That, plus the fact that there's so little crime here, it's barely on my radar. Sure, every once in a while we get a "crime wave" where people in a nearby subdivision who leave their cars unlocked and parked on the street have stuff stolen from their cars or the garage-door remote used to access their garage. But I just figure that's a stupidity tax.
Cindy Hamilton
And you have to scroll down through all that BS to be able to read the details about the item you're looking at and interested in. I'm surprised it works on anyone, I just try to blow past it as fast as possible, never bought anything from all that crap.
A few years ago I visited a friend in west Texas (about 100 miles west of Waco) nowhere near any big towns. I hadn't sen nearly that many stars before that night.
It also shows them what is available to steal, and makes it easier to steal it without tripping over anything -- - - - it even helps them undo the chain you have tying the stuff down -- - -
The eye responds more to blue light than yellow or red - so a pure white light appears brighter with the same lumen output
I know the difference. We have dimmers on the incandescents here and they are low lumen and pretty yellow when dimmed. Most of the time the living room, dining room and kitchen are lit by a single F40 two bulb fixture with 2700 degree LEDs in it. Later in the evening it might just be the dimmed light by my chair and the rope light over the train track that is on a motion sensor (dual bright). If I need to read something I can turn up the light. It is 150w full bright.
Same sort of thing I imagine. There is just less air pollution at sea.
That is as likely to be a kid in the neighborhood as a criminal gang.
My bet is way up in the 90%. The lights are where most of the people are and this is an old picture. It is much brighter than that now. LEDs have made outdoor lighting much cheaper and more prevalent.
They also are associating health issues with blue light. I let that go before but it does seem more fatiguing to me. My eye doctor has posters in his office warning about it so there must be something to it. One advantage of keeping the lights low here is I can dial down the intensity of my monitor and TV, when it is on ... not so much lately.
Hence the quotes around "crime wave".
I haven't always lived out in exurbia. Even in normal city neighborhoods, if my neighbors tried to control what outdoor lighting I use, I'd still tell them to pound sand. Which is why I'd never live in a HOA-controlled neighborhood.
Cindy Hamilton
Lights on all night was not an HOA rule. They were, or more like one person was, urging us to do it, probaby because he read one of those safety pages that country goverments, home repair magazines, and police put out occaionally.
I walked around one night and maybe 20% of the lights were on.
We do have street lights, and we have very few if any burglaries at night (or even during the day) or car breakins
But people want to DO something so someone passed along this request, and now that LED bulbs use so little electricity, it's about a dollar a year.
Using the main search page.
I look at them when I'm having trouble finding just what I want.
Doesn't matter. Your neighbors are busybodies, prodnoses, and curtain twitchers. I ignore such people on principle.
Cindy Hamilton
Heh. Good one.
Cindy Hamilton
It certainly seems to turn out that way. We tamped that down a whole lot when we rejected renewing the deed restrictions and the power to attach liens so there was no real enforcement vehicle. We solve our problems the adult way. We just reason with people and it works surprisingly well. We have 85% or so who pay their dues and that turns out to be more money than we need to maintain our amenities. No dues, no boat ramp key, simple. If you don't have a boat, you don't have to pay. We still get a lot of those people because they understand it also costs money to maintain the park and even if they don't use it, they like the green space.
I am suddenly thrust into the middle of a classic condo association, actually my FIL is but I am there all the time. It is as bad as people say it is. There are a couple hundred units in the condo, divided into 3 buildings with sub associations in each. They have plenty of people with nothing but time on their hands and the 42 page rule book in their hand, looking for violations they can complain about. We haven't been fined yet but we have had several warnings about silly stuff, some not even valid and we have only been there a month. My FIL said he is thinking about just giving them a grand or so and tell them to bill him out of that. Don't bother him about it.
I disagree. We have a joint interest in lessening crime.
Those who want the lights on all night might be wrong in that the lights don't lessen crime. I'm not going to "do my own research", but I'd be surprised if it didn't work some places.
Society comes from the Latin word socius, meaning ally. We are supposed to be allies, at least against the problems that face all of us.
They are not intruding in my home. They are, or the one person who suggested this is only dealing with the outside.
I already want a light to be on or come on when I come home or someone visits me in the dark. My house is tucked away and the street lights won't keep me from tripping on the steps up to my door. So if I need a light I might as well buy one that will stay on all night, and a dollar a year is not much of an intrustion. .
If only light pollution were successful in doing so.
I beg your pardon. I don't live in a crime-ridden hellhole, so I cannot imagine what it's like for you.
Do people visit you unexpectedly? We've broken all our friends of that bad habit. They call first, and we turn on the lights for them.
We don't have street lights at all, and I don't have steps up to the back door of my house, but there's enough ambient light to get me through the door. You live in a populous area, don't you? If you have trouble with your night vision, perhaps you should stay home at night.
Cindy Hamilton
I think the myth that lights stop crime was started by Thomas Edison to sell street lights and it may have had some basis in fact when people were willing to get involved. I doubt it means much of anything today. Crooks will commit crimes when they know they are standing in front of high resolution cameras and still have a good chance of getting away with it. In Maryland, nobody is actually going to confront a burglar anyway and if they did, they are as likely to get arrested as the "suspect" if they try to detain them. That doesn't even work in Georgia as we just found out. With 150 or more unsolved murders in Baltimore every year, I doubt the cops will be working shifts to solve a burglary anyway. Call the cops? OK lets look at the Zimmerman time line. He called the cops saying he was looking at a suspicious person. The cops showed up a half hour later ... after the report of shots fired. In a half hour a real burglar would have all they could carry and be gone. That is in a small town. In the big city they might not show up at all. A roller might show up in the morning to take a report if you were actually robbed but they might just tell you to file it online.
If you're pretending I do, that's rude. If not, it's 1000 times too strong.
But either way, you're right, so why are we having these repeated exchanges.
Yes. The guys who deliver packages don't tell me when they are coming and they come up to 8PM.
Bad habit? It's what America was like before the telephone. It's grass roots, down home, apple pie.
I have friends I can visit without calling. I want to be more like them.
You remind me that when there was a commuity issue 30 years ago I went door to door and I was a little surprised but most people opened their door for me even in the dark up to 8PM in the winter. Most of the ones who didn't probably were not home.
I guess you have some light pollution too.
My night vision is fine, but darkness can be very dark.
That's one solution. Fortunately it's not the only one.
Micky
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