[Rhodes22-list] looks like the power is back

[Roger Pihlaja]

Michael,

Sounds like you didn't have a "good week".  I'm glad you're OK though.

The power outage of summer, 2003 looks like it's going to be a classic
example of the interconnectedness & inherent frailty of modern technology.
Overload one high voltage transmission line near Cleveland, OH on a hot
summer afternoon & generate a cascading electrical grid failure that cuts
power over about 7200 square miles of the United States & Canada affecting
about 50 million people!  Lots of folks also lost their potable water system
when the power went down.  Of course, the mass transit systems also shut
down.  I will never forget the sight of all those thousands of people
streaming out of Manhattan on foot via the Brooklyn Bridge & thousands more
having to sleep on the sidewalk in Times Square, & this was from just a
minor glitch in one system.  The entire system is so complex & so
interconnected, it's truly amazing; that, events like this don't happen more
frequently.  Overall, the engineers have done a wonderful job of making
everything work together so efficiently that it becomes invisible.  Most
people never give the technological infrastructure, that is literally their
life support system, a moments thought.  I like the way James Burke put it,
"We all live in a technological trap."  Our population is already much too
large & too densely packed into major metropolitan areas to support without
all this technology.  So, we have no choice but to stumble along as best we
can.  No doubt, the experts will extensively study the root causes of this
power outage.  Technical, regulatory, & managerial improvements or
safeguards will be implemented as a result.  But, the system is so complex,
interconnected, & always changing; that, there are always going to be many
more modes of failure than can be anticipated or protected against, even
without a terrorist attack.  Perhaps, we simply have to accept an occasional
glitch as the price we pay for a high standard of living 99.9+% of the time.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Meltzer" <mjm at michaelmeltzer.com>
To: <jbconnolly at comcast.net>; "The Rhodes 22 mail list"
<rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 4:35 PM
Subject: Re: [ham] RE: [Rhodes22-list] looks like the power is back


> I got big time stuck, 26 floors up and no way to get home. As I said to
the wife "I am spending the nice candle lite night with the
> boss, sweet violet smell in the air(the candles), sweating, eating
somewhat cold leftover from the refigdator(beat me who's or
> what's), the water is out(roof top tank drained), toltes are hell and
worst of all the boss/his  hairy legs are looking sexy to me
> in the some what stipped state we are in.
>
> MJM
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Connolly" <jbconnolly at comcast.net>
> To: "'The Rhodes 22 mail list'" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2003 1:39 PM
> Subject: [ham] RE: [Rhodes22-list] looks like the power is back
>
>
> > Michael,
> >
> > How long were you in the dark?
> >
> > Did you get stuck in NYC?
> >
> > Jim Connolly
> >
> > On Saturday, August 16, 2003 12:49 PM, Michael Meltzer
[SMTP:mjm at michaelmeltzer.com] wrote:
> > > test
> > > __________________________________________________
> > > Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
> > __________________________________________________
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> >
>
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>