[David]

Just another coincidence -- right ???

The power grid is down in major parts of the UK:

London Hit by Power Cuts

Thu August 28, 2003 02:21 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Power cuts hit transport services across London on Thursday, causing travel chaos for thousands who had to abandon trains and take to the streets.
Street lights went out in scenes reminiscent of the blackout that hit North America earlier this month.

A British Transport Police spokesman said some of London's mainline stations were closed.

"Waterloo, Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge are all closed because there are no trains and no power."

"There are trains trapped in Underground tunnels. But we have police at most locations."

No injuries have been reported so far. "It's obviously a wider problem than a local power problem."

A spokesman for the London underground railway system told Reuters: "It appears to be affecting the majority of the London underground.

"Trains in stations are being evacuated. We're trying to get alternative power sources started," he added. He said a majority of the network was affected and blamed a National Grid power failure.

But a spokesman for London Energy, which supplies the British capital, said: "We have no information about this at the moment."

Earlier this month, one of the largest power outages in North American history blacked out New York and other major U.S. and Canadian cities overnight, disrupting life for millions of people and trapping thousands in lifts and on crowded subways.

******

*** The USA & UK are partners in the war against terrorism!

*** The USA & UK are partners in the war in Iraq!

*** The USA & UK both hit with major power outages including their financial centers (NYC and London) during the evening rush hour within a couple of weeks of each other!

Coincidence???

:what: :what: :what:

:scrutiny: :uhoh: :scrutiny:

[JohnBT]

There is no mystery about it. Europe is having a heat wave for crying out loud. What was the last report from France - 10,000 dead?

From CBS Marketwatch:

"Power prices have surged as people turn up the air conditioning and other power-generating appliances to cool off. Supply has been taken offline as well, particularly in France where rivers have been too hot to cool off nuclear reactors."

Read that last sentence again. The part about the rivers being too hot in France. England is having their own set of problems.

Isn't anybody here old enough to remember the other power outages we've had? The one in New York in, what was it, 1965 resulted in a massive number of BABIES nine months later. See, it was too dark to go out...

John

[C.R.Sam]

No biggie.
Just a Lucas supplied part failure.

So many possible causes, no judgement call from me till some real information is forthcoming...if ever.

Sam

[50 Shooter]

28 Days later....:neener:

[4v50 Gary]

Lucas parts? Dang Sam, you know the English.

Gary:D

[jsalcedo]

If crime is rampant with the lights on......

[Delmar]

Picture an old, old city with old wiring and a heat wave. Something is going to break. Duh?
If it weren't for the press shouting that the sky is falling every time a light bulb dims (just so that if it is a terrorist attack, they can say "you heard it here first!"), this would have been stuck in the middle of the paper somewhere.
Yeah, Lucas electric-LMAO!
Probably had Smiths gauges to monitor it with too!

[Iain]

You guys really do have some funny ideas about us lot.

Time to go find that serving wench and see where my mead is, if I don't get some mead soon some vassal is going to face the thumbscrews.

[griz]

I didn't think anybody remebered the Prince of Darkness!;)

[Delmar]

St Johns-did you lose power? It's my understanding that power is being restored as we speak, and the main reason for the subway trains not running is because people are still walking out of the tunnels.
Heck, I live at the end of the power grid here, and its not uncommon for the power to go off for an hour or two during a typical Texas storm.
Just light up the hurricane lamps and grab a good book for a while.....
Glad to know you are ok. This place wouldn't quite be the same without your views:D

[agricola]

its not a "power blackout across major parts of the UK" - its a blackout in London, which has inconvienenced hundreds of thousands of people getting home from work, but little else and in all probability all traces of the disruption will be gone tommorrow.

[Art Eatman]

The real, sure-nuff reason the English drink warm beer is because they have Lucas refrigerators. (Speaking as a one time owner of Austin Healeys, Lotus, MG, AC Aceca..."Lucas electrics: Home before dark.")

:D, Art

[moa]

It was recently 107 degrees Fahrenheit in Switzerland. I think that sort of tells you something about Europe's heat wave.

I wonder if the Brits are now looking forward to a "cold" beer for a change?

[Iain]

No, about 300 miles from London.

Funny that you say that though Delmar, when the blackouts happened over there I heard a few radio debates about it, some saying 'what? this kind of thing happens all the time to us out in the country'. Just doesn't happen to NYC or London all that much.

Art - that is a very ethnocentric thing to say - some of us like warm beer and we have valid cultural reasons for doing so. ;)

[jsalcedo]

The reason Americans drink their beer ice cold is because the Macro brews
Budweiser, miller, schlitz, etc taste so bad that the cold is needed to numb the taste buds.

Unfortunately 99% beer is served ice cold in the US regardless of flavor, type or quality.

Of course we aren't dying of heatstroke either :D

[Art Eatman]

:D True, St Johns, very true. :D "To each his own taste," as the old maid said when she kissed the cow...

Just pickin' on ya for the fun of it.

:), Art

[bogie]

This is America. We have Shiner Bock.

[Iain]

Don't know if any of you ever saw the 'Canadian Apology' can't remember who did it but essentially it was a Canadian apologising to the US for all the things the Canadians are supposed to have done, anyway he finished up with:

'Sorry about your beer. It isn't our fault, but we feel your pain.'

This talk of heatwave is exaggerated from my point of view, 300 miles north of London and not even a bit of sunburn to speak of.

[CWL]

Terrorists want to see people dead. They don't just want to cause bumped shins in the dark.

[Iain]

I don't know CWL, they want to see massive disruption (and the eventual ending) of our way of life. The disturbing thing about these power cuts is that it has shown us just how much electricity is part of our way of life.

[Zedicus]

well, a lot of places here have wireing that is from way before WW 1 and in a lot of cases town grids are the same...

So I'm guessing that the grid wiring failed, or somone used a windows 2000 server to controll the london grid....:rolleyes:

[C.R.Sam]

Terrorists want to see people dead. They don't just want to cause bumped shins in the dark. To strike terror in the hearts of the enemy can take myriad forms.

Sam..."carry spare Lucas fuel pump in boot, even if car is equipped with two." Shouldda been in the owners info for my MKVII Jag.

[CWL]

C.R.SAM, while I would agree if it was an old-school KGB or even OSS operation to destabilize ones belief in country. I think that modern organized terrorists want blood more than they do mayhem.

[SodaPop]

The real, sure-nuff reason the English drink warm beer is because they have Lucas refrigerators. (Speaking as a one time owner of Austin Healeys, Lotus, MG, AC Aceca..."Lucas electrics: Home before dark.")

I grew up with a Ford-Philco refrigerator. The thing worked for over 20yrs until my mom decided she wanted to get rid of it and get a newer one. IT NEVER BROKE!!!

Ford made better refrigerators than cars.:what:

[Ed Brunner]

"If Lucas made guns, you couldn't start a war." Circa late 1950's

[S_O_Laban]

Wow, Ag's post reminds me of Bagdad Bob:D

[one-shot-one]

:scrutiny:
anyone remember the gas crunch? remember what the gas prices were before that and look at what they are now. terrorists? maybe.....corporate.
they are already talking about how much it is going to cost (us) to fix.
ok tin foil hat off..........maybe!?!?!?:scrutiny: