Why do circuit breakers go up for on and down for off?

They aren't likely to confuse them as sky is up and grass is down. No need for colour coding.

Or a dodgy line that periodically disconnects. Unlikely that the periods correspond to the minimum interval between pulses, so 112 should be OK. (112 is supposed to work in the UK as well as 999, unless Brexit stops us from using the EU number.)

I think that one of the last 'normal' cars in the UK to have the indicator stalk (correctly) on the offside was the Toyota Corolla (in the 1990s). I certainly didn't like the change to left side, but (surprisingly) soon got used to it. [You had no choice.]

I certainly used to (especially in an unfamiliar car).

Languages are strange things, and some don't have words for the bleedin' obvious. For example, Latin and in Gaelic seem to have difficulty with the simple concept of 'Yes' and 'No'.

Yes, and then every maker of business phone exchanges also decided to then use "9" to begin the dial sequence of an outside line. Couple that stupid choice with "dial 1 for long distance" and every long distance call begins as "9 1" -- two thirds of the 911 emergency number.

I've known folks who accidentally dialed an additional "1" after the "long distance + outside line" prefix and had to explain that no, they really were not trying to contact emergency services.

I have Kinsey plonked. But blades do of course have a proper direction of rotation, the curve is wrong when spinning backwards, which means they are less efficient one way.

Andy

My car is a 1999 Toyota MR2, and end of the production line.

(Yes, I was having a midlife crisis, and that was over 20 years ago... the PO had bought a sports car when the kids left home, and was selling it so she could take the grandchildren to nursery...)

Andy

The US 411 directory assistance was sometimes confused with 911.

But we use the internet now to find phone numbers.

When I was a kid I used to look as the small mole on my right hand to remind myself. It didn't help that I when I as taught to write it was "No, the other hand"... These days I have no trouble with left or right, nor port and starboard, or clockwise, or any of the others.

Andy

But everyone else has a separate word for green and blue, so its more than a tad unlikely that the Japs didn't too.

If we don't assume that an American life is somehow more valuable than an African or Asian one, we can save lives for a few dollars each.

We can fund a cataract surgery in Africa for about $20, or a fistula repair for about $400. I've funded over 100 fistula fixes so far.

Send them something.

If the breakers are sized for the wiring, there is no fire hazard there. Romex doesn't get hot at rated current. Fires are started by appliances like space heaters, which wouldn't be affected by the voltage. Or overloaded extension cords, arguably a lesser hazard at higher voltage.

Very old houses had knob-and-tube wiring with twisted junctions, in walls and exposed in attics, and people tended to screw in bigger glass fuses than the wire could handle. That was, sometimes still is, a big fire hazard.

In SW Louisiana the local language was Cajun French, not very intelligible to Parisians. In WWII draftees were forced to speak English, which contributed to the decline of French in Louisiana.

With RCBOs, you don't need an all house RCD at all.

You certainly don't have to upgrade your system, unless you are doing major work on it. However, where you have no RCD, it is worth looking at adding one for your own safety. Where you have an RCD, it is worth considering RCBOs, giving you the safety and the reduced chances of a false trip, plus not tripping all circuits for a single fault.

As RCBOs have come down to below 20 GBP each, I took the opportunity to remove the RCD and replace all the RCD protected MCBs with RCBOs. I have since replaced unprotected (lighting) MCBs with RCBOs.

And would have remained perfectly acceptable (assuming no serious deterioration), over the coming years.

Yes, it's worth it for peace of mind.

In my house, or rather my parent's house, fuses were just a strand of wire wrapped around two metal screws or some metal something. When a fuse blows, you just put another wire. It it blows again, they put two strands. Next, they put three... you see the problem.

Of course you can use sealed fuses, or calibrated fuse wire (they sold that in the UK). But it is just safer to use calibrated breakers which "blow" and you just throw them back. Of course they can be intentionally "sabotaged".

Specially the ones like english which have hijacked useful words from any language of a country they have f***ed over or had anything to do with.

Can't think of any examples of that.

Presumably because they prefer more subtle variations of those words.

Same with languages which dont have a simple 'you' and have different words used for those you know well and those you don't.

[snip]

Most of the time you really need something below you. If can be really bad when there isn't.

Many years ago, we used to have 4-digit office extensions; 1nnn

From the rest of the UK, they could dial direct to an extension on 061

902 1nnn (061 being the Manchester area code and 902 being the local exchange).

In the 061 area, just dialling 902 1nnn worked.

One guy left, but his desk phone regularly rang. The company had a policy of someone answering any phone within 3 rings, but we just ignored that phone.

One day a manager was passing as I ignored the phone and questioned me about not answering. I said it's for the NatWest bank. The manager looked at me oddly, picked up the phone and yes, it was a call for a branch of the NatWest Bank in Birmingham. He then looked at me even more oddly.

People all over the 061 area dialled a 9 for an outside line, when they didn't need to, then 021 for Birmingham and then nnn nnnn, effectively dialing the local number 902 1xxx, plus some extra, ignored digits

Even worse were some of the mobile phones with buttons. With mine, pressing * and # together locked the keypad to prevent accidental (butt) dialling in your pocket - except that some bright spark had decided that to make emergency calls easier, pressing and holding the 9 key would call the emergency number, even when locked ... which of course was even more likely to happen than if you left the keypad unlocked and randomly dialled numbers!

At one time I was at the top of a ladder, when I could hear a faint voice from somewhere. Yes, my phone had connected to the emergency services!

But the blades can be designed for rotating in the opposite direction and only a normal thread would then be required for the securing nut.