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Tamed Lightning (sllightly OT)

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J. Clarke

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Aug 10, 2021, 3:30:33 PM8/10/21
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Seanan McGuire has in the October Daye stories a political subdivision
of Faerie called "The County of Tamed Lightning", which, among other
things, melds magic and electronics to provide communication services
in Faerie.

I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be obvious.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH-3TdWI-yI>

Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and at
least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as her
"talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.

Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the sound you
hear. In person they are _loud_.

If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

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Aug 10, 2021, 4:10:05 PM8/10/21
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J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:j6i5hgdboprsrajqv...@4ax.com:
The technology has been around for a while. It got popular a few
years ago when a popular act on America's Got Talent (using electric
guitars) used it.

--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration
(May 2019 total for people arrested for entering the United States
illegally is over 132,000 for just the southwest border.)

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

Torbjorn Lindgren

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Aug 10, 2021, 6:51:10 PM8/10/21
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Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha <taus...@gmail.com> wrote:
>J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> wrote in
>news:j6i5hgdboprsrajqv...@4ax.com:
>> I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be
>> obvious.
>>
>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH-3TdWI-yI>
>>
>> Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and
>> at least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as
>> her "talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
>>
>> Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
>> electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the
>> sound you hear. In person they are _loud_.

Yup, the technical term is "plasma arc speaker", the arc generates
plasma that displace air, which IS sound.

These days you can buy ~$50 "bluetooth musical tesla coil" on
AliExpress though reviews suggest that the audio quality on them is
rather bad. There's even <$10 (including shipping) "build your own
from these components" kits, though at that price it's 3.5mm input
rather than Bluetooth.

I'm not surprised the audio quality is bad, I expect they just drive
them with audio but to get something recognizable it needs
considerable pre-processing, it's a very quirky speaker.

OTOH I expect that the pre-processing necessary is well within the
capabilities of a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero.


>> If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.
>>
>
>The technology has been around for a while. It got popular a few
>years ago when a popular act on America's Got Talent (using electric
>guitars) used it.

ArcAttack was likely the first band doing it in public, looks like the
first known public performance was in March 2006, with a few others
using their 2007 publication to build similar devices.

ArcAttack were also the ones in the 2010 season of America's Got
Talent, looks like they did three AGT performance (including the
audition) and Youtube confirms one of them did include a guitar, the
video didn't say which one it was but based on the date in the
description it should be the quarter-final 4 performance (which got
them to semi-final 1).

One could argue it's "just" a variant of "Plasma Speaker" and those
have been around since at least the 1950's. The lineage goes back to
William Duddell's "singing arc" which he demonstrated in... 1900.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcAttack
https://agt.fandom.com/wiki/ArcAttack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Tesla_coil

Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

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Aug 10, 2021, 7:36:49 PM8/10/21
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Torbjorn Lindgren <t...@none.invalid> wrote in
news:seuvsq$s9k$1...@dont-email.me:
It was a pretty popular act that year. The competition was stuff,
but any act that gets on TV is a winner.

Jonathan

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Aug 10, 2021, 8:16:58 PM8/10/21
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I've always loved this pic of Tesla casually sitting there
reading a book next to his machine like he's the
God of lightning. Talk about a show off~

Proving that voltage isn't everything, amperage is.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/854081800/tesla-in-his-laboratory-photo-print?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=tesla+art&ref=sr_gallery-1-7&frs=1






--
https://twitter.com/Non_Linear1

J. Clarke

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Aug 10, 2021, 8:25:08 PM8/10/21
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I think it's one of those deals where you can have high fidelity or
volume but not both. The Tesla speakers aren't really
modulated--they're driven by an interrupter, so it's on or off, and
each cycle of the sound is literally a separate lightning strike.

Robert Carnegie

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Aug 10, 2021, 8:50:41 PM8/10/21
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Well, note "Description": the picture is faked. The arcs
are real, and Mr Tesla was sitting there, but not at the
same time: it's a "double exposure" on one film.

Ninapenda Jibini

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Aug 11, 2021, 1:45:54 AM8/11/21
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Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote in
news:4e0e4eff-cdd5-4a16...@googlegroups.com:
He did, however, consider running high voltage (as high as a
million volts) though his body to be theraputic. (At insaenly high
frequences, because the higher the frequency, the more the
electricity is confined to the outermost edges of the conductor.)

--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration


"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

J. Clarke

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Sep 25, 2021, 3:26:36 PM9/25/21
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On Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:51:06 -0000 (UTC), Torbjorn Lindgren
<t...@none.invalid> wrote:

And now it's happened again. 3 weeks ago Xyla posted a video in which
she made a "bulletproof" ball gown with corset of Kevlar and carbon
fiber. And Seanan has October Daye wearing a wedding dress with
corset that doubles as body armor.

Quadibloc

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Sep 26, 2021, 12:03:22 AM9/26/21
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On Tuesday, August 10, 2021 at 4:51:10 PM UTC-6, Torbjorn Lindgren wrote:

> I'm not surprised the audio quality is bad, I expect they just drive
> them with audio but to get something recognizable it needs
> considerable pre-processing, it's a very quirky speaker.

Of course, though, the audio quality requirements for a *musical instrument*
are _vastly_ different from those for a *record player*. It's only the _latter_
that has to produce a linear replica of the input with vanishingly low
distortion.

John Savard
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