[olug] One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts

[William E. Kempf]

Bill Brush said:
>
> Yes, lightning rods do actually work, providing they are properly
> grounded. Extremely high voltage arcs (ie lightning) do some funny
> things though, so nothing is 100% assured.

Electricity does wierd things, regardless of the level of voltage.  A
great example is a problem I encountered while running an IT department
for a grain processing plant.  We had a computer which had a hard drive
that would work like a charm for 5-14 days, and would then corrupt all
data.  And I mean ALL data.  The bits on the drive were scrambled to the
point you could hardly recognize anything on the drive.  We had an IBM
tech support contract, so called them in on the case.  They replaced the
HD 5 times.  Replaced the mother board twice.  After all of that, they
figured it must be an electrical problem and so our engineers tested the
outlets and power lines.  Couldn't find anything.  In the end, it turned
out to be a short in the keyboard!

So, when it comes to electrical problems, especially those caused by
lightning, you just protect yourself to the point you think the odds are
in your favor financially, and then pray you don't lose the bet.

-- 
William E. Kempf