Were they over-taxing their computer power, extending beyond their own reach, and now needing to dumb things down a little more?
Speaking of Google Earth, we were talking about "ask not what Dufur can do fer you but rather what you can do fer Dufur", a apocryphal town motto attributed to Dufur, Oregon (not Darfur), and I "flew" there in Google Earth and then started absent mindedly following route 197 in a northerly direction... woah, what's that?
Celilo Converter Station off Route 197
A very space-alien looking facility, something to attract the attention of the paranoid. We checked it out. Ah so, the northern terminal of the HDVC Pacific Intertie twixt the Columbia River and LA.
Europe has a bunch of these links too, with more on the global drawing board. The old mercury arc types are giving way to those using thyristors.
Of such stuff is a Wanderers conversation made, not trying to scare ya off or anything. It's a Nerd Fest you might say.
