Tell that to the high voltage power lines I go for bike rides under… There’s no visible ionization, but I can feel tingling in my hands and sometimes nuts…

Neutron star?

The problem is “path of least resistance” implies that there is only one path, which laymen tend to take literally. I go for bike rides along a canal which also has high voltage power lines running above it. If I hold my handlebars just right, with my hands just barely touching the metal of my brake levers, the (I assume) corona discharge gets rather painful. “Path of least resistance” seems like it should be confined to the wire, but in fact includes ~100 feet of air between wire and ground… And me.

They are, actually. The point of patents and copyright is not to protect the creator- that’s a temporary effect. The point is to release the thing to the public afterwards. The problem is that capitalism corrupts the process and finds ways to make the temporary effects permanent. Disney has succeeded in making copyright last effectively forever.

Reinventing the wheel leads to a profound understanding of why wheels are round.

I told them if it pops up to let me know…