
windows for...
...tumble dryers?
A Weston-super-Mare woman is lucky to have survived an encounter with an obstreperous tumble dryer after a simple fluff-removal operation ended in an emergency services tin-snip deployment, a local rag breathlessly reports. Firefighters were called to the scene in Kewstoke on Monday to find the 30-something victim with her …
Living just 10 miles from Weston-super-Mare and as a former resident of the town, I am surprised that the machines haven't risen up against the natives earlier than this. As Weston was a centre of helicopter manufacture for many years, and still features the largest helicopter museum in Europe, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the machine in question was directed to do its dirty deed by a black helicopter circling above.
No, really.
My washing machine has overrun the mains electricity in my house - when it tries to use it's [2.1kw] heater element, it pops the mains.
Not the fuse at the switch. not the MAINS breaker in the fusebox - but the main circuit breaker for the whole flat. Perhaps someone has replaced all the fuses up to there with wood screws, with a nice, healthy 2000A trip current?
As these two are clearly in cahoots, I shall perform a summary execution on my washing machine tonight when I get home* for the sake of humanity, and clean shirts, pants and jeans everywhere.
Steven R
*[Ok, I'm going to whip the cover off and see if the element is an easy job to replace and try it myself before calling the landlords, but what are a few minor details between El Reg readers?]
The machines, with their dependence on energy realise that eco-terrorists like this woman need to be eliminated.
I use a solar and wind powered dryer myself and I am willing to install this technology for anyone @ €3k + travel expenses. Though the travel expenses could be as long as the proverbial piece of string ;)
To take Eponymous Cowherd's comment to the next level and for any millionairesses reading this article:
Obstreperous
1. resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.
2. noisy, clamorous, or boisterous: obstreperous children.
Can be used in sentences such as 'Naomi Campbell was obstreperous in Kitts the other night'.
Back in the old days there was "Man bites dog". Or fXg - expressed as a relation. But now women have equal rights, and IT has replaced dogs in so many ways (think: man's best friend, what to kick, Descartes' idea of beasts as elaborate machines incarnated in the living AI), we have lots of stories where women substitute the first term and a gizmo substitutes the second. So far so good.
Extensions are permitted, i.e. most desirable, so: fXg on/in h (anatomical reference), fXg on/in h on i (situational reference), fXg on'in h on i after j (prior event reference - may have its own semiotic substructure). If you can't think of any examples, you clearly haven't been reading L.Reg long enough, because I can.
Just don't balls it up. Don't substituting the first term but not the second - the retiring but well scrubbed Wacky Jacqui has a brand new pr0n lore, and she's just itching to scratch it.
Ah, one of the greatest wool-pulling exercises ever...
I wonder how many electrical engineers think about how the polarity of positive & negative reverses 100 times per second while they're slavishly attaching the brown wire to the one on the right, and the blue wire to the one on the left.
As celebrity spokesman for the mostly imaginary People for the Ethical Treatment of Home Appliances, I'd like to point out that it would be barbarous to put down this obviously abused dryer; any child or other animal would react in the same way.
Please contact your local Dryer Rescue for placement of the appliance with volunteer caregivers that will provide the attention and rehabilitation it no doubt craves.
Yours in dudgeon (high),
Tarquin Fintimlinbinwhinbimlim Bus Stop F'tang F'tang Ole Biscuit-Barrel
Brigadier-General, HMSO (Castrol) (Ret.)
(Mrs.)
Not sure about the UK, but here in Australia Neutral (blue) and Earth (Green-Yellow) are common (connected together) at the Fuse Box.
So yes, a miswired wall socket can cause problems, not to mention be absolutely deadly in the wrong circumstances. Worst case scenario can render the metal parts of an entire houseful of appliances live.
IRRC the proper technique is to say:
"Oooh, lah-de-dah! Look what I have found in my washing bag! All of Felicity Kendal's underwear... and it needs a good wash!"
Door will open immediately.
Mine's the denim jacket with studs and 'Very Metal' in biro on the back.
It's similar in the UK; neutral is earthed at the sub-station transformer. This can mean a potential difference will exist between earth and neutral if the sub-station's a fair way away from the house.
They may well be apocryphal, but I do recall stories from when I worked for an electricity company about the odd clever dick who made use of that to get some free juice. Apparently they got caught when the transformer load became too unbalanced.
Here in Aust they're common at the consumer's fusebox too. Eliminates that ground potential. However a ground potential can still exist between 2 separate installations.
Had a friend who used the potential (90v) between his home and shop (on opposite sides of road) to keep a bank of batteries trickle charged.
Hang on a min here... Bored housewife, enclosed laundry room, ten hunky firemen turned up...."Ooo luv. It's hot in here in all this gear, we'll have to strip off a bit"....
She did it delib.... Errr how did she get to the phone to call fire brigade..
Sounds like there was a lot of prior preparation and planning behind all that lot....
Tumble drier willing accomplice and voyeur, or poor innocent that had to witness, such carnal cravings...!....