Air Conditioners?

I don't know anybody with AC here because the climate here is temperate and there's not much humidity compared to other countries in Europe. If the region is humid, then AC should be provided to make the house more habitable for the person.

It is the case that living in hot and humid climates can be very harsh for those not used to it. If you are in such a place and without airconditioning, you'll never use a blanket or even a sheet in some cases, because if you do you might wake up and think someone threw you into the swimming pool over night. True, it is possible to live without airconditioning but for some its difficult if their not used to it. Some people find it quite easy, others find it very hot. The fact is that if someone is going to complain that there is no need for airconditioning, they should not ask for heating when their put in minus five degree temperature. If i'm not mistaken a few people died in France during a heatwave in June or July 2006.

We're from the SU and the way we did it was keep the windows open at night to let the house cool down then close all the windows and blinds during the day as the temperature heats up. The house stays cooler that way. Fans running and everything.

Now that we live in the US, we just have the AC running.

If I may ask, were your fans ceiling or wall and floor fans? If the former, then i'd imagine it was quite easy to keep cool, provided they worked well.

A/C is a necessity in the summer here in the US south.

Quite a few people have died in the US in the recent heatwave. Its pretty rare for apartments to include AC at least up here in oregon.
Theres little reason a socialist state should omit it in the modern age i figure, at least in hotter climates

I live in Singapore which is geographically close to the equator. We have summer all year round and while temperatures (average) never rise to 40°C, they never go lower than 23°C either. Which means we've been living under temperatures like these since we were born and to be honest, none of us here has really gotten used to it because AC in just about every single indoor area is a necessity. And we are spoiled by it definitely but I can't say for sure if we'd be able to take the heat without AC throughout 12 months, every single year of our lives with no spring, autumn nor winter.

We complain about the heat all the time (then again, Singaporeans are notorious for complaining) and it's hard not to get spoiled by the AC because it's everywhere and unavoidable. It's hard to sleep at night without it. There was once when the AC in my parents room went out for several days and my dad couldn't take the heat, so much that he actually considered booking a hotel room just for those couple of nights.

I know for a fact that there's plenty of a/c devices in Cuba. Certainly in hotels, and at least some prefab houses I saw from the street had the telltale exhaust hole in the wall outside

I dont know where those were made, but I'm betting China

What's life in Singapore like BTW?
I think i read somewhere that 30% of population are rich people...

Hmm...what exactly do you want to know about?

I can't say much about the percentage of rich people here but it's very difficult to call anyone poor. We're a tiny country which has historically revolved around entrepot trade which has made us rather rich. I'll say first that I'm still studying as a student and am not yet part of the working world so I can't tell you about my experiences in that area though it's interesting to note that over a giant 40% of our entire population are actually foreign workers and this stirs up massive outcries from locals because the foreigners are apparently stealing a lot of our jobs.

It's a multiracial society and overall, it's more than a stable life for the most of us. The standard of living is supposed to mimic that of Ireland, I believe. The government is semi-authoritarian (elections are just a fake show) and the country is very controlled but they do take care of us and most citizens trust the government. Personally, my main problem is the people. I feel the people here are incredibly unfriendly and very, "kiasu" which is what we pretty much call "fear of losing" in Hokkien. The governments actually employs "Politeness Campaigns". That is just sad. More on that here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiasu

Some of the things Singaporeans are proud of and like to boast about would be the wide range of food (due to our multicultural society), the low crime rate (it's incredibly safe here) and our airlines LOL.

Quote:

The government is semi-authoritarian (elections are just a fake show)

Aren't they like that everywhere, though?

Singapore is a bit more extreme though...i heard even chewing-gum is banned there.

Yes, weapons especially are more tightly controlled than in other places. Things like knives, swords and other blades have a lot of restrictions (no balisongs/walking sticks with daggers/throwing knives) though I'm not entirely sure because some are ok as long as they are made and used/carried domestically which doesn't make much difference because just about everything we have is imported. Firearms though, are absolutely banned (aside from police and military). No questions asked. Not even replicas, deactivated, airsoft/bb...nothing. No license or whatever, just banned. Only sporting organizations can have things like air rifles, paintball guns and bow and arrows.

A lot of other random stuff like handcuffs, pepper spray and yes, chewing gum. CHEWING GUM IS BANNED. The reasoning is that there were a lot of kiasu complaints about people sticking gum everywhere and they decided to completely ban it after several incidents of gum at the train doors jamming the door system. But still, they are often smuggled in from neighbouring Malaysia.

The government does discourage smoking although not much is done outside of teaching us that in school. Every now and then people will complain about smokers and there will be some new thing about non-smoking areas. I'm not sure about those quit-smoking gum. Aren't those issued by doctors?

Wasraw wrote:

Ok, so I just had my AC break in my house and waiting for it to return, I realized how much I fallen in love with the Air Conditioning.

My question is, did Warsaw Pact countries, U.S.S.R. and others have AC like we do in America?

Yes, of course
http://www.google.com.ua/search?q=%D0%B ... sga5pI28AQ

Pug wrote:

Yes, of course
http://www.google.com.ua/search?q=%D0%B ... sga5pI28AQ

From your link, this url

This is the AC equipment that was ubiquitous in Cuba, and which I had assumed to be Chinese in this thread. Apparently the joke I made back when I was there about it being Russian-made (and set in a permanent "Syberian-temp" setting) had a grain of truth in it.

The heck, why do we need airconditioners? what for? 98% of the people in capitalist countries can not afford them either. Nonetheless, when the last stage is attained, that is communism which the Soviet Union almost attained if not for the traitors in the Kremlin, people should have afforded them. There were washing machines in the Old Soviet Union.