Mainly they exist because there weren’t central fuse boxes for a while due to wartime copper shortages.
Someone elsewhere in the thread pointed out that the Wikipedia page for BS 1363 says they’re optional and weren’t added to the standard until 1967.
You’re right, now that I think about it. Laptop power does it more than anything else.
Home electricity in North America has roughly half the voltage as elsewhere in the world, and double the voltage is double the arcing potential, so that figures.
Maybe, but with the switches on the sockets, I hardly ever unplug anything at all unless I’m moving it. Why would I?
So pretty much every time something’s unplugged, it’s in my hand or away in a cupboard, never lying on the floor.
Wait till you hear the chlorine washed chicken news!
Chickens in the USA are typically “battery chickens”, which is actually about as brutal as it sounds. They’re kept in way too small spaces, unable to move around, and stand and sit in their own feces all day.
The chlorine wash helps them pass lab tests for lack of pathogens, because small amounts of chlorine get onto the test samples and kill the bacteria, but the chlorine is only surface deep. Salmonella is endemic, and many chickens’ undersides are actually rotting from being in their own filth all day. But if the bacteria test passes, it’s fine and the big corporation buying the cheap chicken doesn’t care.
Salmonella infections and food poisoning generally are relatively high as a result of these kind of profit-driven practices.
The boil in the bag thing isn’t a big deal by comparison, but no, the USA does not have strong food safety standards, the USA has strong lobbying and openly legal corporate funding of politicians that would be seen as corruption in many other countries.
I use duckduckgo desktop browser as my default on Windows and similarly on android, for this reason. You can press the burn it all button as often as you like, but whenever you log in to a website it offers to protect the website from the burn everything button. This builds a whitelist as you go.
I used to have an extension that did that on Firefox but it didn’t get updated and died. In duckduckgo it’s the default behaviour.
Thank you for a thoughtful, well written and informative post.
Follow up question: what is the purpose of the law? Why does it exist? What does that tell as about this case?
Your nuanced view on racism? Your nuanced view on sexism? Your nuanced view on homophobia? Your nuanced view on being anti trans. Gotcha. Loud and clear.
And yet every so often you deny it, but always in a vague way so that no one can tell which one out of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans you’re denying. If you’re not ashamed of your opinions, you should just say what they are.
OK, so which out of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans is a viewpoint you don’t hold?
OK. Racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans. That’s quite the full set of prejudice. Why do you think you ended up with so much hate in your heart? What led you down the rabbit hole? Was it politicians telling you that your problems were because of people who aren’t like you, or influencers telling you that you would be successful and happy if you follow their plan that comes with a side helping of nastiness? Are your friends right wing too, or do you keep it secret from them in real life?
You earlier claimed that yourself was your favourite subject, yet you’re mysteriously tight lipped on the subject suddenly.
If you weren’t interested in convincing me that you weren’t a big right wing stereotype, you wouldn’t have claimed I was wrong, so I don’t buy your disinterest line.
So which out of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans were you claiming not to be? It’s an easy question. Feel free to share your opinions on all four culture war issues, @Free_Opinions.
You said I thought you are something you’re not, so which is it out of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans that you aren’t?
Which one out of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans was incorrect?
Oh sorry, which one out of racist, sexist, homophobic and anti trans was incorrect?
I’m getting sexist racist homophobic anti trans vibes here. Should I trust my gut?
They want men to choose who lives or dies. They absolutely do not want women to be in charge of anything. That’s why no exceptions in the case of rape and incest. A man made a decision, they don’t want a woman to have the power to reverse it.
Ah, this is fantastic. I learned some stuff, thank you.