Fort Worth Facing An ‘Act Of God’ Over Street Light

Maybe it was and act of a new kind of Street Light Interference.

Fort Worth Facing An ‘Act Of God’ Over Street Light « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

By Selena Hernandez, CBS 11 News

December 16, 2011

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The City of Fort Worth has found itself asking, ‘What would Jesus do?’ after one of the city’s street lights fell and damaged a man’s car.

Under Texas law, the city isn’t responsible for the damage. Rather, it’s considered an act of God.

“I just hear this bang, and the car shakes,” Greg Buetel recalled. “I looked in the rear-view mirror and there’s no one behind me and I notice in the street, there’s a huge street light.”

Greg Buetel’s story started an an intersection. A chance stop off 287 and North Tarrant Parkway last month, when he got a sudden jolt from above.

“It caved my trunk and my trunk had to be replaced,” Buetel said. “It also damaged my quarter panel.”

Buetel’s Hyundai Sonata suffered $2000 of damage from the unexpected falling light. Buetel contacted the City of Fort Worth, seeking compensation.

“I filed the claim and then I was told unless they are on sight causing the damage, the state protects them from any liability.”

“It’s an act of God,” Jason Lamers with the City of Fort Worth said.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a city employee that did something wrong or broke something with malice.”

An act of God is something Buetel is familiar with – he is, after all, the pastor of Light the World Church in Keller. Yet, the city’s “act” of not paying for his damage, is something Buetel is willing to forgive. But one he still finds upsetting.

“I don’t have any choice to drive those streets,” Buetel said. “I put confidence in the city that their workmanship doesn’t fall on my vehicle.”

“We need to follow state law,” Lamers said. “State law basically lays out the liability for cities like this, and that law is in place to protect tax payers.”

“In the end, I don’t question God when good things happen -so i don’t question when bad things happen. i just trust he’ll take care of me”

That light has yet to be fixed. The city says it’s looking into it.

SLIding on Horseback

posted by Mooserider 11-28-11

I rode my horse in an outdoor arena last night. It is lit by high pressure sodium vapor flood lights. This set up a fun ride. My horse and I would pass under one of these lights at far end of the ring. The light would go out as we passed under it and it would come back on as we rode away from it. We tried this at a walk, then trot, canter and gallop. We came at it in a pattern, then circles, then at random. We did it at varied times to make sure it wasn't happening at regularly timed intervals. It was just happening when we approached the light or we were under it. It was strange, intriguing and fun.

This has happened under the arena lights before, but in the more typically random and unpredictable way, as most of the SLIder phenomena usually do.

Here was the first time I was able to SLIde in any predictable fashion.

Is it possible my horse is a SLIder too?

Fascinating!

Maybe SLIders can counter this! New Street Lights To Have “Homeland Security” Applications

The Himmler effect! We are at 1984.

» New Street Lights To Have “Homeland Security” Applications Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New street lights that include “Homeland Security” applications including speaker systems, motion sensors and video surveillance are now being rolled out with the aid of government funding.

The Intellistreets system comprises of a wireless digital infrastructure that allows street lights to be controlled remotely by means of a ubiquitous wi-fi link and a miniature computer housed inside each street light, allowing for “security, energy management, data harvesting and digital media,”according to the Illuminating Concepts website.

According to the company’s You Tube video of the concept, the primary capabilities of the devices include “energy conservation, homeland security, public safety, traffic control, advertising, video surveillance.”

In terms of Homeland Security applications, each of the light poles contains a speaker system that can be used to broadcast emergency alerts, as well as a display that transmits “security levels” (presumably a similar system to the DHS’ much maligned color-coded terror alert designation), in addition to showing instructions by way of its LED video screen.

The lights also include proximity sensors that can record both pedestrian and road traffic. The video display and speaker system will also be used to transmit Minority Report-style advertising, as well as Amber Alerts and other “civic announcements”.

-read on at links-

SLIders People respond to it with amusement or amazement, with belief, disbelief, or relief at learning that it happens to others...

SLIders | Features | Fortean Times

SLIders

The mystery of street lamp interference

By Hilary Evans 4-11

FT273

Streetlight Interference (SLI) is an alleged phenomenon in which it is claimed that certain people, passing near a streetlight at night, cause it to spontaneously extinguish (or if off, come on). Although there are hundreds of reports by both SLIders and witnesses, the subject remains controversial. Though trivial at first glance, closer study shows SLI to be a complex process, rich in paradoxes and contradictions. If true, however, the claims carry profound and exciting implications for science and for our knowledge of human potential.

People respond to Streetlight Interference with amusement or amazement, with belief, disbelief, or relief at learning that it happens to others as well as to themselves. SLI takes many different forms, and people react to it in many different ways. The best way to discover what happens when SLI occurs is to have it happen to you. For those of us who have not had the benefit of personal experience, though, the next best way is to learn what SLIders say happened to them. Jane de la R, a SLIder from Surrey, England, reports:

When living in London, I was able to do it almost at will – I have as witnesses my husband and a large group of friends who, over the years, came to regard my ability as an endearing trait.

-read on at link-

Governments are just little fiefdoms to keep power and screw the citizens

Just have SLIders go for a walk some night!

WLS 890AM short post

8/12/11

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) - The city of Rockford is getting a little darker under a plan to save $500,000 by removing 2,400 streetlights.

The Rockford Register Star reported for Friday's editions that city officials and ComEd crews have already removed more than a third of the targeted streetlights.

The northern Illinois city will remove 1,400 lights from major streets and 1,000 from neighborhoods. Before lights started being removed, the city's streetlight bill was about $2.7 million a year.

Marcy Leach, Rockford's engineering operations manager, said officials spent hundreds of hours determining which lights to remove to make sure adequate light remains, and she said police were consulted to make sure safety was maintained.

Leach acknowledged that while not everyone is happy about the plan, the response has been more positive than officials were bracing for.

"We were expecting complaints, and we were expecting pushback. So we were prepared for that. In the end, it seems to be working out better than expected," Leach said. "For as many complaints as we've gotten, we've gotten just as many compliments on removing them or suggestions to remove more."

But Alderman Linda McNeely said residents in her ward want the lights to stay.

"What residents are telling me is that it's a matter of not being able to see anything anymore when they come home at night because it's so dark," McNeely said. "If it's making our residents feel uncomfortable, why are we doing it?"

ComEd hopes to remove 300 lights per month.

Man survives being hit by lightning TWICE in remarkable CCTV footage

Amazing scene, real or not, I'm much safer just putting out Street Lights.

Man survives being hit by lightning TWICE in remarkable CCTV footage | Mail Online

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 1:11 AM on 2nd May 2011 -Excerpts-

The chances of being struck by lightning once are high enough.

But one unfortunate man appears to have been electrocuted twice within the space of a minute by two almighty bolts of lightning.

The hapless pedestrian had been jogging along a quiet city street when CCTV captured the astonishing moment on April 11.

Shortly before the apparent freak accident a walker carrying an umbrella and a jogger had passed through the street unscathed.

...........

The chances of being struck by lighting once in a give year are around one in 700,000. The chance of being struck twice within such a short space of time are virtually unmeasurable.

It is not known where the video was recorded, although there is Chinese writing in the top corner of the screen.

Cynics suggested that so high was the probability of such a freak accident that the video might have been faked.

Some internet users pointed to the lack of visible rain in the CCTV footage while one suggested that lightening hitting the ground would have caused the camera to shake.

Another stated that in the video the lightning lasted for only one frame, whereas, they said, real lightning would have 'overexposed the camera for at least a few frames on each strike'.

But other viewers said the video was genuine.

One wrote: 'Security cameras don't just shake every time it's windy don't they? Pause the video when the dude gets hit and look at the light, that's pretty hard to fake, don't you think?'

Another added: 'Photoshop can't make a thunder like that. Real.'

And one person wrote: 'I think this is the lesson for all of us - if you are hit by lightning don't get up because you will feel a second wave.'

Only around ten per cent of people who are struck by lightning die, usually because the bolt of electricity causes their heart and breathing to stop.

Those who survive tend to wake up from the shock within a few seconds but have little recollection of what happened before the injury. They could suffer minor burns and stroke-like symptoms. A doctor may later point to lightning strikes as the cause of injury.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382229/Man-survives-hit-lightning-TWICE-remarkable-CCTV-footage.html#ixzz1L9vF61V5

Does Your Phone Ring When...

You have just gone into the restroom?

Mine does!

This has been the case for years and it makes me mighty suspicious. It make me feel that I'm being watched.

An amazing phenomenon.

I wonder if it has anything to do with SLIding?

Maybe a SLIder walked by...CHEVY VOLT: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors

[FULL SHORT BLOG] MARCH 17, 2011

tags: Atlas Shrugged,New, Obama,Obama Motors,Politics

by MB Snow

Chevy Volt: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors

Patrick Michaels, 03.16.11, 06:00 PM EDT

Who is going to buy all these cars?

The Chevrolet Volt is beginning to look like it was manufactured by Atlas Shrugged Motors, where the government mandates everything politically correct, rewards its cronies and produces junk steel.

This is the car that subsidies built. General Motors lobbied for a $7,500 tax refund for all buyers, under the shaky (if not false) promise that it was producing the first all-electric mass-production vehicle.

At least that’s what we were once told. Sitting in a Volt that would not start at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, a GM engineer swore to me that the internal combustion engine in the machine only served as a generator, kicking in when the overnight-charged lithium-ion batteries began to run down. GM has continually revised downward its estimates of how far the machine would go before the gas engine fired, and now says 25 to 50 miles.

It turns out that the premium-fuel fired engine does drive the wheels–when the battery is very low or when the vehicle is at most freeway speeds. So the Volt really isn’t a pure electric car after all. I’m sure that the people who designed the car knew how it ran, and so did their managers.

Why then the need to keep this so quiet? It’s doubtful that GM would have gotten such a subsidy if it had been revealed that the car would do much of its freeway cruising with a gas engine powering the wheels. While the Volt is more complicated than the Prius, and has a longer battery-only range, a hybrid is a hybrid, and the Prius no longer qualifies for a tax credit.

via Chevy Volt: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors – Forbes.com.

Rutgers Rarities and Unexplained Phenomena - RU Electric SLIder or He's A Magic Man

Rutgers Rarities and Unexplained Phenomena

RU Electric SLIder or He's A Magic Man

By Jessica Teal

Do you know what a SLIder is? Until last week I had no clue- though the word brings some vague recollection of early 90’s time travelers on the Disney network or something like that. Anyway - it’s a person who affects streetlights and other electronic devices simply by walking by. In other words, a SLIder is the person who walks down, oh, say, Nichol Ave and as he/she passes under the street lights they go out. This person can also affect porch lights, house lights, appliances and other electronic stuff. There is no logical explanation for why this happens consistently to a very small portion of the population. The best and most common explanation of this “ability” is that the SLIder has some weird magnetic energy or electrical outbursts emanating from their body. SLIder stands for “street lamp interference” and now my friends, guess what? - Rutgers has its very own SLIder on campus and he very recently dazzled the RR team with his strange “effects” right on campus.

[read more of this anecdotal story at the above link.]

From Common Sense Atheism

Yeah, that about sums it up

by Luke Muehlhauser on February 28, 2011 in Funny,General Atheism

How Do They Do That? "SLIDERS: The Enigma of Streetlight Interference" by Hilary Evans

How Do They Do That? A young man of Dublin walks past a row of streetlights at night--and they go out, one by one, as he passes. An engineer in Woodville, Washington, is stopped by police and his car searched to find out what he's doing to their streetlights. An Australian in the entertainment industry parks his car in a parking lot, and the light above him goes out-until the following evening when he parks in precisely the same space and the light comes on again. And that's not all. When a guest in a restaurant in Athens, Greece, asks that the music be turned down, they refuse--whereupon she "kills" the restaurant's electricity and they eat the rest of their meal by candlelight. Other people affect traffic lights, computers, railway crossings... This is Street Light Interference (SLI). Once considered to be folklore--something that happened to a friend of a friend--today it is recognized as a scientific enigma with implications for our knowledge of the universe, including ourselves. In this, the first full-length book on SLI, we hear from some of the hundreds of SLIders who have reported their uncanny experiences, and consider the wider implications of this fascinating phenomenon.

Report your Unusual Phenomena: Streetlight Interference

This is a good site regarding explanations of the phenomena-

Report your Unusual Phenomena: Streetlight Interference

NOTE: STREET LIGHTS DO TURN OFF BY THEMSELVES

When the fluorescent bulb in a streetlight gets old, it overheats and trips a safety switch. When it cools off, it turns itself back on again. Some streetlights turn on and off by themselves every few minutes. Also, some towns install timers which cause all streetlights to turn off randomly every few minutes. This saves energy, but since the timers are not synchronized, some lights stay on while others are off.

Beware, it's easy to fool yourself into thinking that you have a mysterious effect on streetlights. If you see a streetlight turn on or off, that's not unusual. It happens all the time. It's only unusual if whole chains of street lights turn off in sequence as you pass, or if you see the streetlights only turn off but never see an equal number turn back on. It's also unusual if the streetlights often turn off NOT as you approach or leave, but instead they only turn off while you are passing directly underneath (ie. when you are closest to them.)