blackout news stories on Newser

Wikipedia Editors Blast Blackout

Kate Schwartz — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:46:19 CST

Switzerland: It's not just an entry on Wikipedia—it's what some volunteer editors would like to be in the SOPA ruckus. In a word, neutral. In light of today's SOPA/PIPA blackout , the AP speaks with editors who aren't too pleased with the site's foray into advocacy, which they believe undermines...

Odd Theft Leaves Village in the Dark

Matt Cantor — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:42:44 CDT

A rash of power line thefts is dogging Britain. An entire English village lost electricity for several hours on Friday after thieves stole some 3,000 feet of cable—and it’s the second such theft in that county alone since August, This Is Lincolnshire reports. It’s a running problem on...

Worker 'Moving Equipment' Plunged 6M Into Darkness

Mary Papenfuss — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:07:15 CDT

Power company officials believe a worker moving a piece of monitoring equipment in an Arizona utility substation likely turned off the lights yesterday for a massive 6 million customers stretching through southern California and Mexico. "This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of...

Mexico Helps Power Texas During Storm

recklesslove — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:46:54 CST

Wintry storms this week have left Texas scrambling to conserve electricity to prevent widespread blackouts. Power companies are working quickly to restore power, says Gov. Rick Perry, but rolling blackouts swept the state yesterday to help balance the lack of energy. In an ironic turn of events, Mexico's state electricity...

Skype Blackout Hits Millions Worldwide

Matt Cantor — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:00:07 CST

Millions worldwide have been hit with a Skype outage that began yesterday, the BBC reports. The online communications service says that failed “supernodes,” which “act a bit like phone directories,” are at fault. Now, Skype is trying to build “mega-supernodes” to fix the issue. The company says service is slowly...

Toronto Loses Power During Queen's Visit

M. Morris — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:06:54 CDT

A power outage struck late this afternoon in Toronto, where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are visiting at the end of a 9-day swing through Canada. The prince was at a downtown hotel when the lights went out and gamely presented the Duke of Edinburgh Awards for community service to...

Hundreds Die in India Heatwave

Jane Yager — Mon, 31 May 2010 07:44:08 CDT

Hundreds of people have died in northern India as the country suffers the hottest temperatures it has ever recorded. Along with the at least 260 people reported dead, thousands have flooded hospitals suffering heat stroke or food poisoning. In cities the heat has also led to electricity blackouts and water...

Bad Weather Blamed for Brazil Blackout

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:17:47 CST

Heavy rain and strong wind last night caused blackouts that left nearly a third of Brazilians—60 million people—in the dark, officials said today as they scrambled to restore confidence in the country's infrastructure before soccer's 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. The weather made transformers on a...

In Recession, NFL Blackout Rule Raises Ire

Harry Kimball — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:52:03 CDT

High ticket prices and the recession are taking their toll on attendance at pro football games. But if you can’t afford the stadium, at least you can watch at home, right? Wrong. The NFL is sticking to its “blackout” policy—no local broadcast if the stadium doesn’t sell out 3...