Nine seconds to subsistence
ABC News ran the most stunningly disturbing graphic... A map of the NE continent, here... with a little second clock in the corner. With each second, a jurisdiction or two shut down. Off the grid. Michigan. Tick. Connecticut. Tick. Ohio. Tick. New Jersey. Tick. Wham -- Ontario, New York and Pennsylvania. Tock. Nine seconds... and tens of millions of people are on the edge of subsistence. Without any leadership any where. (Well, CBC Radio did a fine job, operating on backup generators.) So... how is this going to play out politically? Ken. -- Luxury employ'd a million of the poor, and odious pride a million more; Envy itself and Vanity were ministers of Industry; Their darling folly, and dress, That strange ridic'lous Vice, was made The very Wheel that turn'd the Trade. -- Bernard Mandeville The Grumbling Hive 1705
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
Kenneth Campbell wrote: Tick. New Jersey. funny. i live in NJ and had power throughout y'day and up till this moment, today. Nine seconds... and tens of millions of people are on the edge of subsistence. no power for a few hours is the edge of subsistence? --ravi
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
guarantee -- we will hear that it was the environmentalists fault. We need more nukes, more coal Pass the damn energy bill. On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 08:31:37AM -0400, Kenneth Campbell wrote: ABC News ran the most stunningly disturbing graphic... A map of the NE continent, here... with a little second clock in the corner. With each second, a jurisdiction or two shut down. Off the grid. Michigan. Tick. Connecticut. Tick. Ohio. Tick. New Jersey. Tick. Wham -- Ontario, New York and Pennsylvania. Tock. Nine seconds... and tens of millions of people are on the edge of subsistence. Without any leadership any where. (Well, CBC Radio did a fine job, operating on backup generators.) So... how is this going to play out politically? Ken. -- Luxury employ'd a million of the poor, and odious pride a million more; Envy itself and Vanity were ministers of Industry; Their darling folly, and dress, That strange ridic'lous Vice, was made The very Wheel that turn'd the Trade. -- Bernard Mandeville The Grumbling Hive 1705 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
Aint no country extra fine If you aren't on to the power line. Woody Guthrie
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
Ravi wrote: funny. i live in NJ and had power throughout y'day and up till this moment, today. NYT has a pretty good graphic... http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20030815_blk_GRID/030815_na tGRID.pdf You can dispute their statement with their editor if you like. (Hell, everyone should dispute their statements to their editors.) Apparently the north and east of the state was affected. no power for a few hours is the edge of subsistence? No, but living in New Jersey is. Ken. -- Negative. We are not in the Eighth Dimension. We are over New Jersey. -- Buckaroo Bonzai
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
Michael writes: guarantee -- we will hear that it was the environmentalists fault. We need more nukes, more coal Pass the damn energy bill. Okay. We're taking bets, here. Michael says it will be the enviros who take the rap -- probably via communications work by the White House (Bush has already said the power grid needs complete overhaul, which can only mean one thing with him). Ian is betting on Canada taking the blame -- as is CNN, you can't go wrong blaming Canada, that socialist bastion of Swedish-like bastards that it is. In Ontario, looks like Premier Ernie Eves is a good bet, according to pundits. (Myself, I think I caused it by sending too many emails to PEN-L the last 48 hours.) Any other bets? Ken. -- We cannot speak without incurring some risk, at least in theory; the only way of being absolutely safe is to say nothing. -- Isaiah Berlin
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
Kenneth Campbell wrote: We cannot speak without incurring some risk, at least in theory; the only way of being absolutely safe is to say nothing. -- Isaiah Berlin If you speak only to ask questions, speaking is safer than silence, which can always be construed as agreeing with the last speaker. Carrol
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
I ain't talking about ultimate truths, here. As if Mr. Berlin had some lock on truth. :) I am talking about people (my community, say -- or better yet my family, which was stunned by the world around them last night and is still buzzing with questions) speaking their concerns. Mass media, as Walter Lippman pointed out, calms all questions. Or, rather, creates the questions. But I take your point seriously, Carrol. Asking the same questions (as per, say, CNN or Howard Stern) is safe, in the same way that conceptions of health have sometimes been defined as having the same diseases as your neighbor. Ken. -- We are all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars. -- Oscar Wilde If you speak only to ask questions, speaking is safer than silence, which can always be construed as agreeing with the last speaker. Carrol
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
Kenneth Campbell wrote: Ravi wrote: funny. i live in NJ and had power throughout y'day and up till this moment, today. NYT has a pretty good graphic... http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20030815_blk_GRID/030815_na tGRID.pdf You can dispute their statement with their editor if you like. i am not really interested in correcting the new york times. no power for a few hours is the edge of subsistence? No, but living in New Jersey is. huh? why is that? --ravi
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
it was interesting listening to Warren Olney's radio show To the Point on US national public radio as I was driving around today. There seemed to be consensus of the (establishmentarian) experts being interviewed: the problem that caused the outage was based to an important extent on _deregulation_ which set up incentives NOT to invest in tranmission of electricity while investment in electricity generation was encouraged. Jim
Re: Nine seconds to subsistence
I'm sure Michael is right about the Bushites using this as fuel to promote retrograde policies. Possible good news, though: here in Ontario there's been big political fallout from the Tory push to privatize Ontario Hydro (the electric system), which sent electricity prices skyrocketing early this year, forcing the Tories to back off a bit and prompting speculation that former Premier Mike Harris's resignation was a result of him seeing the writing on the wall about that one. Current Tory premier Ernie Eves was AWOL for the first five hours of the blackout and was slow about declaring a state of emergency. That, coupled with the fact that, under Tory privatization Ontario has become an electricity consumer rather than seller, led one commentator on CBC radio to say, in regard to the Tories' hopes in the upcoming election, leave the bus in the garage. I don't know what other media are saying (here in Ottawa my neighborhood has been without power for all but four hours since 4 pm yesterday), but just hearing that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. It took some of the sting out of the blackout. Frederick Emrich - Original Message - From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 10:58 AM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Nine seconds to subsistence guarantee -- we will hear that it was the environmentalists fault. We need more nukes, more coal Pass the damn energy bill. On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 08:31:37AM -0400, Kenneth Campbell wrote: ABC News ran the most stunningly disturbing graphic... A map of the NE continent, here... with a little second clock in the corner. With each second, a jurisdiction or two shut down. Off the grid. Michigan. Tick. Connecticut. Tick. Ohio. Tick. New Jersey. Tick. Wham -- Ontario, New York and Pennsylvania. Tock. Nine seconds... and tens of millions of people are on the edge of subsistence. Without any leadership any where. (Well, CBC Radio did a fine job, operating on backup generators.) So... how is this going to play out politically? Ken. -- Luxury employ'd a million of the poor, and odious pride a million more; Envy itself and Vanity were ministers of Industry; Their darling folly, and dress, That strange ridic'lous Vice, was made The very Wheel that turn'd the Trade. -- Bernard Mandeville The Grumbling Hive 1705 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
