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Comment by showsover | Hacker News Reader

That was a fun 10 hours or so that we were without power in most of Barcelona. Some barrios had ~some~ power but most of us were without.

The one thing that surprised me is how quickly rumors started about power being out in Portugal (true), France (true to an extent), Belgium (false), and the UK (false). Walking back home from work you heard the names of Trump being mentioned as well.

It's a bit scary to personally experience how quickly people can start panicking. On the other hand the bars that had some power had a great afternoon with tons of beer being served before it got too warm :-)

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I am in Barcelona too. The combination of no power and patchy internet was the perfect recipe for rumors to spread, which was fun to observe. I went for a walk since I couldn't work and saw tons of people socializing, drinking beers (more than usual), and young people playing without their phones. It'll be a special day to remember, I think.

Maybe make it a yearly event, turn off all power (like Earth Day) just for the socializing aspect.

I honestly thought we should make it a public holiday and shut down the electricity once a year, not so realistic unfortunately.

If we're ready for it and can prepare, it wouldn't be so bad I'd guess. Trouble yesterday was that we had no idea about the scope, I was in the middle of finishing moving houses, but was promptly held back when I arrived with a van to Barcelona and noticed it wasn't just my town that was without power.

Shutting off (anti-) social media would be enough.

I was actually considering going for a ride on the motorcycle today if the outage lasted another day. Beautiful weather, a tank full of gasoline, and no stress about work? Sign me up!

Spain and Portugal had to deny a fake social viral that said power was out across most of Europe and the Russians were cutting undersea cables.

On the upside, more people at all levels are going to be more prepared if it happens again.

Most people I spoke to around Maresme area yesterday believed someone incompetent made a mistake somewhere, and that was the reason. Some people jokingly suggested cyber attack/Russian probes, but afaik no one took those seriously.

There was actually a Russian cyber attack on the previous friday, pinging some German city government sites to death. Dresden, Nuremberg and one other. But this was essentially kids play, compared to a nationwide power blackout. A cyber attack to bring down a nation's grid would be high sci-fi. This would need lots of explosives and expensive physical interventions. Russia didn't manage in Ukraine eg.

Solar flares or temperature anomalies are much easier explanations. https://en.meteorologiaenred.com/What-is-induced-atmospheric...

How warm is "too warm"? I find cold beer, and cold soft drinks as well, quite repulsive. I usually try to order without ice entirely, and if I receive any bottles or cans, I permit them to come to room temp before consumption.

Refrigeration is sort of a scourge to those who enjoy food. We are so used to simply freezing our esophagus and not tasting anything! Food is kept cold because it lasts longer, not because it tastes better.

Sure, refrigeration makes restaurants and grocery stores possible. But it also presents challenges to cooking and it's very resource-intensive -- think about it -- basically everyone everywhere is always running their refrigeration -- that's a huge load on any system.

I was referring to the fact that generally people prefer cold beer, not room temp beer.

Pedantic, but most beers should be drank (according to the manufacturers and experts) at 7-13c depending on type of beer. Exceptions always exist to confirm the rule. Which is above fridge and around "cellar" temperatures.

Unless you drink Schultenbrau, which tastes worse cold than at room temperature (/s, kind of).

TIL Schultenbrau is a real beer. I thought it was gag beer designed for the New Kids show.

The same goes for wine, by the way: cellar temperature is usually optimal.

> generally people prefer cold beer

Do they? But why? Why would they? Are they simply accustomed to tasting it that way? I should say "not tasting it" because chilling a beverage basically kills its flavours, and they never make it to your tongue correctly.

I would say that many people would be surprised and amazed if they tasted such things as Pepsi without ice, and without coming right out of the fridge.

Unfortunately, any lack of refrigeration really messes up supply chains and will eat into anyone's bottom line, so it's not a realistic goal.

This stuff is panel-tested out of the wazoo. There's a reason bitterness, hoppiness, alcohol levels, differ market by market, even on brands of the same brand/line extension.

Beer also does not require refrigeration throughout the entire supply chain, they happily sit in a warm warehouse waiting to be picked up by an unrefrigerated truck, only to be cooled at the outlet or consumer.

I've always theorized that, in prehistory, the only source of cold water would be recent snowmelt; streams that came fairly directly from a probably-clean source. Warm water could have all sorts of things growing in it. So our ancestors who found cool water to be particularly refreshing and sought it out might have suffered less from waterborne illness.

There is so much more to enjoyment of consumption than just "taste".

Smell, touch, look, mouthfeel, nostalgia, temperature, color, other various human factors (ie I always eat this with my friends), sounds, cost

ALL of these affect your experience of consuming something.

Your insistence on ignoring the holistic experience because cold things don't react as well to produce taste sensations is misguided.

Never mind that plenty of things a DESIGNED to be consumed cold, and eating it room temp or warm would be contrary to the design. Beer and other soft drinks are often in this category as they intend to be "refreshing".

You don't drink your beer at 85 Celsius right? Why not? You will "taste" it more!

> enjoyment of consumption

Yes, in fact, there is nothing to kill my enjoyment more than a watered-down icy beverage that murders my tongue and esophagus as it goes down.

Since my youth I’ve been a choral singer and musician. I’m quite sensitive to keeping “my instrument” in top condition. Therefore I take offense from anyone who says that [Scoville levels] of spice should be calibrated for murder, or that beverages should be as close to freezing as possible.

This is doing violence to the consumer, and it’s simply unjust across the board. If I had a nickel for every butt-hurt counter girl just because I asked for “no ice please”; if it really hurts your bottom line then charge double? Consumers aren’t actually afforded much choice about the temperature of food we consume, are we?

There is basically no scientific or cultural reason for food or drink to be consumed while it is cold [below 40°F]. Simply marketing and capitalism because of food safety and profit. Therefore I need not kowtow to someone’s haughty decree that soda is somehow designed to be drunk that way.

>It's a bit scary to personally experience how quickly people can start panicking.

People have been panicking, internally, for quite some time. What happened is that the threshold to externalize that panic was dropped with this event. So this is a very real example of how people are always looking for confirmation of what they already believe, and for a relatively brief time after they receive that confirmation, can live in a reality that is not at all aligned with base reality. I find this kind of thing fascinating, and it's been happening more and more in recent years due to changing dynamics in the way we communicate.

I never have any cash on me. That would’ve sucked.

I spent my last 5 euros on a sandwich and a croissant to eat on the walk home. All in all a pretty decent experience.

Your comment immediately brings to mind this classic of croissant eating in ‘interesting’ circumstances: https://youtube.com/watch?v=wp84sRpM1Js

Add the store on Foursquare, "good blackout sandwich, 5 stars"

In my experience, shops you frequent will be sympathetic to that problem and will just let you come back to pay later. And I imagine that any shops that sell stuff that needs to be kept cool were especially amenable to that ...

I'm close to a refinery and seeing black smoke coming out 5 minutes later of the blackout was a bit of a scare tbh.

As long as the beer is cool, you only need CO2! Great off grid mechanism. Or N2 in case of Guinness.

Most information was spread by car radios. Rest were people asking and talking to each other.

A security guard at my workplace actually told me they had "received a call" about power being out in Romania as well. I'm not sure how that one rumour spread.

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