Dead Badgers Society

I spotted an interesting article in Car+Driver during my lunchbreak about digital licence plates.  They look like this...

...and are only legal in two of the United States of America.

I'm having problems understanding the benefits of these things.  Apparently, they can be changed to give out alerts or to indicate that the vehicle has been stolen.  They can also be linked in to the State licensing to update when the fees have been paid.

Well whoopdie-doo.

I say that because they cost $499 and then either $55 a year or $4.99 a month. It is also available for $17.95 a month for 36 months.

Yes, you have to subscribe to your own number plate.  And think of all the prisoners it's going to put out of work.

And what happens when they get hacked?

The battery lasts five years though.

So, this evening, I returned to Car+Driver to create this post and spotted another intriguing headline - one concerning a dead badger.  I posted about dead badgers many years ago when I was in a different employment to the one my lunchbreak interrupted today.

However, the new dead badger story is actually a dead Badger story - with a capital B - the Nikola Badger has been culled by GM pulling out of a deal to build the things.  

Full story here.

It looks like this is the result of skullduggery - either on the part of Nikola or on the part of an investor trying to cash in on a crashing share-price. Nobody knows who yet - that story is here.

Shame, because if you put electric licence plates on it, it wouldn't need separate batteries.

Renault Megone

Couple of unusual crime stories from this week.

First an idiot in Northampton buys a Renault Megane, doesn't insure it, gets behind the wheel, nearly crashes into a Police vehicle and gets it impounded:

Fox News have the story here.  Being Fox News, they aren't too good on accuracy.  They say that it was a "new silver Renault Megane" - that is actually a Megane cabriolet of approximately 2005 vintage.

Meanwhile, over in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, an 18 year old was arrested for suspected drink/drug driving after crashing into somebody's front porch, collecting the front door on the way and driving off.

Somehow. 

Lord knows how.

The Police Twitter feed has some great comments added including "That's an Audi not a Porsche". 

There's probably some joke here involving Jehovah's Witnesses or Double-Glazing but I'm not sure what it is.

Maybe he was just unhinged?

Roofless

Normally when one of these appears in the news, they blur out the number plate:

I suppose it's a bit pointless when the name of the Company and their website address is all over the vehicle.

So I looked them up.

Apparently, "It is our priority that your products arrive at your customer in the condition you both expect." and "Our express service has been developed with short lead times and vital just in time with delivery in mind. Archbold is an express delivery service solution provider you can rely on. We deliver on time, every time."

Apart from this occasion.

They do have some nice old pictures though:

The bridge crash is actually from this BBC story about the most hit bridges in Britain.

Network Rail said there was an average of five railway bridge crashes per day nationally, with repairs costing an average of £13,000 per strike.

That particular bridge is in Leicestershire and has been struck 25 times in a year.

This is all almost unbelievable.

The height warning signs have both Metric and Imperial markings so we can't blame ignorance of either system.

I suspect Sat-Navs.

Either that or trailer manufacturers are in league with bridge manufacturers and warning sign manufacturers to fiddle the insurance.

Home Brew

 Wheeler Dealers is coming home!

But wait, that's not Ant Anstead.

No, that's Marc Priestley aka "Elvis" - the British based mechanic who worked with Mike on Wheeler Dealers - Dream Car.

Which I never watched.

The full announcement is here on YouTube:

Elvis is taking over from Ant and the three of them appear in that video talking about what will be the series-after-next.

I look forward to it being British again and I have every confidence that Elvis will make a fine third incarnation of the WD Mechanic - a Jon Pertwee to Ant's Patrick Troughton if you will.

One other thing I took from the video was a throw-away comment from Ant about his wives.

So I looked them up on Wikipedia.

His first wife, according to Wiki, is famous for being Ant Anstead's ex-wife.

His second wife, however, who is also Ant Anstead's ex-wife, seems to be a TV Presenter.

One person who gets virtually zero mention, however, is Edd - still the original and best and I bet a lot of the show's fans' first choice to resume the role.  It was stated that Ant will be calling in from time to time so I think we really need a "Three Mechanics" episode at some point - if Doctor Who can do it, then there's no reason why Wheeler Dealers can't.