MagLite: Better than advertised

(From Friday)

The MagLite is heavy. It is also effective when crossing the street. Have you ever watched a cop direct traffic at night with their flashlight? They use the point of light to direct people which way to go. I do the same thing while crossing the street. I will swipe the light beam down the white line of the crosswalk, back and forth. This not only makes me highly visible, but creates the illusion that I'm taking up the entire crosswalk. I think that is important because people have been subconsciously trained to think of objects as person sized, car sized and semi truck sized while behind the wheel.

I've never lost a MagLite to damage. I've lost them. Well, I've had them disappear. Well, I've lost them to exploding batteries. I've lost several flashlights to that. That is the fault of the batteries, not the light. One was in my pocket at the time. The hiss noise that tipped me off.

One complaint I've had about MagLites in the past has been the bulbs would get off center and the pinpoint of light would be lop sided. No amount of banging the light would make it center and thus make the pinpoint of light round again. That does not appear to be a problem with the LED bulb. It is very white and highly symmetrical. When adjusted to wide angle, the circles of light are properly concentric.

(added today)

Since I wrote this, I've used the light all through the weekend at faire, and to mow the back yard this evening.