Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?...

[Peeler]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2023 12:58:49 +0000, Max Dumbian, the REAL dumb, notorious,
troll-feeding senile idiot, blathered again:

> They used to be very stuffy about home transmitters in the past: If you

Is there no limit to your useless idiotic blathering, you troll-feeding
senile ASSHOLE?

--
Max Dumb having another senile moment:
\"It\'s the consistency of the shit that counts. Sometimes I don\'t need to
wipe, but I have to do so to tell. Also humans have buttocks to get
smeared due to our bipedalism.\"
Message-ID: <6vydnWiYDoV1VUrDnZ2dnUU78QednZ2d@brightview.co.uk>

 

[Peeler]

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 16:52:29 -0800, John Larkin, another obviously brain
dead, troll-feeding senile asshole, blathered:


> He was epileptic and OD\'d on one of his drugs and died.

The troll, idiot, attention whore and gay wanker you keep feeding is
SOCIOPATHIC, you brain dead troll-feeding senile shithead!

Some examples of sociopath Peter Hucker\'s (aka \"Birdbrain\") sick interaction
with his environment (neighbours, road users, relatives, etc.), as told by
the idiot himself:

\"I like to scare my passengers when I drive. I once gave a lift to a
hitchhiker who told me how the last person was a maniac and drove at 90mph.
I immediately accelerated to 110 for his 70 mile journey and he went very
quiet.\"
MID: <op.zcfxgepnjs98qf@red.lan>

Birdbrain Macaw (now \"James Wilkinson\") about his neighbours:
\"I will not accept money from my neighbours for doing them a favour\"
\"My neighbour just paid me £40 to brush moss off the roof of her
porch extension. It took me 10 minutes.\"
(Courtesy of Mr Pounder)

More from Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sick sociopathic
world:
\"I once collected money for an event that got cancelled. I simply never
told the donaters that it had been.\"
MID: <op.y9o2ilpfjs98qf@red.lan>

Wanker Peter Hucker, if he had children:
\"If I was a parent I\'d deliberately let my brat run amok in shops, hotels,
on the street etc, and when asked why I wasn\'t controlling it, I\'d say \"My
hands are tied, I\'m not allowed\". Since when did our children belong to the
fucking state?!\"
MID: <op.y8dhfds2js98qf@red.lan>

More from Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sociopathic life:
\"I refuse to go back to Tesco after I had a very loud argument with three
managers about whether I could go in shirtless on a baking hot summer\'s
day.\"
MID: <op.y6448sq1js98qf@red.lan>

More of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) strange sociopathic
world:
\"I saw someone today shovelling his pavement clean, pushing it onto the
road. I waited until he went inside, then drove over the snow fairly
quickly, splattering it back where it was.\"
MID: <op.ytywd8w9js98qf@red.lan>

More from Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) abnormal sociopathic
world:
\"However I do like to make fun of people. For example, a professor once
told a secretary off for having a topless male model as the wallpaper on her
computer. So I told her he was a hypocrite, and that he had pictures of
transvestites on his (not as wallpaper, but stored on the hard disk). She
spread that around quite quickly.\"
MID: <op.y4l803yzjs98qf@red.lan>

More from wanker Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) strange
sociopathic world:
\"I once found some photos of spanking porn on m\'colleague\'s computer at
work. He was a lot nicer to me on threat of grassing him off
But when another one grumbled at our secretary for having a shirtless male
model as her desktop background, I couldn\'t resist telling her about his
transgender photos. She must have been a right gossip, as quite a few
people looked at him funny for the next month or so.\"
MID: <op.y17f1ekqjs98qf@red.lan>

Birdbrain Macaw (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) about his driving habits (no.2):
\"Now you see, the proper way to soak somebody is to aim for the puddle from
100 yards back, then it looks like an accident to any moronic nosy hasn\'t
got a life cyclist. Of course you must adjust your speed inconspicuously
(use gears not brakes which cause lights to come on...).
MID: <op.x92ae7qw86ebyl@red.lan>

More of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) strange sociopathic
\"thinking\":
\"I class one human (not an immigrunt, a proper human) as worth the same as
any other. Of course relatives rate higher, but any two strangers are the
same, no matter what age. Unless they\'re under about 2 years old, then I
don\'t care at all. I\'d put abortion right up to 2 years after birth.\"
MID: <op.y1zxepoyjs98qf@red.lan>

More of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) strange world:
\"Around here they like to run in front of cars for a laugh. For some reason
they\'re surprised when I accelerate.\"
MID: <op.yae83gth86ebyl@red.lan>

More of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) strange world he\'s
living in:
\"Criminals should be tortured for the amusement of the rest of us.\"
MID: <op.ybcca2s886ebyl@red.lan>

More of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) pathological \"mind\"
revealed:
\"I am actually considering crashing deliberately into one of my neighbours.
Three times he\'s stopped on the wrong side of the road, directly in front of
me, then reversed into his drive. I had to brake hard to avoid a head on
collision. Next time I\'ll glance at the camera to make sure it\'s rolling
and carry on.\"
Message-ID: <op.ycr24sly86ebyl@red.lan>

More from Birdbrain\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sociopathic \"mind\":
\"Why do people get upset about getting punched on the nose? It\'s only as bad
as falling off your bike.\"
MID: <op.ymrl1ke48hfnum@red.lan>

More details of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sociopathic
life:
\"Because it\'s fun. I set loads of stuff on fire when I was a kid.\"
Message-ID: <op.yqi1dwv0utghnb@red.lan>

More of Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) \"insights\":
\"Because punching someone really isn\'t that serious. Grow up.\"
MID: <op.yq6w4yl0utghnb@red.lan>

Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sociopathic \"mind\" at work:
\"Satan is god\'s wife. Woman are evil.\"
MID: <op.ytcmvrpkjs98qf@red.lan>

More details from Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sociopathic
\"mind\":
\"If I wanted you to stab me with a knife and kill me, you should not
get into trouble for it\".
\"I would kill my sister if I thought I\'d get away with it\".
\"I\'m not what most people think of as human\".
(Courtesy of Mr Pounder)

More details from Birdbrain Macaw\'s (now \"James Wilkinson\" LOL) sociopathic
\"life\":
\"I have seriously considered poisoning my father\"
(Courtesy of Mr Pounder)

 

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:27:09 -0500) it happened Joe Gwinn
<joegwinn@comcast.net> wrote in <hm8quh5iqrkf70iko0ojdlmp8c2kcg1mjf@4ax.com>:

Easier solution by far is to change the switch to one with an
illuminated toggle, so it can be found in the dark.

Here is a USA brand example. I assume that something similar exists
everywhere.

.<https://www.leviton.com/en/products/residential/switches-timers/led-illuminated-switches

I grew up with light switches with a green button, some radioctive stuff made it glow.
We had Uranium glass greenish glassware too.
I used to eat from that at very young age until somebody told mother it was dangerous..
So you see the effect it has on somebody exposed to that stuff here now

Maybe it helped create natural resistance to radiation ?

 

[Peeler]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2023 15:13:54 +0000, Max Dumbian, the REAL dumb, notorious,
troll-feeding senile idiot, blathered again:


> You were usually recommended to use each needle only once.

I recommend you to pull your thick head out of the trolling attention
whore\'s arse, you subnormal senile shithead!

--
Max Dumb having another senile moment:
\"It\'s the consistency of the shit that counts. Sometimes I don\'t need to
wipe, but I have to do so to tell. Also humans have buttocks to get
smeared due to our bipedalism.\"
Message-ID: <6vydnWiYDoV1VUrDnZ2dnUU78QednZ2d@brightview.co.uk>

 

[charles]

In article <tsqivq$vvi$4@dont-email.me>, The Natural Philosopher
<tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 18/02/2023 12:43, Max Demian wrote:
On 18/02/2023 00:29, Commander Kinsey wrote:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:58:47 -0000, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com
wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 13 Feb 2023 13:33:36 +0000, Max Demian
max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
On 13/02/2023 03:59, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:08:57 +0100, \"Carlos
E.R.\" <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

Radios of that era had a setting named \"phone\". And a socket. You
connected the output of the \"electric gramophone\" pickup to the
phone

Every mains valve radio had a \"Gram\" or \"PU\" socket with switching,
usually combined with the waveband switch.

Every AC tube radio....

Mains was always AC wasn\'t it?

If course it wasn\'t (in the UK). Mains was AC or DC, and 120V (or so)
to 250V (or so).


Mains was always AC post WWII and probably post the advent of consumer
tube radios and IIRC was always 240VAC post WWII.

\"The Electricity (Supply) Act 1919 merged the 600-odd local generating
companies into area boards, who in turn were centralised into the
Central Electricity Board by the Electricity Supply Act 1925. That is
when the voltage was standardised at 240V, and the National Grid created.

[Snip]

In the early 1960s, Cambridge was supplied with 200v.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4té
\"I\'d rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom\" Thomas Carlyle

 

[charles]

In article <tsque4$2ecm$3@dont-email.me>,
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 18/02/2023 15:05, Max Demian wrote:
On 18/02/2023 13:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 18/02/2023 12:43, Max Demian wrote:
On 18/02/2023 00:29, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Mains was always AC wasn\'t it?

If course it wasn\'t (in the UK). Mains was AC or DC, and 120V (or so)
to 250V (or so).


Mains was always AC post WWII and probably post the advent of consumer
tube radios and IIRC was always 240VAC post WWII.

\"The Electricity (Supply) Act 1919 merged the 600-odd local generating
companies into area boards, who in turn were centralised into the
Central Electricity Board by the Electricity Supply Act 1925. That is
when the voltage was standardised at 240V, and the National Grid created.

And then the EU stole ten of our good, English volts!

Have we got them back yet?

(But DC persisted, in some areas as late as the mid 60s.
Refrigerators, Vacuum Cleaners, Sewing Machines, Electric Drills,
Radios and TVs were available with universal input. They would all
work on AC or DC 240V (one or two DC areas were only 180V, like Dundee
or Exeter))\"

That rather contradicts your first para.

DC and non 240V was highly localised and never part of the National Grid.

The National Grid was for higher voltages. Local boards distributed at 33kV
and below.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4té
\"I\'d rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom\" Thomas Carlyle

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2023-02-14, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:

On 14/02/2023 00:42, rbowman wrote:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:37:43 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

Rotary took fucking ages to dial long distance. And a very long time to
dial the UK emergency 999. Should have been 111.

That was designed to prevent cats from dialing the emergency services. At
least the US went for 911.

Or a dodgy line that periodically disconnects. Unlikely that the periods
correspond to the minimum interval between pulses, so 112 should be OK.
(112 is supposed to work in the UK as well as 999, unless Brexit stops
us from using the EU number.)

112 is part of GSM, it will likely stay forever.

--
Jasen.
pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ sʇɥƃᴉɹ ll∀

 

[Dean Hoffman]

On Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 10:00:18 AM UTC-6, John Larkin wrote:

On Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:24:54 +0000, Martin Brown
\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

On 15/02/2023 10:48, Mike Monett VE3BTI wrote:
Martin Brown <\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

The remaining big power hog is the garage lights.

Your fridge is a big power hog. Set the refrigerator temperature to the
highest setting, usually around 45 degrees F or 7 degrees C. This is an
excellent temperature for keeping vegetables, especially potatoes.

UK fridges are much less of a power hog than US ones. The power it takes
to keep cool depends mostly on how often it gets opened and how full it
is.
How does fullness affect required cooling power?

A full refrigerator doesn\'t have to start as often to keep the desired temperature? Once a big chunk of water freezes it stays frozen longer than a lonely little ice cube?

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:48:29 -0000, Vir Campestris <vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 11/02/2023 15:56, John Larkin wrote:
But I guess 240v is a lot nastier than 120, so more ground fault
sensing makes sense in europe.

It\'s a trade-off. More shocks with 240V; more fires with the higher
currents required at 120V.

More shocks doesn\'t mean more deaths. You jump more at 240V, so are more likely to let go. Try touching a 6000V electric fence and you\'ll see what I mean.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 17:55:30 -0000, John Larkin <jlarkin@highlandsnipmetechnology.com> wrote:

On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:48:29 +0000, Vir Campestris
vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 11/02/2023 15:56, John Larkin wrote:
But I guess 240v is a lot nastier than 120, so more ground fault
sensing makes sense in europe.

It\'s a trade-off. More shocks with 240V; more fires with the higher
currents required at 120V.

If the breakers are sized for the wiring, there is no fire hazard
there. Romex doesn\'t get hot at rated current.

The ratings in the UK are wrong. If I run the exact rating of a wire, in free air, it will get to just over body temperature. Now put that in the attic with insulation....

Fires are started by
appliances like space heaters,

No they\'re started by shorts under the floor or in the walls where you don\'t notice them. Or a wire that\'s been damaged by a rat etc and become thinner. It will not get hot at the rating of the breaker. The breaker is no longer preventing a fire. More current - more heat - more fire.

which wouldn\'t be affected by the
voltage. Or overloaded extension cords, arguably a lesser hazard at
higher voltage.

Extension cords in the UK have something called a fuse in the plug. I know, a novel concept for Merkins, we actually have something to stop each individual appliance/extension cord overheating. The cord can be thinner than the circuit the breaker is \"protecting\", and the fuse will blow if you overload it.

Very old houses had knob-and-tube wiring with twisted junctions, in
walls and exposed in attics, and people tended to screw in bigger
glass fuses than the wire could handle. That was, sometimes still is,
a big fire hazard.

That\'s stupidity and irrespective of whether you have fuses or breakers.

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:40:11 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 08:09:31 -0000, Commander Kinsey wrote:

How can people remember all those numbers? I only remember the
emergency number, and the slightly less emergency number. But I can
never decide how much of an emergency it is. If your neighbour is
keeping you awake at 4am and you want to phone the police, do you dial
999 or 101? It\'s not life and death, but it does need responded to now,
not after he\'s stopped doing it.

At least in the US the default is to dial 911. The pizza was cold when the
guy delivered it? Dial 911. Working in a PSAP (public-safety answering
point) is not a job I would want. Interspersed with calls from assholes,
you deal with violent crimes in process, mass casualty incidents, hostage
situations, and family members watching Pop die. You never know until you
pick up the damn phone.

Sounds fun.

A local lad went on trial for making a rude 999 call. The court case lasted 3 hours, listening to the 3 hour phone conversation. Could the worker not have just hung up? FFS. I don\'t know if he was charged or not.

 

[Martin Brown]

On 15/02/2023 19:25, Don Y wrote:

On 2/15/2023 12:18 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 12:55:40 PM UTC-6, Don Y wrote:
On 2/15/2023 11:50 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
There are indoor motion detector light switches and lights.
You can also buy switches that you can remotely control.

    I\'d lose the remote then find it in the last place I looked.

Clap On!  Clap Off!  ?

Alexa - turn on lounge light.

Is the modern equivalent (other personal assistants are available)

My brother-in-law was an early adopter of remote controlled lights using
a US 27MHz proprietary technology whose name escapes me. Now everything
is under the control of she who must not be named.

With apologies to anyone whose lounge light is now \"on\".

BBC did a thing about home control and made the mistake of broadcasting
the keyword and an phrase on air live. The resulting wake up of every
Alexa within earshot of a radio caused the studio demonstration to fail!

--
Martin Brown

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 18:13:35 -0000, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2023-02-14 18:55, John Larkin wrote:
On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:48:29 +0000, Vir Campestris
vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 11/02/2023 15:56, John Larkin wrote:
But I guess 240v is a lot nastier than 120, so more ground fault
sensing makes sense in europe.

It\'s a trade-off. More shocks with 240V; more fires with the higher
currents required at 120V.

Andy

If the breakers are sized for the wiring, there is no fire hazard
there. Romex doesn\'t get hot at rated current. Fires are started by
appliances like space heaters, which wouldn\'t be affected by the
voltage. Or overloaded extension cords, arguably a lesser hazard at
higher voltage.

Very old houses had knob-and-tube wiring with twisted junctions, in
walls and exposed in attics, and people tended to screw in bigger
glass fuses than the wire could handle. That was, sometimes still is,
a big fire hazard.

In my house, or rather my parent\'s house, fuses were just a strand of
wire wrapped around two metal screws or some metal something.

I still have those in my house and don\'t intend to change them. They\'re far less fussy about a surge than a breaker. I switched on 7 computers at once on a 32A circuit, and the breaker tripped. I changed it back to a fuse and it let them boot up. They only use 16A once running. The breaker couldn\'t handle the inrush current to charge up the bulk capacitors in the power supplies.

When a fuse blows, you just put another wire. It it blows again, they put two
strands. Next, they put three... you see the problem.

And if a breaker does that, you slot in a bigger breaker. How is this anything to do with the advantage of fuses/breakers?

Of course you can use sealed fuses, or calibrated fuse wire (they sold
that in the UK). But it is just safer to use calibrated breakers which
\"blow\" and you just throw them back. Of course they can be intentionally
\"sabotaged\".

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 15:42:21 -0000, Ed Pawlowski <esp@snet.xxx> wrote:

On 2/22/2023 9:40 AM, rbowman wrote:


At least in the US the default is to dial 911. The pizza was cold when the
guy delivered it? Dial 911. Working in a PSAP (public-safety answering
point) is not a job I would want. Interspersed with calls from assholes,
you deal with violent crimes in process, mass casualty incidents, hostage
situations, and family members watching Pop die. You never know until you
pick up the damn phone.


I know someone that does just that. Some odd people calling for odd
things. Recent one was a woman calling from her apartment. This is at
4AM. \"There is a satellite dish on the roof and it is not needed.
Please send someone to take it down\"

I get irritated when I see a lack of cooperation. Two flats each with a satellite dish a metre apart. Senseless. You can get multi-LNBs to go on the end of the arm.

 

[Martin Brown]

On 16/02/2023 06:58, Jan Panteltje wrote:

On a sunny day (Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:27:09 -0500) it happened Joe Gwinn
joegwinn@comcast.net> wrote in <hm8quh5iqrkf70iko0ojdlmp8c2kcg1mjf@4ax.com>:

Easier solution by far is to change the switch to one with an
illuminated toggle, so it can be found in the dark.

Here is a USA brand example. I assume that something similar exists
everywhere.

.<https://www.leviton.com/en/products/residential/switches-timers/led-illuminated-switches

I grew up with light switches with a green button, some radioctive stuff made it glow.
We had Uranium glass greenish glassware too.

Tritiated plastic is the standard method still used for fishing floats.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardner-Tackle-Tritium-Betalights-Indicators/dp/B01NCWO9D1

Although if the switch ever sees sunlight then the strontium aluminate
glow in the dark material is wonderful stuff. I have an emergency torch
(filament bulb) made by 3M using dayglo plastic loaded with that. If it
spends the day in sunlight you can see by the light the torch casing
emits once dark adapted.

It was a tragic example of a brilliant product that no-one apart from
explorers and sailors could see the point of and was not a commercial
success. These days you can get almost the same effect by bridging the
on-off switch of the simplest 3 cell LED torch with a 1M resistor.

I used to eat from that at very young age until somebody told mother it was dangerous..
So you see the effect it has on somebody exposed to that stuff here now

Maybe it helped create natural resistance to radiation ?

We evolved in a world with more background radiation than there is now.
There is a hypothesis that spending a very long time in a even lower
radiation environment (as happens in some deep mines) might even have a
detrimental health effect. Workers are monitored for this. AFAIK no link
in that direction has been proved but there are hints that we can
tolerate more background radiation than we have at present. This is
quite an interesting article on the issue of low dose radiation:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2477717/

--
Martin Brown

 

[charles]

In article <op.10kokyi6mvhs6z@ryzen.home>, Commander Kinsey
<CK1@nospam.com> wrote:

On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 18:13:35 -0000, Carlos E. R.
robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

On 2023-02-14 18:55, John Larkin wrote:
On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:48:29 +0000, Vir Campestris
vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 11/02/2023 15:56, John Larkin wrote:
But I guess 240v is a lot nastier than 120, so more ground fault
sensing makes sense in europe.

It\'s a trade-off. More shocks with 240V; more fires with the higher
currents required at 120V.

Andy

If the breakers are sized for the wiring, there is no fire hazard
there. Romex doesn\'t get hot at rated current. Fires are started by
appliances like space heaters, which wouldn\'t be affected by the
voltage. Or overloaded extension cords, arguably a lesser hazard at
higher voltage.

Very old houses had knob-and-tube wiring with twisted junctions, in
walls and exposed in attics, and people tended to screw in bigger
glass fuses than the wire could handle. That was, sometimes still is,
a big fire hazard.

In my house, or rather my parent\'s house, fuses were just a strand of
wire wrapped around two metal screws or some metal something.

I still have those in my house and don\'t intend to change them. They\'re
far less fussy about a surge than a breaker. I switched on 7 computers
at once on a 32A circuit, and the breaker tripped. I changed it back to
a fuse and it let them boot up. They only use 16A once running. The
breaker couldn\'t handle the inrush current to charge up the bulk
capacitors in the power supplies.

Then you were using the wrong type of breaker.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4té
\"I\'d rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom\" Thomas Carlyle

 

[Commander Kinsey]

On Thu, 23 Feb 2023 02:36:46 -0000, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Wed, 22 Feb 2023 10:42:21 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:


I know someone that does just that. Some odd people calling for odd
things. Recent one was a woman calling from her apartment. This is at
4AM. \"There is a satellite dish on the roof and it is not needed.
Please send someone to take it down\"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/19/911-
dispatcher-jailed-houston-woman-hung-up-on-thousands-of-callers/

ROFL, you \"newsreader\" wraps single words, or in this case a URL. Here, this is the correct way to do it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/19/911-dispatcher-jailed-houston-woman-hung-up-on-thousands-of-callers/

Also, Washington Post is not responding. Did the Mozzies hit it with a bomb?

 

[Don Y]

On 2/16/2023 2:51 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

On 15/02/2023 19:25, Don Y wrote:
On 2/15/2023 12:18 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 12:55:40 PM UTC-6, Don Y wrote:
On 2/15/2023 11:50 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
There are indoor motion detector light switches and lights.
You can also buy switches that you can remotely control.

    I\'d lose the remote then find it in the last place I looked.

Clap On!  Clap Off!  ?

Alexa - turn on lounge light.

Is the modern equivalent (other personal assistants are available)

My brother-in-law was an early adopter of remote controlled lights using a US
27MHz proprietary technology whose name escapes me. Now everything is under the
control of she who must not be named.

We had X-10/BSR remotes, here. I don\'t know if it was the same technology
resold under a new name, etc. They had reliability problems.

An aunt had all low-voltage switching throughout her home. As a result, she
could support a \"master switch panel\" by her bedside... from which she could
turn any light in the house on/off. (in the mid 1950\'s!)

I believe you can now buy \"light bulbs\" with bt/wifi receivers inside
so you can talk directly to the *light* (not having to bother with
any switch or wiring upgrades)

[ISTR these were hackable so not sure why you\'d want to go that route!]

With apologies to anyone whose lounge light is now \"on\".

BBC did a thing about home control and made the mistake of broadcasting the
keyword and an phrase on air live. The resulting wake up of every Alexa within
earshot of a radio caused the studio demonstration to fail!

 

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Thu, 16 Feb 2023 10:01:55 +0000) it happened Martin Brown
<\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nonad.co.uk> wrote in <tskuuj$378ln$3@dont-email.me>:

On 16/02/2023 06:58, Jan Panteltje wrote:
On a sunny day (Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:27:09 -0500) it happened Joe Gwinn
joegwinn@comcast.net> wrote in <hm8quh5iqrkf70iko0ojdlmp8c2kcg1mjf@4ax.com>:

Easier solution by far is to change the switch to one with an
illuminated toggle, so it can be found in the dark.

Here is a USA brand example. I assume that something similar exists
everywhere.

.<https://www.leviton.com/en/products/residential/switches-timers/led-illuminated-switches

I grew up with light switches with a green button, some radioctive stuff made it glow.
We had Uranium glass greenish glassware too.

Tritiated plastic is the standard method still used for fishing floats.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardner-Tackle-Tritium-Betalights-Indicators/dp/B01NCWO9D1

I have some of those tritium lights:
https://imgbox.com/5UBrV73e
panteltje.com is now \'off;\' so I use imgbox, its free and really easy to use.

Although if the switch ever sees sunlight then the strontium aluminate
glow in the dark material is wonderful stuff. I have an emergency torch
(filament bulb) made by 3M using dayglo plastic loaded with that. If it
spends the day in sunlight you can see by the light the torch casing
emits once dark adapted.

Right, I have some of the green tape, played around with it,
it is actually quite bright after exposure to light.

It was a tragic example of a brilliant product that no-one apart from
explorers and sailors could see the point of and was not a commercial
success. These days you can get almost the same effect by bridging the
on-off switch of the simplest 3 cell LED torch with a 1M resistor.

Indeed, modern LEDs light at a few micro-amps.

I used to eat from that at very young age until somebody told mother it was dangerous..
So you see the effect it has on somebody exposed to that stuff here now

Maybe it helped create natural resistance to radiation ?

We evolved in a world with more background radiation than there is now.
There is a hypothesis that spending a very long time in a even lower
radiation environment (as happens in some deep mines) might even have a
detrimental health effect. Workers are monitored for this. AFAIK no link
in that direction has been proved but there are hints that we can
tolerate more background radiation than we have at present. This is
quite an interesting article on the issue of low dose radiation:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2477717/

Today there was long item on German satellite TV about Chernobyl
They got special permission to go into the forbidden areas and used a Geiger counter (that went wild)
and even were allowed 5 minutes under the now with steel covered dome over the exploded reactor.
At the end they went into wildlife there, birds, wolves, even bears... plenty!
Where I worked when Chernobyl happened they had to replace the airco filters because those were hot.
My uncle had a jewel shop and sold watches, at some point they had to turn in all the watches with radium hands,,
I still have some radium watch hands and a scintillation screen plus lots of other radiation measurement stuff
gamma spectrometer, Geiger counters...
I think we have a very good DNA repair mechanism, we simple do not understand all of it yet.
If you look at science.daily.com almost every day there are links to new discoveries in that field there,
noticed one today
The fun thing I remember about Chernobly documentary long time ago:
Russian guy sitting under the head of some deer he shot, he told the reporter it was very radioactive..
Reporter then asked: \'Are you not afraid to sit under it?\'
He answered \'It helps against cancer\'

In the documentary this morning the guy who guards that high radiation area was showing the guys around
he told him he had had an overdose of radiation (was a sort of police man when it happened and did see it happen)
and they measured it and gave him 5 years to live
Man looked very healthy now in 2022 it was I think
We know so little.
He just stuck his hand with the screaming Geiger counter into some stuff ..
see, here there is more, reporter stepped back in fear...
I have some iodine pills somewhere in case we get fallout again, quite possible with Ukrain and Russia..
but lost much of the fear I once had,
Have some uranium samples too for testing gamma spectrometer...
Old color TVs had a high voltage stabilizer tube, PD500 IIRC, that would emit a lot of X rays
was in metal case in each Philips tube TV set, the glass would discolor over time from the radiation
https://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_pd500.html
One day somebody from the fire brigade came into the studio measuring all the X ray radiation from all monitors
One of the technicians had run that PD500 without the metal screen and had some burn like symptoms.

Fear is what sells.
Life is resilient.

 

[Mark Lloyd]

On 2/17/23 14:03, SteveW wrote:

[snip]

There are also a lot of phrases that come from the Royal Navy - square
meal (from the square wooden plates); between the devil and the deep
blue sea - the devil being the final plank of a deck, against the side
of the ship and the hardest to fit; the bitter end - the end of a rope
... especially if you missed catching it as the rope went over the side;
and a whole lot more.

I seem to remember something about \"son of a gun\".

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

\"The word and works of God is quite clear, that women were made either
to be wives or prostitutes.\" [Martin Luther, Works 12.94]