Any time you go to take something you don't want to fix and push it off as "Somebody Else's Problem", remember that there are approximately 300 million people in the United States alone, and that to more than 299 million of them, YOU are "Somebody Else".
It takes all kinds. But hopefully not too many like this one.
(Pointer credit to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fruitylips, via another medium.)
But interesting reading.
SAN FRANCISCO--The United States government has been unable to fix the country's energy problems, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said, but the Internet giant on Wednesday proposed its own 22-year solution.
"We have seen a total and complete failure of leadership in the political parties of the United States," Schmidt said in a speech at the Commonwealth Club here. "We've been working on a plan to help solve this problem."
Earlier in the day, Google unveiled that plan, which doesn't lack for chutzpah: Clean Energy 2030 aims to wean the United States from its dependence on fossil fuels within 22 years.
Schmidt said the plan requires $4.5 trillion in spending to pull it off, but it'll pay for itself with $5.5 trillion in savings. "With this plan, it's cheaper to fix global warming than it is to ignore it," Schmidt said.
Reading this, I'm half wondering when Google will tender a bid to operate the US Government...
I replaced a pair of "three-way" switches today. (Why the US calls them three-way when they're two-way, I don't know.) I wanted to replace a three-way dimmer at the top of the stairs with a regular three-way switch because the track light it controls now has all CFLs in it, which are non-dimmable and may be damaged by dimming them. Since people walk past it going up and down the stairs, I wanted a flat decor-type switch that nobody would scrape their shoulder on, and it then made sense to replace the other of the pair (at the bottom of the stair) to match.
Now, the switches contain a handy little wiring diagram inside the package. The wiring diagram has pretty accurate representations of the switches, with the terminals all to proper scale and in the right places, and even the ears on the ground tag are visible. Makes it real straightforward, you just wire everything in accordance with the diagram, right?
...Wrong. Because if you can squint hard enough to read the little tiny, grey, sideways fine print next to the diagram, you will discover that even though the switch as represented in the diagram looks exactly like the physical switch, the arrangement of the terminals on the diagram does not match the contacts on the switch.
In other words, if you carefully and conscientiously wire the circuit exactly as shown in the wiring diagram, YOU WILL WIRE IT WRONG.
I want to know whose stupid idea it was to make a precise, accurate-looking diagram that does not reflect reality. To all practical purposes, the wiring diagram is booby-trapped. Fortunately, me being a careful sort when it comes to electrical wiring, the only consequence was several minutes of "WTF?" until I noticed — and managed to read — the fine print.
