"There's an interactive element to all this, too, if you go to the site itself. 'You affect the lights by your proximity', says Richard, 'because you're a much better conductor than a glass tube. And there's sound as well as light - a crackling that corresponds to the flashing of the lights. There's a certain smell too, and your hair stands slightly on end.'"

Reminds me of a place I know in Livermore.

And of a Barenaked Ladies song. Pretty.

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Reminds me of that scene in The Prestige with David Bowie playing Tesla.

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Exactly my first thoughts.

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You should steal my version of the bug-eyed Earl icon.

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Is it still stealing if you tell me to do it?

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music| Magnetic Fields - 100,000 Fireflies

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The only way that suggestion could have been worse is if you suggested something by Tesla.

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Would you prefer International Theremin Orchestra?

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Wow. Someone finally got a picture of the series of tubes Internet.

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yay! this is one of my very favorite sculptures! so beautiful! I've always wanted to go visit, but even if i could get myself to britain, none of the press that I've seen has ever been very clear about where, exactly, it is. It may no longer even be up, for all I know.

Someone told me a couple years ago that he remembered there being a "similar" sculpture up north somewhere off of Highway 37, but I haven't taken the trouble to go looking for it, since it was only a vague memory and he couldn't give me any details. I'll have to do that one of these days - thanks for reminding me.

this one always reminds me of another of my favorites, walter de maria's lightning field. Similar feel to it, though the lighting field is on such a large scale that it isn't as immediately gratifying as this one is.

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I'm pretty sure it was a) temporary b) near Bristol. BBC News seems to confirm both: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/3509651.stm

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Real!

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So, if you can get lighting through induction, why not set up some gear to get that electricity to power some equipment along the high-tension right of way? Water pumps for cattle and irrigation? Boosters for the local grid. Cell towers. That's free energy right there.

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People have done it. I can't be bothered to go and find sources, but from what I remember, people next to the power lines would bury large barrels of copper wire and then siphon off the juice.

For some reason it was made illegal. On the one hand, it's obviously theft. On the other, I'm not sure if they're collecting energy that would've been lost anyway, or if the loop incurs an extra loss that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

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Extra loss. Inductance in the stealing coil causes resistance in the power line.

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That photo would make a really excellent album cover.

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