this isn''t politics...

Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:12 am by gromit

....so please don't lock this thread down before giving it a chance.

I was having a conversation with my mates the other day in the pub about the recent power cuts that have happened in the US, London and Rome. Maybe, being the generation of conspiracy theories, we find it all to easy to jump to conclusions....but!...does anyone else find these recent events weird?

For those who don't know what the h*ll I'm talking about, I'll summarize...

A couple of months ago, as I'm sure you'll all remember, power went down on the majority of the eastern US (I think I'm right in saying that this included washington and new york? is that right?). So it lasted a weekend and caused havoc, and some guy came on tv and apologised for being cr*p because the whole thing had happened by a "bolt of lightening" or some other really poor excuse. Anyway, that blows over. Then 2 weeks later the same thing happens in London, except there wasn't as much havoc caused because it only lasted just over a day. I remember thinking that this was a bit odd at the time, 2 major western country's capital cities hit by the same problem in such a small amount of time....I mean, when was the last time you heard of that happening? And then this was backed up by one our ministers coming on tv and rather shakingly saying "its ok....its ok....calm down...this wasn't the act of terrorists or anything....we're just cr*p"....no-one at this point had even suggested such a possibility, so that just fueled concern.

Anyway, that all blows over, as these things often do, and then I was driving back from a friend's house on sunday and heard on the news that Rome, the head of the catholic church, had suffered a major power cut on saturday. They lost power to the whole city all day?! Is it me, or is this getting weird now? When I got home I flicked on the news channels to hear more about it and discovered that there wasn't a single report of it? Very odd.

Anyway, I'm not trying to cite paranoia here, I just want to know what everybody else's thoughts are about this....is it a coincidence that 3 major cities have had serious power cuts in the space of 2 months? Is it a possibility they were the acts of terrorists, as direct strikes or even simply "testing the water"? Are they the result of a new technology/weapon failing or even succeeding? Do you think that there is the possibility there could be an enormous cover up here?

Think about it before you flame, we get power cuts in the UK all the time, but when was the last time you heard of three capital cities losing power in the space of 2 months...?!....and keep an eye on the news too, it will be very interesting to see if any other major power cuts happen in the next couple of months....maybe moscow, paris, tokyo, sydney?

Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:20 am by [steel]

you say in the uk we get power cuts all the time
i cant remember one in my area since about the 70s !
sorry to contradict but i honestly cant

Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:18 pm by richard_s

I'm in UK and we get frequent power cuts where I live. ( 1.5 hrs yesterday ). But as to conspiracy theories.. I for one don't subscribe. Everyday we use more and more electricity and it is in limited supply. Everytime a new power station is proposed it gets delayed or stopped because of objections. No one wants nuclear, renewable is off to a very slow start, the infra-structure is wearing out and very few people are doing anything to reduce their power consumption. What does this do.. it makes the power companies interconnect with each other to share generation capacity and when a fault happens in one area the inbuilt safety features shut vast areas down to protect the rest of the system. If you want less power cuts, use less power!

To my mind all that recent events show is that the system is near breaking point and the slightest thing causes a major event.

Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:27 pm by gromit

actually come to think of it, I suppose you're right, which only strengthens my point really....

Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:27 pm by Tawakalna

i thought when it first happened in the US it was more than just ageing power grids and overloads, then it happened here in London, then virtually the whole of Italy? bear in mind i was in Italy a few days before it happened and I know that the weather had broken therefore the excuse given, overloads due to the hotter summer and everybody using a/c , was a load of tosh.

Power grids and civil telecoms are much less secure from hacker attacks than military or government systems so they present a much more tempting target. Did you know that the entire UK BT telecomms system can be brought down instantly should the exchange at Oswestry be knocked out or go down? because it ALL routes through there. ok there are backups but it would take several hours to re-route all the traffic.

do you honestly think any govt. is going to admit that the national infrastructure is so fragile and so easily attacked? of course not. they won't even admit that there's a health problem when people are dying in their thousands because of a heatwave (like in France)

there are power cuts in the uk quite often but usually only local, like the substation being hit by lightning or the mains being severed by roadworks. no big ones since the 70s, except this recent one in London.

Alternatively it could be SkyNet disrupting global communications and power infrastructure in preparation for its attack,which is always a possibility. SkyNet is real!

Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:33 pm by gromit

my point exactly Taw...what government would admit that weakness? especially 2 governments that are in the public eye for attacking a country and a third which has strong religious ties....not a chance. but do they think we're that stupid not to start putting 2 and 2 together? one more major city and its a definite I would say...2 more, full house.

its nothing to do with the amount of power we use....unless someone organised for everybody on the eastern seaboard of the US to make coffee at exactly the same time....and then tea in london.....and then pizza in rome....hmmm...maybe it was an international catering conspiracy

Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:41 pm by kimk

maybe it was an international catering conspiracy

anyways.. its interesting.. but if one struck tokyo, they'll say an earthquake hit the plants. that'll be beliveable enuf, and in moscow they could say the plant froze over or sth.. tho not that belivbale.. but interesting concept.. but the first conclusion i jumped at was:

ALIENS!!

anyways.. i'd like power in m'sia intact.. don't like my power cut. but i'd say, i did experience an extremely quick power cut.. less than a milisecond, didn't even turn off my comp. but the room went dark when power went out, then back on in the space of less than a milisecond. my modem went out but didn't come back on. i think it was zapped. anyways, got it back up.

everyone get your water ready! (those who watched signs will know, i know it was crap.)

Tue Sep 30, 2003 1:12 pm by Tawakalna

Signs.. I mean those aliens were really stupid. they're allergic to water (they dies you can kill them with hosepipes, or was that triffids?) so they invade a planet that's 70% covered in water? and moreover they invade Wakefield? that really dry place in Yorkshire? and they've been here before? (Earth not Wakefield, no-one goes there twice)

so u can imagine alien leader talking to his underlings about this brilliant invasion, and someone says, what's all that blue stuff, not water is it? oh no no no not water it's errmmm blue soil, very loose, slops about a lot. wasn't earth all wet last time we went? no no its all dry now, no water at all anywhere.

Edited by - Tawakalna on 30-09-2003 16:04:29

Tue Sep 30, 2003 1:51 pm by RILMS

I was on my way to Toronto when the power failer happened. I was stuck in some back water town for 3 hours waiting for gas.

At one point, my friend and I were going from a place without power to a place that had power.

I jokingly said, "If one more thing gets plugged in, the whole grid is going down" as soon as I said that, the power went out in that section.

Life: No one gets out alive.

Tue Sep 30, 2003 3:40 pm by Warlord Bob

In the US/Canada it was some sort of thing where everything disconnected from everything else as a safty measure because of a surge caused by some generator in Canada... thats what I heard. I'm ready to chalk the whole thing up to co-incidence

"Like a mighty castle our friendship shall survive, though the very heavens rain, er, big rocks down apon it" - Civ III

Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:55 pm by freighter fighter

Hows this for conspiracy theory, these really happend to me:

im coming back from brixton on the tube going to victoria station, and the announcer says the line to charring cross is closed for essentail engineering works.( a train is on fire in charring cross station )

im in charing cross station last year, going up to oxford street to go to my work placement, and we are told that the bakerloo line is experiencing technical difficulties. ( a bomb alert has closed waterloo stations and the bakerloo line running through them )

"What? Another girl! Tell me my boy. *whispers* what have you been doing?" - Tobias

Tue Sep 30, 2003 6:07 pm by Tawakalna

cmon ff those are FEATURES of London Underground's service! it gives all those disgruntled passengers something to talk about! whenever I go down the smoke I get that kind of thing every time nearly. I usually say things like "but they must get the train moving, this vial of Ricin won't wait" Goes down a storm on trapped tube that does!

just as an aside, I was on the train that got stuck due to leaves on the line, and the following year another train I was waiting for at Stoke got cancelled due to the wrong kind of snow. Oddly enuff after that I gave up commuting by rail and got in the car. must just have been the wrong type of passenger..

Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:31 pm by gromit

you guys have been lucky obviously, I always seem to get stuck with the "honest" train driver...eg...

"sorry everybody, the train will have to stay here a while longer, some idiot threw himself in front of the train and his head is lodged in the front wheels" - last year

"please leave the exit as quickly as possible taking good care of each other on the way..........the front of the train is on fire.....no need for panic.....its only a small one" - 2 months ago

"end of the line. end of the line. I must apologise for the bumpy stop....its been a long day and I drifted off a little" - last month

inspiring stuff...reminds me why I don't commute to london every day!

but ANYWAY! back to topic (don't want this thread shut down too quickly) - I am quite honestly leaning towards the "government cover-up" angle....but I am intregued to know exactly what happened....I find it extremely hard to believe that the US, London and Rome (of which its now becoming apparent that it was actually a good portion of Italy rather than just the capital) could possibly have complete power failures in the space of 2 months leaving transport and media useless. The way I see it there could be a few reasons:

1. A terrorist "warm up" - lets test the water before we do something big sort of thing.
2. A terrorist "attack" - but the governments don't want panic
3. A mass scale robbery - "warm up" or otherwise
4. A weapon test of some kind
5. The governments individually testing themselves to see how the countries would cope (which is an interesting one)

or of course, all our favourites...

6. an "extra-terrestrial influenced series of events"

lol. that would be coolest.

maybe its just me trying to make something better (or worse) out of 3 morons who accidentally "pressed the wrong button". Any other theories? Wild or otherwise?

Tue Sep 30, 2003 8:17 pm by Tawakalna

nopers I reckon u r right grom.

or it could be Hugo Drax or even Zorin, anyone seen a blimp nearby any of these events?

Wed Oct 01, 2003 6:24 pm by Warlord Bob

lol Taw

It could like that movie "The Core" and this is a power grid destroying weapon

But it will go terribly wrong and we will have to use clean energy sources forever more! NOOOOOO!

I'm still an optimist, ready to chalk it all up to co-incidence

"Like a mighty castle our friendship shall survive, though the very heavens rain, er, big rocks down apon it" - Civ III

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