Gambling Licence

Excuse my ignorance but I was not aware of The War of 1812.

Apparently, lots of it happened in the US State of Maryland.

Skip forward 200 years and somebody in the US State of Maryland had decided to commemorate the bicentenary with a Website - www.starspangled200.org

They even decided to put it on car licence plates in the US State of Maryland.

Skip forward another 15-ish years and somebody in the US State of Maryland decided to stop paying for that URL so somebody else took it over - a Filipino online gambling website.  Car+Driver have the full story here.

What were the odds of that happening, eh?

Dirty Plates

So who has got the dirty mind in this Fox story?

A Tennessee woman has been told  that she can't keep the personalised licence plate that she has had for ten years because it is "offensive".

Is it?

Can't see anything offensive in that.

I suppose it is a reference to the sexual position widely known as a "sixty-nine".  But there is no mention of that in the story.  Are they afraid to mention sexual positions or do they really believe that the woman is a keen astronomer celebrating the year of the Moon-Landing?

Meanwhile, the PWNDU is supposedly gaming-speak for "Owned You" in the context of thrashing somebody in a game.

I would never have spotted anything offensive in that plate - even if I'd just lost badly at Grand Theft Auto.

But then, I don't have a dirty mind - unless you include the registrations I made up in this article.

The Fox story links to another one from last September about a licence plate:

As you can see, somebody has made that himself.  I think it is good enough to fool people if it is on a car whizzing along a road at any reasonable speed.

Except the Kentucky man who drew it, forgot to add in the tax stickers that you can see on the Tennessee plate above.

And it turns out he was also driving with no insurance and with a suspended licence.

It doesn't say whether or not he was jailed for his misdemeanours.

But if he was, I bet they had him making licence plates.

The Green Flash

Remember October last year when I told you about green number plates?

Of course you do.

Well, as of today they are a thing. Autocar have the story - not seen it anywhere else.  The Government have plumped for this design:

Basically, just a green flash.

"But, what is the point?" I hear you ask.

Good question.

Well, they signify zero emission (aka electric) vehicles.  And, "Research carried out by Nissan and Yougov claims that 32% of people surveyed would be more likely to buy an electric car because of the new plates, and the prospect of further incentives to be rolled out as a result. This could include specific zero-emission parking zones, exemption from road charges and even zero-emission lanes."

What?

"Research carried out by Nissan and Yougov claims that 32% of people surveyed would be more likely to buy an electric car because of the new plates, and the prospect of further incentives to be rolled out as a result. This could include specific zero-emission parking zones, exemption from road charges and even zero-emission lanes."

I know but I'm still not convinced.

Anyway, being Welsh, I've always fancied one of these perfectly legal plates:

Would that entitle me to half-price road charges and to use half of the zero emission parking bays and lanes?

The biggest flaw in this plan though, is that there is nothing to stop you getting some green sticky paper and turning your diesel Volkswagen into something getting the benefits of a Renault Zoe.

And, after December 31st, the rather dim readers of the painfully sycophantic Daily Express will know exactly where to stick them:

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.

Supremely White

I used to regard myself as part of a group known as The Superwhite Army.

I don't associate with them any more.

But this isn't a Liam Neeson moment.

I mention it because of this BBC story about an American University professor who is annoyed that the California DMV won't let him have "COYW" on his license plate.

 

COYW stands for "Come on You Whites".

 

They say it is racist.

 

These are the "whites" in question:

The more observant of you will have noticed that quite of few of them are black.  Fulham Football Club play in white so are regularly referred to as "The Whites."  The prof, Jonathan Kotler, is an avid supporter and thought it entirely reasonable to have a plate with COYW on it.

 

I tend to agree with him.

 

I like his argument statement, "I pointed out that many clubs in Britain are known by their colour - the blues, the clarets. Nobody thought the Liverpool reds were communists."

 

Incidentally, I fell out of love with The Superwhite Army (aka Tranmere Rovers FC fans) when the team got relegated from the old League 1 at the turn of the Century.

 

Fulham are also doomed to relegation this season.

 

Meanwhile, here is a story about a white California Police Officer chasing a black girl down a street: 

That Idle Lot in Westminster

And that's just the ones that turn up:

Actually this isn't a political story - it is one of two unrelated motoring stories that caught my eye on the BBC News Website this week - the newly revamped BBC News website.

Which I don't like.

It's not as good as the one it replaced.

Which I didn't like when that came about because it wasn't as good as the one it replaced.

And so it goes on - but then you get used the latest one and everything is good again.

Anyway back to the story - it appeared yesterday.  It's about how motorists sitting in their vehicles in Westminster will be liable for £20 fines if they leave their engines running if they aren't actually going anywhere.  I think I'm in favour of this - it is irratating to see exhaust fumes belching out of a parked car and the thought of fuel being wasted.  I don't see how they could police this rule though.

The taxi drivers aren't happy.  The article quotes Steve McNamara, general secretary of the LTDA saying that the fines were "absolute tosh" and a public relations and money raising exercise from the council. He went on: "It is not going to do anything constructive to tackle the pollution crisis in London. When was the last time you saw someone idling in the city? It doesn't happen."

OK then, if it doesn't happen you've got nothing to worry about, have you Steve?


The other BBC story that grabbed my attention today was this one.  It is about how a group of descendents of Confederate soldiers wanted to have the following design on their Texas State licence plates:

This request was declined as it was deemed offensive to a large number of people affected by or ashamed of Slavery.

So the battle was taken to the US Supreme Court with advocates saying that banning it was in contravention of the First Amendment because it restricted their right to free speech.  The State argued back that licence plates are Government property and therefore not subject to the First Amendment.

I was intrigued to see how Fox News was covering this - expecting a lot of right-wing bile against the ban but after searching using the American spelling license, I was pleasantly surprised to just find a sensible article putting both sides of the argument.

I had always liked the Confederate Flag and didn't realise its associations until I saw The Dukes Of Hazzard movie.  The movie just didn't live with the TV series which was my favourite show as a child of the '70s & '80s but the real reason I mention it is an excuse to show this picture of the flag on the roof of the car:

Now, there are plenty of better pictures showing more of the flag - but they show less of Daisy Duke.

Appently, a decision on the confederates' licence plate is due at the end of June.  Meanwhile, a quick Google Images search for funny licence plates caused me to put together this little collage: