[spdrun]

A device only draws as much amperage as it needs — plugging a device with a 120V/15A plug into a 120V/20A outlet won’t hurt anything. It just means that you can ALSO use a device that draws up to 20A. I’d be scared if I saw normal-sized outlets where one prong is horizontal, the other vertical. That means 240 voltZZZZ.

On the other hand … my dad’s first apartment in NYC had some outlets that were still on the city’s direct-current grid, and looked exactly like normal outlets. Plugging in a lamp was fine. Plugging a TV set into one of them caused the TV’s transformer to melt down.

[spdrun]

I can’t speak to CA, but in my family’s apt in NJ that was built in 1950, they used cable with a ground connection built in and 2-prong outlets.

Basically, you need to test each outlet between hot (shorter prong) and the metal box with a test lamp. Ideally one that draws some power – say a 60W bulb with probes attached – not just a neon probe. If it lights up, then you have a good ground, and you can just use a self-grounding 3-prong outlet, or ground a regular 3-prong outlet to the box using a ground wire.

If not, then it’s a different can of worms, and will be more expensive. You may be able to get away with GFCI breakers and 3-prong outlets (allowed under the Nat’l Electric Code, so long as the outlets are marked as “no ground”).

What kind of wiring is in the house? Plastic Romex? Cloth? BX? Old cloth-and-rubber cable is hideous shite that should be replaced. The insulation tends to fall off if you so much as stare at it wrong.

[spdrun]

Chances are he’ll be moving real soon, since he won’t be able to look his neighbors in the eye.

[spdrun]

OTOH, participation went up 0.3% in the last two months, which is a good sign.

[spdrun]

The problem is actual lack of gas, not lack of power to pump it. Though I anticipated such a thing and have enough food for a week if deliveries slow down due to lack of fuel.

Not grumbling. Sh!t happens, you deal with it. There will always be something. Emergency generators can flood, gas contaminate with water, who knows?

Rush hour into NYC on the 59th St. Bridge this fine morning. I was actually headed in the opposite direction, to a client appointment in Queens, which made the ride quite a bit of … fun:

[spdrun]

Actually, the problem is a real gasoline shortage at this point. Refineries, railroads, ports, and pipelines closed, and only a limited amount can be trucked in from points south.

Gas stations shouldn’t be mandated to have generators, or to even remain open. They’re NOT a public utility, despite what most entitled Americans delude themselves of.

[spdrun]

-0.8% monthly change in unemployment is pretty f’en unlikely. Sorry Obama, old boy — you’ll have to hope that Romney’s imbecilic blathering about FEMA followed by a hurricane will score you the election.

[spdrun]

Call Christie what you like, but he’s direct, blunt, and somewhat honest. Exactly what a politician should be. Love the NJ ‘tude, though people who didn’t grow up there will never “get” it.

[spdrun]

^^

Agreed.

[spdrun]

Everyone? Not the bumlosers who bought at 200% of current values for sure (and GOOD, f’em).

[spdrun]

There are always opportunities. Let’s say if you bought $10k of F in late ’08 – you’d have $100k in hand now.

Oh, and you wish for home affordability yet you whinge about the housing crash. Contradict yourself much? Personally, I think that the housing correction was one of the BEST things to happen to this country.

[spdrun]

I suspect that even if we totally embargoed China, the effect on day-to-day life in the US would be far less than you’d imagine. There’s a lot of idle production capacity in the US. There’s a lot of equipment that doesn’t REALLY need to be replaced, but typically is earlier than end-of-life due to “fashion” concerns.

Basically, we’d turn from a throwaway economy more towards a fix-whats-broke economy, but life would go on.

The great fuckin’ irony about China vs the US, is that while China is burning a lot of coal now, they’re also on a crash program to build many reactors. This was only briefly slowed down by Fukushima. Whereas the US struggles to get one site approved every decade, because the pseudo-environmentalists can’t be convinced to shut their yap-holes.

[spdrun]

More wrongs don’t make a right. Not to mention, if we place a 250% tariff on Chinese products, we could very easily and quickly take the wind out of their economy’s sails. The better if it’s combined with covert action to damage their government (read: Tiananmen 2.0).

[spdrun]

For instance, NYC needs a lot of food shipped in. It also needs a lot of water shipped in. The 40+ year construction of Water Tunnel #3 comes to mind…

Unless you’re living on a farm, that’s true for most of the US.

As far as the oil companies being investors, true. But it would be far better to expropriate their oil profits into submission, forcing them to either adapt (much more quickly than they are) or die. The idea should be to raise fossil fuel energy costs to the point where nascent clean tech can compete, and to use the money expropriated to fund development and roll-out of that tech.

[spdrun]

And by “environmentalists”, you mean pseudo-environmentalist limo-liberal scum who wouldn’t know science and engineering if it booted them in the scrotum with a steel-toed combat boot.

The choice should be couched to those mouth-breathers as follows: we’re going to have nuclear. Either we keep running existing reactors, which are on average 30-40 years old and less safe than modern designs, or we build more reactors that are both safe and clean.

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