i was serious. it could wrap around the earth several times as long as it does not wrap around "straight" at a "equatorial" line. in what fashion would it wrap around? can someone elaborate? would a cable attached to a spinning sphere always wrap around an "equatorial" line? or could it also use other latitudes?
edit: i think you thought i was being sarcastic with the "nice problem to think about.thx" but i wasn´t. sorry for not making that clearer.
No, I thought you were being serious because it seems to me you're right. the "other end" would be geosynchronous orbit so ~22.2 miles. Such a station would have to be on the equator so would wrap around equatorially (if it failed in such a fashion).
I wish I could remember where I read about it now as it had some other interesting ideas for getting into space like linear accelerators and some weird double-donut thing I didn't understand.