The BBC is, as usual, too cute to be true. Their front page offers a link "In pictures: Blackout chaos". I click, expecting some, uh, chaos. Instead, I get what seems to be a tourist brochure for power-free New York:

1. Bus passengers taking a nap outside!
2. An empty Grand Central Station (o how chaotic that emptiess was!)
3. Ferries operating as normal
4. Cops directing traffic on near-empty streets
5. Citizens pitching in to help direct traffic
6. Smiling bartenders serving beer by candlelight
7. New Yorkers dining out, pleasantly, on the sidewalk
8. Peaceful skyline without lights, couple viewing it, holding each other, by tiki torches
9. Statue of liberty operating normally
10. Times Square after power restoration

Now, I don't know about you, but none of those images strike me as particularly chaotic. I mean, I think European sports fans cause more destruction than that. If anything, it seemed to be a bunch of model citizens posed for a "How to behave when the northeast loses power" emergency preparedness pamphlet.

Compared to the typical stress, hustle and bustle of NYC, these images seem downright serene.

You know, if I didn't know better, the contrast between the lede and content would almost make me think the BBC wanted to report a story differently than it actually happened. But they would never do that, would they?

Oh, and here's an equally cute quote from another BBC story:

In Russia, energy chief Anatoliy Chubays said that "the biggest accident in the history of world energy systems" could never have happened in his own country.

He could be excused a hint of smugness - Russia's united energy grid makes it possible to re-route electricity to regions whose power supplies have failed.

The outage was the "biggest accident in the history of world energy systems?" No, I think that title went to another little mishap. Does the name Chernobyl ring a bell, anyone? Something like that could never have happened in Russia. Excusable smugness, my foot: the correct term is amnesia.

Of course, had the BBC journalist done even the tiniest bit of research, he would have found the Russian system has had a long history of breakdowns. Just two years ago:

But today, the world's largest electricity grid is collapsing. Last winter was the worst to date, with whole sections of Russia's frigid Far East experiencing severe blackouts and unprecedented cold. Worn pipes and wires buckled, indoor toilet bowls froze, and public outcry led to the firing of the energy minister. If ever such reforms are to take place, this moment -- when Russia's economy is buoyed by high oil prices - may be the one.

For example:

Residents of Spassk, a once-prosperous industrial town 150 miles north Vladivostok, say it's typical of the regional breakdown. The cement and tractor factories still operate, blackening the snow in places with their soot. Others have shut down and been looted. Missing manhole covers, sold for scrap, leave treacherous holes in roads and sidewalks.

Inside, many toilets have frozen solid. To prevent radiators from doing the same, some residents plug in jury-rigged electrical-oven elements next to them, held together with tape and frayed wires. Schools have cut back their hours - kindergartens are shut completely - and local clinics have closed their doors.

"In Soviet times, [the heating] was so hot here we had to open our windows," says Zoya Tkachenko, who answers the door in a wool hat and teddy-bear slippers. Today, her windows have a thick layer of frost - on the inside. Half her apartment has heat. Scraping away the frost, she can see where the rest is going: outside. As in many parts of the city, pressurized steam escapes from ruptured pipes, creating large cauliflower-shaped ice flows.

And the situation wasn't much better last year:

In Amur province, coal miners went on strike in late February because they had not been paid in months. Like in Primorye, Amurenergo has not been able to pay for shipped coal because it is owed millions of rubles by its customers. The city of Blagoveshchensk has only been able to pay 50% of its energy debt. The mayor of Blagoveshchensk attempted to found an energy company of his own, to cut out Amurenergo, the middleman, and save some money, but Blagoveshchensk is unable to buy enough electric power to qualify as a wholesale bidder. In the town of Bozhayevka, residents are suffering through power outages lasting 12 hours a day and they have threatened to block the Trans-Siberian Railroad in protest.

And yes, these things happened under Anatoly's watch. While I'm sure he's working hard to improve things -- and hope this serves as a similar warning to us -- it doesn't sound like the kind of situation which should lead one to be, uh, smug about one's electrical network.

Nor would we expect the BBC to report it, apparently.