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from the would-you-like-fries-with-that? dept.
the Good Housekeeping Institute's recent publication of a dishwashing guide for all those young people (2 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the UK) who have never learned the ancient art of washing up. In a nutshell, use hot water and rubber gloves, pre-scrape and soak dirty pans, change your water halfway through, and wash in the following order: glasses, mugs, cups, saucers, side plates, dinner plates, cutlery, serving dishes, pans, roasting tins.
While not knowing how to wash dishes is kind of a big deal, it's the whole idea of not being to handle oneself as a versatile, independent adult that is most concerning. Young people lack a wide range of practical skills these days, as revealed in a recent study by YouGov. More than half of young people (18-24) do not know how to set up utility bills upon moving to a new place; 54 percent cannot replace a fuse in a plug; 34 percent can't reset the fuse box after a switch has tripped; 37 percent do not know how to defrost a freezer; and 11 percent is clueless when it comes to changing lightbulbs. (You can see the entire sad list here.)
So what? There's an app for that.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday October 06 2017, @05:56PM (23 children)
- There are lots of ways to wash dishes perfectly well that don't conform to what Good Housekeeping says is the requirement. Heck, in my time as a commercial culinary cleanliness specialist (a.k.a. restaurant dishwasher) what I did barely resembles their instructions because modern health-department-approved dishwashing setups don't work that way.
- As far as setting up utility bills goes, I didn't know exactly how to do that either when I had just graduated high school. But given that it took me about 20 minutes to figure it out once I moved into my own place, I don't consider it a huge burden to not know that sort of thing off the top of my head.
- As for replacing plug fuses, the simple fact of the matter is that these days (a) a lot of plugs don't have user-replaceable fuses, and (b) it's often faster and cheaper to replace the thing entirely.
- I have never once reset a fuse box. That's because all but the most ancient of homes require circuit breakers instead, which are really simple to figure out.
- The reason that most people don't know how to defrost a freezer is that modern freezers don't need to be defrosted.
So yes. as a fairly young person I know next-to-nothing of the housekeeping dogma of the 1950's. That's because I live in 2017.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 06 2017, @06:28PM (8 children)
Well, as a certified geezer, I was around to learn both the old and the new.
Fuse boxes (screw in or plug) always gave me the willies. Especially after moving into an apartment, and noticing a year later that the fuse controlling the living room was burned out but everything in that room worked fine. I decided to investigate, unscrewed the 1940s era fuse and a penny came out of the socket as well, complete (with SPITZENSPARKE!). [wikipedia.org]
Old shit is still in use in a lot of old buildings and infrastructure. [mytpu.org] And there's more to the world than the strictly First World places you've apparently always occupied. Its occasionally useful to have more than a passing "google acquaintance" with some of this stuff. Gas powered refrigerators are still a thing in some places.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday October 06 2017, @08:05PM (7 children)
You think that's fun, I replaced a crumbling lightswitch only to find the previous homeowner had used the green wires for power return instead of ground. In the whole house. All the metal electrical boxes and conduits are hot.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 06 2017, @09:35PM (6 children)
Green wires?
The colors in normal house wiring [netdna-cdn.com] are white black and (brown-paper wrapped) copper.
Greens are only used inside devices and metal wiring enclosures, and are never long enough to "return" power.
Further, Ground and Neutral [iaeimagazine.org] are both tied together at the panel anyway.
So it was nonstandard, but not unsafe. Neutral (normally white) is not "hot".
But I have no actual idea what this "green" wire you refer to is.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @10:08PM
i interpreted as he was suggesting that the previous owner also had no clue, and as such people that did don't know what the hell the original guy was doing, because it sure wasn't the right way to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @01:34AM
They are tied together at the panel, however they are still isolated until that point. Otherwise there would be no reason for a separate ground at all. Imagine a fault were to form in the neutral conductor. Now, some sections may be hot due to the loss of a return path. If any of these now-hot neutral lines is connected as ground to the metal casing of other devices due to this kind of improper connection, these metal casings may then become hot, thus leading to electrocution of anyone unlucky enough to come into contact at this point. Additionally, grounding conductors in any cabling are often not insulated, as you yourself claim, which now leads to an uninsulated hot wire in these cables should the mentioned fault occur. Also, ground wires often have a larger wire gauge than neutrals, so even if you swap every instance of ground and neutral, your new ground is no longer oversized as it is running through the intended neutral wire.
(Score: 1) by Roo_Boy on Saturday October 07 2017, @05:06AM
Well, it does depend on where you live as to the colours. If I was to take off a wall plate I know I would find brown, blue and green/yellow (source: licenced electrician and I rewired the house).
Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_wiring#Colour_coding_of_wiring_by_region/ [wikipedia.org]
--- The S.I. prototype "Average Punter" is kept in a tube of inert gas in Geneva.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday October 07 2017, @06:58AM
Plain copper and green insulated are both acceptable for ground in the US.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday October 07 2017, @06:54PM
I've seen green wire in houses before. These were older houses, but still new enough that they had ground wiring.
My favorite was a light switch that appeared to do nothing. Not uncommon in older houses after a few remodelings, but taking off the plate revealed that the switch was switching the green wire. What....? Neither side was hot, and while it wasn't clear what that was all about, the most reasonable thing seemed to be to to connect them together and bypass the switch.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday October 08 2017, @09:28AM
Don't know where in the world you are (I am in the UK), but green or green-with-yellow is pretty standard for earth cores in most places, even in the USA according to this :-
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/reference/chpt-2/wiring-color-codes-infographic/ [allaboutcircuits.com]
I have seen USA flex and whoever decided black was a good colour for the live wire must have been either a nutter or a wannabe serial killer. Do you have black for "Stop" in your traffic lights too?
Ground and neutral should not be joined anywhere.
Neutral can easily become hot with a fault in the circuit or the device. It should be treated witht the same respect as the live core.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Sulla on Friday October 06 2017, @06:57PM
I prefer to call them "hydro-ceramic technician"
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @06:57PM (9 children)
This is the UK, all consumer mains plugs have user replaceable fuses, if they don't then they're not legal.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 06 2017, @07:53PM (2 children)
And I bet the standardization on those fuses to fit inside the plug at the end of the cord is as haphazard as the rest of the system.
Fuses do serve one purpose better than a breaker:
Fuse blows, you have to get/buy another fuse. Coats $£€. That slows you down, gives you time to think. Second one blows, and even the most clueless person will try to puzzle out why, and maybe fix the actual problem.
Breaker trips: reset that thing and carry on. Trips again, maybe unplug that hot plate or electric kettle. Rinse and repeat 8 times while your mains heat up in the walls.
But fuse don't do as well as breakers in converting an entire house to better detection/prevention of other situations, like GFCI/AFCI breakers.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @08:44PM (1 child)
Yup. The first house that I owned had screw-in fuses.
The first time one blew, I replaced the lot with screw-in (thermal) circuit breakers.
One morning soon after, I found that the water was cold because the electric water heater had popped its breaker.
Reset it and it popped again in short order.
After the 3rd pop, I put one of the old fuses in and that held. Huh??
(The body of the breaker was very warm to the touch when extracting it.)
Got washed up and went to work.
When I got home, I found there was corrosion in the socket where the fuse/breaker screwed in and that was heating up under high demand.
It didn't affect a fuse, but the thermal breaker didn't like it one bit.
Cleaned away the oxidation and Bob's your uncle.
Never had a problem with the breaker again.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday October 08 2017, @09:42AM
Fuses in UK plugs have been absolutely standard for years. Of course the current rating can vary according to the appliance, but usually 3, 10 or 13 amps :-
http://images.esellerpro.com/2272/I/171/73/3A.jpg [esellerpro.com]
AC responder is talking BS or living in an ancient doss house. "Fuses" in the consumer unit (aka fuse box/distribution box) have changed in the last 100 years from re-wirable fuses (standardised) to replacable cartridges (standardised), and finally to miniature circuit breakers (standardised - and now a legal requirement). Yes, you will still find some older houses with actual fuses rather than MCBs, but there have been massive campaigns and subsidies to get older houses rewired to the modern standard.
I must say I have seen more rubbish spouted in this thread, about wiring, than usual. UK electrics are the best and safest in the world, and are the adopted standard for many other parts of the world too. The domestic wiring seen when going aboad, even to other First World countries, is frightening by comparison.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @07:58PM (5 children)
UK wiring standards are daft.
Join the rest of the world. Ring wiring is being phased out in new construction, no?
Too bad you'll still be stuck with those ridiculous preschool-sized plugs though.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 06 2017, @09:46PM
I had to look up "Ring Wiring"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit [wikipedia.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @11:42PM (3 children)
Dunno about you sunshine but I for one am not powering my beowulf cluster off a spur at the recommended 80% load!
What is daft about it exactly? Not that I currently (sic) need 5kW domestic.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @01:00AM
Replying to my own comment but... kettle [wikipedia.org] =~1kW, toaster [wikipedia.org] = ~1kW and microwave = ~1kW. If you speak our language and don't enjoy a cup of tea with a piece of toast [wikipedia.org], crumpet [wikipedia.org] or potato cake [wikipedia.org] you're doing something wrong. Obviously the British empire did fail to bring civilisation to the savages and the white guilt is all mine -- to be digested with a cup of tea and microwaved baked beans on toasted buttered crumpets! >3kW required YOU SAVAGES!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ledow on Saturday October 07 2017, @02:30PM (1 child)
Those who do not understand the purpose of ring-wiring hate it for no good reason.
1) Reduced cabling costs.
2) Almost doubled circuit capacity
It was introduced during the war purely to halve the amount of copper required.
And it's really not that hard to get your head around it.
P.S. UK wiring standards and plugs are among the safest in the world, purely because they are able to handle much more power - Almost every appliance is fused inside, EVERY plug is fused, EVERY ring is fused/RCD'd, and the main input is fused. Every socket is earthed, every plug is earthed, and (with the exception of "double-insulated" stuff) every appliance is earthed. The plug can't be pulled out of socket, the first pins to disconnect on removal are the power pins (earth is deliberately longer), and even if you have extreme tension on the cables the design of the plugs means that the FIRST LEAD to pull out are the power leads, rendering the device earthed until after the power is removed (allowing things like RCDs further up to operate correctly). Also, the earth pin unlocks the socket, such that the other two pins can be used, with a plastic gate, which means kiddiewinks can't stick pens into the live pins.
Don't criticise what you do not understand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:17AM
I understand how it works perfectly well.
For those who don't, I will give the link someone else already gave to explain it:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit [wikipedia.org]
Note especially the section on "criticisms." (They are objective ones--mostly safety related, but also related to RF interference.)
Ask yourself why NOBODY but the UK (and a couple of its small former colonies) has adopted this "superior" system. Is the rest of the world stupid? Is the rest of the world burning down or getting electrocuted? Or perhaps Occam's Razor can be applied and your support is just nativist pride for your country's own idiosyncratic standard?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @10:50PM
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.” -Robert Heinlein
I don't see washing dishes anywhere in there.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday October 07 2017, @12:31AM (1 child)
Yep..true on everything you mention. Only thing I wonder is how often do you wash your clothes and linens? Do you just keep sleeping in dirty sheets and wearing dirty clothes, or like Charlie Harper just go out and buy new stuff?
Anyway, taking care of themselves is not the only thing Millennials can't do. They are also really lousy at driving. Probably the reason they are into Uber and self driving cars.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday October 09 2017, @09:50PM
Approximately weekly. Like a normal person, y'know.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin