• @toynbee
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    305 hours ago

    When I was young, my mother showed me an educational book that had things like riddles, puzzles, and mental exercises in it. One of these entries had a short, mundane paragraph, followed by some form of “what was wrong with that text?”

    It then explained that I had missed the word “the” being on the end of one line but also the start of the next line which, indeed, I did miss. It suggested that the human mind couldn’t see duplicate words split in such a way, at least in English, unless actively looking for them.

    I now know that, while it did trick me, its theory was incorrect … Because I can’t not see “from from.”

      • @toynbee
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        85 hours ago

        That seems likely.

  • @[email protected]
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    6315 hours ago

    My brother started working for company that makes these things and now he points every little detail on them.

    “Look at this insulator” “Look these anchor points are made at factory I visited last week” …

    • @pageflight
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      1912 hours ago

      I would subscribe to his YouTube channel!

    • Dragon Rider (drag)
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      36 hours ago

      Drag believes this is from an electric railway. The pulleys and weights keep the cable taut so the train can stay connected to it at high speeds.

    • @LegoBrickOnFire
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      14 hours ago

      Those are things that regulate the tension in the overhead cables on train tracks. With the variation of temperature cables tend to contract/expand and this systems allows the cables to do so freely with a constant tension provided by the weights.

      • @[email protected]
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        1914 hours ago

        These are so simple and yet so clever. When i noticed them the first time i started noticing them everywhere (on all rail infrastructure).

        • @someacnt_
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          15 hours ago

          Is it simple? It looks quite complicated, but maybe that’s just me forgetting how to compute forces.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 hours ago

            simple in that it’s just a clever series of wires and pulleys, not some sort of digital adjustment device, i suppose

            • @[email protected]
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              12 hours ago

              Also, you are looking at a few different wires at once here. Each separate wire is tensioned with a mechanism with a few moving parts.

        • @RubberElectrons
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          511 hours ago

          I as well. Seattle transit, NEC Amtrak and NJ transit live off of these. If these systems work for them, they’ll work for us all

  • @perviouslyiner
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    515 hours ago

    And the weights are like a bigger version of the weight-hangers from science classes.