No mownie. "Because electrical flow must be maintained, any "excess unregulated current" remaining (after the Zener diode establishes "regulated output" into the main buss) will be diverted, or "shunted" into the ground conductor of the overall machine." A flash light battery has EMF and none of its current is diverted when it is not under load. Current-voltage characteristic of a Zener diode with a breakdown voltage of 17 volt. Notice the change of voltage scale between the forward biased (positive) direction and the reverse biased (negative) direction. A Zener diode is a type of diode that permits current to flow in the forward direction like a normal diode, but also in the reverse direction if the voltage is larger than the breakdown voltage known as "Zener knee voltage" or "Zener voltage". Named for Clarence Zener, discoverer of this electrical property. A conventional solid-state diode will not let significant current flow if it is reverse-biased below its reverse breakdown voltage. When the reverse bias breakdown voltage is exceeded, a conventional diode is subject to high current flow due to avalanche breakdown. Unless this current is limited by external circuitry, the diode will be permanently damaged. In case of large forward bias (current flow in the direction of the arrow), the diode exhibits a voltage drop due to its junction built-in voltage and internal resistance. The amount of the voltage drop depends on the semiconductor material and the doping concentrations. A Zener diode exhibits almost the same properties, except the device is specially designed so as to have a greatly reduced breakdown voltage, the so-called Zener voltage. A Zener diode contains a heavily doped p-n junction allowing electrons to tunnel from the valence band of the p-type material to the conduction band of the n-type material. In the atomic model, this tunneling corresponds to the ionization of covalent bonds. The Zener effect was discovered by physicist Clarence Melvin Zener. A reverse-biased Zener diode will exhibit a controlled breakdown and let the current flow to keep the voltage across the Zener diode at the Zener voltage. For example, a diode with a Zener breakdown voltage of 3.2 V will exhibit a voltage drop of 3.2 V if reverse bias voltage applied across it is more than its Zener voltage. However, the current is not unlimited, so the Zener diode is typically used to generate a reference voltage for an amplifier stage, or as a voltage stabilizer for low-current applications. The breakdown voltage can be controlled quite accurately in the doping process. Tolerances to within 0.05% are available though the most widely used tolerances are 5% and 10%. Another mechanism that produces a similar effect is the avalanche effect as in the avalanche diode. The two types of diode are in fact constructed the same way and both effects are present in diodes of this type. In silicon diodes up to about 5.6 volts, the zener effect is the predominant effect and shows a marked negative temperature coefficient. Above 5.6 volts, the avalanche effect becomes predominant and exhibits a positive temperature coefficient. In a 5.6 V diode, the two effects occur together and their temperature coefficients neatly cancel each other out, thus the 5.6 V diode is the component of choice in temperature critical applications. Modern manufacturing techniques have produced devices with voltages lower than 5.6 V with negligible temperature coefficients, but as higher voltage devices are encountered, the temperature coefficient rises dramatically. A 75 V diode has 10 times the coefficient of a 12 V diode. All such diodes, regardless of breakdown voltage, are usually marketed under the umbrella term of 'zener diode'. I conclude: you leak off all your excess current you want. I think I will keep mine.

nice pipe dream.

Always write as you "find it" Vee. It makes for a much more interesting discussion! :) Yes, even Nao made much of her name being pronounced Now and how it related to the time theme. Read the link I posted on bullying in Japan. Nao was an outsider who barely spoke Japanese after coming to that country from the states when she was a teenager. She had American customs and not Japanese ones, so of course whe would have stood out from the pack as a non-conformist. There is a racist remark that I have heard here where an Asian/American/Cdn who has lost his heritage is referred to as a banana, yellow on the outside and white on the inside, and that term is usually used by other Asians. That link explains why some teachers tolerated the bullying as a way to help the one picked on conform. Bizarre, I agree. The Jungle Crow? He too was blown off course and ended up far from home, just like the freezer bag and its contents. We do get birds like that here, and then the birders and their cameras camp out in some poor persons backyard so they can see the exotic visitor and cross it off their lifelist of birds. But in the novel there was some sort of bafflegab symbolism going on there, I am sure. Like I said earlier, I was in Ruth's area a little while ago and stayed on one of the islands. On a Friday night, they had what is called an 'open mic' and the villagers show up with musical instruments. Some brought tea, coffee, home made desserts and all were put on a table for everyone to share. At least 100 people showed up to listen. You just sign up if you want to display your musical talents or whatever and it goes in that order. Believe me, there were quite a few eccentric people, including a former US draft dodger who sorta twanged an electric guitar and then gave a stand up comedy routine which was, well, interesting. Some guy from Iran gave a speech on the human race, a native girl sang a song she wrote about bullying, a couple of guys had banjos and played some stuff they wrote. Lots of others, some were really good. Finding someone who speaks French is not hard at all, and there are plenty of Chinese and Japanese as well. The Japanese fisherman actually were an integral part of the fisheries during the 1920's to the 1950's. After Pearl Harbour many of them were gathered up and sent to internment camps, at least 145 of them from one cannery near Prince Rupert, causing the cannery to just about shut down. People on the coast are often aware of currents, especially after the tsunami. I think that was Oliver's specialty, wasn't his brain wired for things like that? Where I was staying, a couple of retired people beachcombed as a hobby. The woman found a Japanese fishing boat washed up on shore and using the numbers, she researched it and determined its original owners and confirmed it was from the tsunami. She actually visited Japan and eventually visited the elderly owners who had lost everything (the fishing...

In certain sense, I find it can be easier to behave courageously oh it can be scary and all. can be very scary. I went against groups in my life (and miraculously got away with it too. well that wasn't war situation either. no guns lol.) but I choose between two potential hard punishments here. I just knew that my inner punishment will be harder to bear I was conforming to my inner code. It'd be pretty unbearable otherwise But it's not like it appeared in vacuum.. I didn't invent it. I was taught it. I was taught it pretty strictly. Maybe I added to it and all, or tweaked it somehow. But it's not something original.. So in eyes of them who taught me-I'd be trespassing much more, and it's very heavy punishment. even if they don't see it. don't know it. even if they are dead. On the other hand, under other circumstances, when I think that others matter more, or that I matter less..or.. I can deliberately choose my inner punishment. if I think it's better for the cause. That'd be a longer story. I might seem non-conforming and all while doing that. I might seem pretty bad to outside observer. Won't be anything unique either. Plenty people seem like they make bad personal choices. Maybe they do indeed. Maybe they choose between bad choice and choice that would be worse. I also noticed. It can easier to act on behalf of somebody else. My inner compass is -hopefully-working allright. North is North and South is South when it's about me I'm less sure. (well it's also much easier to like somebody who's very far away. Harder to love them who surround you.)) the hardest is to like yourself. yourself, you know all too well. in discussions..I have certain rules. Which usually work. They're pretty much making-sense-rules. As my family put it, "rules of human co-existence".. Nothing original here either. It's not like I never get carried away-yet I try to adhere to them I might get carried away It might sound very harsh. My speech gets this clarity it usually lacks..)) Last time I got carried away I took myself out of the situation for several weeks. I was right by the way. I was completely right. If I say so myself. But I still felt bad. At certain point it mattered less that I was right.. I could feel that I was suddenly this unknown scary creature to my own friends. Took them time. To "recognize" me again So. I try to not get carried away. Ah..the thing that I figured out before..it wasn't about all that. It lied in a different plane.. it was something about passion And I knew that while to some it might look a passion, maybe enviable, maybe totally strange and unreasonable. To others it would be a completely understandable thing. It would depend on who's standing beneath these trees, looking up.