On a happier note....

Is the NSA's Data Center Melting Down Because It's Spying Too Much?

http://gizmodo.com/is-the-nsas-data-center-melting-down-because-its-spyi-1442280675

Lets all hope so,

 

Wow, arc faults. Brings back old memories

For fun, see <-http://www.arcfault.org/->.

I love EEs

 

This made my day.

 

Creating lightening.... indoors
Awesome

 

This is the best part:

Based on my limited knowledge, here's how it happens. Let's say that you have some electrical gear. In normal operation, all conductors with voltage between them are isolated by some combination of insulation and space/distance.

However, let's say that your setup is carrying LOTS of current. And let's say that your equipment starts drawing too much current, causing a circuit breaker to fail. All that current has something like momentum, so it keeps flowing for a few milliseconds, even through there's no complete circuit for it to flow through. What happens then is a transient -- and potentially HUGE -- increase in the voltage between some of your conductors. If the voltage goes high enough to break down the insulation and ionize the gas (usually air) between those conductors, an arc will form. Arcs have essentially zero resistance. And so more current flows, and the arc gets bigger, with even less resistance. That feedback loop continues, VERY quickly, until another circuit breaker fails. And if the current has increased enough by then, that circuit breaker just becomes another arc

Isn't that just so cool?

Or rather, hot

 

any amount of time they chase their tails is just fine with me and the longer they do it the happier I'll be.

 

am lovin it xD , keep up the great work nsa your doing it right for the first time