Every day should start with some electrons

 This bit from our local online newspaper.

"Electrical certification seen as safety measure
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An international group that will meet here next week has a goal of certifying electricians. Costa Rica does not now have such a program, . . . "

2 nights ago. 7pm dinner starting. Full house. Bang, flash, plunged into darkness.

Grope, grope, "no worries guys, it's an insurrection from the north."  "Hang on while I make things work."

Grope, grope, "Ah the flash light, now who moved the candles?"

"Yes, yes I know our web site says we have candle light dinners, isn't this nice."

"About that insurrection?"

"No worries they don't even know how to have an election and apparently you
don't even need a majority to ruin (or run) the country."

"I was only kidding about the insurrection anyway but that's why you came to Costa Rica, no? Some excitement? Push life to a higher more elevated plane? Eat gourmet dinners in pitch darkness?"

10 minutes later. Lights come back on. "How was the salad?" "These ICE electricians are getting better at this, you know."  [ICE - the national electrical company]

10 minutes later as the main course is being consumed. Bang, flash, darkness.  We see guys on a pole next door with a floodlit area nearby. There is diligent work going on at the pole.

"Maybe they DO know how to run an insurrection north of the border? Perhaps Mrs Murillo has taken over."

15 minutes later lights come on. 3 minutes later . . . bang, flash, darkness.   "Thank goodness for surge protectors and a good supply of candles!"

Later . . .

"Tonight's entertainment is brought to you by ICE. We hope you enjoyed the show."

The 6th and final bang, flash occurred at 3am.

The only questions that remain are:
1) how is it possible to replace a blown transformer so quickly? Love those ICE guys and girls!

and
2) how is it possible to blow up 6 transformers in one night?

You can't make this stuff up.
Berni
Major fan of free and fair electrons.

Costa Rican Adventures . . .Damn Slow Electrons

A guest sometimes wonders where their email response went from yesterday.

Essentially we use the slower electrons in the neo-tropics (and rainy season) often interspersed with some nice Cuban music . . . sorry about the delay!

As one engineer with the local internet provider (called ICE  . . . which may explain a lot) told me . . .
"in the rainy season OUR Wimax can't get up YOUR hill because all the trees will be full of water" . . . I have not been able to substantiate this information made more confusing to me after 3 ICE guys showed up to disconnect a neighbors Wimax service that had been working fine.

Of course there's always this snippet I just discovered (though well known by some for decades):
The de Broglie wavelength l of an electron with kinetic energy T = 150 eV is 0.1 nm, which is comparable with distances between neighboring atoms in an ordinary molecule and in usual condensed matter. In general, l = 0.1 x (150 eV / T ) ^1/2 nm becomes greater at lower T, and eventually reaches 7.7 nm at thermal energy at room temperature. Although this notion is well known for eight decades, some of current calculations on transport of slow electrons in condensed matter remain based upon the classical trajectory of an electron.
I am thinking that every day I get closer to the truth of "the matter", or just matter.

See you next month, your confirmation went out this morning, sorry for the delay!