The odd thing about Buffalo

[razorjak]

As fucked up and backasswards as the city is on almost everything else ... we seem to have been one of the few cities in the Northeast that didn't lose power during the blackout. In fact - we had the A/C cranked in the club last night.

There was one benefit to the blackout. I didn't have to deal with that third rate cover band Toe Tag last night. They were okay the first time ... but hearing the same thrice damned set of covers every fucking week ... and dealing with their moronic ideas ( if we play in the parking lot of the club - it'll draw people ) ... sheer bliss. Their vocalist was stuck in Angola due to the "rolling"(1) blackout last night.

Still can't believe how many of the asshats and fucktards simply assumed that no light = green light. HELLO! braintrust - no lights = four way stop you frothing piece of swine smegma!

It amazes me just how UNPREPARED most of the sheep are. They make situations WORSE because of their panicking. Though it had to be a boon for the gas-stations that did have power to the pumps. They sold out of those red plastic gas tanks in record time.

Things like this just make me realize how quickly we'd all die out if there was a global EMP pulse. The tribal societies would be the only ones to survive.

(1) - I still can't believe they let that empty warhead speak about the situation. Don't his handlers know better to let him speak without a script? Georgie-porridgey, it was a BLACKOUT ... the worst since the 60s. There was no "rolling" to it except the domino effect that caused it to be even more severe than it should have. YAY for deregulation eh?

Comments

[ogremarco.livejournal.com]

maybe it was the bass ackwardness that saved you guys from the blackout. Maybe your town was just behind schedule for integration with the mega-grid. Or maybe you just got lucky. Dunno.

De-regulation BS

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Degregulating an industry by reducing certain laws but still not allowing the construction of new infrastructure isn't de-regulation in my book.

You'd have more luck blaming the NIMBY crowd for their short sightedness. Everyone wan'ts power, but they want the plants in other people's areas with the High Tension transmission lines not in their neighborhood. Add to the general, We don't want Nuke, Coal or any polluting forms of generation, don't like hydroelectric because of it's impact on fisheries and you're left with little but natural gas. Natural Gas is nice, but isn't super cheap when that's all you're left with and the prices go up due to your now increasing demand.

Just like California, New York is going to have to put up with more generation capacity or stop growing at all. That means more pollution with Coal plants (SO2, NOx and radon) or the Greenies biting the Nuke Bullet.

Re: De-regulation BS

[chisaiboo.livejournal.com]

I agree we need to STOP growing. too many high-rises keep going up and we can't even deal with the congestion we have NOW. you can't even squeeze onto the trains during morning rush hour sometimes and they now have to skip a certain above-ground stop during rush-hours, because the platform would get so crowded people would fall off onto the tracks.

unfortunately, the idea that we need more power plants is not necessarily a solution; the east village has a GIGANTIC power plant and yet the east village STILL has no power as of now, 6:12 PM EST. so it just doesn't add up. that monkey we call a president can't blame this on people not wanting to live near power plants when some of the neighborhoods that HAVE them are still down! I am really lucky to live in a super-yuppified neighborhood, because it seems like the more affluent neighborhoods are "coincidentally" getting power first. we came back up around 7AM this morn.

Re: De-regulation BS

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Its not really growth that's the problem. Its growth with out all the required planning and infrastructure upgrades that go with it. If you build a building on a street there has to be power, sewer, water and other facilities in that area with enough load to handle it. If you skimp on upgrading those facilities, at some point they could fail due to load or age.

I'll bet you that power plant couldn't go online because the main grid for that area had faults. High-voltage power isn't quite like your breaker in your house/apt. If the grid has a fault it has to be rectified and balanced before its energized, otherwise you're looking at transformers and other gear that can over surge or worse resulting in damaged gear that will take weeks to replace (or worse dead techs) . More likely that super yuppified neighborhood had newer gear due to new growth that allowed for that grid to be brought online first.

We had a pump at CNN center that failed due to a ground fault. It took out a master breaker upstream of the pump and took down one of the two CNN.com data centers (among other things). The outage lasted several hours for that part of the building's local grid due to the blown (not thrown) breaker. The UPS system that is normally protected from such things was actually damaged by the additional curret draw from the pump's self destruction.

Fact is most people take these things for granted and when they don't work, they don't know how to deal with the absesnce of the system. At some point, i'll be adding a generator to my household setup with a transfer switch. I just can't decide if I want one with LP or Natural gas as a fuel (NG has the benefit of being able to peak clip on high cost Electricity days) or Diesel for the protection against major infrastructure problems during natural disasters. Decisions decisions.

I was thinking the same thing

[theevilchemist.livejournal.com]

about how weak and fragile people are today. I can see how being stuck someplace you were transported to by electricity (like being in an elevator) that might require some ingenuity and ninja skills, but other than that you still have your body and your wits, the only two things people have used to survive for the 2 million years prior to the invention of electricity.

jv

Re: I was thinking the same thing

[chisaiboo.livejournal.com]

but I wouldn't say things were always "civilized" before the invention of electricity; there is a reason that last night in the dark people started looting stores and stuff, i'm sure we still haven't heard the worst of what actually happened. the worst I heard was about a big sneaker store here in brooklyn being looted by gangs.

yes, sneakers. *sigh*

there is a liquor store by my house with no gates - the owner just sat in the store all night with a flashlight. heh. although *some* of us have our bodies and our wits, it is still hard to live in our current society without lights, refrigeration, alarm systems, etc. that's the sad truth.

Re: I was thinking the same thing

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Looting when minor things like power outages occurr is exactly why some of us won't live in states like New York. I hope that shop keeper was successful with that flashlight.

The whole definition of civilized is very grey. In some cases you could use places like Singapore where the government is very 1984. One could certainly expect zero looting to occurr, but then folks there are less likely to challenge thier government officials. Its a complex thing. I guess the question really lies in how moral people are when the trappings of law are apparently removed, even for a short while. I'm sure there's a sociology degree in there somewhere.

Good to see you're back on the grid there Melody. I was wondering about all the folks I knew up in NY and how they were fairing.

Blackout brilliance...

[sithrose.livejournal.com]

For more of what I lovingly refer to as "blackout brilliance" from people that have more money than brains, see my most recent LJ entry.

And yes. A generator will be an addition to my house when I find the right one. As will an arsenal in the basement and a stockpile of non-perishable foods and barter goods.

Presently, debating getting a dog after I buy a house. They are useful, but do I really want to housebreak a dog while dealing with a newborn?