Psychic Engineers...

No - but now you've mentioned it ...?

Actually, yes, I have seen street lights shut off many times when I pass by, whether on foot or in a vehicle. I don't know of any decent explanation, but this experience is surprisingly common. The odd coincidence is bound to happen once in a (great) while, but I have been surprised by how often it occurs.

In my case I'm telekinetic, so I knowfor sure that I caused it. In fact, I actually do it intentionally. I even deliberately turn all lights green at cross-junctions just for my own personal amusement. Too bad for those caught in the pile-up, but then again, I am supposed to be evil.....

I'm telepathetic. All those damn lights laugh at me and send little lightning bolts at me when I pass. I had to stop wearing my aluminum foil hat and adapt a silicone Jell-o mold with a coating of yellow rubber tape to do the job. But now the voices are back!!!

"But now the voices are back!!!"

Tape one of these on the top of your helmet. Be sure to orient it to your own telepathetic waves.

It will cut the voice noise out completely.

I have one on my bike helmet. Works great.

"Sundown Industries Corp Silver Bullet Cow Magnet, Silver".

"Description: Helps prevent hardware disease. Use with standard balling guns."

I think you're using it wrongly^[1], but it may be a bit large for oral administration in humans. May I suggest a rectal applicator?

[1] http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G7700

But then the lights will zap me again. I don't know what's worse.

I think I need a vacation!

Pull yourself together, that man!

Just get a Cow Magnet, and use as directed. You will be safe. Nothing can g_^o rwong.

Ok, I'll try the cow magnet...but if I get bombarded by flying cows I'm sending them your way!

Tell me where the lights are, and I'll redirect the energy towards the town council's collective rear ends. Man, I love giving self-important local politicos burnt asses.

Wow, that's such a kind thing to do. I take back almost half of the bad things those Jedi say about you!

I'm certain that my mind can lash out and destroy anything with just a thought. What I still don't understand is why people still want to piss me off?

Maybe a way to express their love to you. Minds can act in strange ways.

I'm telegraphic. By the time I get to the light in question I'm already working on the one's down the street.

Are you sure that your power is limited to lights? Does it not affect the San Andreas stability on the long range?

Where i am the ground stability is rather high so that the different actions I took did not have a deep consequence.

I've got one near my house that does that about a third of the time (I think). It puzzled me till I watched it. It cycles about every three minutes or so. My approach (an ess curve with a dip and a heavy deer crossing) takes at least 35 or 40 seconds. So, I can see it maybe 20% of the cycle. Add my natural exaggeration and...

Déjà vu, all over again.

Would this help psychotic cats, or just those possessed by cosmic forces?

Bah effecting a single street light is easy, I once took down an entire intersection (traffic lights, crossing lights, the works) just by hitting the cross button (now there was a coincidence).

do you think that your presence had anything to do with it?

Nah, just random chance (it has happend to me a number of times but there are a lot of lights after all). There is no direct interaction between the person and the electrical object, however add some interaction and you (well I) have major problems. Taking down a computer accidentally doesn't count, but how about unintentionally crashing these on a regular basis.

- Sky television decoder (both analog and digital, at least 4 separate units) (required power disconnection most times). Crashed in many unlikely ways, usually resetting at maximum volume. Record is 4 or 5 crashes in one sitting, never beaten as I know of no one else who has crashed a decoder even once (loss of the sky satellite a few years back was not my doing).

- DVD player, three separate brands, four separate DVD players, crashed on DVD play and menu selection (required power disconnection). Again no one else I know has crashed a DVD player.

- Boeing personal inflight entertainment system (at least twice on one international flight alone requiring system reset <cringe>). Any time I take an international flight I treat the inflight entertainment system like it is a bomb I am trying to defuse.

Also to my credit......

- Car alarm with immobilizer (how the he*l I managed to get the vehicle's entry logic confused I never figured out). This was a real pain as it required the user to perform a certain sequence of events within a certain time or the car would not start.

- Expensive multimeter - Used 5 times, killed twice, once by turning it on, another time (after being repaired) by taking a voltage measurement (which killed the screen).

There are probably more. On the plus side as a quality checker if I test something and it passes chances are the end user will have no problems.

Please forward your itinerary for the next month, so as I may off be in a different direction Cmac

My daughter's X wanted me to ask you to stop over to his house. He is worried that his computer, cell phone and entertainment center might have some hidden problems. As a favor to me , do you think you could just take a quick look at those things?

It's the bells! They're back! The bells are back. The street lights turned them on again.

When such lights "yellow" were first becoming common in NYC, I did not notice this.

I did like the yellow light.

What effect might age have to do with this?

Could it be that the tubes are now at a certain age, and this is what they do when they get old?

I'm getting old and I've got these joints that pop. Could it be a similar problem?

Yes, that's what I tell my wife when it routinely happens on our street. But not to burst a bubble, a conversation with the local utility said that it is simply an old bulb on its last legs. Its a dying bulb. This also seems to be the logic answer here . I do love the answers and I think we should propagate the phenomenon as psychic, it has much more allure.

I have placed bets on the same phenomena and won!

What a minute

are you trying to say the universe doesn't orbit around me?

Garth and Vermin,

The two of you have hit exactly on the core of the entire psychic force, para-normal phenomena. People do not want to believe that completely random acts rule our lives. They want to believe in determinism. People feel powerless whenever a random act comes into play. This is why gamblers intuitively feel that their bad luck is going to change because the bad luck streak is to long or that they forgot to bring a rabbits foot or whatever. People find comfort in determinism, since it implies that if they can just know a little more of the universe they can predict what will happen next.

I find it ironic though that the elegant simplicity of determinism rapidly gets more complicated as one tries to predict complicated systems. While in contrast, applying the complicated mathematics of statistics to a complicated system makes it simpler.

But never simple.

You are right with one remark: statistics are related to probability and even a probability of 99.999% is not "sure". Here is the problem too many consider that probability means that the most probable result is the one to be expected.

A critical error in word choice. A 99.999% probability for something to happen is by definition what one will expect to have happen. But it is never a certainty that one and only one single scenario will happen, for always there is some other option.

I've seen it many times. It is almost certainly an interaction with the photo sensor that controls the light. Happens most often with reflections from my car headlights, but I have had it (rarely) happen as I walk under the light. The walking events could be just coincidental. I'd like to examine the photo controls to see why some are more sensitive than others.

You can turn off modern street lights with a strong flashlight directed at the top of the lamp, where the photocell for turning off the lamp during daytime resides.

However, we've had a lot of new construction in my area, and a lot of sodium vapor lights were put in all at the same time. Some are now starting to go on-and-off within less than a year of service. I was told by a street light worker that starters go squirrelly rather often. In fact, he said he was always providing his friend who had a reef tank with new starters for his high intensity lamps.

Maybe it's like the tree in the forest that falls where no one will hear it. Maybe it doesn't flash when no one is around.

vermin,

Those other replies are tongue in cheek. Here is the real answer. Consider how many sodium vapor lamps you pass. Now do you remember any that were either on or off while they were still in sight. Now think about the ones that were starting or extinguishing. When a ballast overheats, the lamps will cycle! How many times have you seen 5:55 on your digital clock? It is human nature to remember only the remarkable things.

Luther M

No, but like DV1000, I can make the traffic lights change.

And on the days I don't bother making them change, I can hear them about to change. I have had passengers ask "How do you do that?" when I put the car in gear a couple of seconds before the lights have gone green (and I can't see the set facing the crossing traffic and in cities where I don't usually drive). If I already have the car in gear, then I'll absentmindedly take it out of gear...

I find that intoning 'stay green, stay greeeen' in a mystic sort of voice works well

Del

I had a psychic girlfriend once, but we broke up before we met.

Seriously, the lights blink off because of an improper match between the ballast-capacitor combination and the lamp.Very common.

as High pressure sodium light bulbs age they tend to loose the high pressure in the inner tube. When this happens the ballast circuit causes the light to cycle. Once it cools off then comes back on. These bulbs get extreamly hot and once the pressure is at a certin point this cycle will continue unit the blub is replaced. The cycle can be from 5 min to as much as an hour. Very common.

I probably ought to look these bulbs up. I wasn't aware they had an inner and outer tube.

Really all I know or remember about them is from near 20 years ago when I was living in NYC and underpasses of a sudden were bathed in a real yellow light, that I was told were sodium vapor and drew 70 watts for quite a bit of illumination.

Otherwise the bartenders I run into are definitely psychic. Whenever I walk in the bar they get me a beer.

That is why they flicker? But it wasn't the question asked - you think the poster stays too long under the lights?

I knew you were going to say that.

The mercury vapor lights do not suffer from this phenomenon. On the rare occasions that these lights do cycle, it is caused by extra terrestrials refueling their transportation devices. Or there is home owner steeling power to cut down on their electric bill.

Thought the mercury vapor lights constantly fluctuated between 4700 degrees and 55 hundred.

If you get near the MV lights, the thought waves will cause a temp shift higher.

Yeah, if you're wearing a white suit.

So you knew about them also?

Does not happen to me. When did you have your last exam?