As I was experimenting in snapshot 13w38a, I tried to make a beacon. When I placed the beacon on a pedestal of iron, emerald, or diamond blocks, the beacon wouldn't shoot out a beam of light. I activated the beacon with a diamond and it did give me the status effect, but still didn't show a beam of light. I changed my settings to fancy graphics, smooth lighting maximum, particles maximum, etc. The beacon beam still didn't appear. I'm not sure if it was purposely taken away, but that kind of ruins the name "beacon". I put screenshots of the beacon malfunctioning as attachments.