NEMA 5 - or - Why the upside down looking outlets are actually right side up

This is a real geeky post, but one that could in theory save your house from burning down.Take the standard household outlet in the US -- the lowly NEMA 5 outlet.This is how it's installed in most houses in the US -- including my own for the most part.It's also wrong. And unsafe.It's upside down. If it's upside down why is installed that way everywhere? My guess is that it's the fact that it looks kind of like a face and prompts folks to install it that way.Why is it unsafe?Well, if something is plugged in all the way it's just fine.The problem is when it's the plug is not fully seated in the socket.Now, this is not a theoretical problem. This happened to a friend of mine back in the Insurance.com days. The problem is that something can fall in and wedge itself between the blades of the plug. Chris B, back from ICOM had a penny do just that.You have to excuse the hastily done reenactment of the events. I didn't want to actually cause arcing so I pulled a spare outlet from my box of electrical stuff. The problem is that you actually have a lot of energy at the socket level. Even before the breaker shuts things off (or the fuse blows if you're kicking it old school) there's a giant arc that'll take a chunk out of the thing that shorts things. I've had that happen personally with an electrical tester, but that's another story -- maybe next time. An arc for a few hundredths of a seconds will take a good 1/16" chunk out of that penny and vaporize it.The problem is what happens if the breaker is faulty? Well, then you overheat something. The penny if you're lucky. The house wires if you're not.I had to work hard to even get the penny balanced on the ground pin. Even in this state though it's perfectly safe. If the penny drops to the hot side......gravity will continue its effort and not balance on the hot terminal. Yes, they thought of that too... the distance between the ground and hot when falling is less than the diagonal distance between them so it'll drop harmlessly between hot and neutral -- which is also wider set than that spacing. If it does happen to do the one-in-a-million balance on the hot, it'll be too far from ground to complete a circuit so it's still safe.Sure, it may look awkward, but it's also the safe way to install outlets here in the US.Maybe I'll make of project out of flipping them the right way around in my house. Yeah, I'm a nerd like that.