I don't understand how people can drive around at night with no illumination emanating from the front of their cars whatsoever. Presumably, since they don't even have the parking lights on, it means the dashboard lights aren't on...or are there actually people out there who never look at their speedometer? (Well, probably, but you'd think you'd at least notice that big area of darkness out of the corner of your eye.)

On another note, it seems that a new vending machine company will be serving my apartment complex beginning on May 1st. Not that I've ever used the existing vending machines, but I don't have much confidence in the new company, given that they put a flyer up on the elevator door, which caused it to get crumpled and ripped when the elevator door slid into the wall, as they have been known to do. So where are they going to put the new vending machines?

Original comments...

Jeremy: In Egypt it is considered rude to turn your headlights on at night, because it disturbs the other drivers. Egyptian drivers only use them to flash other vehicles/pedestrians/donkey carts as they are about to pass. This actually works okay in Cairo, where as far as I saw, all the streets were pretty well lit. (They didn't look safe in any way, but they were well lit.) But I understand this is also the practice out on remote desert roads. Now the two nights I spent in the Sahara were under a full moon, and as long as no other source of light was around, you could actually see fairly well for some distance; but if you were near a fire, for instance, everything would seem pitch dark beyond its perimeter. So I can see how headlights might actually make things worse... as long as it's a full moon and you're not driving in moonshadow, like in a canyon road.

Dad: The best way to deal with 4-way stops at nights at little-used country crossroads is, of course, to turn off your lights and then, seeing no other lights, not stop. Note: this does not work well if utilized by two vehicles approaching the crossroads on adjacent roads.