Proton knocks the LED lights out of the cityđĄ
A light meter & video recorder in the hands of an investigator is the Parks LED lighting Dept's worst nightmare
Since the LED lighting along the local bike/walking paths had gotten REALLY BRIGHT about 3 years ago, I have been avoiding them and using the roads instead. I must have been abducted once and now equate bright flickering lights with UFO abduction:
Scared shit, I rushed to figure out how to unpack this nonsense. I will show you what I did step by step so you can do this in your area.
âYouâll need to get and define your measurement, get the right measurement meter, get the standards for nighttime lighting, then go out in the field to get data. Youâll need some journal references to back up any mental or physical effects of LEDs.
đIf youâre ready for this detective adventure then follow meâŚ
Step â Google search for, âHow to determine if street light brightness is dangerousâ
Google Search result AI: To determine if a street light is dangerous, use a foot-candle meter to measure the light intensity on the road, where a range of 0.3 to 1.2 foot-candles is typical for street lighting depending on pedestrian traffic and road type. Excessive brightness, especially from blue-heavy LED lights, can cause disability glare, impairing vision and increasing risk.
⥠Look up this funky term, âfoot-candle (FC)â
One foot-candle is equal to the amount of light that would fall on one square foot of surface if there were one candle burning at a distance of one foot away. This image was taken from this time point in this video. You can see 1 lumen/sqft=1FC.
Step ⢠Buy a brightness meter that displays foot-candles or lumens (same thing different names).
One of many lovely choices:
Donât work up a sweat about Lux, Lumens, Foot-Candles:
âLux measures the amount of light that reaches a one specific meter square with one lumen of light. 1 lux is equal to the amount of light produced by 1 candle [1 lumen] /1 meter square [not square foot!. FYI One Sq meter=10.76 Sq feet].
âFoot-candles/Lumens measure the total light output of a single light source, regardless of direction.
âLux tells you the amount of light that is reaching a specific surface from any number of light sources.
đIn the bike path, we arenât interested in a specific surface, because we are walking or jogging thru. So throw lux under the bus, we just want to see the number of foot-candles (lumens), where our eyes would be around specific lights.
Step ⣠Find out the standard recommended foot-candles for different outdoor lighted areas.
đHere we find our target, âpedestrian walkways 0.5 to 2.0 foot-candlesâ. Note this range is very similar to âlocal roadwaysâ. Thatâs important because our control measurement will be where 99.9% of people walk, on the streets of course!
đThese ranges can vary a bit depending on the angles, objects and their shadows, size of the area to be illuminated. Ah, âilluminationâ, âilluminaâăăthe genetics company that prints anything they want from a computer], âilluminatiâ, and âlumensâ. NOW I FINALLY GET THE FIXATION WITH LIGHTINGđż
Besides this epiphany, Iâm sure youâve realized that THIS IS REAL SCIENCE. We have an isolated an absolute measurement: light sources, a real quantitative testing device: the meter, a real test object: the walking path lights, and a real control: the street lights. SHIT, cell cultures donât even have any of these. And the experiment only cost $29.99 for the meter. Just call me, âel cheapo cientĂficaâ.
Step ⤠Weâre now ready to go out into the field.
Weâll need our light meter, and a phone to take photos/videos. Thatâs itâŚbut donât look suspicious. âIâm bird watchingâ is the default retort when questioned (voyeurism is a very serious crime in Japan).
âThe moment of truth, our data:
Reconnaissance photo of the bike path: I think this will stop all those rolling eyes out there from thinking Iâm crazy.
The control study: street lights (they are all the same types around here): The glare is worse in the photo. You can see itâs not nearly as bright as the bike path. Itâs a âcontrolâ because 99.9% of people walk the streets and the city doesnât specify the streets need more illumination. Personally, my eyes hurt âsomewhatâ if I look right at the bulbs even from 10s of meters away, but itâs still nothing compared to the bike path.
Another recon photo of the bike path just to see the what the enemy has in store for us:
Weâll pick one street light (not the bike path light) and get the control data: (23 sec vid). đKeep your system music level at about 30% and click the full screen mark at the lower right of the vid to get the meter reading in full viewđ
Right below the street light we register about 2.0 foot-candles (lumens). This is slightly higher than the recommended brightness for local streets of 0.4-0.9 foot-candles. The area around the light is bright enough to see well.
The vids are all screen recordings of the originals taken on a mobile phone. The narration in Japanese for the city office has been over dubbed with some music and meaningful words if you can catch them.
One of many walking path lights: (17 sec vid). You can see the surrounding area at the start of the vid is nearly as bright as a nighter at the ball park.
This light in the bike path gives 35 to 38 foot-candles. The recommended level is 0.5 to 2.0, so it is giving us 19 to 76 times greater than the recommended level.
The walking path entrance area: Theyâve got 4 bright lights right at the entrance ready to attack welcome you (36 sec vid).
This is a doozy giving us up to 42 foot-candles. 21 to 84 times above the recommended level of 0.5 to 2.0.
â Did you notice the height of these lights goes from about 5â to 6â feet tall. Perfect height if you want a direct shot into the brains of nearly everyone.
What would be a dangerous brightness level? There are both subjective measures of âdistressâ when looking at bright lights, and the light color. For now, we are only going to argue the point of >20 times the recommended brightness compared with the street lights and pedestrian walkways.
Many pundits note glare is a problem, especially for cars. In 2016, the American Medical Assn actually noted that blue LEDs were bad for health:
High-intensity LED lighting designs emit a large amount of blue light that appears white to the naked eye and create worse nighttime glare than conventional lighting. Discomfort and disability from intense, blue-rich LED lighting can decrease visual acuity and safety, resulting in concerns and creating a road hazard.
Blue-rich LED streetlights operate at a wavelength that most adversely suppresses melatonin during night. It is estimated that white LED lamps have five times greater impact on circadian sleep rhythms than conventional street lamps. Recent large surveys found that brighter residential nighttime lighting is associated with reduced sleep times, dissatisfaction with sleep quality, excessive sleepiness, impaired daytime functioning and obesity.
đMy take is that the AMA is giving lip service to LEDs and sleep problems as a way to divert from the real issue, retinal damage-see paper below. I didnât see the AMA mention a âhow longâ you need to be in blue-rich lighting for it to be a concern.
Later, we may also need to get light color readings with this kind of meter:
At the end of the day we only need to know whatâs coming in our eyes. There are the fixture covers, heights, angles and other factors to take into consideration, the best thing is direct measurement.
Step ⼠Data presentation to the city
Now before letting the cat out of the bag with the city office, weâll have to line up our, âdangerous to the brain and eyesâ papers because this is the crux of the matter:
1. LED flicker-induced nervous system effects: brain fog, eye pain, & stress (note flicker coming from the UFO at post top).
2. LEDs and retinal damage and destruction.
Spectra of âwhite LEDsâ are characterized by an intense emission in the blue region of the visible spectrum, absent in daylight spectra. White LEDs and four different blue LEDs were used for exposure experiments on rats. Immunohistochemical stain, transmission electron microscopy, and Western blot were used to exam the retinas. đWe observed a loss of photoreceptors and the activation of caspase-independent apoptosis, necroptosis, and necrosis.
All this fancy stuff was sent to the city. The cityâs first reply:
1. The community is anxious about going out at night and wants the walking path to be bright.
2. We take what you say to heart about the lights being right at eye level and we are considering how to fix that.
3. The bulbs are 5000k (Kelvin) temperature LED bulbs.
Kelvin is just an explanation of the shade of white light the specific bulb will give off â known as the âCorrelated Color Temperatureâ. The lower the Kelvin rating, the warmer and yellower the color will be, and the higher the Kelvin rating, the cooler and bluer itâll appear.
I looked up 5000k bulbs and found that,
4600K-6500K: gives off a bright amount of blue-white light, similar to that of daylight; best for display areas and work environments where very bright illumination is needed. [Are we trying to do work in the bike path?]
A 5000K LED isnât inherently âtoo bright,â but it can feel harsh in certain settings. If you need crisp, daylight-like illumination, 5000K is an excellent choice. However, for relaxation-focused spaces, a warmer temperature (2700K-4000K) might be a better fit.
đSeems I have caught the city over-illuminating their human cattle.
Proton Magic spoke to the city by phone:
PM: I understand you want to protect users of the bike path at night from trouble. So you mean in the 50 years these paths have been around you managed a danger to society that we paid for? Why didnât you put up more incandescent lights in those days if it was so concerning?
CITY: Er, um, Iâll have to take that up with my boss for you, the staff with a female voice answers.
PM: How many incidents of dangerous behavior have you had in the bike path in the last 50 years?
CITY: Well we did have a murder nearby.
PM: One murder during the 50 years. Hmm, well of course itâs a tragedy. Where was the incident?
CITY: It was an a house along the path.
PM: Ok but house entrances donât face the path, they face the street on the other side [the dark side of the moon]. Maybe you need to make the streets brighter. Did you notice I found the bike path is dozens of times brighter than the streets. đDo you mean 99.9% of pedestrians on the streets are in mortal danger?@!
CITY: Yeah weâve really had no incidents in the path.
PM: Ok, I appreciate your honesty. But why donât you put up security cameras and signs that say, âbehave!â, in the path instead of frying everyoneâs retinas?
CITY: Er, oh, um, Iâll take it up [chokes up]âŚwith the boss.
PM: Is your tongue tied in knots Maâam? Maâam, are you ok? (the lady cries and murmurs something about how sad it would be if she was part of making kids blind- I didnât have the guts to tell her about kids dying from injections).
What about that seedy and dim area near the train station that has drunken people fighting sometimes. Why donât you put LED spotlights on them?
CITY: Donât know how to answer all this PM. Iâll become a subscriber. Just please donât put my name in a post. Pretty please.đ
âThe city has just surrendered to PM and logic prevails again.
So much on the City for now, things are bound to get worse. Incandescent bulbs are undergoing phase-out. I was never told I was the brightest bulb in the box, but I do have enough boxes of incandescent bulbs to last until Agenda 2050.
The cityâs next reply is pending though I did knock that UFO out of the sky:
Yours Truly,
Proton Magic & Co.
Other LED articles for deep divers:
Ray Horvath: The Infernal Light; Part Two
Roman Shapoval: LEDs, mold & seizures
Excellent article Proton! I too believe that I must be getting abducted by aliens every night as well. The poor sleep patterns, waking up hourly, lucid dreams. No signs of âprobingâ yet thankfully. Or it could all be from the arms length list of wifi networks available from my bedroom along with the multiple smart meters on every single house and the weapons grade led street lights that illuminate them. It takes a double layer of window coverings to block out the light blast. Then about six months ago my neighbor installed led lights in the eaves of his house around the entire perimeter⌠the house is lit up like the Vegas strip along with every neighbouring yard. I actually wish it were alien abductions, it would be more fun. The earthling technology is meant for depopulation, alien technology is for research purposes only, most likely to try and conclude why the human planetary leaders want to kill off their population.
As for the Proton prepping article, advice on sourcing incandescent bulbs would be appreciated, here in Kanadastan they are rarer than an un-corrupted politician.
Why not just buy a cheap pair of polarized glasses for night driving? It would probably be cheaper than the light meters and less of a hassle.