OT: "Thousand Watt Shock"

The local paper once had an ad for an ozone generator touting all the healt h "benefits". I wrote a letter to the editor about how harmful ozone gener ators can be. The vendor replied with a bunch of pseudo-science which I wa nted to address. The paper said they didn't want to encourage back and for th debates so would not publish a reply letter. :(

Cheers

One of my favorite popular-press engineering units is kW/h, which is the rate of change of power. Utilities apparently bill people for this.

I don't think it is literally kW/h. I think it is just delta kW, also called demand charges. This is why a bank of motors are not started all at once.

I suspect that's more to do with inductive reactance and the stinginess of companies not wanting to shell out for banks of large capacitors.

It has to do with people with journalism degrees who don't understand engineering units.

You know, the people who define "million" and "billion" as synonyms.

The power company doesn't charge any different for motors or lightbulbs. They do charge extra to commercial customers based on peak load vs. average. The run up is quite steep.

the unit they usually mean is kWh not kW/h

Tell them there's no "Daylight Savings Time" either, you can't put daylight into the Daylight Savings and Loan banking system

and that classic Rush song is called "The Spirit of Radio" not "The Spirit of the Radio" it's not about a ghost that lives inside a radio.

Neat idea, so long as it's current limit doesn't go wrong... I often thought of something similar using capacitive touch chips, using the car chasis as one plate and sounding an alarm ... but never pursued it.

I've since read other reports that state he cannibalised a cheap Chinese fly swatter. *If* true, it kind of puts his efforts in a different perspective.

Way back in the dim and distant past I did actually do a similar thing with the first car I ever owned. But I was 17 at the time and this was pre-health & safety days, so I just hooked the bodywork up to a live wire from the 240V mains! Around the same time, one of the local coppers turned up to take a statement from me about the thefts that had prompted my ingenious solution. I showed him what I'd done and he told me he thought it was a great idea! Those were the days (late 60s) when coppers could use common sense and personal discretion, though. If I did that today I'd probably be arrested and prosecuted. :(

One last thing - I used to have terrible problems with the neighbourhood cats pissing on the car's wheels, but after I rigged up that wire I never even so much as saw them ever again.

Even in the 60s, if you set such a clearly dangerous trap and killed someon e, it would be at least manslaughter if not second degree murder since you were likely committing a felony by setting the trap in the first place. Ev en then the courts had common sense about such idiotic ideas.

Sometimes CD and his stories make me think of Walter Mitty.

Rick C wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

You are not permitted in most states AFAIK to place 'booby traps' on any of your doors or windows on your house or your car.

The reason is that a first responder would be getting hurt trying to put out a fire by entering your burning house through a booby trapped window.

When I worked in arcade gaming, the guys doing the collecting would have 2 or 3 thousand dollars in their trunk safe, but I could not set HV shock traps on them. In fact, the cops said they cannot even charge a robber until he actually places cash booty in hand.

I can't believe that I cannot do a number on a guy standing at my trunk with a wonder bar in his hand.

Where is my home enhanced taser when I need it?

Woah! Stop right there. I was living in the UK at the time and you don't commit a "felony" in the UK then or now. You cannot take US laws, procedures and attitudes and just assume the same kind of system applies in all other countries!

As if that's the only reason.....

Probably not for actual theft, but there certainly are other charges that could apply, like attempted burglary, if you were caught trying to break into the safe in the trunk of a car you don't own. But the cops would typically prefer to let them get further, so the case is stronger and the charges more serious.

Just what we need, an angry hot head who's always wrong, administering street justice.

I didn't start living the UK until the 1970s, and I recall a couple of people going to prison for catching potential burglars in dangerous traps.

It might not have been called a felony, but the legal system didn't tolerate it.

Is there any nit you won't pick? So to be equally pedantic...

"The term felony originated from English common law (from the French mediev

cation of a convicted person's land and goods, to which additional punishme nts including capital punishment could be added.[1] Other crimes were calle d misdemeanors. A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriou sness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious.[2] A felon is a p erson who has committed a felony. Following conviction of a felony in a cou rt of law, a person may be described as a convicted felon."

I have no idea how this detail relates to the discussion at hand.

Whoey Louie wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

When retards like you spout retarded cracks like this, it calls for you to eat an 0.80" extreme overbore dinner.

That would truly be your basic, simple justice. Run to google now, child. Go find out what "0.80" extreme overbore means" since I know you are clueless about it currently. Come on over for breakfast.

Here's a hint: "Face Off".

Naaaah... more like "Head Off".

A new acronym! Instead of FOAD. HOAD!