Watts are a unit of power. Regardless of voltage, if your appliance is drawing 3000 watts, it is heating up the same as any other device that draws 3000 watts.

Wires are not sized on the number of watts they can carry. They are sized on the number of amps they carry. If a wire is sized for 10amps, and you are using 12v, you can only get 120 watts through it. Increase the voltage to 120v, and you can get 1200 watts through that same wire. Increase to 240v, and you can get 2400 watts from that wire. The higher the voltage, the less copper you need to carry it. You need thicker insulation to handle that increased voltage, but insulation is cheap. It’s more dangerous to humans who come into contact with the wires, but you can build in additional methods to restrict human contact, such as fancy plugs and sockets.

The UK and Europe had a severe copper shortage when they rebuilt after WWII. They standardized on 240V to reduce the size of wires they needed in their homes. Instead of dozens of, low-amp circuits, they installed only a couple high-amp circuits for their entire home. They designed their household wiring so that the same circuit that powers the alarm clock on their nightstand is also used for their 3000-watt space heater.

They further reduced copper consumption by using undersized wire in a “ring” circuit instead of properly sized wire in a “branch” circuit. Failures in ring circuits are extraordinarily dangerous, because there is no immediate indication that they have failed. Each outlet receives power from two sides of the ring; if one side fails, they draw all their power from the other side, overloading the ring.

The US solution to these problems is intrinsically safer household wiring. We threw copper at the problem, because we had the copper to throw. But what we got in return was a vastly safer system. We managed to get a 240v system that only carries the risks of a 120v system.

That would make sense if your GP or specialist was also taking shifts in the ER, but they aren’t. They aren’t choosing between your hip replacement and the lawn dart embedded in a college kid’s spleen.

Your hip replacement is in line behind 274 other hip replacements. It is performed by a doctor who does nothing but routine surgeries, day in, and day out, and never touches an emergent patient.

Private clinics exist and have shorter lines for those willing to pay. The government could admit their own line is too long and start paying those clinics to take their overflow. But they dont. Better to let you rot for three years than pay a private practice doctor to do it in a week.

Fortunately, weather radio continues to issue EAS alerts throughout their broadcast area. Weather radios in the cabins would have alerted them.

Of course, WEA alerts are much more narrowly targeted. WEA alerts are for your own specific area, not the ~50 mile radius around the weather radio transmitter. An EAS alert might be for a tornado a hundred miles out and moving away, while you sit under clear, sunny skies.

Regardless, the speed and degree of flooding far exceeded expectations for dangerous storms. There is no evidence they lacked or ignored the warnings that were sent out. Their preparations were simply inadequate, because the flooding so greatly exceeded their expectations.

many people even have alerts totally disabled, because authorities got so spammy with the amber alerts.

At least amber alerts are actual emergencies. I can hear sirens for three different jurisdictions. They all test them on different days and different times, and then use them for routine weather conditions, so nobody actually pays any attention to them. Then they just fail to use any of them when two tornadoes do actually pass through town.

Obviously, YMMV. But in my experience, sirens are worse than useless.

WEA alerts, on the other hand, are extremely reliable.

I listen to the same ~30 songs, over and over and over again.

Sirens are outdated and unreliable. The EAS has relied primarily on mobile devices for 10+ years.

Alerts were issued. The problem was that the flood waters rose faster and much, much higher than in typical storms. So the usual precautions they take for typical floods were completely inadequate for this one.

That refers to the audible sirens. Sirens are outdated technology. The emergency alert system has relied primarily on cell phones for over a decade now.

The relevant criticism in the article is not the lack of sirens, but this:

NWS alerts triggered Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) on enabled mobile devices, but many summer camps do not allow campers to bring mobile devices to camp.

These no-devices policies dont make sense in a world where emergency alerts are delivered via mobile devices.

The issue isn’t the voltage. It is the wattage. UK kettles draw 3kW. US outlets are (typically) only rated for 2.4kW. We can easily get dedicated 30A, 120v outlets that will provide 3.6kW.

US 240v is not the same as UK 240v.

The UK uses a single live phase, (240v with respect to ground), and a neutral (0v with respect to ground).

The US uses two live phases. Each phase is 120v with respect to ground, but they are 180 degrees apart from eachother. Phase to phase is 240V, but either phase to ground is 120v.

A UK kettle expects its neutral phase to be at the same potential as ground, which can’t happen in the US without a 1-to-1 transformer

You are refuting an argument that I did not make.

I am refuting the argument that would need to be made in order to support your position. I clearly specified that necessity in my refutation. “Cancer” and “billionaire” would have to be synonymous, not analogous, for “literally” to have been used correctly.

What type of cancer are billionaires? Carcinomas are cancers of epithelial tissue, but “society” does not have epithelial tissue. Sarcomas are cancers of musculoskeletal and connective tissues, but “society” does not have bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. Myelomas are cancers of the plasma cells in bone marrow, but again, “society” doesn’t have bones. Leukemias are cancers of the various blood cells, but society doesn’t have “blood”. Lymphomas are cancers of the lymphatic system, but society doesn’t have one of those either.

In fact, “society” does not have biological tissues or organs that could even become literally cancerous. (Members of society do, indeed, have these various organs and tissues, but no member of society has been diagnosed with a “Bezosma” or “Muskaemia”.)

“Billionaires are cancer” is a metaphor. “Billionaires are literally cancer” is simply a false statement, unless “literally” was used, incorrectly, as hyperbole.

My point is that I believe OP was using the word “literally” to mean what it literally means,

You can only rationally make that argument if you are claiming that “society” is a biological organism, like an amoeba or a babboon, presumably evolved from other common ancestors of all life on earth. When you can tell me the scientific name of this organism, and what organs have been affected by tumors, we can start talking about the literality of the “cancer” OP referred to.

As the underlying logic was metaphorical, “literally” was used as figurative hyperbole, not literality.

My generation’s retirement account:

I don’t think you’re understanding me. I’ll see if I can rephrase.

There is no “jail them for life” option without the law. If you try to imprison them without the law, the law will just come in and free them. You’re suggesting a middle option that is simply not feasible.

I’m asking you to choose between:

• “Guillotine Party”, a political party, much like the Tea Party, dedicated to stripping the problem-class of their excessive political power, perhaps by creating laws to justify their permanent imprisonment. We politically, figuratively decapitate them. This approach can (theoretically) jail them for life, by creating the law that would allow it to happen.

• “guillotine party”, where we solve the problem-class in much the same way that 18th century France solved their aristocracy problem. We literally decapitate them. This approach will not jail them for life; this approach will execute them for anti-revolutionary activities.

While the specific details will vary wildly, these are the only two general options we have available to us to effect reform: politics, or force.

No, actually, it doesn’t make you liable for manslaughter. It probably doesn’t even rise to the level of civil liability for wrongful death. They are compliant with the law, and they make sure of that by having their lawyers write the laws. The “anyone involved in the deaths” includes the deceased themselves, who is determined to bear primary responsibility.

We can override the laws they are writing (Guillotine Party) or we can suspend the laws to hold them accountable (guillotine party). But jailing them without a conviction just isn’t feasible.

I think OP used literally correctly here.

Then you do not understand what the word “literally” literally means.

While several treatments would work for either, (such as carving up the offending subject with a knife, or sufficient application of chemical or radiative agents), billionaires are an economic problem, not a biologic one.

There is no law providing for such a sentence, so what you are talking about is either “make billionaireism illegal” or “extrajudicial punishment”. In the case of the former, we need a Guillotine Party to take over the DNC much like the Tea Party took over the GOP. Or, we need a guillotine party, French Revolution style, to resolve the problem-class at its source.