Originally published at: Utah sheriff: Please stop hanging hammocks from high-voltage towers | Boing Boing
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Also, please stop driving while blindfolded.
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They don’t mention anything about who’s doing and why. Maybe they don’t mind the volts, and it’s easy to toast their smores?
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The Darwin Gamblers’ membership never seems to reduce - there’s always new members ready to replace the dead ones.
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can’t you light up neon bulbs just by bringing them under one of those lines at ground level?
i can’t help but think the strength of the em field wouldn’t be good for anyone, regardless of… you know… electrocution
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A couple of minutes on Google reveals that the idea of hanging hammocks from high tension pylons is something that really hasn’t occurred to very many people at all.
Apart from those people in Utah, no one.
Until now.
Thanks Utah Sheriff.
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There was a guy in Connecticut who grabbed a six pack and climbed one of those towers to drink and enjoy the view. They found him on the ground, still two beers unopened up on the tower-- the electricity jumped to his urine stream, and that was that.
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I wouldn’t think so under normal conditions. But a neon bulb would be acted upon by the corona discharge field, not necessarily the EM field. So in conditions where a corona discharge is possible you might could have a neon tube light up.
There are 75,000 kilovolts that run through those power lines.
That’s not right. Perhaps 75KV, but 75MV would throw an arc long enough to cross the lines and down the tower…not to mention the current level would melt the wire. Electricity typically arcs at around 3KV per inch (at least in open air).
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I expect Gwyneth Paltrow will promote a Goop-branded High Tension Tower Hammock that harvests the healing power of concentrated EMF any minute now. We hear experts saying it’s astoundingly effective, especially when purchased with:
and used in conjunction with:
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Oh man, you monster! How do I unremember that?!?!?!
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It’s not that easy to electrocute yourself on the really high-voltage lines, as they are designed to be very difficult to short out (and to have people work on them while live). The conductors will be 20ft apart or more, so you can’t come close to touching them while touching anything else. Although you might manage it with some wet climbing ropes. But if your goal is electrocution, it’s much easier with the smaller roadside lines.
I’d be more worried about the safety of the power lines than about the kind of person who’d think this is cool. If their death plummet damages one of the insulators, or they “have to” be rescued, that might require shutting off power to a whole city.
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and while you are up there, please stop hanging your wet clothes on the lines to dry.
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there’s also a more scientific angle to the practice, which posits that access to the abundant supply of free electrons in the (subtly negatively charged) ground can help neutralize free radicals
Yeah, scientific…
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Luckily the hammock I am currently in is attached to two trees. It is on a cliff edge but perpendicular to it and in a geologically sound environment, so I am quite safe.
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“Perhaps Monsieur would care to sniff the plug? The electrons are subtly charged, with a hint of lichtenberg figuration and a rather insouciant potential.”
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“intuitive assumption”, “promote healing” ; there’s yer lawyerin’ right there.
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But here’s some good hearted tower play from comedian Rick Mercer, one of my favourite episodes:
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They’d probably work better attached to a large coil, but I’ll leave that experiment to someone else. (Like the reincarnations of the other guys who tried the kite in a lightning storm one.)
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