[showsover]

That was a fun 10 hours or so that we were without power in most of Barcelona. Some barrios had ~some~ power but most of us were without.

The one thing that surprised me is how quickly rumors started about power being out in Portugal (true), France (true to an extent), Belgium (false), and the UK (false). Walking back home from work you heard the names of Trump being mentioned as well.

It's a bit scary to personally experience how quickly people can start panicking. On the other hand the bars that had some power had a great afternoon with tons of beer being served before it got too warm :-)

[Zealotux]

I am in Barcelona too. The combination of no power and patchy internet was the perfect recipe for rumors to spread, which was fun to observe. I went for a walk since I couldn't work and saw tons of people socializing, drinking beers (more than usual), and young people playing without their phones. It'll be a special day to remember, I think.

[prox]

Maybe make it a yearly event, turn off all power (like Earth Day) just for the socializing aspect.

[showsover]

I was actually considering going for a ride on the motorcycle today if the outage lasted another day. Beautiful weather, a tank full of gasoline, and no stress about work? Sign me up!

[TheOtherHobbes]

Spain and Portugal had to deny a fake social viral that said power was out across most of Europe and the Russians were cutting undersea cables.

On the upside, more people at all levels are going to be more prepared if it happens again.

[diggan]

Most people I spoke to around Maresme area yesterday believed someone incompetent made a mistake somewhere, and that was the reason. Some people jokingly suggested cyber attack/Russian probes, but afaik no one took those seriously.

[AStonesThrow]

How warm is "too warm"? I find cold beer, and cold soft drinks as well, quite repulsive. I usually try to order without ice entirely, and if I receive any bottles or cans, I permit them to come to room temp before consumption.

Refrigeration is sort of a scourge to those who enjoy food. We are so used to simply freezing our esophagus and not tasting anything! Food is kept cold because it lasts longer, not because it tastes better.

Sure, refrigeration makes restaurants and grocery stores possible. But it also presents challenges to cooking and it's very resource-intensive -- think about it -- basically everyone everywhere is always running their refrigeration -- that's a huge load on any system.

[showsover]

I was referring to the fact that generally people prefer cold beer, not room temp beer.

[IAmGraydon]

>It's a bit scary to personally experience how quickly people can start panicking.

People have been panicking, internally, for quite some time. What happened is that the threshold to externalize that panic was dropped with this event. So this is a very real example of how people are always looking for confirmation of what they already believe, and for a relatively brief time after they receive that confirmation, can live in a reality that is not at all aligned with base reality. I find this kind of thing fascinating, and it's been happening more and more in recent years due to changing dynamics in the way we communicate.

[xenospn]

I never have any cash on me. That would’ve sucked.

[elric]

In my experience, shops you frequent will be sympathetic to that problem and will just let you come back to pay later. And I imagine that any shops that sell stuff that needs to be kept cool were especially amenable to that ...

[showsover]

I spent my last 5 euros on a sandwich and a croissant to eat on the walk home. All in all a pretty decent experience.

[Bad_CRC]

I'm close to a refinery and seeing black smoke coming out 5 minutes later of the blackout was a bit of a scare tbh.

[consp]

As long as the beer is cool, you only need CO2! Great off grid mechanism. Or N2 in case of Guinness.

[MaoSYJ]

Most information was spread by car radios. Rest were people asking and talking to each other.

[debugnik]

A security guard at my workplace actually told me they had "received a call" about power being out in Romania as well. I'm not sure how that one rumour spread.