ejot
Enlightened
Nearby where I live they recently transformed an old railroad bridge over the Hudson River into a pedestrian path. Tonight they a few coworkers and I went to a night event where they turned on the first time a bunch of LED strips to illuminate the bridge. Which was cool to see, but not what the story is about. The 1500 lumens we were packing among us turned out to be surprisingly useful. 
See the problem was ... well, the whole event was a mess. They let almost three thousand people onto the bridge. Normally it could easily accommodate that, but things got slightly problematic when ALL OF THEM gathered as near to the event as possible to watch the switch get flipped (the path is only like 20' wide). Needless to say it was not particularly comfortable, you couldn't move anywhere, the speakers didn't work so no one heard anything, and finally they hit the switch after a grand countdown, 45 minutes late.
A moment prior I had commented how funny it would be if nothing happened Yeah, you guessed it. Switch on. Nothing. Darkness. Silence. Couple murmurs. There was some scrambling around and a moment later they did all come on.
Well, not quite. At least two huge sections had hundreds of the LED strips totally dark. And hilariously, there so many people on the bridge that even where the LEDs were lit, the people blocked all the light. And I mean ALL of the light. It was nearly pitch black in the middle.
Now people want to get home, they still can't move through the crowd, and they can't see a darn thing! :laughing::twothumbs So how many "normal citizens" there do you think had flashlights? I saw, um ... three. 0.1%. Awful, dim, ringy, yellow beams :hahaha:
We wanted to get home too, and spotted a narrow area where traffic was starting move a bit. Headed that way and I pulled out the orange 6P + Malkoff M61. It was fantastic - people were so awed by the amount of light coming from apparently nowhere that they instinctively just moved aside a little bit. We started gaining momentum and getting through the crowd (we were also the only source of useful illumination for everyone around). I think I heard "Holy #$@^ that's bright" at least 11 times.
. Things were even more dramatic in the areas where the bridge lighting failed to turn on. When I flicked off the light, it was just total darkness. Surreal really, thousands of people streaming through a walkway completely unlit. Quickly back on, the M61 flooded everything for hundreds of feet with beautiful, cool, reflected XP-G happiness. The perfect beam for the task.
That felt good.
See the problem was ... well, the whole event was a mess. They let almost three thousand people onto the bridge. Normally it could easily accommodate that, but things got slightly problematic when ALL OF THEM gathered as near to the event as possible to watch the switch get flipped (the path is only like 20' wide). Needless to say it was not particularly comfortable, you couldn't move anywhere, the speakers didn't work so no one heard anything, and finally they hit the switch after a grand countdown, 45 minutes late.
A moment prior I had commented how funny it would be if nothing happened Yeah, you guessed it.
Switch on. Nothing. Darkness. Silence. Couple murmurs. There was some scrambling around and a moment later they did all come on. Well, not quite. At least two huge sections had hundreds of the LED strips totally dark. And hilariously, there so many people on the bridge that even where the LEDs were lit, the people blocked all the light. And I mean ALL of the light. It was nearly pitch black in the middle.
Now people want to get home, they still can't move through the crowd, and they can't see a darn thing! :laughing::twothumbs So how many "normal citizens" there do you think had flashlights? I saw, um ... three. 0.1%. Awful, dim, ringy, yellow beams :hahaha:We wanted to get home too, and spotted a narrow area where traffic was starting move a bit. Headed that way and I pulled out the orange 6P + Malkoff M61. It was fantastic - people were so awed by the amount of light coming from apparently nowhere that they instinctively just moved aside a little bit. We started gaining momentum and getting through the crowd (we were also the only source of useful illumination for everyone around). I think I heard "Holy #$@^ that's bright" at least 11 times.
. Things were even more dramatic in the areas where the bridge lighting failed to turn on. When I flicked off the light, it was just total darkness. Surreal really, thousands of people streaming through a walkway completely unlit. Quickly back on, the M61 flooded everything for hundreds of feet with beautiful, cool, reflected XP-G happiness. The perfect beam for the task. That felt good.
It did all work out well though. :twothumbs
:thumbsup: 
