scott wrote:
>> I was thinking more of when everything has been covered in a 
>> continuous layer of water...
> 
> Are you sure that every part between the pylon structure and the cable 
> can get wet to form a continuous path?  It seems to me like part of the 
> design of the insulator is to keep other parts dry:
> 
> http://en.wikivisual.com/images/3/33/Pylon.detail.arp.750pix.jpg

How do you figure that?

> Even if it does *all* get wet, it's going to be a really thin layer of 
> water, and even non-pure water is not a particularly good conductor, if 
> you do the math the resistance probably comes out pretty huge.

You're aware that those cables are carrying several *million* volts?

Still, perhaps all that current would just vapourise the water - and 
then it wouldn't be there any more...

> BTW, that photo also shows the dampers attached on the cables either 
> side of the fixing point.

Well, this stuff clearly works - it's just a mystery to me *why* it 
works. ;-)

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>  Ok, maybe it's just different here (and basically everywhere else I have
> been), or they are really good at making it *look* like the cables are
> covered in black rubber. I certainly was fooled.
>
>  Do they paint them like that?

It's just the dull grey of aluminium oxide you are seeing on the outer 
surface.  If you looked close and polished them a bit you'd see nice shiny 
aluminium :-)

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>> I mean, seriously. Any moron can write a bunch of gibberish that doesn't 
>> make sense. But where's the entertainment in that?!
> 
>   I don't think everybody can write scripts of that quality. It requires
> expertise and talent.

It takes expertise and talent to write scripts which *make sense* and 
are *interesting*. The X-Files lacks both of these qualities in spades.

[OK, you can argue about whether or not something is "interesting". But 
whether something makes sense or not is pretty objective. It's hard to 
find something interesting when it's unintelligable gibberish.]

>   And some people like fiction for entertainment. If you don't like it,
> that doesn't mean nobody else souldn't like it either.

Sure, fair enough. I'm just puzzled as to why such a low-quality show 
was so absurdly popular.

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>> Are you sure that every part between the pylon structure and the cable 
>> can get wet to form a continuous path?  It seems to me like part of the 
>> design of the insulator is to keep other parts dry:
>>
>> http://en.wikivisual.com/images/3/33/Pylon.detail.arp.750pix.jpg
>
> How do you figure that?

Well they're like mushrooms stacked on top of each other, so presumably the 
narrow bit right up inside the mushroom "cap" stays pretty dry, unless the 
rain is going upwards.

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> It takes expertise and talent to write scripts which *make sense* and 
> are *interesting*. The X-Files lacks both of these qualities in spades.
> 
> [OK, you can argue about whether or not something is "interesting". But 
> whether something makes sense or not is pretty objective. It's hard to 
> find something interesting when it's unintelligable gibberish.]

Did you consider that maybe some people *can* understand it?

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"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> >  Ok, maybe it's just different here (and basically everywhere else I have
> > been), or they are really good at making it *look* like the cables are
> > covered in black rubber. I certainly was fooled.
> >
> >  Do they paint them like that?
>
> It's just the dull grey of aluminium oxide you are seeing on the outer
> surface.  If you looked close and polished them a bit you'd see nice shiny
> aluminium :-)

I think if you look at anything against a bright sky it will look matte black,
even if it's mirror-polished.

And isn't alumina pretty much transparent at the thicknesses it's likely to
reach in ambient conditions?

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>> It takes expertise and talent to write scripts which *make sense* and 
>> are *interesting*. The X-Files lacks both of these qualities in spades.
>>
>> [OK, you can argue about whether or not something is "interesting". 
>> But whether something makes sense or not is pretty objective. It's 
>> hard to find something interesting when it's unintelligable gibberish.]
> 
> Did you consider that maybe some people *can* understand it?

Some tiny minority of the population, perhaps. But that wouldn't explain 
it being so popular.

[Alternatively, I am drastically more stupid that the vast majority of 
the human population - an unlikely but plausible hypothesis.]

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> And isn't alumina pretty much transparent at the thicknesses it's likely 
> to
> reach in ambient conditions?

Having had a car with bare aluminium panels, I can tell you that it quickly 
goes dull grey if you don't polish it :-)  I have no idea what the thickness 
is, but it certainly is visibly very different.

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> I mean, seriously. Any moron can write a bunch of gibberish that doesn't 
> >> make sense. But where's the entertainment in that?!
> > 
> >   I don't think everybody can write scripts of that quality. It requires
> > expertise and talent.

> It takes expertise and talent to write scripts which *make sense* and 
> are *interesting*. The X-Files lacks both of these qualities in spades.

  You are now confusing two things:

  What you are talking about is "coming up with an interesting idea for a
story" (or what you consider being an interesting idea) versus writing a
good script for a TV series episode.

  Even if someone has a wonderfully ingenious idea for a script, that doesn't
mean he has the knowledge, expertise and talent to write a script that can
actually be used to film an interesting episode.

  A script requires more than just an idea. You need a lot more around it.
You need dialogue, you need events to progress through the story, you need
to describe the settings so that the people making the episode can stage
the scenes... Just having a good idea is certainly not enough to write a
good script.

  On the other hand, even a mediocre idea can be turned into a good script
in expert hands. Moreover, just writing a script good enough to be filmed
in the first place requires expertise. Not everybody is able to do that.
Most people could perhaps *learn* to do that with time and hard work, but
most people are certainly not born with the innate ability.

> [OK, you can argue about whether or not something is "interesting". But 
> whether something makes sense or not is pretty objective. It's hard to 
> find something interesting when it's unintelligable gibberish.]

  Just because you find it "unintelligable" (sic) gibberish doesn't mean
that everyone else does.

  Knowing that to you all C programs and all regular expressions are
unintelligible gibberish, I'm kind of not surprised.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Some tiny minority of the population, perhaps. But that wouldn't explain 
> it being so popular.

  Actually there's a contradiction there.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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