Yellow Headlights

A while back I saw a car in the U.S. with yellow headlights. I thought "that's weird." Probably some after-market addition. I wondered if they were legal. I see a lot of illegal after-market changes to cars, mostly LED lights that show red or blue at the front of the car.

In one country in Europe, yellow headlights were not only legal, but required.

Have you ever noticed maybe in old movies set in Europe or maybe you've traveled to Europe and seen it: some older cars in Europe have yellow headlights.

If you do see that, you immediately should know the car is from France. 

In 1937, France mandated yellow headlights to, "filter out violet, blue, and indigo light, which cause glare and dazzle for oncoming motorists" according to Google AI. Also, during World War II, it helped distinguish civilian cars from those of the Germans.

The French required yellow headlights on civilian cars until 1993, when European Union laws superseded French law. And EU law does not allow yellow headlights. If you're French and you want to put yellow headlights on your car, it has to predate 1993. Otherwise, it's illegal.

It would be interesting to see if the yellow headlights achieved their goal of making the road safer in France. Did anyone do a study on that? I don't know. 

I frankly think the yellow headlights are ugly. But that's just me.

What do you think of yellow headlights. Let me know in the comments below.

Spielberg's Machete

There's a concept in fiction (movies, books, television, etc.) that if you introduce an element in the story, it must be used later. That is, if you introduce a gun in the first act of the play, someone needs to fire it before the play is over. It's called "Chekhov's gun." Google AI says:

"This principle, popularized by [Russian playwright] Anton Chekhov, emphasizes that authors should avoid including unnecessary details or making false promises to the audience. It's a way to ensure that every element serves a purpose and contributes to the overall narrative."

WARNING: SPOILERS (if you somehow haven't seen Jaws in the past 50 years), 

I recently watched the movie Jaws because last year it was 50 years old and I hadn't seen it for a long time. There's a moment in that movie that I think violates Chekhov's gun. And I thought that when I saw the movie when I was 15 years old (although I didn't call it "Chekhov's gun").

At one point, the shark hunter Quint rams a machete into the gunwale of their boat, the Orca. The camera lingers on it for just a moment (see the picture above). Even when I was 15 I thought "that's going to come into play in the future, probably in the climax." And guess what? It didn't. We never see the machete again. 

My current opinion is that Quint should have grabbed it when the shark was eating him and tried to use it on the fish. But he doesn't.

Therefore, I think Spielberg violated the principle of Chekhov's gun. Quod erat demonstrandum.

What do you think? Am I crazy to critique one of the best directors ever? Let me know in the comments below.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

We Are a Quarter of a Century into the 21 Century

Happy New Year!

Now we actually are a quarter of a century into the 21st century.

Why now and not last year?

Because there was no year zero. We went from 1 BC (BCE) to 1 AD (CE).

So the first century was 1 to 101.

The second century was 101 to 201.

The third century was 201 to 301.

And so on until the 21st century will be 2001 to 2101.

So 25 years into the 21st century is 2026. Which starts today.

But dang, a quarter of a century into the 21st century. That's amazing.