Yesterday MrsBlue was feeling a little stifled while she was in my office (I was in the middle of a vigorous couch-master workout at the time) and turned on the gable fan in the one-time attic to try and supplement the cooling of the air conditioner. I have been curious about how close we are to the limits of the power up here since we first put in the air conditioner, and this was an answer: we were close enough that turning on the gable fan tripped a circuit breaker. This killed everything in the office except my work PC, which is hooked up to a UPS, until the breaker was flipped back again. The weird thing was that even with the gable fan off, the circuit breaker started tripping repeatedly after that. MrsBlue kept apologizing for having busted something, and amid my puzzlement I kept reassuring her that it wasn't her fault, and something mysterious was going on. It took a while (I never said I wasn't slow), but I finally figured it out: After getting the power going again, the UPS was in the midst of recharging, which until it was finished, represented the added load tripping the breaker.

Story of the Day: Pork-chops-for shoes stunt ends in court action. Thanks Brendan Reville.
Story of the Day II: NPR But Wait! There's More! offering details on a book that chronicles those classic Popeil and Ronco commercials. Thanks Zdim.
Image of the Day: Happy Face Crater on Mars. Thanks again Zdim.