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From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Five SFF Books Featuring Frigid, Icy Worlds
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2024 17:57:49 -0400
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Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 7/17/2024 3:05 PM, William Hyde wrote:
>> Paul S Person wrote:
>>> On Tue, 16 Jul 2024 19:47:12 -0600, John Savard
>>> <quadibloc@servername.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:15:08 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
>>>> Nicoll) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Five SFF Books Featuring Frigid, Icy Worlds
>>>>>
>>>>> Celebrate the coldest summer of the rest of your life with some
>>>>> frosty SF and fantasy novels!
>>>>>
>>>>> https://reactormag.com/five-sff-books-featuring-frigid-icy-worlds/
>>>>
>>>> I could comment that your posting is itself a dystopian SF story,
>>>> about a world where giant oil companies have managed to control the
>>>> political system and hypnotize the populace so as to prevent any
>>>> effective response to global warming...
>>>>
>>>> if it weren't for the fact that it seems like calling that scenario
>>>> "fiction" has already proven to be over-optimistic.
>>>
>>> One of the two theories I have seen on why the Texas electrical system
>>> died again (if that actually happened;
>>
>>
>> According to news stories I have seen, some parts of Texas are not 
>> scheduled to regain power until July 19.
>>
>> When I lived in College Station, TX, I experienced more power outages 
>> per unit time than I have anywhere else (the situation here is 
>> deteriorating, though) but it was never gone for more than a few hours.
>>
>> William Hyde
> 
> Out of the 2.3 million electric meters that were down in the Houston 
> area (3 million meters total), only 40,000 remain disconnected as of 
> today.  That is awesome compared to Hurricane Ike which had major areas 
> without power for up to six weeks.

That is awesome compared to Ike.

It is also, however, lousy for any state, and especially for a wealthy 
state just crammed with talented engineers.

When I left Texas the Brazos county engineer was on the point of being 
turfed out of his job for being not conservative enough.  It seems a 
strange criterion to use.


At the same time people here should have been turfed out for being 
neither competent nor sober.  A strange lack of criterion to use, but 
heck, only seven people died.


> https://www.chron.com/news/article/houston-power-outages-beryl-19579186.php

Ah the Chronicle.  I used to devour that paper.  Couldn't figure out at 
first why they payed so much attention to the Lt gov.


> 
> Those electric meters are polled every five minutes, they know which 
> meters are down.
> 
> My family and I were on our whole house generator from Monday at 5 am to 
> Wednesday at 4 pm.  If constant electricity is important to you then you 
> need to get an automatic whole house generator.  It is not unusual for 
> us to get a monthly power outage of more than a minute, the generator 
> starts and is making power within ten seconds.

My local infrastructure is close to the worst in the province.  I lose 
power about three times a year, but the nearest main arteries (200 feet 
away) never do.


> 
> Putting stuff underground does not work well on the Gulf Coast due to 
> the high water table.  Plus, nobody around here is willing to pay the 
> 10X cost of underground distribution lines and transmission lines.

It doesn't work well here either, I am told.  And people here are no 
more eager to pay extra now that electrical transmission is in private 
hands.

William Hyde