“SLI” – Words Can’t Describe How Lame It is
April 27th, 2010
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I’ve mentioned this before. There is a growing community of individuals who consider themselves “SLI’ders” and insist they observe “SLI” or “Street Light Interference.” They believe that they are the cause of street lights going on and off, as opposed to light sensors or the failure mode of gas discharge lamps.
For some reason I can’t explain, no matter how many times I see believers insist on this phenomena or its relation to their unseen powers, I’m always taken aback by just how lame it is. It’s so lame, I can’t stop marveling at its breathtaking lameness. If there is anything unexplained here, it has to be how something could be so lame.
Street lights tend to go on and off a lot, especially when they lamp is at the end of its life. The internal arc goes out and the bulb has to cool down a before it can re-strike. Faulty light sensors can also make such lamps go on and off, especially around dawn or dusk, when they are on the edge of the level set to trigger the light to turn on. Then there’s a little thing called confirmation bias
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Just LAME, Paranormal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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April 27th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
You should really read the Douglas Adams classic “Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.” It’ll give you an entirely new perspective on streetlights going out.
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April 27th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
This has been around for decades – I can remember a girl in university that I reduced to tears over this at a kegger one night and almost found myself in a fight with her boyfriend.
She was not the only one, I have run into several people that should know better who make these claims. I used to live across the street from a street light that was intermittent on a period of about ten minutes, and on at least two occasions, it was that very light that the persons claimed to extinguish whenever they went past.
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April 27th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Seeing how effectively these intellectual black holes can suck the energy out of me, it does not surprise me to learn that they can do so to a streetlamp, too.
Micah said:
Maybe that’s why this phenomenon sounds so familiar. I only ever read the Dirk Gently books once.
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April 27th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Actually, the culprit is the thermal breaker. Sodium and mercury vapour lights, if they overheat, can expire violently, so they are equipped with a thermal breaker to protect the public from unwanted, unexpected explosions. For most of their life, the bulbs will operate within their safe heat range. As they age, however, they become less efficient, and begin to generate more heat. When they get to a certain temperature, the thermal breaker trips, preventing catastrophic failure. When the bulb cools to a safe temperature, the breaker resets, allowing the light to come back on. When the bulbs get very old, this cycle can occur every several minutes. Oh, yeah, and confirmation bias.
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April 28th, 2010 at 12:18 am
Paul said:
I was unaware of that mechanism, but I know there are several ways this can happen. Sodium vapor lamps are known to “cycle” as they get old because as they heat up some of the sodium is lost to reactions with the alumina glass.
Wikipedia states
I’ve also seen metal halide lamps cycle. I’m not sure if that’s due to a thermal breaker or what.
Then another thing I’ve seen happen is the light sensors get tripped. This is especially the case with the older ones which have a mechanical relay with a photodiode or some other rudimentary light sensor. They can flicker on and off a lot at dusk, and also with light sources nearby. I’ve seen this happen many times with a couple of streetlights near me. They go off whenever you drive up to them with the highbeams on. The light from the headlights is enough to trip the daylight sensor and shut them off.
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April 28th, 2010 at 1:47 am
I was reading the Straight Dope article on this the other day. Fascinating stuff (the human psychology of it, not the idea of underpowered superheroes walking around) but there’s a surprising amount of anecdotal evidence backing up various claims.
One of my personal favourites, drawn from said Straight Dope article, recounts some couple watching another couple walking along a beach systematically extinguishing and relighting (8 out of 10) lamps as they go. Errr, surely most streetlamps have their bulbs replaced at around the same time as their neighbours, are lit for about as long as their neighbours and (I feel this is important) a row of streetlamps will usually light up consecutively from one end to the other. Which basically just invites a “wave” of darkness.
No, this is just substandard guff. Funny though, another thing to add to the list of ways to divide the sane from the fruitloop.
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April 28th, 2010 at 2:16 am
This is something that could so easily be thoroughly disproven by systematic experimentation, but the idea is so stupid to begin with that the waste of research money would be tragic.
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April 28th, 2010 at 2:36 am
I know this effect well; then I was a kid the streetlight had a strong tendency to go out near me and my friends. It had to be a paranormal phenomenon as the snowballs was just for self defence.
yes
Yes I admit we regularly turned the streetlight on and of by using a flashlight at the light sensor.
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April 28th, 2010 at 6:53 am
For years, my friends and I walked around the U of Pitt campus and had this happen regularly at nights. Being engineers, we all assumed there was some reasonable explanation for it (but never cared enough to look into it), so we never got concerned. I had no idea there were people who actually made up their own idiotic theories about it. This is actually so stupid that it hurts me to read about it.
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April 28th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Some of those old light sensors are pesky. I could see how even a person walking around and changing the ambiance by their very presence could possibly set one off or trip it on.
When they are properly setup they’re not supposed to shut off the light when they sense high light levels for a moment. It is supposed to take several seconds of high light to shut them off. That is supposed to prevent them from tripping off due to a brief flash of a headlight or something. They do not always work like they should though. I recall many times seeing street lights go off during a storm from lightning. It was not that the lightning struck something and shut down power. The flash of light in the sky briefly illuminates the light sensors and shuts down the lights, then they switch back on but they only glow faintly because it takes a little while for the ballast to restrike the lamp back to full power.
That is one thing you can sometimes tell if the lamp is still actually powered on but just not fully restruck. If you look at the lamp and there is still a faint pink or blue-white glow, it means the lamp is still running at full power but the sodium or mercury vapor has not kicked in. They’re very pesky when they get old and the electrodes wear down or the vapor starts to get absorbed. The vapor will sometimes lose too much density to keep illuminated and then the starter gas just glows until it cools down (or sometimes it needs to cool and rewarm again)
Of course you see this with the fluorescent tubes too, when they start to get old and flicker on and off or sometimes you had one that does not come on with the rest of them and the ten minutes later it suddenly comes on.
What I’d love to see these guys do (or explain why they can’t) is show me how they can turn on and off a standard tungsten lightbulb hooked to a regular power supply without any kind of sensor switch on it. Of course, if you wait long enough it will eventually burn out. I just want to see them make it go on and off and on and off and on again, or explain why that kind of lamp is so unaffected by their presence!
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April 28th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Gordon said:
I know of amateur astronomers using laserpointers aimed at the light sensor to shut off the light to reduce light pollution
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April 28th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
With a little practice (perhaps during heavily cloudy days and at twilight) it might be possible to fake this trick with a laser pointer, which could be held in a manner that makes it hard to see.
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April 28th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I’mnotreallyhere said:
I can think of any number or plausible reasons why that might happen (although without knowing the exact details and circumstances it’s impossible to be sure)
It could be that when a lamp goes out it causes a disturbance in the line voltage that knocks the next lamp in the series off kilter. If they were all nearing their end of life they might be very sensitive to getting the thermal breaker tripped off or having the spark die. It could also be that if they came on in sequence they are all basically having the same delay before going off. It could even be a simple coincidence (it was, after all, 8 out of 10, not 10 out of 10)
Anecdotes don’t count for much. There are a lot of people in the world and every once in a while by sheer chance something freaky happens to one or more of them. If it actually happens in a pattern that means something. Otherwise it’s just a weird freak event.
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April 28th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Holy Cow!! On my way to work, possibly a mile or more of highway lights went out all at once while I was traveling down that stretch of road. Looks like I’m a SLIder. It’s just a good thing the sun was coming up so visibility wasn’t too bad.
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April 29th, 2010 at 4:13 am
Don’t complain too much. Where I live, having one in four street light still working could be considered surnatural.
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April 29th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Franck said:
If streetlights near you do not work or if they are prone to going on and off, flickering, cycling or doing something else annoying, you can call your local municipality, department of public works, department of transportation or electric company (sometimes it’s the electric utility which is contracted to provide street lights) and ask them to replace the lamp or repair the light.
Sometimes this will work with just one call. In fact, you might be surprised to find out that more often than not, a single report is all it takes to get them out to fix it. Of course, that’s not always the case. Generally you can get it taken care of if you pester them enough.
It’s one of those things where even if those responsible for it may be too lazy to replace it, if you get annoying enough they’ll eventually decide it’s worth their while to go out and fix it just shut you up so they can go back to sleep.
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April 29th, 2010 at 11:11 am
People assume THEY are causing the lights to fail . . . but what if it’s not them?
Maybe there’s a Weeping Angel nearby, weak, trying to turn the lights off so it can move, unobserved…..
Or maybe it’s a conspiracy by GRUES!!!!
Your light goes out.
You are eaten by grues.
***YOU HAVE DIED***
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April 30th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I bet you could get people to freak out if you started a legend on the net that shutting off street lights was a sure sign you were about to die and your spirit’s dark halo of death was the reason. People might take that seriously
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May 2nd, 2010 at 1:49 pm
With the replacement of sodium vapor streetlights with LEDs (incorporating on-off sensors and the capability of being remotely monitored and controlled), the SLI-ders may have to create a new phenomenon to which they claim influence.
Our group is involved with replacing some of the streetlights in Los Angeles with these high-efficiency, long-lasting LEDs. We’ll see how it goes.
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May 2nd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
DocForesight said:
Yeah, but even compared to LED’s, sodium vapor lamps really have good efficiency and last a long time. They’re also already very widely deployed.
I think it’s going to be a long time (decades) before sodium vapor lamps become a rarity.
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May 16th, 2010 at 7:36 am
You so called debunkers are so lame trying to discount real things that you yourselves cannot or don’t want to observe or understand. How or why could you be so negative about a real phenominum. Ha ha. Wake up! This is real folks and it’s not just street lights.
Watches and clocks have stopped around me at the same time as the all the streetlights & a sub box with a loud bang when I feel a particlar strong emotion. I feel 1st a premonition just b4 it occurs & in jest I’ll point @ it & tell it to go off or sometimes go on on que b4 family & friends. I also predict earthquakes on the day. Sometimes things slide off shelves (sliders) when I walk near them which is handy getting coconuts or looking for a book in the library. It is the power of extra spiritual presence that make these things occur. Sometimes whole Internet cafes crash as soon as walk in the room. It can be a problem sometimes at shops when the serving till crashes. Even large supermarkets have all the light go off as soon as I step in and on as I step out. Once all of Albany ( city of 25,000 people) & Denmark ( a few thou) & Walpole (smaller town) went off exactly when I expected just the ones in the park to go off, went off. The same morning I told someone I had never met which town they came from correctly ( in the Blue Mountains) & that we may have an earth quake soon. That evening not only did all those lights go off but also a quake was registered near Kalgoorlie & was confirmed in the newspapers.
Perhaps if you neysayers meditated more than giving off negative vibes you would be compassionate enough to feel these subtle yet potent energy fields. You will see it if you believe. Also try eating healthy and breathing deep.
You are never on your own.
Enjoy your new awakening.
Matt Cole.
Western Australia.
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May 16th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Matt Cole,
Really? Wow, that’s cool. You should contact the James Randi Educational Foundation. They’ve got a million USD for you if you can prove your abilities in a non-rigged environment.
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html
Let us know when you’ve got those skeptics eating their hats.
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May 16th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Matt Cole said:
We’ve all heard the expression about a face ugly enough to stop a clock, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed someone bragging about it.
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