title: Why class level attributes work with Null
body: <p>I would think the following would throw NullPointerException </p>
  
  <pre><code>class N { 
      static int i;
      public static void main( String ... args ) { 
          System.out.println( ((N)null).i );
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But it doesn't. Why?</p>