Gary Schafer wrote:

Well for a start, I would not stand next to a copper flag pole or a
tree in a thunder storm. Side arcs can come just as easily from one as
the other.

Nor would I. My fault for not putting in a smiley face. But it is true that it
would be safer to be nearer a grounded pole than a tree, owing to the reduced
"surface effect" of the better conductor. That is to say: If one were somehow
standing half way between a copper flagpole and a tree, it would be advisable to
edge nearer the flag pole. That does not mean one should lean on it, though.
There will be surface effect around even the best conductor.

Lightning strikes can not be prevented. You can not "make anything
disappear from the competition for lightning".

Agree - not 'disappear', but unquestionably a proper air terminal and its corona
discharge will reduce build-up of positive charge. If there is something in the
area which is not so good at getting rid of charge, it will more likely be hit.
See below:

There is no such thing as bleeding of the charge. The earth can supply
charge much faster than it is possible to bleed it off.

"SUBSTANTIATION: In the years since Franklin Invented the sharp lightning rod,
many physicists have shown that, under strong electric fields, the air around
sharp rods becomes Ionized, creating space charges that act to weaken the
fields. It has also been discovered that the strengths of the strong fields
around the tips or sharp rods decrease so rapidly with distance that they become
weaker than the fields over blunter rods at distances greater than about 1/4 in.
.... From laboratory and field experiments, we have established that the critical
field strengths for lightning Interception develop sooner around blunt lightning
rods than around sharp ones around which the field strengths are limited by
their charge emissions. In effect. sharp rods tend to protect themselves, by
their charge emissions, against participating in lightning strikes."
Charles B. Moore, Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Tech
------------------

A blunt air terminal is preferred over a sharp pointed one. A sharp
point will encourage streamers to form sooner. They can actually
attract a strike. This includes the toilet brushes mounted on the
mast.

Here is a quote from a study by scientists who were *trying* to attract
lightning strikes:
------------
In strike-reception competitions over the past six years between sharp
Franklin rods, sharp-tipped "ESE" air terminals, and blunt rods with
hemispherical tips, all mounted on 6-mater high masts and separated
horizontally by about 6 meters, none of the sharp-tipped air terminals has
been "struck" by lightning but 12 of the blunt rods have taken strikes.
-------------------------
SUMMARY (Dinner is on the table):

You seem to have quite a bit of insight into lightning, but your message jumps
around a bit, and this is all I have time for. My purpose was not a detailed
rebuttal but to demonstrate that your original cryptic remark "...advice is
bogus" was not in the best spirit or interst of reasoned dialog, nor was it
true. From your follow-up message it appears you are more ready to bring more
light than heat. Good. Grownups can disagree and discuss those points of
contention without resorting to name-calling and invective.