Great post. Thanks. So much for "the science is settled." ;)

Maybe the motor in AS is not so far-fetched after all.

One word: THORIUM

Hi Nickursis, well I am sure she was aware of Nikola Tesla's work.
Brooklyn Eagle July 10, 1932 Nikola Tesla states: I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device. Cosmic ray investigation is a subject that is very close to me. I was the first to discover these rays and I naturally feel toward them as I would toward my own flesh and blood. I have advanced a theory of the cosmic rays and at every step of my investigations I have found it completely justified. The attractive features of the cosmic rays is their constancy. They shower down on us throughout the whole 24 hours, and if a plant is developed to use their power it will not require devices for storing energy as would be necessary with devices using wind, tide or sunlight. All of my investigations seem to point to the conclusion that they are small particles, each carrying so small a charge that we are justified in calling them neutrons. They move with great velocity, exceeding that of light. More than 25 years ago I began my efforts to harness the cosmic rays and I can now state that I have succeeded in operating a motive device by means of them. I will tell you in the most general way, the cosmic ray ionizes the air, setting free many charges ions and electrons. These charges are captured in a condenser which is made to discharge through the circuit of the motor. I have hopes of building my motor on a large scale, but circumstances have not been favorable to carrying out my plan

HE WAS BORN DURING A LIGHTNING STORM
Nikola Tesla was born around midnight, between July 9 and July 10, 1856 during a fierce lightning storm. According to family legend, midway through the birth, the midwife wrung her hands and declared the lightning a bad omen. This child will be a child of darkness, she said, to which his mother replied: “No. He will be a child of light.”

Yep...that's exactly what parasitical humanoid bicameral's do...blame everything on Man. [translate: Humans]

Maybe, or else they will start blaming man for man made electrical imbalance......

So that gama burst to the ground must mean the troposphere and perhaps the electrical surface was really out of balance.
Can we chalk this up to the weakened magnetosphere and the on coming GSM?

Thank you, sir.

Funny how Ayn Rand talked about John Gaults motor, and where the energy came from....maybe she knew something else?

Yep, an observation is the positive effect of electric storms and the radiance of chlorophyll in the photosynthesis process in plants. Lightning
Releases charges from an imbalance in the "free energy" bringing the atmosphere back to balance.

Nice score Nick...missed this one.

We'll have to study what effect this might have on the brain and body. Maybe these are the things that change DNA or help/hinder evolution within species.

Something to think about.

Thanks Nickursis,
Fascinating electric universe we live in.

Cloud to ground Lightning in the global atmospheric electrical circuit. This is an example of plasma present at Earth's surface. Typically, lightning discharges 30,000 amperes, at up to 100 million volts, and emits light, radio waves, x-rays and even gamma rays . Plasma temperatures in lightning can approach 28,000 kelvins and electron densities may exceed 1024/m3.

Most authorities are agreed, that whatever may be the origin of free electricity in the atmosphere the electricity of enormous voltages that disrupts the air and produces the phenomena of lightning is due to the condensation of the watery vapor forming the clouds; each minute vapor drop as it moves through the air collecting upon its surface a certain amount of free electricity. Then as these drops of vapor coalesce into larger drops with a corresponding decrease in the total surface exposed the electric potential rises until it overcomes the resisting power of the air. This remark will be more clearly understood when it is considered that with a given charge of electricity its potential rises as the electrical capacity of the object holding the charge is decreased, which is the case when the minute vapor drops coalesce into larger drops. The similarity of lightning to the electricity developed by an electrical machine was demonstrated by Franklin in his memorable kite experiments.