The power went out the other day. Actually, it went out ten times. The first couple caught me off guard and I looked up from my computer monitor... to my surprise, I was the only one. Our building has these Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS - basically giant batteries) units that run the network, phones, computer, and emergency lights. In fact, most affluent homes have them as well. So aside from the sudden darkening, it's business as usual, unless you're in the bathroom where there are no emergency lights (as I may have discovered later)...

One of the first things I noticed upon my arrival was the sheer state of disarray of the electrical transmission infrastructure. The above photo is of one unit that I run by on my way to the gym. Power substations like this exist on practically every block; this is much more expensive to maintain than the more distributed hub-and-spoke model that the US uses, and no doubt leads to the cause of many outages. Next time you're near one of these in the US, note how it's guarded like a mini Fort Knox -- fencing, razor wire, etc. As you can see, it's a little more Darwinian here...