They have them in Europe and in Canada, now the United States will be able to have smart headlights too, thanks to a recent ruling by the Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—NHTSA, something I didn’t even know existed. Smart headlights are a technology which relies on sensors and LED. What they do is focus to illumine dark and unoccupied areas and reduce intensity of illumination when there is oncoming traffic. It all sounds so welcome, I suspect we’ve all had the experience of being blinded by traffic from the other side or not seeing certain areas well enough. Smart headlights will prevent crashes by better illuminating pedestrians, animals, and other objects without impairing the visibility of drivers. In 2019 research from the American Automobile Association found that the roadway illumination of the European cars with the adaptive beam headlight system—the formal name for smart headlights— increased by 86% when compared with the usual US cars on low beams. It may not sound like a big deal but it seems to me that it will make night driving not only much safer but much easier. In my neighborhood where streets are narrower than on main thoroughfares, coming home late and looking out for people who are too busy looking at their phones while walking their dogs will soon be that much less frustrating. I don’t know how long it will take for car makers in the US to install this technology into new models, but like rear cameras they are an exciting addition.
April 2022
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Removing a Slur
The word squaw referring to a Native American woman is a slur. It is derogatory and offensive and like the N word, some even call it the S word. It is to Native Americans more than an insult to women, it is an insult to the land, and to the whole culture. There are in the US today something like 660 places with that word in them. And Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior and the first Native American Cabinet Secretary is looking for replacement names for rivers, lakes, resorts and other places. These places occur in all but ten states. And not all are on US government owned land. One of the most famous, Squaw Valley, the Northern California resort of Lake Tahoe which hosted the 1960 Olympics is in private hands. It rebranded itself as Palisades Tahoe a few months ago after a long debate over its identity. As far as California is concerned there are some 100 places with the slur in their names and a bill has been introduced in the state Assembly to rename them. Search engines have not yet caught up with the name changes. Type in Squaw in Google Maps or Apple Maps and the names of all places will come up, including Squaw Valley. Not all places are as known as this one, some are in more obscure places.
The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers published a report this year that pointed out that renaming geographical places that bear a name that is a slur to Native American or African American women was not an effort to cancel history. It said, “Rather it is an opportunity to provide a more honest accounting of America’s past and a gesture towards healing historic wounds.”