Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

[Nethybridge]

Another motoring myth to bust, unless you know better.

Painting your number plates with a clear varnish or
spray to prevent a speed camera from reading your Reg.

Sounds like a crock, but then again, how often has that know-all bloke in the pub been
proved right ?

[Speed 3]

handpaper said:

Nethybridge said:

Watching car reviews, I wonder how the car cargo space volume is calulated,
and why litres are sometimes used even though
as any fule kno the litre isn't a base SI unit.

I would imagine it's supplied by the manufacturer and just quoted. I can't see Auto Express messing around with airbags & similar.

And if you give the volume in cubic metres, 1) it will seem tiny, and 2) very few people will understand it.

Surely they just baffle it and fill it with water then measure how many litres come out when they drill through the floor ?

[Alickadoo]

Speed 3 said:

handpaper said:

Nethybridge said:

Watching car reviews, I wonder how the car cargo space volume is calulated,
and why litres are sometimes used even though
as any fule kno the litre isn't a base SI unit.

I would imagine it's supplied by the manufacturer and just quoted. I can't see Auto Express messing around with airbags & similar.

And if you give the volume in cubic metres, 1) it will seem tiny, and 2) very few people will understand it.

Surely they just baffle it and fill it with water then measure how many litres come out when they drill through the floor ?

Ping pong balls.

[shirt]

Dagnir said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Dagnir said:

Why are so many British people actively working towards (or supporting) the destruction of Britain and its culture?


If you don't like our culture, that's up to you but why are so many in favour of its erosion....truly baffles me.

Are they though? Or is it just a certain segment of society who is convinced that they are? And which culture is it that "they" are destroying anyway? The rose-tinted 1950's one favoured by Daily Mail readers, I would imagine.

Maybe ask your question in the NP&E section, where they get all frothy and excited about such things.

That's a telling response in so many ways...

Still relevant …

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Nethybridge said:

Another motoring myth to bust, unless you know better.

Painting your number plates with a clear varnish or
spray to prevent a speed camera from reading your Reg.

Sounds like a crock, but then again, how often has that know-all bloke in the pub been
proved right ?

Any trick like that could have you up for Perverting the Course of Justice (even the attempt can be prosecuted as such), which carries a far heavier penalty (including potentially a jail term) than a few points on your licence (even if that does result in a ban). You'd have to be a mug to try it.

If you're prepared to take that kind of risk you'd be better off using cloned plates.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 13th May 19:34

[Nethybridge]

A new bill will do away with fines for displaying illegal plates
and introduce a penalty points on licence punishment.

Way to go, so running around with false plates gets a lesser penalty than doing 40 in a 30 ?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Nethybridge said:

A new bill will do away with fines for displaying illegal plates and introduce a penalty points on licence punishment.

Way to go, so running around with false plates gets a lesser penalty than doing 40 in a 30?

I'd want to see the wording. Is that 'illegal plates' as in illegal font and/or illegal spacing, or is it illegal as in cloned / false plates? I would suspect it's the former.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 13th May 22:22

[Abbott]

Only wanted to know this since yesterday. I was out in my Kayak for a few of hours. Weather was great but after I turned around and started heading back home. The weather changed dramatically and in the distance there were dark clouds and lots of heavy thunder. Didn't see any lightning. So question is what is the risk of being struck by lightning and what might happen if I was. The water was a large open expanse but it would not have been easy to get out so I paddle home as fast as I could.

[Nethybridge]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

I'd want to see the wording. Is that 'illegal plates' as in illegal font and/or illegal spacing, or is it illegal as in cloned / false plates? I would suspect it's the former.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 13th May 22:22

Doesn't specify, just illegal or cloned plates, I'm unsure if the bill even made it into law, it seemed to have died in 2020.

Here's the link

https://www.number1plates.com/blog/what-is-the-off...

[NRG1976]

Do we keep seeds of every know plant stored safe somewhere in case we mess up nature with GM ?

[hidetheelephants]

NRG1976 said:

Do we keep seeds of every know plant stored safe somewhere in case we mess up nature with GM ?

Sort of, although there are other less comprehensive seed banks elsewhere like Kew etc.

[handpaper]

Abbott said:

Only wanted to know this since yesterday. I was out in my Kayak for a few of hours. Weather was great but after I turned around and started heading back home. The weather changed dramatically and in the distance there were dark clouds and lots of heavy thunder. Didn't see any lightning. So question is what is the risk of being struck by lightning and what might happen if I was. The water was a large open expanse but it would not have been easy to get out so I paddle home as fast as I could.

THIS may help.
Or not, as the case may be...

[Strangely Brown]

hidetheelephants said:

NRG1976 said:

Do we keep seeds of every know plant stored safe somewhere in case we mess up nature with GM ?

Sort of, although there are other less comprehensive seed banks elsewhere like Kew etc.

There is one that you can visit at Wakehurst Place in East Sussex.

Millenium Seed Bank

[Halmyre]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Nethybridge said:

Another motoring myth to bust, unless you know better.

Painting your number plates with a clear varnish or
spray to prevent a speed camera from reading your Reg.

Sounds like a crock, but then again, how often has that know-all bloke in the pub been
proved right ?

Any trick like that could have you up for Perverting the Course of Justice (even the attempt can be prosecuted as such), which carries a far heavier penalty (including potentially a jail term) than a few points on your licence (even if that does result in a ban). You'd have to be a mug to try it.

If you're prepared to take that kind of risk you'd be better off using cloned plates.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 13th May 19:34

I've seen various dodgy looking plates that look as if they've got some sort of film or coating on them but a new variation I saw the other day was a plate where the numbers were a sort of pale grey that made the plate almost unreadable unless you were up close.

[droopsnoot]

Halmyre said:

I've seen various dodgy looking plates that look as if they've got some sort of film or coating on them but a new variation I saw the other day was a plate where the numbers were a sort of pale grey that made the plate almost unreadable unless you were up close.

I think that sort of thing is presuming that (a) cameras can't read them, and (b) there aren't enough traffic cops to have the time to pull them over.

I don't know whether (a) is true any more - there was talk at one point that ANPR cameras couldn't "read" silver on black plates, but if that was true for early ANPR I imagine it's been improved a bit since then. As for (b), I don't know whether it's just not a targeted thing - I recall someone being pulled for badly-spaced plates on an old episode of "Traffic Cops" or similar, and I'd quite enjoy an episode where that's their target, but I was about to write "instead of drunk or drug drivers, speeding drivers and the general scum that they do target" then realised dodgy plates are deeply irritating but not as bad as those things. Still, maybe a one-off might dispel some of the myths around these iffy plates.

[mko9]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Nethybridge said:

A new bill will do away with fines for displaying illegal plates and introduce a penalty points on licence punishment.

Way to go, so running around with false plates gets a lesser penalty than doing 40 in a 30?

I'd want to see the wording. Is that 'illegal plates' as in illegal font and/or illegal spacing, or is it illegal as in cloned / false plates? I would suspect it's the former.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 13th May 22:22

The vast majority of these "problems" would go away if the UK government issued you your plates, like virtually every other country on the face of the planet, instead of allowing you to craft them yourself in your garden shed. All of the problems with colors, fonts, spacing, mounting hole location, etc go away.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

mko9 said:

The vast majority of these "problems" would go away if the UK government issued you your plates, like virtually every other country on the face of the planet, instead of allowing you to craft them yourself in your garden shed. All of the problems with colors, fonts, spacing, mounting hole location, etc go away.

Ostensibly, the only plates that are legal are ones made by a registered official plates producer, who have seen your documentation, and have made them exactly to spec. So, in reality, what you are proposing is already the case only the government have outsourced it.

Any plates made "in your garden shed" or with customisations or lacking the ugly vendor information along the bottom, are classed as "show plates" and are not strictly legal and could get you prosecuted. But if legally spaced with standard font then it's unlikely that you would be.

[StevieBee]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Any plates made "in your garden shed" or with customisations or lacking the ugly vendor information along the bottom, are classed as "show plates" and are not strictly legal and could get you prosecuted. But if legally spaced with standard font then it's unlikely that you would be.

I have a small show plate on the front of my Elise. the full size one looked ugly and kept getting broken on speed bumps and overly crowned roads. My next door but one neighbour is a recently retired, senior former Copper. Also a a car and bike guy. His view was that whilst illegal, providing the letters and numbers weren't trying be something else, I would be highly unlucky to pulled up over it. Three years in an all's good!

[48k]

mko9 said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Nethybridge said:

A new bill will do away with fines for displaying illegal plates and introduce a penalty points on licence punishment.

Way to go, so running around with false plates gets a lesser penalty than doing 40 in a 30?

I'd want to see the wording. Is that 'illegal plates' as in illegal font and/or illegal spacing, or is it illegal as in cloned / false plates? I would suspect it's the former.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 13th May 22:22

The vast majority of these "problems" would go away if the UK government issued you your plates, like virtually every other country on the face of the planet, instead of allowing you to craft them yourself in your garden shed. All of the problems with colors, fonts, spacing, mounting hole location, etc go away.

I disagree, it wouldn't change anything. You could still unscrew your government issued plates and replace them with other ones.

[john2443]

droopsnoot said:

- there was talk at one point that ANPR cameras couldn't "read" silver on black plates...

The Dartford crossing can read my silver on black plates so I guess ANPR can as well.