Electric Field

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Counterparts
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Post by Counterparts »

Anybody (UK) see the front page of the Guardian last Saturday?

http://www.boxyit.com/r/index.htm

Is what it was about - I've been trying to find a link to a picture equally impressive as the one used in the newspaper, but alas have not been able to.

Basically, Richard Box has 'planted' a field of strip lights (flourescent tubes) underneath power lines/pylons near Bristol as a part of Bristol Uni's investigation into the effects of living underneath/near power lines.

I went out to see them last night - they are pretty spooky! Moving near them affects their light and there's a weird crackling noise going on too (NOTE: all the tubes light up just due to their proximity to the power lines).

They're only up until Feb 29th (this Sunday I believe), but they're well worth a look if you can make it over to the West Country.

My favorite thing that Mr Box has done was the floating flourescent brains which were quite spooky (see the archive link).

Some further links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3509651.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/ma ... ield.shtml
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2004/360

Royston
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

yes,full of meaning.........
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astroman
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Post by astroman »

simple but highly impressive setup - I wouldn't dare to settle close to those things :eek:
Btw Royston, yesterday we watched a travel DVD about a Great Britain roundtrip.
Your hometown was featured in a (very) small episode - nice surroundings :smile:

cheers, Tom
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interloper
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Post by interloper »

Pretty cool, I actually heard about this while I was taking electrical engineering at the university.

There was a farmer in the US who somehow found out about this phenomenon. He proceeded to build chicken houses beneath the transmission lines, because he figured that he could keep the lights on for free.

Well, all went well until the company that operated the transmission lines noticed larger than usual losses from one end to the next, so the flew every mile of line via helicopter. They were quite surprised when they found that this guy built the chicken houses on what is essentially their property. Needless to say, he was shut down.
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

those couldn't have been happy chickens.
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Nestor
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Post by Nestor »

On 2004-02-24 21:54, garyb wrote:
those couldn't have been happy chickens.
I use one of those for the actives of my bass, they last more than a couple of 1.5 Everready! :lol:
*MUSIC* The most Powerful Language in the world! *INDEED*
hubird

Post by hubird »

edit: disturbed smilie link


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2005-06-22 03:47 ]</font>
samplaire
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Post by samplaire »

My friend works at a broadcasting station for merchant navy - you know, they have a very large shortwave transmitters and antennas (he says his hand hair stand up while walking near them). Once there was a repair (wall painting, replacing lights) and they equipped the control room with some light tubes. After they switched the transmitters all the lights turned on! With no switch-off option! Then they had to replace them with traditional light bulbs. It was some 14 years ago.
BTW I'm not jelous of his work. At all :wink:
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interloper
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Post by interloper »

There's another thing I heard from a professor in school that relates to that. The military radar systems on large ships put out so much power that any seagull that flies close to it, drops dead instantly.

Kinda makes you want to hold that cell phone away from you noodle, doesn't it? :smile: Difference in power, yes, but it works on the same concept.

Electromagnetic waves are unlike any other wave, like waves in water or a standing wave on a string, or even audio waves. EM waves don't require a medium in order to propagate, which is what makes them unique and quite hazardous in large doses.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: interloper on 2004-02-25 16:05 ]</font>
samplaire
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Post by samplaire »

They say it's good to turn a fuse off not to allow circuit to be in your sockets while you sleep. This seems like a witch hunt for me but you never know.

Cell phone? One man told me there are worse things like a hair dryer - you put it to your head and there is a transformer inside (or at least an electromagnet). Also those energy safe bulbs are not good because the same reason (a transformer inside). It's bad to sit behind (I mean not in front of but from the rear view) a working monitor (TV set), too. Do you know if your neighbour has a TV set next to your wall? The radiation goes 2m from the energy source!
They say cell phones are dangerous especialy for your eyes. The get warmth very fast while they get colder very long. That's the point of danger - your eye become 2 celcius degrees warmer after 10 minutes of phone in use! Also dangerous is using it in a car - it's a metalbox which stops the waves inside doubling the potential health damage.

A blood cancer (caused by electro-magnetic field, too) is an electric locomotive drivers disease.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2004-02-26 04:27 ]</font>
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interloper
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Post by interloper »

About phones, everybody should be aware that when you are in a building, the phone increases it's power output to maintain connection with the tower. So if you feel your phone getting hot while you're talking, radiation just went up exponentially.

Also, I don't understand why some people don't want to use handsfree kits. :roll: Chances are that during your conversation you will be oriented in such a way that your head is between the phone and the cell tower. Guess what, EM waves are passing right through your brain. Hurray.

Wanna do a fun test? Take a handheld radio, tune it to no particular frequency (so you don't get a radio station), and hold it in front of a mains socket. Snap, crackle, & pop. No, that's not your SFP system with a crappy ASIO driver, that is electron shot noise.

Digital clock radios should not be near your head while you sleep. Depending on where you are in the world, every second the clock emits 50/60 pulses, as the current cycles.

At least in Sweden the regulations for EM output are enforced. In the US, it's a joke.
samplaire
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Post by samplaire »

On 2004-02-25 06:07, hubird wrote:



Image

Huub, look what happened to your smilies, or you.. play.... eh... football :grin: ???

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2005-06-20 23:59 ]</font>
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BingoTheClowno
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Post by BingoTheClowno »

On 2004-02-24 19:39, interloper wrote:

Well, all went well until the company that operated the transmission lines noticed larger than usual losses from one end to the next, so the flew every mile of line via helicopter.
Sorry, but this is nonsense, the farmer couldn't have caused the line losses just by using the EM field.
emzee
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Post by emzee »

Maybe he'd run a cable down to operate his incubator...............
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Post by Spirit »

The universe is a seething electro-magnetic soup. Everything is EM waves, from visible light to the unstoppable cosmic rays that can knock out little bits of your DNA. It is our natural realm.

The little bags of slop we call humans just happen to prefer certain "stations" on the EM band...
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