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Heard some comments on the radio - never been to India.
Apparently the person in charge of maintaining the power got a promotion after this. Someone on the radio suggested that if this happened in China, the person in charge would have been demoted at the very least. Different views of infrastructure.
Also heard the poor in India are frequently without power, and the big companies and the people who can afford it all have backup power generators. So as the crow flies some places may have been lit up during the power outage and some were dark.
Interesting to me, on what could happen if a certain hypothetical country could in the future continue to starve the government's ability to support infrastructure. The people who could afford wouldn't see much of a change, and the poor once again would bear the brunt of lack of decent infrastructure.
Reply to @Old_Joe: Minor correction - majority of candles are made from parrafin wax, a distillation fraction from crude oil. Few candles are made from bee wax as they are more expensive.
By the way, candles are wonderful to have in blackouts.
Hi Sven- well, depends on the type of blackout. Here in earthquake central, the last major citywide blackout was with the Loma Prieta quake in 89. You really don't want a lot of candles with the distinct probability of aftershocks. We keep a large assortment of battery-powered lighting because of that, and also keep a close eye on the battery expiration dates.
Yeah, I forgot all about the paraffins. They're cute too- a shame to make candles out of the little rascals. (You DO realize that I was just giving Mo a hard time, I hope!)
On a more serious note- I read today that the electrical power industry, among other commercial interests, helped to kill a congressional bill that would improve the level of security on many of the US power grid systems. Commonly used control systems rely on sending control data via a data link. That's fine, as long as that data link is secure. Unfortunately, many power companies use the public internet as their data link, to save the expense of a private secure system (this usually would involve a private microwave or fibre-optic link). The San Francisco public safety radio system uses such a secure network for that very reason.
How hard do you think that it will be for the Chinese or the Russians to bring down the US power grid if they decide to jerk our chain? (Totally deniable, of course... "wasn't us... must of been someone else...").
Comments
Apparently the person in charge of maintaining the power got a promotion after this.
Someone on the radio suggested that if this happened in China, the person in charge would have been demoted at the very least. Different views of infrastructure.
Also heard the poor in India are frequently without power, and the big companies and the people who can afford it all have backup power generators. So as the crow flies some places may have been lit up during the power outage and some were dark.
Interesting to me, on what could happen if a certain hypothetical country could in the future continue to starve the government's ability to support infrastructure. The people who could afford wouldn't see much of a change, and the poor once again would bear the brunt of lack of decent infrastructure.
Maurice's rejoinder will follow ....
By the way, candles are wonderful to have in blackouts.
Yeah, I forgot all about the paraffins. They're cute too- a shame to make candles out of the little rascals. (You DO realize that I was just giving Mo a hard time, I hope!)
On a more serious note- I read today that the electrical power industry, among other commercial interests, helped to kill a congressional bill that would improve the level of security on many of the US power grid systems. Commonly used control systems rely on sending control data via a data link. That's fine, as long as that data link is secure. Unfortunately, many power companies use the public internet as their data link, to save the expense of a private secure system (this usually would involve a private microwave or fibre-optic link). The San Francisco public safety radio system uses such a secure network for that very reason.
How hard do you think that it will be for the Chinese or the Russians to bring down the US power grid if they decide to jerk our chain? (Totally deniable, of course... "wasn't us... must of been someone else...").
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428666/how-power-outages-in-india-may-one-day-be-avoided/