While working on a data visualization example for my students, I was looking up basic information on latitude/longitude (which, if I can digress, is opposite how my brain assumes they run – longitude is E>W and latitude is N>S – which as x,y coordinates go is the opposite order). At the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, there is a laser that shoots out, marking the Prime Meridian.
Very nice, poetic idea.
Photograph via Wikipedia user Markhamilton