His process is a refined, high art version of Kirlian Photography—a photographic technique popularized in the 1930s. Buelteman places a whittled, near translucent flower directly onto color film, then he sandwiches the subject between sheet metal and plexiglass—all of which is submerged in liquid silicone. Using jumper cables, the flower is pumped full of electricity which ionizes the surrounding air and leaves a glowing corona on the film (the blue outline).

Then, Buelteman "paints" the film with a single fiber optic strand, adding an almost divine white glow to the image (which can take as many as 150 attempts to execute perfectly).

Buelteman argues that without lens glass distorting colors, his flowers have an unparalleled chromatic accuracy. You can judge for yourself in his new book Signs of Life and read more on the story over at: [Wired]

The Austrian times says that Maria Barbu was, in fact, in the tub while using Twitter when she likely reached to plug in her charger with a wet hand, electrocuting herself in the process. You smell that? Yeah, that's a Darwin Award in the making. [Austrian Times]

The 30 illustrations are from the book Elektroshutz, found in Vienna's Technisches Museum. These frightening fables are great reminders to not pee on, chew on or feed to babies electricity. Check out Bre Pettis' Flickr for the rest of the set. [Bre Pettis Blog via Flickr]