Our friends' son was told he had the virus and self quarantined for two weeks. He went back to the GP for the test result after two weeks waiting - turned out he had pneumonia; not the virus. Then he got sick again. He had contracted the real thing in the waiting room and is now locked down again. To hell with this thing.
A bummer, for sure - but why could he not have been told the result of the test by telephone, letter, or email? Why did he have to go in person to the GP, with all the risks that entailed?
Because they work by forcing the shutters on the live and neutral holes open by depressing the lever in the earth hole with one plastic pin so that the live and neutral can be blocked with the other plastic pins.
An enterprising child fiddling with one could in theory misposition one in such a way as to open the shutters without the device actually blocking access to the now open holes.
UK plug sockets are basically safe by design. You can't get to the live conductors without first pushing something with some force into the earth hole - such as a broken or misplaced socket protector. That's why the earth pin is longer than the other two, so that on insertion it does that before the lower two pins are inserted.
Add to that the fact that UK sockets are generally switched, so another action is needed before they are live.
It's astonishing, and sometimes shocking, on first encountering North American plugs that still frequently only have two pins, to see one hanging out of its socket with the pins bare and live, with no power switch either on the appliance or the socket. Unplugging will result in a flash and a pop. The design is such that they are often unplugged by yanking on the cable.
Looks like the medical equivalent of them coming with a European plug, and thankfully almost as easily fixed.
That's just plain stupid. Both that they're the wrong plug and the the UK has it's own special electric plugs and sockets.
Electrical plugins, there must be 7 or 8 different ones worldwide are another worthy rant.
In fairness the UK 3-pin plug is widely recognised as being one of the safest around.
There was a whole Economist article not long back about the UK plug being a sort of parable of how optimal design and innovation does not necessarily equal global market success.
Even, possibly, confiscating them *in China* before shipment to the US.
Given that T, Jared, and company seem to have a "MINE! MINE! IT'S ALL MINE!!!" attitude towards respirators and safety gear, perhaps they should all be shipped down to Mar-a-Lago in their sleep, where a surrounding, high wall has been erected. And where several years' worth of food and drink have been stocked. Then all staff will leave, and a secret gate will be closed, locked, and barred--from the outside.
And, of course, there will be a huge pile of thousands of rotted respirators for them to count, cling to, and play with.
Those are three-pronged outlets. This is a two-pronged outlet, which is all my apartment had until a couple of years ago. I had to use adapters for appliances with three-pronged plugs. A couple of years ago I asked the management company to put in some three-pronged outlets, and they did. But I have no GFCI outlets, not even in the bathroom and kitchen. Clearly I need to have a little talk with the management company!
Those are three-pronged outlets. This is a two-pronged outlet, which is all my apartment had until a couple of years ago. I had to use adapters for appliances with three-pronged plugs. A couple of years ago I asked the management company to put in some three-pronged outlets, and they did. But I have no GFCI outlets, not even in the bathroom and kitchen. Clearly I need to have a little talk with the management company!
I haven't seen plugs like that for years, maybe 40. I think they had to be upgraded to grounded three prong and polarised many years ago here. I wonder what sort of wiring serves them?
The adapters you showed pictures of, the tab is for grounding them to the screw, which goes into the metal box that houses the plug wiring and hopefully is grounded itself. IAMAE (I am not an electrician), but have done some minor wiring after anxious reading of electrical codes. Yes please talk to the management company and maybe check the electrical code in your area.
I haven't seen plugs like that for years, maybe 40. I think they had to be upgraded to grounded three prong and polarised many years ago here. I wonder what sort of wiring serves them?
The building was put up in 1922, and I've lived in the apartment since 1993. I know some re-wiring was done at some point between 1922 and 1993, because I have circuit breakers and not fuses, but I don't know if they would have replaced everything when they did that. I kind of doubt it, as two of the light switches are original - they look like this. One still works. One stopped working just before the plague hit, but it got stuck in the on position and controls a light that has its own on/off switch, so I'm not going to ask them to replace it just yet.
Those two-prong outlets and matching plugs are par for the course in St. Louis, or really anywhere in the US IMHO where the housing was built in the 70s or later. Which is a helluva lot of housing.
Well, as if these times we are living in weren't fucking interesting enough, what with all the job insecurity and homeschooling and shit, part of our switchboard blew today. The part that controls the water pump and the septic tank pump. So we now have no running water and no sewage management, and will require the services of both an electrician and a plumber, working in concert (which, social distancing, they're not supposed to do), in order to fix. Also the car has a flat tyre (first time that's happened in ten years, and it has to happen now), and base unit for the cordless homeline phones has given up and they've run flat. Fuckity fuckity fuck. At least the internet and the fridge are still working, so I can rant into the ether while drinking cold wine...
That sounds like a lot of issues. But a question arises: what kind of screwed up water and septic system relies on your household power supply?! All the ones here run off mains pressure (the pumping station for which has a generator) and gravity for the septic system. What the hell do you do if the power goes out for a few days in bad weather?
what kind of screwed up water and septic system relies on your household power supply?!
A rural one. We are on rainwater (50,000 litres of tank capacity) and a 4-chamber septic system which pumps from the 4th chamber over a 400m-line septic field (an area of ridiculously verdant pasture on which we may not plant any trees nor grow anything edible and need to mow pretty much continuously). Interestingly, in the nearly three years we've lived here, up until about now the real issue has been the chancey electricity supply. Any southerly storm (equivalent to your northerly storm, I guess), several trees go over, knocking out the lines, and we sit about with zero fucking things to do and zero fucking clue of when it's going to be fixed. I'll be pretty sick* of washing out of a jug in a couple of days time, no doubt, but I'd take internet and lighting over running water every day of the week and twice on a Sunday...
*spoiler: the circuit breaker flipped three times today before it finally started throwing out green flares and refusing to go back on, and I had foreseen shit coming and cleaned the bath and filled it with water.
We're (very) rural too, that's why I was puzzled. Here a household septic system is a big tank buried in the ground with an outlet pipe to siphon the liquid off the top into the soakaway. All gravity fed and almost maintenance-free (we recently had the one at the house we're renovating checked and serviced, it's decades old and made largely of concrete buried 6ft down and still works like a charm). Four chambers sounds like you've got a mechanical cow rather than a sewage system! Private water supplies are pretty rare here but they're almost always boreholes or wells. Being off mains water is even rarer than being off-grid for electricity.
Not sure what very rural means for others. Typically in southern Saskatchewan rural means you live on the "home quarter" of 160 acres with no one else for a 1 to 4 miles away. In the north we'd call it isolated where there are are signs on highways saying things like "no services for 120km" (100 miles) or its fly in only.
Septic fields like you describe are illegal generally here. It must be a tank. The liquid may be evaporated but the sludge will be pumped out. The reason has to do with surface water being generally pure enough to drink straight. In northern areas water and waste water management is a big deal.
Our cabin has a well beside a lake, electric pump. Septic is a tank. No well water of electric goes out so we have a generator to start up. The longest stretch with no power was 5 days. It's usually just a few hours..
Ground fault wired 2 pronged plugs are actually very safe. Ground fault means the socket goes dead on any short before a shock.
Only if the short is to ground.
Drop a steel rule or straight-edge down a wall and have it slide between the socket and a slightly-unplugged plug, and you'll have some entertainment. (Wasn't me. Did happen to a colleague. Didn't cause a fire, but might have.
Ground fault wired 2 pronged plugs are actually very safe. Ground fault means the socket goes dead on any short before a shock.
Only if the short is to ground.
Drop a steel rule or straight-edge down a wall and have it slide between the socket and a slightly-unplugged plug, and you'll have some entertainment. (Wasn't me. Did happen to a colleague. Didn't cause a fire, but might have.
That's not what "very safe" means.
On UK plugs the live and neutral pins are insulated for a cm or so to avoid precisely this kind of scenario.
Ground fault wired 2 pronged plugs are actually very safe. Ground fault means the socket goes dead on any short before a shock.
Only if the short is to ground.
Drop a steel rule or straight-edge down a wall and have it slide between the socket and a slightly-unplugged plug, and you'll have some entertainment. (Wasn't me. Did happen to a colleague. Didn't cause a fire, but might have.
That's not what "very safe" means.
On UK plugs the live and neutral pins are insulated for a cm or so to avoid precisely this kind of scenario.
And you'd struggle to drop something past the earth pin above them to get into this situation. And if you did, somehow manage it, the fuse in the plug would go in a fraction of a second.
Looks like the medical equivalent of them coming with a European plug, and thankfully almost as easily fixed.
That's just plain stupid. Both that they're the wrong plug and the the UK has it's own special electric plugs and sockets.
Electrical plugins, there must be 7 or 8 different ones worldwide are another worthy rant.
In fairness the UK 3-pin plug is widely recognised as being one of the safest around.
There was a whole Economist article not long back about the UK plug being a sort of parable of how optimal design and innovation does not necessarily equal global market success.
Of course this example is quite different from most consumer goods. Going to a new plug system would require either an enormous effort to retrofit millions of homes, or that new appliances, power tools, etc., be sold in both configurations pretty much indefinitely.
How is it the Confederate symbols and flag aren't seen by Americans with the same revulsion Germans have for the swastika, SS and related symbols? I thought Ohio wasn't a slavery state.
Of course this example is quite different from most consumer goods. Going to a new plug system would require either an enormous effort to retrofit millions of homes, or that new appliances, power tools, etc., be sold in both configurations pretty much indefinitely.
It's not a question of mass replacement but of a less-well-designed system conquering the market in the first place.
Of course this example is quite different from most consumer goods. Going to a new plug system would require either an enormous effort to retrofit millions of homes, or that new appliances, power tools, etc., be sold in both configurations pretty much indefinitely.
It's not a question of mass replacement but of a less-well-designed system conquering the market in the first place.
You assume there were two designs on the marketplace at the same time, one of them the British design, vying for customers before the standard was set. Do you have any evidence of this?
Comments
I just find this totally unbelievable! The UK government hasn’t exactly covered itself n glory, but wtf!
That's just plain stupid. Both that they're the wrong plug and the the UK has it's own special electric plugs and sockets.
Electrical plugins, there must be 7 or 8 different ones worldwide are another worthy rant.
In fairness the UK 3-pin plug is widely recognised as being one of the safest around.
YMMV.
Because they work by forcing the shutters on the live and neutral holes open by depressing the lever in the earth hole with one plastic pin so that the live and neutral can be blocked with the other plastic pins.
An enterprising child fiddling with one could in theory misposition one in such a way as to open the shutters without the device actually blocking access to the now open holes.
UK plug sockets are basically safe by design. You can't get to the live conductors without first pushing something with some force into the earth hole - such as a broken or misplaced socket protector. That's why the earth pin is longer than the other two, so that on insertion it does that before the lower two pins are inserted.
It's astonishing, and sometimes shocking, on first encountering North American plugs that still frequently only have two pins, to see one hanging out of its socket with the pins bare and live, with no power switch either on the appliance or the socket. Unplugging will result in a flash and a pop. The design is such that they are often unplugged by yanking on the cable.
If they are GF wired!
More on this:
"Illinois' governor organized secret flights to bring masks and gloves from China out of fear Trump would seize them" (Business Insider via Yahoo).
Even, possibly, confiscating them *in China* before shipment to the US.
Given that T, Jared, and company seem to have a "MINE! MINE! IT'S ALL MINE!!!" attitude towards respirators and safety gear, perhaps they should all be shipped down to Mar-a-Lago in their sleep, where a surrounding, high wall has been erected. And where several years' worth of food and drink have been stocked. Then all staff will leave, and a secret gate will be closed, locked, and barred--from the outside.
And, of course, there will be a huge pile of thousands of rotted respirators for them to count, cling to, and play with.
I didn't know two-prong plugs could be ground fault wired. Maybe they're not in the US?
I haven't seen plugs like that for years, maybe 40. I think they had to be upgraded to grounded three prong and polarised many years ago here. I wonder what sort of wiring serves them?
The adapters you showed pictures of, the tab is for grounding them to the screw, which goes into the metal box that houses the plug wiring and hopefully is grounded itself. IAMAE (I am not an electrician), but have done some minor wiring after anxious reading of electrical codes. Yes please talk to the management company and maybe check the electrical code in your area.
The building was put up in 1922, and I've lived in the apartment since 1993. I know some re-wiring was done at some point between 1922 and 1993, because I have circuit breakers and not fuses, but I don't know if they would have replaced everything when they did that. I kind of doubt it, as two of the light switches are original - they look like this. One still works. One stopped working just before the plague hit, but it got stuck in the on position and controls a light that has its own on/off switch, so I'm not going to ask them to replace it just yet.
*spoiler: the circuit breaker flipped three times today before it finally started throwing out green flares and refusing to go back on, and I had foreseen shit coming and cleaned the bath and filled it with water.
Septic fields like you describe are illegal generally here. It must be a tank. The liquid may be evaporated but the sludge will be pumped out. The reason has to do with surface water being generally pure enough to drink straight. In northern areas water and waste water management is a big deal.
Our cabin has a well beside a lake, electric pump. Septic is a tank. No well water of electric goes out so we have a generator to start up. The longest stretch with no power was 5 days. It's usually just a few hours..
Only if the short is to ground.
Drop a steel rule or straight-edge down a wall and have it slide between the socket and a slightly-unplugged plug, and you'll have some entertainment. (Wasn't me. Did happen to a colleague. Didn't cause a fire, but might have.
That's not what "very safe" means.
On UK plugs the live and neutral pins are insulated for a cm or so to avoid precisely this kind of scenario.
And you'd struggle to drop something past the earth pin above them to get into this situation. And if you did, somehow manage it, the fuse in the plug would go in a fraction of a second.
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/04/man-who-called-ohios-lockdown-order
Indeed. I was contemplating coming here to make a similar comment.
I wonder how long it'll be before he's lauded as some kind of martyr for the Make America Great Again cause?
Indeed. One wonders how many others may have been infected by this guy's insistence on being 'free'.
Of course this example is quite different from most consumer goods. Going to a new plug system would require either an enormous effort to retrofit millions of homes, or that new appliances, power tools, etc., be sold in both configurations pretty much indefinitely.
You assume there were two designs on the marketplace at the same time, one of them the British design, vying for customers before the standard was set. Do you have any evidence of this?