Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blackout

Uninterruptable Wifi Supply

mccarty.tim — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:41:08 -0800

What's a good, small and basic UPS for just backing up up my T-mobile VOIP/wifi router device and possibly a cable modem? My family recently decided to switch from Comcast Digital Voice and AT&T cell phones to T-mobile's @home service. Our home gets almost no cell phone reception, so it's nice that the router (a Linksys WRTU54G) allows us to make VOIP calls over both the wired phones and our cell phones. However, this means that our calling is basically coming down to just one electronic box, with only a sketchy 1-bar cellular connection in the event we lose power. The max DC draw of the antenna is 1.5 A at 12 volts, but it's probably much less in practice. I don't have anything to measure it, though.

Realizing this, I think it's important we get a UPS that can keep our router online for 6 hours to a day. Our modem comes with its own 12 hour battery, because it used to be the VOIP hardware for our Comcast VOIP service, so I could keep it off of the UPS to save power, although Comcast is liable to take it back. In my dream product, this UPS could also charge from a car's 12V socket in the event of a very long power outage, but we've never had a long one over a few minutes in our relatively new (~20 years old) NJ suburb.

I really don't want or need the UPS to keep our desktop computer up and running. I have a laptop, and my mom and sister know to save as they go along when working on a desktop. What I really need is something inexpensive and reliable so that we can still call 911 in the event of a power outage. Preferably, the solution doesn't end up being something too bulky or hacky (ie "Just wire up some car batteries in parallel!").

Alcohol Ethicists, do they exist?

vegetableagony — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:50:57 -0800

What are some definitive scholarly sources on the ethics of alcohol? I have been wondering over the past few weeks about what scholarly work has been done on the topic of the ethics/morality of inebriation and other altered states of consciousness.

e.g.
Do actions carry different moral weights depending on whether or not the were done under the influence of alcohol?

In what ethical framework should we view actions carried out while someone has (intentionally) drunk enough to not remember their actions?

How should we analyze the initial choice to drink to excess?

(I am not trying to analyze any one situation in particular; these are just a spattering of questions on the tropic I had wondered about.)

I am not interested in alarmist articles with little backing evidence about how evil alcohol is. I am more looking for scholarly philosophical analysis (i.e. more phd's and fewer pop ethicists). Still would be interested if the analysis were not specific to alcohol, but instead analyzed states of (voluntarily-induced) altered consciousness.

I realize that this is a topic that many people feel strongly about, but I am less interested in peoples' personal opinions, than in influential published articles/books.

Why do I blackout so often?

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:27:41 -0800

Why do I blackout so often? I blackout quite often. Its always when I get up after sitting down for a while. This is so even after I eat, so it isn't because I have nothing in my tummy. I usually blackout for 3-8 seconds and am a little dizzy for this time. I can't see anything and I usually hold onto a wall till it passes away. Once I tried walking during the blackout and I bumped into things and fell down some steps.

I'm male, in my mid twenties, and this has happened to me all my life. I'm skinny, my BMI is 17.2. My appetite is enormous, I eat a lot, and I have stayed this skinny since puberty. I smoke. I don't do drugs, I drink socially. I dont exercise much though.

I blackout maybe twice a day? Yeah.
There is no residual pain or any kind, so I blackout, hold onto the wall and move on. These blackouts dont happen when I drink: I mean alcohol is not the cause, of this I am sure, since I started blacking out years before I started drinking.

What is it? I something wrong with me, can I fix it somehow? Is it harmless? Do you people have this too? Does this happen to you people whose BMI is higher? With obese people also? Does it have to do with my metabolism?

Thanks!

Major news outlets secret agreements?

MrBCID — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:29:40 -0800

Major news outlets agreed to keep Prince Harry's deployment to Afghanistan secret for security reasons; Dick Cheney's hunting accident was kept from the media for at least a day... What are other examples of these government & media secret/blackout practices?

Can I count on my GPS during an extended blackout?

CarlRossi — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:20:05 -0800

Say there's another huge blackout like the Northeast had a few years ago, and let's say it lasts two months... Will a GPS unit in my dashboard and powered by my car still be able to connect to the satellites it needs to, to direct me on my way?

What happened to me?

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:41:01 -0800

MedicalFilter: What the hell happened to me? For starters, I know you are not my doctor, and I am planning to see a doctor.

Last night, I arrived home about 30 minutes after eating dinner. As I got out of the car, I got very very hot, began sweating, and my head felt very heavy. I began to salivate to the point where it was coming out of my mouth.

I took a few steps toward the stairs, and realized I couldn't walk straight and was stumbling. I tried to call for help but just ended up making noises. I reached for the banister but I think my depth perception was off, and ended up missing it and falling down, and then having to crawl up the stairs to my door. I got the door open, and reached for the phone, but then everything went black.

I woke up at about two am, just inside the house with the front door open. I had lost a shoe, cut my knees very badly, and drooled everywhere. But I felt fine. I'd stopped salivating so much, my head felt fine, and I had regained my ability to speak. I stood up, brushed off, closed the door, took a shower and went back to sleep in my own bed.

I don't have health care, so I have to plan my doctor trips very carefully, but I need some ideas as to what may have happened so that I can tell the doctor and avoid several trips and several thousand dollars in bills I can't afford.

I'm female, caucasian, 24. I had done no drinking or cigarette smoking in the past day, and no illegal drugs in years. My dinner consisted of chicken breast and asparagus and I have no food allergies or any pre-existing diagnosed conditions. I'm afraid to drive at this point because I'm worried it will happen again. Any followup questions, please email me at wtfhappenedtome@gmail.com

I (don't) have the power!

designbot — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:12:11 -0800

2 outlets & a ceiling light stopped working at the same time. None of the circuit breakers were flipped. What would cause this, and how can I troubleshoot it? I left the house in the morning, and everything was working fine. When I came back a couple of hours later, two of the outlets (well, four outlets in two wallplates) weren't working, and I couldn't turn on the track lighting on my ceiling, which is controlled by a wall switch.

The other outlets in the room work fine. It seems like a circuit was blown or something, but none of the circuit breakers were flipped. I tried flipping them all off and on again for good measure, but it had no effect.

Where else can I look to track this down without involving an expensive electrician? I have some basic equipment, like an LED tester (which confirms there's no power). Changing the lightbulbs didn't help.

I blacked out on a roller coaster last week. What should I do?

D Wiz — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:13:32 -0800

I blacked out on a roller coaster last week. What should I do? I'm a roller coaster enthusiast and one of my most favorite activities is going to amusement parks. I went to one last week and on two of the rides I blacked out. I will give you as much detail as I can. I went on 15-20 rides in the day and this only happened twice so it is not caused by riding on roller coasters alone. After it happened the first time, I went on a couple more roller coasters and it didn't happen again until about 3 or 4 rides later. The two rides that it happened on were fairly bumpy so it is possible I hit my head on the back of the seat but I don't actually remember that happening. Both rides were pretty rattley though so I was being shook up most of the time. The first time this happened, the sun was setting and so the sun was in my eyes. The second time it happened, it was night already but there were lights on the ride, maybe even blinking/flashing lights although I can't remember. Just to clarify, I don't know if what happened is really considered blacking out. It really seemed that I was seeing white, not black. All I know is that I couldn't see anything except for white for a couple of seconds. Then I was able to see again. I have not had any problems since these incidents. I am able to drive a car and function normally. The only time this happened was on those 2 (out of 20) roller coasters. One of the roller coasters I went on twice but it only happened the second time (at night). The only other thing I can think of that may impact this is I just had a cold so maybe stuff in my inner ear is out of whack? Sorry for making the description so long but I wanted to throw in any details that may have anything to do with the white outs.

Something similar happened to me a year ago when I was on a roller coaster. When I went to my doctor for a physical, I told him about it and he had my head MRIed. They told me there is nothing wrong with me (based on the MRIs). I am in my mid twenties and I am in good health (other than this).

My question is: Does anyone know what this is based on the description? If not, what type of doctor would I go to to get this checked out? (Or at the very least can someone direct me to a reliable medical forum where I can repost this question?)

How many blackouts have occurred in the U.S. over the last decade or two?

speedoavenger — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:50:19 -0800

How many blackouts have occurred in different regions of the U.S. over the last decade or two? How many houses were affected? You get bonus points if you can find information about what caused the blackouts. My team and I are creating a mock business plan for a college class. We are trying to find a target market for standby electric generators. Our hypothesis is that people affected most often by blackouts would be most likely to buy a standby generator.

Thank you for you help!

You don't just pass out for no reason!

denimflavored — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:28:03 -0800

The other night my brother suddenly passed out for a split second while we were in the car. It's very strange, I'm pretty worried about him, and of course there's Here's the full story: We were driving home from a dinner/movie night, my brother was sitting in the middle of the back seat next to his girlfriend and our cousin. We were discussing wisdom tooth removal experiences. All of a sudden, my brother says "I don't feel good". I look at him in the rearview mirror (thinking he's about to puke) and see his head roll back and hear him kind of gurgling (not quite choking on his saliva). I asked if he was okay, his girlfriend tells me he's just playing. Then he says "Don't touch me", followed a few seconds later by "What just happened?". We finally figured out that he had passed out for a second or two and took a few more seconds to get his bearings (hence the "Don't touch me"). He was fine for the rest of the ride home.
So my question is: what could have caused this? To answer some questions ahead of time, he had eaten a full meal before the move, we had all been sitting in the car for about 15 minutes so there was no reason for a sudden change in blood pressure, he has no history of this happening before (although he passed out once watching my grandpa have fluid drained from his knee). He said he hadn't had any recent head injuries, and I checked his pupils when we got home (equal and properly dilated). As a side note, I don't live with him, so for all I know this could have happened before (though he claims it doesn't). He is a healthy 19 year old who doesn't use drugs or drink. I just don't understand it.
I know you are not doctors, but if anyone has any ideas, clues or experiences, I'd apprecate it. I'm worried about the kid.

Blinky the Laptop

TheGoldenOne — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 07:47:29 -0800

Laptop screen blackout issues: Sometimes my laptop screen will flicker black. Sometimes it will stay blacked out until I play with the angle of the screen, then it flickers a little more and eventually goes back to normal. What's going on here? Bad connection? Do I need to send it back from whence it came? If so, how do I back up everything?

-It's a new laptop. I got it in December. I've been gentle.

Help identify a very strange truck seen in Queens, NY.

Skorgu — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:13:29 -0800

Help identify a very strange truck seen in Queens, NY. Scanners, cameras and GPS Oh My! I hacked up a SketchUp model, see it here. It should be obvious at this point that I'm not a 3D modeler by trade :) The truck isn't mine, the big ugly white primitives, however, are.

The truck was a heavy-duty american (GMC or Dodge) pickup truck, painted white parked on the side of the road, off of Queens Blvd. The truck had fleet markings on the front right wheel well behind the wheel and was in general immaculate. Inside the cab was a laptop computer on a vehicle mount and a very worn 5 borough road atlas. The white slab on top of the cab represents an amber traffic-diverting signal. There were two rear-facing floodlights but my 3D modeling motivation expired before I got around to them.

The antanna-looking thing on the tailgate looked a lot like a GPS antenna. The two boxes facing out sidways were heavy-duty external camera housings, complete with little wipers.

The funky box thing hanging off the back doesn't do justice to the real box thing which was streamlined and made of smooth, shiny white plastic. The only identifying marks on it was the brand name Sarnoff and a model number something like D??-5???

First I thought it was an Amazon A9-esque storefront mapper, but that didn't explain the strange projection hanging off the back. I googled Sarnoff and they seem to be a GE-style company in that they make everything from cameras to bio-warfare detectors.

One of the first google hits on their name involved them (somehow) helping ConEd (electric company for NYC) synchronize two power plants using gps. Doesn't make sense to me either, but there you go, and there were blackouts just coming to a close around the time I saw it.

Does anyone know what on earth this thing is/does? The curiosity is killing me.

Why do I black out so easily?

Sticherbeast — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 08:34:39 -0800

I black out easily after drinking, and this hasn't always been the case. I'm a short, slender, fairly healthy-eating, coffee-drinking 23-year-old male who blacks out after 3 or 4 beers. I don't drink often - a little over once a week? - but when I do, I wind up supposedly not appearing drunk at all to outside observers, thence to simply forget the night entirely the next day.

This hasn't always been the case. Back in college, I drank what I considered normally - never to excess, really - without any problems, but lately, this has been a thing.

Also, and I don't know if this is relevant, if I have too much sugar my face goes hot and I get very easily tired - something I notice especially since I almost never consume sweets or sugared soda.

Is there anything to this? Should I be worried about anything, or is this just how my body's grown up?

NYC blackout photosearch

biffa — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:47:44 -0800

Photosearch: I'm looking for a photo from the 2003 NY blackout. It's of a single building that still had light due to having a fuel cell. It may be the Central Park police station (but maybe not) and it may have appeared in the NYT.

Blue street lamps during blackout

Rash — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:26:37 -0800

WWII London Blackout question -- blue streetlights? In books by for example Graham Greene and Alan Furst, I come across the occasional reference to blue streetlamps, as a characteristic of the city under black-out rules. London mostly, but also Paris, probably German cities too. Was this for real? How was it done? Blue glass lenses, maybe just blue paint? And once blued, how effective? Can't imagine a blue streetlight offering much useful illumination.

The only light fixture I've actually seen modified for wartime blackout use was automobile headlights, augmented with a solid metal cover with a little rectangular cut-out slot in the middle -- I think I saw this in "Danger UXB."

How to assign a value to stock photos?

camworld — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:46:36 -0800

I just received an email from someone at an energy management company who is preparing a document for the U.S. Department of Energy. They found three of my photos from the NYC August 2003 blackout on the web and are offering to purchase the rights for using them in this report. I can provide high-resolution photos to them, but have no idea how to estimate how much to charge them per photo. As an amateur photographer, how do you assign values to your photos for re-use?