Many residents didn't participate, and in fact most of the people we talked to had never heard of it. Inconceivable! How could they have avoided Lights Out's bombardment of enviromessaging? The event had a website and . Sure, its unfortunate title evokes an image of being sucker-punched into unconsciousness, the benefit of individual participation was always kind of nebulous. But nevertheless, it's neat! Next, lets see what happens if everyone in SF flushes the toilet at the same time.

Oh, speaking of the website, they have some pix up from the event. Using HIGHLY SOPHISTERCATED cyber technology, SFist compared their lights-on pix to the lights-out pix: areas of grey are unchanged; dark spots are lights turned out; light spots are lights turned on. (More here and here.) As you can see, the city was largely unmoved. Oh well. As conservation efforts go, Lights Out SF just wasn't sustainable.

Fortunately, the Lights Out website also has more long-termy suggestions, some of which are fairly doable (adjust your thermostat) and others of which have a Jimmy-Carteresque air of desperation (don't use planes to go on holiday; instead, just drive to the next town over).

So, readers: did you play the Lights Out game? Did your friends and loved ones? What are you doing to stave off the end of the world for a few more days?

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