«Electrified Tree»

Tree meets high voltage lines. This was in Bellingham, Washington on October 3rd, 2009.

ORIGINAL! Bellingham Carolina & Grant St Tree Fire Explosion 10.03.09

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«Uninterruptible Power Interrupted»

My UPS failed. It wasn't even during a power outage. At least my computer wasn't on at the time.

Basically, the thing thinks it's in constant overload, even though there's nothing plugged into it. It wasn't an internal short in the battery, I tried a different battery I know to be good. My dad and I tore it apart, and the best we can figure is a relay failed.

So, I have to order a new one. I'll order an identical unit. It was an APC Back-UPS RS 1500. Good unit, we have 2 others in the household (along with the extra battery packs for them).

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«Then Who Was Phone?»

Somehow, that explains everything.

Click image to view full.

Ugh, man this sucks.

My power is out. I don't have any way to get on the internet to check /b/ or anything, it sucks.

What should I do, you guys?

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THEN WHO WAS PHONE??

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wat

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how are you on /b/ then?

- Anonymous

/b/, it's like an alternate reality where the laws of logic have no place.

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«Shopping Carts With a Vengeance»

Last night we had a bit of a wind storm. Maybe 60 mph? Definitely not as strong as I've seen before. They were calling for 70 but I think they lowered it a bit. Heavy rain came with the storm, as always. Wind driven rain droplets sting your face, that sort of thing. Of course, I just had to go to the windiest place I could think of. It's down on the waterfront in town, on the water side of our mall by the Safeway store. I tell you what, that would be the perfect place for wind turbines. It seems like it's always windy there.

I was standing down there just at the edge of the building so I was shielded from the wind and rain. I was watching the waves, garbage flying around, and the shopping carts blow around in the parking lot (and crashing into parked cars). I even saw one chasing a car. The cart was gaining on it, but the car turned before the cart hit it. Then the shopping cart slammed into a curb and fell over.

There was one power outage caused by a falling tree, but didn't affect the part of town I was in. I'm told it fell across the road near Ward Cove and there was single lane traffic while they cleaned it up.

Got to love fall weather in Ketchikan.

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«Threesome Taken Seriously»

The British have really been screwing around with the human development process. First they create sperm from a female, making men obsolete. Now they've combined the genes of 3 people into a single embryo. Perhaps they've taken the term "threesome" a little too seriously...

I think it's a great thing what they're doing. Something needs to keep genetic diseases out of the human gene pool. With medical advances we've nearly brought natural selection to a halt. And with all the people in the US that think research on human embryos is somehow immoral, there's not going to be any great discoveries in the US.

I have always fully supported fields of research such as stem cell research and mapping human DNA. Humans are starting to reach the point that they can take their destiny onto their own hands, able to improve upon themselves. If the random process of evolution has managed to create something as wondrous as the human race, just imagine what's possible if there's some intelligence behind it.¹ Maybe they'll figure out how to unlock some of the brain we don't even use. Or improve the immune system so we never get sick or have cancer. Or improve the efficiency of our many internal systems. The possibilities are endless.

Oh, and thanks to my APC 1500VA backup system, I'm writing this article during a power outage.

^1: I'm obviously an atheist. Humans are not perfect, and are not a creation of a perfect God. Rather, God is a creation of humans. Visit God is Imaginary if you still have doubts. And no, I don't want to start a big religious debate in the comments.

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