take long for them to come out of the woodwork over there does it?

[Son of the Suns]

Hello, good to see everyone again.

I'd have to agree with Mike about regulating essential services. It hit everyone where I live especially hard with the deregulation of power and the refusale of the state government to regulation water providers. Thery don't have to upgrade their pumps, pipes, or anything else because they know that the customers here cannot do a damn thing about it. Even when the local people here sent someone to talk to our rep in the state legislature nothing happened.

[Joe]

*steps into thread, doesn't bother to read the other 300 posts*

I'mmmm Baaackkkk!

AND NOW A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MARK PENDER:

"The powers all gone, the generators grinded to a halt. I don't know what caused it, but its probably Canada's fault...SCREW YOU CANADA! SCREW YOU CANADA!! SCREW YOU CANADAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

BLAME CANADA!
BLAME CANADA!

[Sarcastic]Yeah right its always Canada`s fault[Sarcastic]

And by the way did you noticed that the creators of South Park are fucking idiots.

It was a joke, chief. They weren't seriously trying to blame shit on Canada, they were trying to parody how American parents love to blame shit on everyone and everything but themselves. They're geniuses, not idiots.

[RedImperator]

<snip>

Hey, I'm all about fuel cells, but you could run an entire city off of them? I've heard of them as replacements for gasoline and diesel oil in motor vehicles, not for storing excess electricity.

[DarthBlight]

Yes, I am alive and well. I wasn't able to see the forums until this morning and didn't get around to posting until now. Cleveland had its power restored yesterday, my building being up and humming by 1 am that previous evening. However, there was a problem with water.
Cleveland has 4 pumping stations, a backup system was in place if 1 station went down. However, there was nothing if all 4 went on the blink. Because of that, there is a boil alert for running water until noon tomorrow. Fun.
Also, the sewer system is also controlled electrically. Some sewage escaped the system into the Cuyahoga and from there, Lake Erie. All beaches closed. However, the Jake is still hosting the Indians and Devil Rays this weekend. Twins will be in town Tuesday and Wednesday. This is all relevant because I work for a parking company that operates two lots and a garage near the Jake.

About the only good things to come out of this for me:
Got to see the stars for the first time since I came to Cleveland
Caught up on some reading

People I want to give props to:
Cleveland PD, fire, and rescue for keeping things under control and assisting during the blackout.
The people running the Subway in my building and the Chinese restaurant in the building across the street staying open to help feed and hydrate people.

The people I have a problem with:
The people running the convenience store next to said Chinese restaurant for closing up when I came up looking for some 2-liters for liquid refreshment. There's an emergency, it isn't completely dark yet, and these people start refusing service. Thanks a lot, guys.

[RogueIce]

*steps into thread, doesn't bother to read the other 300 posts*

I'mmmm Baaackkkk!

AND NOW A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM MARK PENDER:

"The powers all gone, the generators grinded to a halt. I don't know what caused it, but its probably Canada's fault...SCREW YOU CANADA! SCREW YOU CANADA!! SCREW YOU CANADAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

*Watches Mike's hand hover over the "ban" button which in actual fact sends a powerful electrical pulse down the phoneline thus vaping the person targetted.*

*this powerful electrical pulse shorts out the fragile power grid, thus causing another blackout*

DW: "Whoops."

And the blackout must've hit the board worse than I thought. SotS reverted to his origonal avatar!

[Admiral Valdemar]

<snip>

Hey, I'm all about fuel cells, but you could run an entire city off of them? I've heard of them as replacements for gasoline and diesel oil in motor vehicles, not for storing excess electricity.

At the moment it is still bog standard coal fired or fission plants that will make the power that gets us the hydrogen, likely they'll help power the grid that is until we get fusion and more types of clean energy.

Fusion is the best bet, get a way to make He-3 or a wide variety of other radioisotopes from hydrogen to lithium undergo fusion for a sustainable process and you can get a good reactor from that. Put it into an induction loop with ceramic based electrical contacts producing a strong magnetic field parallel to the plasma flow and you have an MHD. A turbine system like those used today is not efficient enough as they can rarely if ever get above 40%. The MHD has no moving parts thus is easier to maintain, it relies on a principle that gives extreme efficiency compared to other methods and it will be using easily obtainable fuel.

I guess big enough batteries of fuel-cells (sounds like an oxymoron) could run entire cities, but the idea is that hydrogen is abundant enough that everyone can use their own fuel-cells from everything to powering their PC to the home cooker or car.

Whatever we do, it needs to be quick. The Middle-East is an unstable place as it is without oil becoming a rationed resource and OPEC raising those prices sky high, a war could ensue.

[RedImperator]

Ahh, now I see. Essentially, you're thinking instead of a grid, everybody essentially operates a home generator (not an actual generator, but close enough for analogy's sake). I like that idea.

[mauldooku]

I just had a really fucking scary thought: What happened to everyone in hospitals on life support in the areas affected? Do hospitals have some sort of backup power?

[Kuja]

We were knocked off-line for about 25 hours by a massive cascade power failure in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada. After waiting roughly 1 full day for power to be restored, I have moved the board down to MJ's server (something I was planning to do for a while but I could never find a good time to take the board down for an hour).

They say that power restoration might be intermittent at best over the next few days, so if I drop out of sight again, that will be why. At least the board should remain up even if I'm off line for a while.

I lucked out. Power went out all over the place (including where I work) but just missed my house.

[Montcalm]

It was Ohio You can`t blame Canada for this one.

And on behalf of all Canadian i request public appologies from New York city mayor Moron Bloomberg,on his knee and kissing our collective asses.

EDIT: i chose an American news site so noone will say its a lie.

[Stravo]

It was Ohio You can`t blame Canada for this one.

And on behalf of all Canadian i request public appologies from New York city mayor Moron Bloomberg,on his knee and kissing our collective asses.

EDIT: i chose an American news site so noone will say its a lie.

No problem, as soon as Canadian officials come down here and give New York a collective rimjob for saying that it was a lightning strike in the Niagra power generating facility.

[Kuja]

And on behalf of all Canadian i request public appologies from New York city mayor Moron Bloomberg,on his knee and kissing our collective asses.

That was the damn funniest part of it. Here I am, flipping channels:

CNN: "It's Toronto's fault!"

CTV: "It's Manhattan's fault!"

Local news: "We have no fucking idea what's going on!"

[RogueIce]

No problem, as soon as Canadian officials come down here and give New York a collective rimjob for saying that it was a lightning strike in the Niagra power generating facility.

Didn't they switch that to a US nuclear plant later?

[YT300000]

As soon as I heard of Toronto, I thought of all the board members who live there, including aerius and jmac. Which immediately gave me the reason for the blackout. It's because we all touch ourselves at night.

Sorry, I just had to post this somewhere.

[YT300000]

I just had a really fucking scary thought: What happened to everyone in hospitals on life support in the areas affected? Do hospitals have some sort of backup power?

All hospitals have back-up generators. Otherwise, they are shut down by inspectors.

[MKSheppard]

Shep, do you have any idea how much money this cost in terms of goods and services that should have been produced? The consequences of this are much larger the one neighborhood losing power because a transformer blew out...

So? Everyone got a free day off from work in NYC and power
was restored within 24 hours. A few years ago, a bad ice
storm in Vermont knocked out power to large parts of the state
for as long as a MONTH.

Now THAT's a catastrophe, not a burp on the grid that happens every
20~ years...

[Durandal]

So? Everyone got a free day off from work in NYC and power was restored within 24 hours. A few years ago, a bad ice storm in Vermont knocked out power to large parts of the state for as long as a MONTH.

Now THAT's a catastrophe, not a burp on the grid that happens every 20~ years...

Obviously, you have no idea how many major companies have offices or headquarters in New York City alone. Cutting power to that city even for as little as a day results in billions of dollars in lost revenue for various businesses.