Friend, this was not intended to be a particularly serious thread.

I just wanted to know the answer to the question and thought I'd share it. (Although the numbers are accurate, you'd probably want 10 photons/sec rather than at 1Hz for the stream to be consciously detectable. It's physiologically detectable at lower frequencies.)

Also, you'd have to shine this flashlight directly into your retina and hold it very, very still. Used as a regular flashlight, the chances of any of these photons actually bouncing off something and returning to your eye are roughly zero. (The odds are better that you'd be hit by every lightening strike ever.)

Much more could be written about why flashlights are inherently incredibly inefficient, but I don't want to run the risk of taking this thread too seriously myself...