Showerthought: I was reading the shadow clues all wrong for months

I used to think those weird alignment of streetlights at 3am was just bad wiring, but last Thursday I saw three lights in Cleveland flicker in a pattern that matched a forum post about predictive grid anomalies. Turns out my neighbor's garage floodlight was reflecting off a van window, not some signal. Has anyone else chased a streetlight pattern that ended up being totally random?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_eric1mo ago

Just rule out the boring stuff first" - see, I actually go the opposite way with this. I figure if it's boring and random, then there's nothing lost by chasing the weird explanation for a bit first. That's half the fun of noticing odd patterns in the first place. I'd rather spend an hour being wrong about a cool mystery than skip straight to "it was a bug.

terryk101mo ago

Take a video with your phone" is actually genius, I'm gonna start doing that for EVERY weird light I see now.

alice_hart1mo ago

Oh man, I fell for this hard a few years back! I was convinced the blinking red light on a cell tower was sending me some kind of coded message at 2am. Turns out I was just seeing the reflection of a plane's wing light through a weird gap in the blinds. My advice is to take a video with your phone, then watch it back in slow motion. That's how I figured out the "pattern" was actually just a bug buzzing around the bulb. Also, check your weather app for fog or humidity - that can make lights do all sorts of weird focusing tricks. Save yourself the headache and rule out the boring stuff first, because it almost always is just boring stuff.