Shit is Weird these days. I get that. And let's face it, the news stories half the time are like something out of a really bad b movie- the kinda things that make you wonder if the mushrooms in the omelette you had at lunch were maybe a little more "special" than usual...
But then along comes a "news story" that stretches your ability to suspend your disbelief so hard that it snaps back and slaps your dazed "WTF?" expression right off your face.
This is one of "Those" stories.
European clocks lose six minutes after dispute saps power from electricity grid
A row between Kosovo and Serbia is draining energy from the continent’s 25-nation system, causing electronic clocks to fall behind
Europeans who have been arriving late to work or school in recent weeks have more than just the bad weather to blame. The real reason is an unprecedented lag in the continent’s electricity grid that is causing some clocks to run too slowly.
The problem is caused by a political dispute between Serbia and Kosovo that is sapping a small amount of energy from the local grid, causing a domino effect across Europe’s 25-nation synchronized high voltage power network spanning the continent from Portugal to Poland and Greece to Germany.
WOAH!! Wait just a fuckin' second..... so they are saying that a power drainage is effecting digital clocks so that they are "slowing down"......?!
.... I have never heard such a load of bullshit in my life- and let me tell you, I've debunked some doozy science bullshittery over the years.
“Since the European system is interconnected ... when there is an imbalance somewhere the frequency slightly drops,” ... The continental network had lost 113GWh of energy since mid-January because Kosovo had been using more electricity than it generates.
Lets put this into perspective (the energy consumption piece): They are saying that the "Continental Network" lost 113GW (that is, 113 gigawats of power)
- Hoover Dam is a 2 GW facility
- Indian Point nuclear power plant has two 1 GW reactors
- Plant Bowen in Georgia, the largest coal power plant in the U.S. puts out 3.5 GW
So total, those 3 major American power producers put out 6.5GW a day
-31 days in January, 28 days in February = 59 days.
.... They are saying that Kosovo is the cause of the European power grid loosing the equivalent of the Hoover Dam or Indian Point Nuclear power plant's daily output..... and that lost of approximately 2GW per day was enough to make digital clocks SLOW DOWN...
..............cough * cough * cough * bullshit * cough * cough.
So the question is: WHAT REALLY MADE EUROPEAN CLOCKS SUDDENLY LOOSE 6 MINUTES OF TIME?
Inquiring minds want to know
d
