How To Make A Simple Flashlight

Fighting the fight in the heat

THE TEMPERATURE is rising. There must be something to the global warming story. Each day's build-up of the heat reduces us to sodden, soggy masses unable to think straight or act sensibly. This must be the explanation for the strange influences afflicting one and all.

Have you examined your light bill recently? Take note that the greater portion of it is not the cost of the electricity you tried to conserve, but instead a rat's nest of varied and assorted charges for all kinds of things, especially taxes. Everybody is complaining but nobody seems to know what to do. Conservation is supposed to do the trick, but with the bills just keep on rolling along, getting bigger all the while, people are beginning to despair.

Meanwhile, we've just been gifted with a Cabinet reshuffle. The prime minister has moved the dominoes on the table, expecting a better outcome. The process still invites comment. Remember when Clive Mullings controlled Energy and Mining and then, one day, he didn't? Well, now he does. His worth having been rediscovered, he's been shuffled back to where he used to be. Got it? Actually, I'm quite exhausted trying to keep up.

But, to return to the reshuffle, why are we calling it that? Was there one before this? I don't recall, so it is easy to assume that this is just the shuffle we have been waiting for. Okay, if that's too much of a problem to solve, let's see what has been achieved. Miss Dorothy has been the major loser, stripped of her two-in-one crown -- Attorney General and Minister of Justice. She has now become the biggest casualty of the Manatt-Dudus crash. It has not been a good day, not only for her, but for gender advancement.

Look at the list of who and who is moving on up and see how few women are there -- and this in a country which boasts of female power and how women outnumber and excel against their male counterparts. So, why do we have to use a flashlight to find the one-and-few females in the essentially male-dominated Cabinet?

Shahine Robinson has been given a step-up-inna-life to become a junior minister, while Mrs Dalrymple-Philibert is being touted as front-runner for Speaker of the House...two women out of how many other vacancies? No one is complaining. Remember the old Ska number Beard Man Shuffle? People didn't question. They just danced.

Back to the boys...Speculation is rife about the reassignment of Dr Tufton. Why was he moved? He had gained the reputation of the Agriculture Wonder Boy, "madding dem" wid Farmers Markets and other innovations and a heavy promotion and public relations campaign to back it up. Add to that his photo-friendly looks, his sartorial elegance and an affable disposition, and he seemed destined not only for agricultural greatness but all the way to the top along the red carpet. Nobody anticipated his changing horses in mid-stream, but he has been shuffled to shed his light on Industry, Investment and Commerce. It is said that his arrival is much anticipated, while the agriculturists try to figure out the change.

Basic Electronics/Flashlight questions

Hi. I'm new and totally uneducated in this area, so bear with me. I'm interested in flashlights because part of my volunteer work relies on them. I'm in Wilderness Search and Rescue and we search at night... a lot. I can't seem to find the right light for my needs. I'm never happy with what I find in out local stores. So, a few questions, starting with these... 1) LED's are made by different companies, and they are usually referred to as emitters. You'll see their names on here referred to as a combination of their emitter and bin; Luxeon-V, XML-S, Rebel, Cree, Seoul, etc. Some manufacture only use one brand of LED's, some use multiple. Even some of the same Flashlight models use different emitters; i.e. the Surefire L4 used to use the Luxeon-V (which is now outdated), and the new L4 uses the Seoul P4. How bright they are is essentially based on a combo of wattage/amps/voltage. You can get a brighter light out of 6 volts, but the manufacturers don't always make them like that. Brightness always goes hand in hand with runtime. They can make lights brighter, but you're always losing in the trade-off, so you want to find a good combo of both that works for you. All your alkaline cells have the same voltage essentially (1.5 volts). The only thing that changes with the lettering of the cell is capacity (known as mAh or Milli Amp Hours...so a C cell has the same voltage as a AA cell, but it will power a light at the same brightness, but for longer. Example would be a 2C and a 2D maglite...they will both be approximately the same brightness, but the one with D cells will run longer. 2) This depends on how the cells are stacked...parrallel or serial. 6AA's ran serial ("in-line") with, say a 1200mAh rating, would give you: 1.5 volts/cell (times) 6 = 9 Volts, and your capacity stays the same. When ran in parallel (say 3-AA's and 3-AA's ran next to each other =4.5 volts, but you add the capacity together, giving you less power but more runtime. There are others here far more knowledgeable than I, but the fact that you do nighttime searching outdoors caught my eye. LEDs are more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs, but tend to have a subtle-to-strong bluish tint, which can affect your ability to pick up on color-contrast in the great outdoors. There are 'HCRI' ('high color-rendition-index') leds which can increase your ability to see different colors outdoors. IlluminationSupply.

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