Some time ago.... years ago, actually... I noticed that street lights would occasionally go out as I passed underneath them. Not whole banks of lights. Just one, here and there. If I was walking, riding my motorcycle, or even driving my car, I kept seeing lights turn off.
Now I know full well that street lamps fail... and one of the symptoms of a failing lamp is that it will turn itself off when it gets hot (or tired or whatever lamps do) and then turns back on again when it cools off. Initially, I figured I was just lucky enough to be passing under a defective lamp at the time it decided to fail... but I began to wonder... if this was just a chance happening then shouldn't I be seeing lamps come back on just as frequently as I see them turn off? And shouldn't I be seeing lamps in the distance turn off just as frequently as I see them turn off as I pass under them? Yet neither of these things has ever happened to me! Ever! ... and yet I rarely go a week without seeing at least one street lamp turn off as I pass under it.... and I've been noticing this for years!
do do, do do, do do....
This brings me to the interesting part... I REALLY didn't think about this too much... it was just one of those things that I passed off as being "weird", but not really weird enough to worry about.... just weird enough to notice. Right up there with "Why do the knees in my blue jeans wear out first, even though I spend a lot more time on my butt than I do on my knees?". Weird enough that awhile ago I was looking for something to Google, and decided to check to see if anyone else had ever noticed the same thing. I was absolutely blown away by what I found!!
There is actually a name and a 3-letter acronym (we'll talk about those another day) for what I have experienced. It is called Street Lamp Interference or SLI. I was able to download a study about SLI from the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) that was published in 1993!! (if you are really interested, you can read this 54 page report at http://www.assap.org/newsite/Docs/sli.pdf)
Do you mean they've known about this for nearly 15 years and no one has ever bothered to let me know that I have it!!? Is it contagious? congenital? hereditary? chronic? terminal? Nah... It doesn't even qualify me for the best parking spots.. it just means I'm weird. Weird enough to have noticed in the first place, weird enough to have googled for more info about it, and weird enough to have downloaded the report. I guess I can take some solace in the fact the I haven't joined any of the hundreds of user groups or forums that have been created to discuss SLI. That would just prove that not only do I have SLI ... but I'm also a nerd...
Mind you, I have admitted to all of this on my blog!! Hmmm.. maybe I should just run out and join the chess club... Where's my pocket protector?
Edit added OCT 19, 2007:
Now I know full well that street lamps fail... and one of the symptoms of a failing lamp is that it will turn itself off when it gets hot (or tired or whatever lamps do) and then turns back on again when it cools off. Initially, I figured I was just lucky enough to be passing under a defective lamp at the time it decided to fail... but I began to wonder... if this was just a chance happening then shouldn't I be seeing lamps come back on just as frequently as I see them turn off? And shouldn't I be seeing lamps in the distance turn off just as frequently as I see them turn off as I pass under them? Yet neither of these things has ever happened to me! Ever! ... and yet I rarely go a week without seeing at least one street lamp turn off as I pass under it.... and I've been noticing this for years!
do do, do do, do do....
This brings me to the interesting part... I REALLY didn't think about this too much... it was just one of those things that I passed off as being "weird", but not really weird enough to worry about.... just weird enough to notice. Right up there with "Why do the knees in my blue jeans wear out first, even though I spend a lot more time on my butt than I do on my knees?". Weird enough that awhile ago I was looking for something to Google, and decided to check to see if anyone else had ever noticed the same thing. I was absolutely blown away by what I found!!
There is actually a name and a 3-letter acronym (we'll talk about those another day) for what I have experienced. It is called Street Lamp Interference or SLI. I was able to download a study about SLI from the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) that was published in 1993!! (if you are really interested, you can read this 54 page report at http://www.assap.org/newsite/Docs/sli.pdf)
Do you mean they've known about this for nearly 15 years and no one has ever bothered to let me know that I have it!!? Is it contagious? congenital? hereditary? chronic? terminal? Nah... It doesn't even qualify me for the best parking spots.. it just means I'm weird. Weird enough to have noticed in the first place, weird enough to have googled for more info about it, and weird enough to have downloaded the report. I guess I can take some solace in the fact the I haven't joined any of the hundreds of user groups or forums that have been created to discuss SLI. That would just prove that not only do I have SLI ... but I'm also a nerd...
Mind you, I have admitted to all of this on my blog!! Hmmm.. maybe I should just run out and join the chess club... Where's my pocket protector?
Edit added OCT 19, 2007:
We recently spent a relaxing week at Whistler BC (site of the 2010 Olympics). We took a 2 mile stroll around the perimeter of the Village one evening and in that 45 minute walk observed the following:
Number of lamps shutting off as we passed: 3
Number of lamps shutting off in the distance: 0
Number of lamps already off as we approached: 0
Number of lamps turning on (as we passed OR in the distance): 0
It was so romantic! (actually, it really was... we just happened to notice that our SLI factor that night was particularly high!)
