# The Big Blackout !!!



## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

We got our power back in much of Hamilton by 4am.
I noticed ehMac was down earlier.
What went on with all of you?
What stories do you have about how you coped with no power?


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

I went out for supper to my friend's place who had a gas stove and returned home at 10pm, making my way through streets lit mostly by cars.
I get to my building and holy cow is it black!
No lights at all in the lobby or first floor.
I live on the 4th floor of an apartment building, so I check the front door and the electric locks are frozen shut, so I wander around to a garage entrance, I wander in btween some cars and it is virtually black, totally dark! I hold my hands out in front of me feeling for a door, I find it already open, I strep inside to find not a single light on the lobby level, I feel along the walls til I get to the stairway door, which I notice is also open, , feeling for walls and steps, I climb up and around 3 flights of steps in pitch blackness, then try to find the door to my floor, turn left and keep feeling along the wall til I get to my door at the end of the hall, feel all around for the lock on the door get inside and there is a little light from the windows. 
I am feeling a little better now, I check my phone and there is messages, I dig out my flashlight only to find it not working ,, so I drag my phone over to the window to wait for a passing car to check out how each button functions, then return some calls, I fumble around for my phone list, then take it outside to look up some numbers then call some people . Then i just sat in dark silence, I couldnt really sleep, so went out on my balcony and watched people walk by with flashlights, a bar nearby had candles on their patio, almost every business is closed, except a store nearby was open and lit by candles and flashlights. With so many people on the streets, it was a mixture of Halloween and Canada Day, I have never seen so many people walking around on a thursday night.

So what's happening to the rest of you?


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## Script Kiddie (Jan 30, 2003)

I've been at work since 02:30 
Our database went down hard and we are still recovering  

My Blue+White G3 came up fine though


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

I think lots of servers are still down
I cant get the Toronto Star or Hamilton Spectaor sites to load
Canada blames the US and the US blames Canada for the problems, we will see today what happened.

[ August 15, 2003, 06:58 AM: Message edited by: minnes ]


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Glad to see all are slowly coming back to the world of electricity. Hang in there all of you. We here in Newfoundland and Labrador are doing our bit, selling electricity to Quebec Hydro for 3 cents a unit, which they are selling to New York State and Ontario for $45 a unit.

Hope all are out of "harm's way". Paix.


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

Hey it's good to see a couple of people online
There are reports of possible rolling blackouts, and even if all goes well, it may be another day before everone gets there power back
I think about 60 percent of people now have power back in Ontario


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Well the Power came on in Mississauga about 7.10 am just as I was about to get the hammer out to mash some coffee beans into ground coffee...there are limits to going without after all  

I finally learned how to turn the gas barbecue on.

The first time in forevr it was quiet in the neighborhood, no planes landing - everyone outside or with windows openand some ditz decides to mow his lawn  

My cell worked throughout ( Bell - thumbs up on that ). I had ( after an hilarious search as it got darker ) perfect personal lighting by way of the LED headlamps - highly recommended BTW for all sorts of purposes








They last and last and last.

Survival suite enhanced with iBook with a full charge which for a while doubled as a flashlight







while looking for above and afterwood lulled me to sleep with classical music.  

So, SOME of the toys worked well and I've learned to keep my gas tank topped off more frequently ....ya just never know.


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

Welcome back to the 21st century Macdoc

All I could do was look at my quiet powermac in the dark.

Now I hope most of you keep airconditioners and lights and other appliances turned off until you really need them

It feels like a Sunday morning


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## lotus (Jun 29, 2002)

Well now, wasn't that a fun day! A few of us had gone to the Legion to play cards and when the lights went out we just sat back and relaxed and ordered a beer. We had planned on going out for dinner, but that was no longer an option. Finally went to a friend's house in hopes of having a barbecue. No gas! So dinner consisted of more beer and potato chips.

Finally time to go home and then the fun really started. The apartment building was surrounded by fire trucks and everyone standing in the street. The fire was started from a candle, which proves you need to be more careful. After standing there for an hour I finally went and sat in the luxury of my air-conditioned car. At 10 P.M. the fire department had cleared out the smoke and we were allowed to return to our apartments. There is emergency lighting in the halls so I did not have Minnes problem of finding my way. 

All in all it was not a big deal and no major problems. Of course, this A.M. I had to reset the channels on my VCR and purchase new batteries for my radio and answering machine.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

In our part of T.O. the power came on at 3:30 a.m., Last
night we were glad that I had a lot of camping supplies.
The trusty 1,000,000 candle power butane lantern came in handy and the B.B.Q. helped us make dinner.
We kept in touch with the outside world with my "Free Play"
wind up and Solar powered radio.
I'm online today just for a quick check in, The girlfriend has gone to work since she is an essential employee for a large corp.

Cheers!

(Let's not go to the Ex!)

Dave


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## ghettobenz (Apr 17, 2003)

I was at work and we rely solely on computers to make our DVD/CD-ROM video games, so we were dead in the water at 4:15. I work way up in Gormley (ie. middle of nowhere) so we didn't know until we left work at 5 that it was actually a broader power outtage. I live in Unionville, and we got power back at exactly 3:36AM (I know this because the TV in my room flashed on suddenly and woke me up).

Now I don't know whether I'm going to go to work because I don't think my boss has power at his house yet (yes, I work in a basement. Thank god its only a summer job).

Majid Charania


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

I really feel for everyone who lost power - it didn't go out at all in Quebec; for once I feel lucky to live here.

Was on the internet at home last evening, going through _ehMac withdrawal_. Some sites I usually visit didn't work or were slow; most were just fine though. Even though Sympatico's site worked, I couldn't download my e-mail or even log on to check it on the web. Boo hoo.

Not to diminish the _largeur_ and importance of this event, or what some of my fellow ehMacians may have gone through - but I found some of the news coverage so full of hyperbole & story-making that it was almost sickening. Stupidest sentence accompanying a headline on a website: *Faced With Blackout, People Cope*. 

Well, _duh_. That's not news. People have this _built-in tendancy_ to cope! 

I half expected to see stories titled _"Struggle In The Darkness: A Survivor's Tale Of Hope"_ but happily, I didn't. Or maybe it's too early...


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

Dou
late last night I was calling around and people were pretty worried because the rumors were stating that we may not get power back for up to 3 days, the news is still reporting that, i admit it isnt close to the ice storm crisis but some of us had a hard time, and there are many still without power, about 2 million people or so.


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## Ian Seyler (Nov 15, 2002)

Power came back on in Kitchener at around 4am. Though as far as I have heard most of the industrial buildings in Guelph are not back so it looks like no work for me today! I could use a holiday.


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

*Minnes*,

I know, lots of people had a hard time & are still having a hard time - but my point was that some news organizations are adding their usual _gloss_ to the stories they present. I tried to make that clear by saying "not to diminish". Maybe I should save my braincells and avoid the U.S. news websites & stick with local (Canadian) ones - we're probably not as prone to hyperbole.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Just noted on the TV that Ontario power is up to 10k Megawatts at this point with a normal of 18k so it's still iffy for a while and conservation measures still in effect.
Stay home enjoy, nice to have the ehMac community to kick back with.


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

Doug,
I agree some stories are overly melodramatic, but that's what media is all about now.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

That's what the media has historically been about







after all this is the biggest story in this are since the Ice Storm or the 65 Blackout.
I mean the headlines everyday in the Star are "cute" and they aren't bad compared to some.


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

Dr.G.. Quebec could sell their participation in Churchhill and still have plenty to support itself.. 

Still trying to figure out who got the brillant idea of building/selling power to us at a lost.. 

Don't blame Quebec for it..

Cheers,

RtC

P.S. Also, being seperate from everyone else was a good thing don't you think, even in Nfld?


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## James Z (Oct 12, 2002)

I guess we got Hydro back on around 9:30 p.m last night in Ameliasburgh, but of course i was at work(Group Home for troubled Youth and Children)and when i finished shift at Midnight we still had no power just running essential power needs off generator.Not alot of fun sending 14 kids to bed by flash light and knowing half of them are afraid of the dark.Of course my wife works in a medical group home where they run respirators so when powers down it all off battery powered respirators, not alot of fun.Powers seem fine here so far no flicker or outage yet.

James


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## iLabmAn (Jan 1, 2003)

Power is up in the Peel region (Brampton). Don't know what time it actually came on (I drifted in and out of sleep) but it was a welcomed site.

The only thing that was on in my home was my iBook (in sleep mode!) with its little pulsating white light. 

I am bracing myself for all the commentaries, news and otherwise, about this event, reasons et al.

My neighbour was inciting fear as she said that the power could be down for days and that we should bottle water etc. While conservation IS priority one for today and for the future, panic is not.

Have a great day people! I assume you are at home?


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

Power in Mississauga is NOT on everywhere. Only parts have their power restored at his point. My home has power, but not my business - only 14 KM away. Power is on across the street from my business - in macdoc's neighbourhood.

My home's power was restored last night at 10:50 PM. A friend, just 3 KM from here, is still without power

I hope everyone is aware rolling blackouts are expected for the next 48 to 72 hours - interruptions between 30 minutes and 1 hour.


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## arminarm (Jan 12, 2002)

From TO at Queen Street and the Don River ............
....... from 6pm 'till 1am local merchants dispensed water to the eastbound pedestrians that jammed the sidewalks. As the ice cream and beer got warm, prices plummeted.
..... hundreds of sidewalk parties all night.
Driving was easy if slow and the "no, no, after you" and 4-way stops made the whole thing a socially positive eye-opener.
Most used phrase: "everyone's SO Canadian! ...eh?
Powered on at 4:55am.


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## Alesh (Dec 10, 2001)

My gameboy advance sp came in handy! I used it as a flash light..... and as some entertainment. Did some reading via candlelight. It was neat to see people outside and walking about. I stayed out for a while stargazing.

Bad news though: my G4 did not survive the outage...


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Mississauga - wow 11 pm last night back n biz. Hazel runs a tight ship.  

I'm busily rounding up UPSs for us and for clients as the weeks to come don't look too stable. We'd had some problems earlier with short power outs - looks like way more to come.
iBooks and pocketdrives are going to be the "things to have" in S Ontario for a while.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

No power outage out west here  Just lots and lots of smoke. By the way did I mention smoke? I've been coughing like crazy because of it.

Glad to see many of us (who were affected) are up and running again







Although, it sucked that ehMac went down with the server being in Kitchener and all. Hurray for electricity!

EDIT: Oh yeah, I was in the ehMac Chat Room when the lights went out... the room stayed up and no one showed up until much later that night when RtC popped in.

[ August 15, 2003, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: Chealion ]


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## iLabmAn (Jan 1, 2003)

Back to coal firing plants I suppose?....


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## motd (May 22, 2003)

If all of you MacNerds would stop downloading so much PORN, there wouldn't have been the big blackie! Damn OSX uses more RAM AND more electricity!!!!!


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

Some people in my area are still without power, and there tempers are starting to flare up, my friend is starting to get realy upset, because he is a mile from Limeridge mall, which is business as usual while his home is still without power


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## jo42 (Jul 21, 2003)

This is almost as much fun as the rolling blackouts in California a couple of years ago...

Now at least I have the justification for more UPSes and batteries for dem UPSes.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

UPS? Can someone tell me what that is, I'm totally lost.


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

Uninterruptable power supply. Mine crapped out on my desktop after 15 mins but provided enough time to close docs and power down. My powerbook had no such problems.....


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

BTW, the black-out IS a big deal. 50 million people in the most highly urbanized region of NA being without power is a huge deal. Of course, the media was stuck for things to do and say (since only radios worked in the affected area and the actual news was reduced to anecdotes and obvious statements). However, the following were almost surreal:

1. Seeing the night sky in Toronto
2. So many people walking. Yes, its possible - but not for 2 miles in high heels (many women were in bare feet)
3. No traffic lights in a city of 2.5 million at rush hour. But virutally every junction populated by a traffic control cop or citizen.
4. No car horns!
5. All hospital back-up generators worked flawlessly. Diesel refuelling top-ups arranged in the night.
6. Air Canada's power back up for its operations nerve centre in Mississauga fails (but that isn't surreal). Air Canada needs to back-up and out of business.
7. My daughter is the only person to turn up to her summer job. The bosses didn't bother.
8. Supermarkets that don't have back up power for refrigeration (I think this isutterly irresponsible)
9. Subways evacuated with no panic.
10. Lack of complaints and aggression.

We should have a power-loss day (scheduled) once a year to remind us of the need to be prepared and to test systems.

BTW, I find the fact that such a failure could occur extremely disconcerting (it could have happened in the West, East anywhere on the continent). This is the result of irresponsible practises and attitudes. Kyoto is not science fiction. We need to acknowledge the fragility of our precarious lifestyles and do something about it.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

I went to the beer store yesterday and to my saddened
dismay, I found that it was closed, What was I thinking?
Of course it'll be closed...Electricity runs the cash
registers, Doh!!!
I went back to the beer store today after the power went
on and found a huge line up around the block, I stayed
anyways and got some beer after a lengthy wait.

Dave


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## arminarm (Jan 12, 2002)

Chealion,

Uninterruptable Power Supply. $CDN 160.00 and up.
A battery pack that remains charged so that you can save files and shut down safely.
They saved my bacon in 2 minutes yesterday.
I run one for the Macs and another for audio racks.
Remember that if you connect a CRT to the UPS, battery drains accordingly. Remember your Save and Shutdown keystrokes!
Added bonus is a UPS with a line filter. This keeps line noise out of digital audio and video recording. The difference is huge and the cost a fraction of gear and time costs for noise reduction in the long run.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

UPSs don't really cover this sort of hopefully once a generation long term power out BUT it will really help the fallout from this which is likelya month of rolling blackouts and brownouts. It was already an issue now it's a BIG issue.

The other aspect of just going down is data corruption when drives spin down improperly and a operation is interrupted suddenly = nasty results.

I agree it was interesting to hear all the kids outside until about 8.30 despite the neighbor who just HAD to cut his grass  
No planes, no light pollution ( there is no good reason for heavy light pollution these days but it takes a little effort to eliminate the worst of it. )
My hot tub turned in to a cool tub which under the circumstances was jest fine thankyou. Been for a dip a couple times today - MacDoc's minipool


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

macello, I was worried
I have a surge protector but no UPS
Im going to get one as sson i get some spare cash

Im very aware now of
Power Surges
Voltage drops
Black Outs
Brown Outs

Its the rolling blackouts that have me concerned not just for file corruption , but for hard disk damage and other hardware damage that can occur due to sudden change in voltage.
so i guess I better start investigating anUPS
Of course those of you with a portable mac are covered already. Lucky you.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

macello and jwoodget - Thanks for clearing that up. Now it all makes sense









jwoodget - What type of summer job does your daughter have? And stores don't have backup generators? Even small ones? That is very irresponsible. If they don't get power, think of all that wasted ice cream... But then again, I heard on CBC that the ice cream was free yesterday (it was going to melt anyway without power).

macdoc - MacDoc's minipool? Sounds interesting, will you bundle it with a Mac?  Must be nice having a "pool" for the heat.


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## Kosh (May 27, 2002)

My power came back up at around 11:30 last night. It sounds like a few areas in Ottawa are still without power. The hilarious part is that Hull, Gatineau, and Aylmer just across the river in Quebec are all fine. You'd think Ottawa would have a link to the Quebec side. My phone has been on and off, I can't figure out why. I decided now to give the internet a try, hopefully the power won't take my G4 down. A few of the malls and stores are open. 

As for food stores not having backup generators, there's always refrigerated trucks. I heard of a few stores using them. Either that or throw the food out.


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## JAMG (Apr 1, 2003)

We had a nasty suprize yesterday in that we instantly found out that 8 out of 11 UPs's were worthless. Only one in the prepress dept worked {mine actually} but most of our company computers including the web server went down like a brick. The main file server, estimating and My one mac were able to power down calmly...

Monday will be fun...


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

She works in a photography store. The whole block of stores was without power (including a major grocery store and fast food joints). Many, many businesses do not have back up generators. Some that do don't keep them in good condition or don't test them frequently enough. What's clear is that there is no guarantee that this won't happen on this scale in the future. But, there are also smaller scale outages all the time, especially in the Summer. Complacency is all too common.

I read on one news site that there is no way to store electricity which makes the grid system so volatile. They must not have heard of "Raccoon Mountain" In Tennessee or "Electric Mountain" in Snowdonia, North Wales where, during off-peak times, watter is pumped up into a mountain reservoir and then the flow reversed to regenerate juice during high demand. It's a liquid battery. There are other, more conventional "batteries" but they are not on the same scale (and power only 1000 homes or so).


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## adagio (Aug 23, 2002)

My power was restored at 4:20 AM but those just a mile east and west of me are still without electricity. Getting home from work on the city streets without traffic lights was a real treat.
I had to work today as I'm an essential worker but the company has decided to close down completely this weekend rather than the lab's normal 24/7 operation. As I was leaving all our lab equipment was shut down, the AC and all but emergency lights turned off. This has never happened in the 26 years I've worked for the company.


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## amb_ (Aug 2, 2003)

Wow.

That was such an amazing experience. Seeing the stars like that, along with the meteor shower, Mars and the moon in such great detail was thrilling.

Here in Kitchener-Waterloo, we were able to purchase beer (!), milk, bread and other essentials at a plaza/mall around 20:30 that had been turned back on.

I' ve been working all morning to make sure that systems our company is responsible for are functioning normally. Proudly, our main Toronto datacentre was not affected by the power outage and was able to maintain connectivity and power. Looking at the logs, it's surprising to note that latency dropped to major North American routers by a few milliseconds overall during last night.

However, our secondary POP in Oakville was not so lucky. With UPS batteries and other standby sources only lasting an hour at best, we lost it completely until 7 this morning. Things have been really unstable in Oakville.

Hopefully things stablise soon and we can return to (some semblence) of normalcy.


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

I'm back... FINALLY!  

I thought that rogers HiSpeed was down so I bothered not calling - then my roommate told me that she was online, so I dug in. And just had to unplug and get another ip from Rogers. And voila!!

Anyhow, what did I see? the 1st thing that I have to tell err-body who has a Digi and/or a DV, pls charge it after every use! I could have captured the most pix, but ended up getting only a few - batt was next to done!  Anyhow, I'll see about cutting that DV that I captured - Queen west @ night. wow! This Resto/Bar across the street called HABITAT was packed. was sorta nuts... 

What about all the lineups for the street meat?? Those vendors made a killing. There must have been an avg of about 20-25 per cart trying to get the only form of hot/sizzling food. 

I hear that there were stranded cars all over - yet to see one. Never left my block. What about the gas?? I woke @ 5am to get some just in case things got a little crazy... which they got apparently... [phew].

Like I mentioned, I'll try to cut some of that footage. I'm not the best cinematographer - or one actually. But I had to get whatever I could just to look back in a year. Just glad to see err-body again.  

I feel bad for Detroit, my fam in Ottawa who only got their pwr back around 1pm - and apparently are going to have a rolling blackout. One of my bands has to perform there tonight. But wow, what a cataclismic event!

H!


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

oHenri - my heart rate went up just reading your post - now - take a deep breath and .........


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

One thing I forgot....Last night I needed to feed my dog
and cat, But...There was no electricity...Hence no
electric can opener...So...I went off to our corner store
and with some good fortune managed to buy their very
last manual can opener (I blew off the dust) for $5.59.,
When I got to the cash I found that I needed the exact
change...So...I bought chips and popcorn to make it an
exact $10., Thanks to Texas instruments...The
calculator was still working under battery power.

Dave


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

well, now we are having the rolling blackouts
This afternoon, sections of Hamilton and Ancaster, Stoney Creek and other areas have gone out and come back.
The black outs seem to last about 2 hours
sigh..
No subway, Go Train, CNE, Libraies etc
My brother invited me over for a BBQ
so I better skidaddle.
I LL check in tonight if possible


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Rolling Blackouts...Oh No!!!!
I was just getting used to a normal life again.
I guess I'd better log off then before I'm hit.

Flanging hell.

Dave


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

You are lucky two staff downtown still have no power  
So far Mississauga has been steady since this morning but a friend said Burlington was doing to get a 2 hour blackout as part of the "PLAN"


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

It's all part of the Tory plan to have to avoid buying Ontario electricity at more that 4.3 cents per unit.....


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## iLabmAn (Jan 1, 2003)

On another note...

I took my family to the local grocery store because it was getting rather stuffy inside our house, pluys we needed some supplies. I had the foresight to fill 5 10L bottles with tap water last night in anticipation for a loss of water the next day....I'm glad I did.

Anyway, we wanted some drinking water and was aghast at the massive line-ups at the pumps around Brampton and the filled parking lots at all grocery stores. People were carrying cases of water by the cart-full. Before we even got close to the store door, we heard that all water hada been sold out.

So, we took a short trip (gotta save gas!) to Sobey's in the north end and they too had no water to sell....except for five 2 litre bottles in their international section. With my little boy in the cart I proceeded to grab one bottle and was side swiped by another customer thirsting for water.  Without making any acknowledgement of my presence she said: "Hey mom look at this!" (she was about 40ish) and proceeded to grab every single bottle on the shelf and then she raced back down the aisle. 

I wonder what other examples of human selfishness (or selflessness for that matter) this power failure event will bring?

I hope you all are remaining cool and conserving your energy.


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## Strongblade (Jul 9, 2001)

Drove from near downtown Ottawa just as the blackout hit. I was surprised how civilized things were. never saw an accident all the way home and when I got there, My roommate, friend and I basically kicked on the BBQ and had dinner cooked up.

We were about to pass the time RPGing, when it turns out new neighbours a few doors down were just moving in (the truck had just arrived) but the fact that the sun had already set put them into a bit of a spot. No way to unload the truck! Couldn't see!

We supplied our light sources and helped them move in their boxes and furniture. One guy moved his van onto the lawn and pointed the headlights in the truck while we lit the three levels with candles and flashlights.

Power was back up in the Craig Henry area about 2:30 am. So far it's been up since...


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

Macdoc... I'm good.  What got you so pumped?? This whole event had me going like a chatter box all night/day! I had the most jokes with my fam and friends on the phone.


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## Urban_Legend (May 29, 2003)

Hello everyone,

What a mess it has been in the last 2 days  

When the power went out here in my area of Toronto at 4:10PM yesterday, the water in the building decided to go with it. We were with out power and water for 25Hours, up until 5:00PM tonight. We have been told that we have power for now....but we might not have it again by morning. Well when that happens, bye bye water. I wsn't prepared food wise for this power outage as I was just about to leave to go get groceries on the day of the blackout. Today I went out and found a store that had power and bought some food that doesn't require an electric stove to eat with  Although I had the flashlights, batteries, candles and matches ohhhhhh and also a portable GRUNDIG radio that kicks ass in times like these







I was listening to radio stations out of NY and here on the news of the black out.

One thing that got me really pissed off and not sure if anyone else feels the same, but when you look at how the Mayor of NY city took control of the public and kept them calm and aware of certain situations compared to our Mayor? Ummm ohhhh yeahhh our Mayor was ummmm hmmmm...........oh now I remember it turns out our Mayor was the only one with brains and capable of handling the situation that he was too busy running around with his head cut off. We never heard a peep from him on the radio, nor did we hear from the Premier until some one forced the issue and played a recording over the radio of the interview with the Premier. We never heard from the Prime Minister during this time, only certain tid bits of what he was doing. Hell even Bush gave a speech to the public, all we got was some info from some dip **** up in Ottawa as to what might be going on at the moment.

I tell you, when it comes to crisis cases like this one, I think this blackout tops them all when it comes to our LEADERS being responsible to the public eye. I felt more confidence in hearing what the Mayor of NY and Bush had to say as they kept us more informed from both the US and Canada side. That's pretty sad!!


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## jo42 (Jul 21, 2003)

Lost power in Scarborough for about an hour around 9 PM. Now everything, include Rogers Cable/Internet is back on (wasn't earlier).

Can't believe the people lining up at gas stations 40-50+ cars deep. Some gas stations where charging 68 cents, some as high as 79 cents. Thieves.

Rancid butt rot to the arseholes blasting through intersections without stopping (i.e. treating it is a four-way stop). Cops could have 2 years worth of ticket quotas writing them up.

Good thing I have a bunch of rechargeable batteries and a rechargeable lantern.

The most hilarious article I read today was on CNN.com - Iraqis telling the Amerikans what to do in the heat with no electricity: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/15/iraqi.advice.ap/index.html


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## yoyo (Aug 3, 2003)

Didn't get juice back til 11am today. Even though the power was on there was no cable tv and no hi speed till 4 pm. Couldn't get to ehmac till 10;30 pm. I spent last night outside with all the neighbors. BBQ and too many cocktails! Didn't bother going to work as I am an electrician. Ironicaly not much to do with no power. So everybody suck it up cause this surely won't be the last time we have to go back to the dark ages.We all take it for granted and abuse the supply of electricity.Everyone thinks that since their power is on that all is ok. There are still many without that have been without since 4:10 yesterday. Everyone do your part and think of others and turn off your big loads.A/C, stoves, washers,dryers and any Mac faster then a 8600/233


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

O'Henri read your post on a calmer day you'll see what I mean....chatterbox on an overdose of caffeine sort of sums it up.....rather fast paced commentary - I don't mean this in a negative way just found it amusing.  Sort of like writing a post while you are out of breath. As if you were afraid the power was going to go out again, which of course was a legit concern ...anyway made me laugh.

•••
  Same neighbor that decided to cut the lawn during the otherwise the peaceful evening last night decides it's his privilege to run his a/c despite requests otherwise tonight.
To each his own BUT the damn thing buzzes to the point I have to close all the windows on that side of the house which of course is upwind where the breeze comes from.
Very tempted to pour something very sticky in the works   

Also I was surprised at all the wattage going into street lighting in industrial areas and lighting up empty corporate buildings. Event the LCBO was open today.
I don't mind Stratford getting an extra share to keep the Theatres going ( 2 million a day it costs if they are down ) but the LCBO.







puullleaase

Cute cooler
Bought a bright yellow version of this for my office - very quiet 2 speed and you can stcik your fingers into it without harm.


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## jo42 (Jul 21, 2003)

iCool!!


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Perfect








Yeah the white one sort of would look neat next to an iMac. The base is very heavy so the fan can spin quite fast - the blade shape is inefficient but it sends enough air to make a difference and it is quiet, just a bit of low pitched hum if on high speed and on a hard surface. For $25 bucks it's cute and it works.

Saw a USB powered light AND fan on another gadgets site. Bet THAT would have sold a ton in NYC last night


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

I read in the paper today that Ontario was about to buy a large amount of electricity from NY State just about the time that the grid went down. It has to do this on a regular basis because Ontario does not produce enough power to satisfy demand at peak periods.

I suspect this situation is only going to get worse as demand goes up and up...unless new power generation facilities are built. And soon.   

None are planned, as far as I know. 

And conservation of electrical power is being discouraged by the artificially low subsidised electricity rates that Ernie Eves has 'blessed' all of you with recently.

I wonder if we would have the highly fuel-efficient autombiles of today if gas were kept at an artificially low subsidised price? Remember the 5MPG gas hogs of thirty years ago? When gas was a few cents per litre? And how everybody abandoned them for thrifty cars with smaller more efficient motors when the price of gas went through the roof? Would we have done this if the price of gas were kept artificially low?

And how would that affect our total supply of fuel today?

Makes you think, eh?  

I feel that we should take this as a wake-up call...and we should all start to look a bit more closely at our own supplies of available energy. And how they are being managed. We are on the very ragged edge of "not having enough juice" to supply our current needs on a shocking number of days each year. And we can't count on anyone else to supply enough electricity to make up the difference.

And demand grows... _every single day_ .

(I shudder to think of what would happen if even ten per cent of the population were to buy electric cars, and then drive home and plug them all into the grid after work.)   

Disaster.

So...we all need to make some hard choices. And soon.


Or...we all need to get used to blackouts and brownouts and data losses and no traffic lights and no mass transit and candles and..and...

Well, you get the picture. At least, I hope you do.


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## The Great Waka (Nov 26, 2002)

Well, in my part of Scarborough here, I just got power at 10pm Friday...thats 30 hours without. The emergency lighting in my building went out after about 5 hours, so last night and tonight were very dark. I was happy to see that some good people were out directing traffic, even at the small intersection outside my building. However, I was angered by the fact that some idiot driver who was too impatient to wait when he was told to wait decided to yell out and insult the good person trying to help us all out. 

Another thing, I don't understand why the two car dealerships across the street have to be running approx. 20 huge spotlights AND have their showrooms brightly light in the middle of the night. I have complained about this for years, but especially now this amount of power wasting is NOT necessary when there are homes that still havn't received power. Same with the huge office buildings downtown that have to be advertising thier names and logos all night and letting their buildings drain power without reason. Ok, better stop now before I start ranting too much...


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

I don't know about the big hotels in your area (many have their own generators, I suspect)...but, the last time I was in "Scarberia" (my Ex's hometown BTW) I remember thinking that, like Surrey here on the West Coast, any new car dealer that WASN'T brightly lit at night would probably lose several cars each time it got dark.

And it wouldn't be very long until they were out of business.   

The alternative would be to charge car dealerships...and _everyone else_ ...the ACTUAL COST of the expensive energy that they seem so willing to waste each day and night.  

Perhaps they would then turn off the big lights and employ some night watchmen with flashlights.

BINGO! New jobs!   

Amazing what happens when you change the status quo to reflect reality, eh?


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## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Hi folks...







I had a real disastorous experience with the outage. I got stuck at the cottage an extra day.  Was going to head back with the kids all loaded in the van when I realized I only had a quater tank of gas and everything was closed. So I headed on back and stayed an extra day. 

What a place to have the power go. Hot? Jump in the lake. Hungry? Fire up the barbie or build a fire!  

Was there with some family and quite a few kids so it was a little stressful at times, but ok. Finally managed to get some gas Friday after a waiting for an eterniety at one of the two gas stations in a small cottage country town. 

Drove into our home town and electricity is off. 10 minutes after stepping into our house the lights turn on so I can shower a week of funk away and sleep in my own bed.


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## sashmo (Oct 19, 2002)

Just wanted to comment about our area in Hamilton; I know that Minnes has done a great job already talking about this town. I live in east Hamilton (the wrong side of the tracks!) and we didn't receive power for about 24 hours, even though regions all around us had power. javascript:void(0) Power came back mid-afternoon and we haven't had any blackouts yet. Neighbours were sitting on their front porches trading the latest news.
We were driving through town after it happened and I noticed that most drivers were quite courteous at all of the "4-way stops".


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## Brainstrained (Jan 15, 2002)

Like our esteemeed mayor, I've been out of town for the blackout -- weeklong summer camp with several dozen scouts and cubs.









Our camp is on the edge of Algonquin Park, sans hydro but with telephone service, land line not cell service. Thursday evening one of the adults called home learned about the blackout and soon everyone was calling home to check on family.

We mused about whether we'd be spending the weekend at camp instead of going home Friday, and joked about how we missed the biggest blackout in history by choosing to go camping.

Power throughout the region was back early Friday morning and all our kids and adults came home to electricity and lots of stories of living without power for eight or nine hours.

Of course, we had gone without electricity for six days.


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## iLabmAn (Jan 1, 2003)

How long before everyone forgets what happened over the course of these trying days and returns to "business as usual"?:

- buying SUVs
- driving 1.5 in their SUVS to rent a movie or grab yet another trans-fatty acid- laced snackfood
- commuting....alone...
- washing cars daily
- taking long hot showers
- watering lawns daily
- keeping thermostats at 23 degrees or lower (C)

...anything else that should be added to this list?


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

From today's Star -


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

So, rather than complaining about the absentee politicians (like, what did you expect from these guys - although McCallum should have his dangly bits connected to the nearest grid for his utterly irresponsible scare-mongering in declaring the problem to be a fire at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant), why not start making changes for the better. Macdocs stupid neighbour will likely never change, but you can bet that the upgrades to the transmission system will be passed on to consumers. Buy high efficiency bulbs, teach your kids to minimize their energy use, ditch those CRTs, switch off all the lights at work, etc., etc.

The good news is that this is the final nail in the PC coffin in Ontario. McGuinty will have all of the justification in the world (and 4 years) to ramp up the power costs to reflect reality giving further urgency to energ-efficient behaviour. I also hope he has the balls to commission the building of a couple of nuclear reactors.


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

A good friend of mine, in the High Park area of Toronto, had his power restored only 2 hours ago!

How many of us feel lucky NOW?


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## adagio (Aug 23, 2002)

Your attitude that electricity costs should be ramped through the roof scare the heck out of me. I greatly fear that McGuinty may just do as you wish and those of us who cannot afford the inherent increased cost of living will be joining the ranks of the homeless.
I'll be thinking of you as I shiver in the street.


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## minnes (Aug 15, 2001)

the only things I usually have running power are my mac , a refridgerator and one light at night
This costs me about $28 a month and I cant afford a dime more until I get more income
I have not turned on a fan or airconditioner once this summer.
My mac is in sleep mode 18 hours a day

We have to get used to living everyday conservatively using power, then we should be fine

I go over to people's homes who have on 2 TVS, a computer, and lights up the wazoo, They have stuff on in rooms where no one is even there, this has to stop.

Maybe a charge of a low rate for the first X number then a higher rate for extra power consumption. This would reward those that are poor or conserving and stick it to the hogs who drain the system


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Adagio - you state the dilemma perfectly but overall someone haas the foot the real cost of power and encourage conservation.
There are other factors that drive societal costs up as well - embedded real estate prices being a major factor that leads to all sorts of social ills.
The cost of electricity versus the cost of housing in miniscule.

Gradual increases that encourage conservation plus addressing specific issues of those on fixed incomes will indeed be a tough road to follow but so was getting to a balanced budget for Canada and Ontario.

The bigger picture is that NA is spoiled compared to the rest of the world and habits and expectations need trimming. Ain't gonna happen overnight and there will be "casualties". With limited resources it's very difficult to change but unless we see a fusion reactor anytime soon thngs indeed will change as far as Canadians use of energy resources.  

BUT we can do more with what we have and that as usual requies a swift kick in the pocketbook


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## adagio (Aug 23, 2002)

The problem is that folks like me WILL have it stuck to them. I conserve already because of the costs but those who can afford don't give a darn and businesses just stick the added costs on to the consumer. 
Rents will increase putting even more folks without affordable housing. Food prices increase, clothing costs increase. Everything increases except my salary.

If you read these forums and talk to your neighbours you'll find most of them have already cut back on energy costs. The fact is there are way more of us now, specially in the GTA and housing starts continue at a rampant pace. The problem is that the infrastructure is not there to handle the increased burden. 

I blame governments going back 20 years or more who didn't have the foresight to have a steady investment in our future. They've been more interested in building vote catching hockey arenas or such rather than spending on something less glamorous, like electricity.


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

minnes - "Maybe a charge of a low rate for the first X number then a higher rate for extra power consumption. This would reward those that are poor or conserving and stick it to the hogs who drain the system"

EXCELLENT plan!


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Food prices and many other things ( computers, home entertainment, appliances ) are actually cheaper these days against income. 
Housing costs, insurance costs, vehicle costs are waaaaaay up.
As to hockey arenas etc - the developers paid for those not the governments and libraries and parks and community centres are shared resources.
There are some deep underlying structural issues in the distribution of wealth and the locking of wealth patterns that hammer those that cannot flex their incomes.
Another thread.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

Hmm had our first brown out tonight  Chirruping UPSs around the house/









The cool weather sure is welcome  

My daughter flew into Pearson - what a mob in both directions - 6 flights arrived at one carousel  The wait for luggage was longer than the flight itself.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Want to blame some single group for the lack of capacity during a rapidly rising demand for electricity?

Okay...

Here's TWO fer ya!

Yourselves! For not realising that power costs MONEY and all of that money has to come from the people who actually USE the power. Pay the price or shut off everything that uses juice. Now.

Simple as that!

The "greens" for actively protesting and shutting down ALL new power generating facilities BEFORE they could have been built! ALL new powerplants of ANY KIND!!

(note...they then go home and fire up the computer, printer, microwave some organic popcorn, turn on the air conditioning, and go online to congratulate each other on a "job well done". Then a lot of them sit down to write articles for the local papers on how we all should use electric cars because 'it's clean energy'!) 
















Some of these people are living on a different planet, apparently....

Think about it for a moment. And act accordingly.

You do NOT have any time to waste on this...and the problem is NOT going to go away.

Trust me on this.


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## arminarm (Jan 12, 2002)

*Only macnutt could blame the blackout on environmentalists!*







........ and then beg us to throw money (Can you say "inflation?  ) at people like FirstEnergyCorp and into the pockets of their shareholders to fuel their SUVs.

Given that we all, including macnutt need external energy, his very severe scolding







of all ehMac'ers here is gratuitous and laughable, especially in the context of this topic.
However when the macnutt's proof of the "greens" fault re the blackout is in we shall be grateful indeed!

Conservation, deserving of it's own topic is not relevant to this one since blame is pointing to the same problem that occurred in 1966. 

There was no lack of capacity when the blackout occurred.

The blackout had nothing to do with energy use.

Read:
NYTimes 

"The events that led to Thursday's blackout began when several high-voltage transmission lines near Cleveland failed, investigators said yesterday. The utility (FirstEnergy Corporation) that owns the lines said an alarm that should have alerted controllers to the shutdowns also failed."

Memo to macnutt:
Start a topic on energy conservation.


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## Brainstrained (Jan 15, 2002)

Hmm, Macnutt, didn't you notice there's already a thread for people who want to point the finger of blame?


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

Wow. This is the NY Times. Is the apology from Bloomberg, Pataki and Bush coming???  

H!


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## arminarm (Jan 12, 2002)

Ohenri,

Did you intend the "H!" as a URL?
I'm curious ..... try again.


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

A bit of clarity here....

I did not say that THIS blackout was caused by the shortsightedness that has characterised Ontario power generation (and the public's perception of where it comes from and what it costs).

But I DID say that you can expect more of the same, if you don't do something....and SOON...about the problem of rapidly rising demand, static supply and an artificially low price that dicourages conservation of energy.

And the reason I may have sounded so "scolding" is because we had a lengthy thread here at ehmac some time ago called "deregulation failure". 

In it, pretty much everyone from Canada's most populated province seemed to be terribly outraged that Ernie Eves had dared to raise electricity rates to reflect reality...and were all very relieved when he gave in and announced that the Province would subsidise the cost of power to again give every Ontarian an artificially low electric bill.

Smiles all around and everyone went away thinking "problem solved".









I noted at the time that no new powerplants were being built, supplies were already insufficient to meet demand at peak hours and that demand was rising rapidly. I pointed out that this is a recipie for certain disaster and will guarantee rolling blackouts in the very near future (You are buying power from outside the province right now to meet peak demand...what happens if the excess is not available to buy? At any price?)


And...if you want to know why no new powerplants are being built (pretty much anywhere, these days) then look really hard at the people who mobilise themselves to actively protest ANY new power generating facilities. They write angry letters, show up in mobs with protest signs, and generally raise enough hell that the politicians give in and cancel the project.

New hydroelectric dam? NO WAY...screws up the fish and wildlife. New fossil fuel fired plant? Not gonna happen! At least "not in my backyard". New nuclear plant? Don't be daft!

And I'll say it again, for anyone in the back rows who hasn't heard me the last five times I've said it...

You need to DO something about this looming problem. Something REAL. And you need to do it FAST!

Or buy a good stock of candles, and get ready to live without all of the little niceties that we all seem to rely on every day.

Don't say I didn't warn you.


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## Etaoin Shrdlu (May 19, 2003)

Macnutt, the blackout was caused by Enron shareholders who, in their collective bankruptcy panic, could not increase the price of power again through creating artificial shortages in California. So they switched to the east coast so no one would be suspicious and created another artificial shortage by running 350 sets of electric trains in their basements and all hitting the "reverse" button on their transformers at once. This caused the power to reverse in the Ohio power stations and shut the system down. Voila, another artificial shortage.

They killed cold fusion, too.


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## Brainstrained (Jan 15, 2002)

Darn! I never would have suspected!


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## rhino (Jul 10, 2002)

Okay, Macnutt, I'll buy in. Reduce my power consumption? Here's what I'll do. 

Buy fluorescent replacements for all my incandescent bulbs, run the dishwasher and washing machine after 8 p.m., use the outdoors for drying clothes, unplug or turn off the powerbars to the stereo, TV's and computer when not in use. 

And I don't own an air conditioner although I know what it's like without one in Toronto in the summer. Perhaps I'd limit my use to when I'm home rather than letting it run all day.

But if you multiply those simple efforts by a factor of the population in Metro T.O. or even nationally, perhaps Canada could become a Leader by Example instead of a Follower of the U.S.All-Consuming way of life. 

And those are just a few examples specifically related to power consumption. Do-able without much pain or effort rather a concerted will to leave a smaller footprint.

Now I'm no raging tree-hugger here but trying to recognize that we are spending our childrens environmental inheritance and I would rather show them how we can still have a comfortable lifestyle without affecting the natural resources as negatively as in the past. We all have our own frames of reference when it comes to our experiencing "God's Country" and no more so than perhaps here in Alberta so close to 5 of the World Heritage sites including Banff and Dinosaur Provincial Park. So place that firmly in your minds eye when buying your next fridge or stove or vehicle. What would you like to leave to your children or siblings or the little boy and girl down the hall?


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## MacNutt (Jan 16, 2002)

Bravo! Good first steps toward solving the problems that face most of us with regards to personal power consumption.  

Trouble is....

The very same groups who are dedicated to stopping any new power generation facilities from being built (and they are _quite_ effective at it!) are also equally committed to shutting down many of the older powerplants that currently supply much of what we use each day. Several older power facilities are already scheduled to close in Ontario in the next few years and there seems to be no concerted effort to replace their lost capacity. The same is true in many other jurisdictions.

So....demand is still going to rise...we can slow it with voluntary conservation measures, but it will stiil go up. Just at a reduced rate.

We do not have enough capacity , in many of our bigger cities, to meet current demand at peak times....and we are about to lose a signifigant amount of even THAT insufficient power.  

So, what are we going to do about it?

Think carefully....you're future may be very bright or very dark, depending on what we do right now.

Trust me on this.


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## Mississauga (Oct 27, 2001)

macello,

Is there any doubt the U.S. doesn't give a rat's @ss about anything other than conquering the Middle East? Their only concern is for oil rights throughout the world... at ANY expense! And as long as the voters sit back and allow mentally deficient ******** to become figureheads of the nation, we Canadians are at great risk of suffering the further fallout of American folly.

Personally, I'd like to see Canada pull the plug on energy sales to the U.S., literally! Canada should take a firm stand against U.S. foreign policy and deny any support of operations outside the nation. Short term consequences might be tough, but in the long run we'll all profit. At it's present course, the U.S. will continue to make more enemies and bring further resistance against it's societal habits. They are on the brink of become the new third world nation and we are nicely positioned to take full advantage of the repercussions... if we're smart.

It's high time we, as a country, make ourselves heard and set a precedent for all to see... lest we become lumped into the same hated mass as the U.S.


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## arminarm (Jan 12, 2002)

You are right about current US ambitions but they are those of Bush's puppet masters.
Americans are too distracted with shopping fantasies (Arnie will help with that!) to be bothered and the kill ratio in Iraq is far from being of concern to the US media. 

Hopefully as it has in the last year, sanity and pragmatism will rule Canadian policy. 
Disapproval of Canadian policy comes only from the right-wing in the US.

I think that there is more anti-Bush sentiment than anti-American here and in the US as evidenced in the popular election count that was so heavily in Gore's favour in 2000.

Where 73% of Canadians strongly disapprove of Bush's policies, the same 73% consider the American people as friends.

Canadian Liberals have been effective managers and less but still successful constitutional activists.
Our energy exports to the US are three times that of our imports.

You might notice that Eves, desperate to be noticed has "disappeared" the pathetic Ashcroft wannabe (Minister of Provincial Safety and Security) Bob Runciman, taken over the MPSS and spews gravely admonitions from the paranoia bunker on the hour.
This is to threaten and even precipitate controlled blackouts in Ontario. No such propaganda is coming from the US which imports two thirds of our power at unregulated prices.
Power available to us is less that exported at unregulated prices.

*So how do YOU like Emperor Eve's New Clothes?*
........ a mite transparent?
*If it ain't broke make it look broke!*


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## arminarm (Jan 12, 2002)

Help!
Has anyone found articles promoting energy conservation in any major US papers lately as we have had in all Toronto papers?
So far none that I can find.
Maybe they don't care in the US? 
Just wondering .......


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