Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Power outages still bubbling away

The power grid is the most clap-trap thing ever. That means it operates in a Power Law, due to self-similarity. When this happens, as with earthquakes, there is an exponential increase in seriousness, at an exponential decrease in rate. For example, it make take 10 power outages of millions before there is one with 10's of millions.

This latest one is in Florida. It is unique in that the power people are blaming the nuclear power station, and they, in turn, are blaming a loss of outside power. It is this sort of circular dependence that will cause a massive blackout when we have an earthquake in Hamilton, or anywhere else in the East.

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