There really is no program so to speak
of here on the site.
As for notes, there are lots of them on
my desk. Most of them are incoherent and in several different
languages. Some make sense. "Check the electric bill," or
"buy more detergent". Others are kind of vague, one-word
references like "oatmeal" and "technician". One
I'm looking at right now is a jumble of fifteen or so numbers and
letters that was either a password for something or a code I left
myself to break when I had forgotten it's original meaning. Leaving
puzzles for my future self. I would do more of that if it weren't so
disconcerting. What doe those numbers mean? I'm going to lose sleep
over this.
But a "programming note" is
different. It is not simply a program and not simply a note. It is
more. Here is the programming note:
In the event that things just go
silent here for several weeks, you should assume that the apocalypse
has started and I have fled to our farm and am living off the land
and off the grid.
Mozambique is a large, sparse country.
It is not the largest in Africa, nor is is the sparsest. It is almost
the size of the west coast of the US and home to 22 million people.
And it has exactly ONE SOURCE of electricity: a hydroelectric dam in
the westernmost part of the country.
The dam supplies energy for the whole
country and even some of our neighbors. This is made possible because
only about 40% of Mozambican homes have electricity and, of those
that do, a many have only several light-bulbs and perhaps a radio or
maybe a television. That is why we can get away with one dam for the
whole great big place.
Unfortunately, the technicians for the
dam say that the ONLY transmission line leaving the ONLY source of
electricity for the entire country is in danger of falling over and
needs to be replaced. They said it could fall over at any time and
cut electricity to everybody and they estimate at least a week to get
things back online. In other words, the government just said that
electricity could go at any time and it won't come back.
Things are already pretty close to
being like 1913 rather than the 2013. Depending on when it happens
the biggest inconvenience may be all the frozen chicken in the
freezer we have to eat before they thaw. Oh, and trying to manually
outfit our pump rather than rely on the electric motor. There are
literally going to be millions of people that won't notice anything
if the electricity goes.
It will make international news, but
we'll never see it. And they'll probably put it near the end of the
broadcast right before the human interest story. "And finally
from Africa, the entire country of Mozambique has been without power
for the twelfth day as workers there work to replace failing
infrastructure. And in local news, Misty the cat has one less life
after firefighters spent six hours pulling her out from the toilet
she accidentally got flushed down."
Oh, and if it happens during the next
round of UEFA Champions League there might be riots.
End
Transmission
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