Headline "suggests" it is the heatwave causing it. The biggest problem with our grid, is the bulk of it is ABOVE ground. Yeah, in subdivisions and what not it is usually buried, but the multi-thousand volt transmission lines are for obvious reasons above ground. Given how stupid people are when they dig, can you imagine if those were below ground.

When BBK, the parent of Oppo, came up with the OnePlus phone, pretty much anyone outside of China never heard of Oppo. Then they have Carl Pei develop a "start up" that is so pour, they won't be able to produce enough phones, so you need an invite to buy one. Come up with a phone that was nothing more than a knock off of the Oppo Find 7, minus a feature here and there, sell it DIRT CHEAP, call it a flagship killer and it created a feeding frenzy online. (remember?). By the time it was discovered that OnePlus was owned by Oppo/BBK electronics, the phone had taken off and they released another model, then another model building a base of users OUTSIDE of China. Of course they increased the price to the point now it's not worth being a "flagship" killer for what you get. I had 3 of their phones. OnePlus 1, 5, 7 but after that, I switched. Price, the OS, updates (lack of)... From a budget standpoint, since Oppo is more well known, makes sense to drop OnePlus IF people will switch to the Oppo. That also means figuring out a way to get approval (I'm talking USA here) from the FCC to get them to function properly on the cellular networks. The other problem, is since the Apple/Samsung duopoly probably has deals with the the carriers/government/politicians to KEEP out the competition, and carriers probably won't allow outsiders on their networks, unless you know how to wrangle some of these phones, they may not work on the networks. And, since a LOT of American consumers still continue to "buy on contract" with "free upgrades", walk into a carrier store and you pretty much see nothing buy Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola and maybe one or two others.

Or soon will be!

Times are different now, but the house I grew up in, in the 60's had these HUGE windows. The ones that when you raised them up, they had the ropes & weights in the side. We lived about 45 miles away from a Nuclear missile headquarters that also had an airbase and from time to time the pilots were either in a hurry or just wanted to "crack the barrier". When that boom hit, the words that came out of my mother's mouth, I can still hear. ;)

I remember when Windows 3.x came along and I got the error. On the dialup BBS boards, they said it was because DR-DOS wasn't allowed the beta of windows and MS probably wrote code to toss that error. I just waited it out until DR-DOS updated their OS and then installed Windows 3.x

Instead of a bunch of SUITS. Design some CARS that don't fall apart if you brush up against one. Design some cars for people that don't want or need an oversized SUV or pickup truck that is the size of a flipping tank!

Yeah, and the Sahara desert use to have lakes and streams. Climate changes! Blaming it on man is just another way to control people by government. 25-50-100 years of data is NOTHING compared to the age of the planet. If "climate change" was such a big deal, then why haven't the "millionaires & billionaires" moved AWAY from the coasts and continue to move there and build huge homes? I thought they were suppose to be the smartest ones on the planet?

Unlike the people that don't want their farmland gobbled up by solar panels or having wind farms that make a lot of noise?

excluding taxes, title, license, registration, governmental fees, destination charges, documentation fees, and any optional equipment, So, slap on another 40,000 dollars LOL.

I don't! But there are millions that read something on Wikipedia and believe it as gospel! It's a left leaning site, pretty much has been for years. A lot of teachers tell their students to NOT use Wikipedia when researching subjects. When you have pretty much a anyone-can-edit-anything-they-want website, that is controlled by really no one, that is what you get. SLOP.

The first thing I would do back then when playing computer games was to turn that ANNOYING music OFF!

Smartphones are so far ahead of what people use them for, perhaps some are not upgrading every year like they use to. Given the price of the upgrades, inflation and everything else going on, maybe people are keeping them longer too.

Yeah, how much did the smart phone industry pay for them to say that?

The UK has had such an influx of FOREIGNERS there were either from Europe or elsewhere, that it wouldn't surprise me.

40+ years of shutting down coal fired plants, shutting down nuclear plant & building up wind/solar. Instead of BOOSTING the power grid, we "just kept even". And, with energy generation that can't "increase" output like a coal GENERATION or nuclear GENERATION plant can. WOW! Perfect time to start building AI data centers too! Brown/blackouts in the future!