Forums

Posted: 13-04-2005 16:56 Post subject:

last night I ran under a street light and it flickered out when I was directly under it - not much but it was strange.

Posted: 12-11-2012 17:55 Post subject:

This has happened to me a few times recently, I soon found out I wasn't super speshul, but rather the street lights in this town are particularly duff.

Posted: 12-11-2012 18:49 Post subject:

Last night I was chatting with my mother at her recently-redeveloped sheltered housing complex. I pointed out a doorway which was originally a large window, through which my late father and I used to watch the building work with some fascination.

Through door, on a distant opposite wall, was a fire exit sign which flickered wildly as I pointed towards it.

Mother said 'Funny, it's never done that before! It's your Dad, telling us he's still here!'

We laughed and it suddenly stopped flickering. A lovely moment! Very Happy

Posted: 12-11-2012 20:54 Post subject:

It happened to me in the village I used to live in with one streetlight in particular, no others did it. I told my wife about it and she was a little dismissive, until it went out every time I walked underneath it with her! Quite bizarre...

Posted: 13-11-2012 00:00 Post subject:

I've been formulating a theory which works especially well when you consider that usually people turn off specific streetlights for a while.

I wonder if, as either the bulb starts to fail or the electronics do, they become more susceptible to subtle human electromagnetic fields and thus, are relatively easy for certain individuals to turn off.

As of late, there are a few outdoor lights which I seem to affect, but they might be getting old and I can't say whether they turn off when I'm not around....

Posted: 02-12-2012 21:30 Post subject:

Had this happen quite often both in the UK and New Zealand. In New Zealand where street lighting is poorer in quality it is much more common, black outs are also more common and whole areas can go out in storms a little like living back home in the 70's.

Another regular occurrence as well are when whole rows of street lighting can go out and parts of towns can be left in darkness at night for weeks until someone comes around to fix them.

Saying that I seem to stop a lot more lights than others and it does not matter from what angle I approach, time, or if I'm in a car, walking, jogging or cycling.

I read a suggestion that some lights were on a trip device and would go off when sensing vibration of someone/something approaching to save money. I think this sort of defeats the purpose of street lights no?

I'm surprised that we've never had a street light engineer come on and explain what they think is going on.

I think some street lights that flick on and off now and again are on timers and I think some are dodgy and need repair - the other 95% are down to my amazing mental powers. Laughing

Posted: 10-05-2013 13:16 Post subject:

Could not find a better thread to post ...

Because of Pynchon in Public Day 2013 I've been re-reading some Pynchon books.
http://uair01.blogspot.nl/2013/05/pynchon-in-public-day-8-may-2013.html

And so I re-discovered the great paranoid story of "Byron the bulb":
http://lukedanger.blogspot.nl/2009/02/story-of-byron-bulb.html

And researching this I came upon this urban legend:

Posted: 10-05-2013 13:38 Post subject:

Searching further I found a pointer - or just a perpetuation of the urban legend:

Posted: 10-05-2013 17:58 Post subject:

I'm sure there was an eternal light bulb or two mentioned in one of those UK TV magazine shows, like Nationwide or That's Life, where you'd get some little old lady who had stayed in the same house for two hundred years or whatever, and had the same lightbulb in her hallway all that time. They've probably all been replaced by the energy saving kind now. The bulbs, not the old ladies.

Posted: 10-05-2013 19:18 Post subject:

I have heard tales of light bulbs from the 30s lasting for 50 years and more. My impression is that before the advent of planned obsolescence light bulbs routinely burned for decades.

Posted: 11-05-2013 17:57 Post subject:

Round these parts they turn the street lights off at midnight!

Posted: 11-05-2013 21:15 Post subject:

Round my way they've started to convert the streetlights to LEDs. I wonder how that will affect the world of streetlamp interference.

Posted: 18-06-2013 12:00 Post subject:

This evening, I was sitting at the edge of the woods pondering a nasty problem and thinking what to do about it. There was a lone streetlight across the way and I was sort of gazing towards it. I thought "maybe I should do (so-and-such)" when suddenly the streetlight began to blink rapidly, flared up bright then went out.

A superstitious person might call it an omen instead of a coincidence, I'm a superstitious person, so... Razz

It did feel like a sign telling me not to go with the idea I'd had, which is probably for the best after all.

No wonder I have trouble solving problems, if I take advice from streetlights. Laughing

Posted: 18-06-2013 17:28 Post subject:

Posted: 20-06-2013 08:10 Post subject: