Comments on: Grande mobilisation de citoyen(ne)s

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 09:36:16 +0000

Acedia. How elegant. I’m feeling a bit acedic myself this morning and may pop out for another coffee.

By: Tom T.

Tom T. — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:40:22 +0000

Note that anyone who participates must take care not to simply add an additional five minutes of activity to the end of their day, since that thoroughly defeats the purpose of the power-out. I.e., if you normally go to bed at 11, but have to stay up (with the lights on) until 11:05 brushing your teeth and putting out the cat because you turned out the lights for five minutes at 7:55, you’re not saving any electricity.

By: Bill Gardner

Bill Gardner — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:19:23 +0000

“Well, how do you explain your resistence to becoming another face in a mass movement/action?”

Me? Acedia.

However, I think the Catholic theory is that pride is the worst vice and the cause of the others. So maybe my sloth just hides a view that I am too important to spend my time in a mass demonstration.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:04:26 +0000

4 letters; D.E.L.L.

My next one’s going to be a Mac.

By: retyrt

retyrt — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:18:33 +0000

Eleven minutes to boot???

By: Michael H.

Michael H. — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:05:59 +0000

Electricity grid maintainers already plan for large consumption spikes of e.g. people making tea at the end of popular TV programmes. If you got a signifigant number of people in on this protest you might show up as a dip in consumption.

The terrible irony is that in doing so you wouldn’t necessarily save any carbon emissions: fluctuations are dealt with by routing steam past the generators in coal and nuclear power stations.

What Pete is referring to is called “regulation” in the power industry – not to confused with government regulation. Planned regulation only can cover a spike of about 1% of total load so if a lot of people did really shut of their lights simulateously, the power company might have a problem responding in time (I really doubt that is a serious concern).

Pete above is incorrect about the way regulation is performed : coal and nuclear units never provide regulation. Nuclear is a pure “must run” 24 hour a day form of power and most coal units are must run and the rest are too slow to respond to provide regulation. Much of it is provided by hydro – the perfect regulation source. But gas turbines also provide regulation and they are really energy inefficient. But, in any case, when load goes down, the unit idles and burns less fuel, so turning out the lights does, indeed, save energy even if it was unexpected – but more energy would be saved if the shutdown was expected.

By: Michael H.

Michael H. — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:49:57 +0000

Some thoughts:
1) Symbolic acts of self-sacrifice in order to promote a cause is silly – even childish. Why be the schmuck who sits in the dark when it won’t do you or anyone else any good.
2) Maybe symbolic acts do, in fact, do some good. But it is only your word that you are in with the program – whether you really go along or just pretend. Maybe what is important is just to say you did it and not whether you really did it.
3) Read 1) after reading 2).

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:30:12 +0000

Bill, why pride? Because it’s one of the seven deadlies and I generally ascribe my less attractive qualities to one kind of sin or another. Admittedly, this may seem loose.

Well, how do you explain your resistence to becoming another face in a mass movement/action?

By: mpowell

mpowell — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:21:06 +0000

I guess you’re not supposed to be at work when you do this. Not much point if that’s just going to mean 5 more minutes in the office.

By: Bill Gardner

Bill Gardner — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:24:27 +0000

“And no, I will not tell them I’m sitting in the dark. I have some pride.”

“Perhaps I’m too prideful to participate wholeheartedly in making up the numbers.”

I’m familiar with this feeling of resistance, but I wouldn’t have related it to pride. Why does it involve pride for you?

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:59:58 +0000

Electricity grid maintainers already plan for large consumption spikes of e.g. people making tea at the end of popular TV programmes. If you got a signifigant number of people in on this protest you might show up as a dip in consumption.

The terrible irony is that in doing so you wouldn’t necessarily save any carbon emissions: fluctuations are dealt with by routing steam past the generators in coal and nuclear power stations.

By: abb1

abb1 — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:05:56 +0000

I’m telling you: it’s hard to find a good Shabbat-goy these days.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:26:47 +0000

That’s funny – I used to live near there, too, but in a part of Clapton that newspapers started referring to as Murder Mile (unfortunately that was after I’d moved in). It was bizaare to walk towards Stamford Hill and in the space of a few hundred yards see passersby change from crack dealers and boob tubes to Hasidic ladies in ankle length navy wool dresses.

It took 4 weeks and 3 muggings for my flatmate and I to up sticks and move to Walthamstow. I wished afterwards we’d just gone as far as Stamford Hill in the first place!

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:43:48 +0000

I used to live in Stamford Hill where there’s a large Hasidic community. One one occasion a guy summoned me (a passer-by) in to his house to turn his boiler off for him, as he’d forgotten to do so before the deadline. I’m pretty sure that orthodox Jews can just leave everything on or off (or even use pre-set timers or non-Jewish helpers) but that they mustn’t operate the switches since doing so would count as kindling or extinguishing a fire.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:26:13 +0000

On reflection, there is probably some good guidance available from Jews who don’t use electricity all day Friday, every week.