Lee.org

Summary:
– Show your friends, especially the ones that don’t totally believe in your LED flickering woes, this well produced primer to LED flicker that was on NPR’s Short Wave podcast last month!
– The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is working on a document to help lighting manufacturers make LED lighting that won’t drive us crazy… and you can help make it great!
__________________________________________________

Hi, it’s Lee,

You’re receiving this because you and I have chatted about the increasing problem of flickering lights in the world. Most of you are directly bothered by flicker in automotive, residential, and commercial settings. Some have just told me that you’re an ally. Some of you I haven’t spoken to in years, others we’ve chatted in the past few weeks.

I think most of you will agree that with the increased adoption of LED lighting and its obvious benefits, there has also been a huge increase in the problem of flicker. For myself, I’ve noticed how just a few years ago, bothersome flickering running lights used to be only seen on a few automobile models (oh Cadillac, I’m talking about you!) now, more than a third of new cars I see on the road have crazy-disco-strobe running lights and horridly distracting daytime running lights!

That happily brings me to the reason I’m messaging you! Two weeks ago, the lighting scientist I’m allied with, Naomi Miller was a guest on NPR’s science podcast, Short Wave. Read and listen here: It’s Not Just You: Christmas Lights Look Different Now, And Can Give You Headaches. She and the hosts talk in very practical terms about flicker and some things people can do to fight back. You can feel good about forwarding this article to that friend of yours that doesn’t believe you!

Naomi talks about it briefly in the article: her group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is working with the Illuminating Engineering Society to write a document that will hopefully become a standard to tell manufacturers what makes a good or bad lighting waveform, and how they can build those bulbs. Naomi has given me a snippet of those preliminary guidelines that, quite literally, needs some eyes on it!

(Don’t worry if you can’t decipher it completely!)

It’s possible the flicker guideline they’re creating will protect most people, but then again, maybe not! That’s why it’s a preliminary document! Will it protect YOU? Would you like to help figure it out? There’s some work to be done, and having flicker-sensitive eyes on the project will help a lot! If you want to be involved, please reply!

I’ll send another update in a month or two to keep you updated about the wonderful world of flicker.

Best regards and Happy New Year,
Lee Sonko
lee.org/flicker

Such a joyous image! Abigail throwing wildflower seeds with her 3rd grade class at school.

I’m so happy I could work with the Garden Teacher, Leura to make this moment happen.

Allergic to peanuts?

Are Boiled Peanuts the Answer to Peanut Allergy? (answer: probably yes!)

A few weeks ago Abigail was trying on some fancy Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones my sister-in-law lent me. We were eating at Habit Burger and Abigail noticed the most amazing thing, all of the food tasted more vibrant while wearing the headphones!

I tried the headphones  and instantly the burger tasted even more “flame broiled” and the fries tasted over-salted! Headphones off = everything back to normal!

This would make a GREAT science fair experiment!

My friend Carol C. mentioned this on FB

I am mystified by Budget Car Rental’s business strategy. Routinely, if I reserve a car a month in advance, the daily rate is very high (up to $100 a day). However, if I then modify the reservation slightly (e.g., moving the time of pick-up back or forward by half an hour) closer to the day, the cost goes way down. Recent example: $80 a day initial cost, reduced to $36 when I modified. The cost almost never goes up when I modify (and if it does, I simply cancel the modification).

Why on earth would Budget want to discourage early reservations by using a rate that is much higher than they can realistically expect to get with later ones?

My friend Gil Patchett published his second book recently!

Hear Gil talking about the book

Find it on Amazon:

READY TO EXPLORE THE WORLD: Travel Alone and Meet More Friends Paperback – July 4, 2023

A retired sixty year old research chemist, set out to explore the world alone. Going into the unknown, Gil Patchett discovered that ‘magic happens’ when one boldly goes forth with an open-heart that brings ‘chance’ meetings with beautiful people. This is not a book of fiction, it is the honest, unvarnished truth of the unfolding of events during his travels. He was surprised how everywhere he went, he was welcomed as a single traveler. Gil came to wonder what was the magnet that drew people to him during his travels…it seemed that both he and them were hungry to know about each other. The fulness of the experience inspired Gil to share his memoires with the hope it will encourage others to travel alone and explore the wonder of diverse cultures on our vibrant planet.

A guy on Facebook asked a group for matchmaking advice. My response:

12 years ago I met my now-wife on match.com. I found OKCupid, PlentyOfFish, and a few other free sites to be full of women window-shopping for men which was horrid. I found other good relationships on Match.com years before also. I don’t know what the best sites are now but going with a paid site was better. A zillion years ago I used the Together Matchmaking service and didn’t like it. “5 matches for $750. Go!” The pressure to match was very uncomfortable! It all sucks. Good luck!

I’ve been carrying a Utili-Key on my keychain for about 20 years. It’s rarely quite the right tool for the job, but it’s always at hand and usually gets the job done, which is infinitely better than not having any tool! I carried my Leatherman Wave for a while but hauling 9 ounces of steel on my belt is incredible overkill for how often I need it!

A new in-law saw me using mine and asked for one. Thus began a hunt for a Utili-key! It’s turning out to be very hard! I think the company doesn’t make them any more and there’s a lot of crappy knock-offs out there. The in-law is my wife’s brother’s son’s new wife’s father John!

I looked online but couldn’t find a vendor on the company’s list that actually sells it. I bought some from Temu.com and they were all crap. Each one failed in a different way. One has sharp burrs, one doesn’t close, one doesn’t open, none have a decent regular-head screwdriver, etc. I bought some from eBay and they were crap in authentic looking packaging.

Here’s one of my authentic Utili-Keys (on the left) compared to a knock-off from Temu.

I’m coming to believe that this represents real packaging, and this represents knock-off packaging:

Real Utili-key packaging

.

Fake Utili-key packaging??

But who the heck knows.

Update 10-28-23: I bought a Utili-key from a seller on eBay in the “real” packaging as seen above and it turns out to be a legit Utili-Key! Hurray! Here is the actual, real packaging:

Here was my first experience with a self driving car: I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago to see Dog Man: The Musical with family and friends. I was standing on the SW corner of Geary and Powell, looking at Union Square. I saw a Cruise Self Driving Car pull up to the intersection IN THE BUS-ONLY LANE, stop, put on it’s left-turn blinker to turn onto Powell and proceed to DRIVE STRAIGHT through the intersection! It’s the future of transportation! :-(