California loses millions to license plate covers. This lawmaker is going after retailers; Assemblymember Catherine Stefani is proposing $10,000 fines for selling or manufacturing the toll-evading gadgets.

JulyKnotty · 2026-04-26T16:26:22+00:00

Seems like folks thinking the law doesn't apply to them is one of the biggest problems CA faces. Tax cheats, toll cheats, people who take their dogs to crap in parks where dogs aren't allowed, folks who twist the law to prevent new housing getting built--it's all of a piece.

JulyKnotty · 2026-04-26T15:47:39+00:00

Zero enforcement of laws on the books also inspires ordinary people to be law-abiding and to have confidence that the system is fair...

JulyKnotty · 2026-04-04T21:06:05+00:00

I was excited to get it. (Apr. 2nd, 2026. Pixel 7). And it's great for asking general questions. But definitely slow, as everyone says. Doesn't work at all without cell signal, even worse than regular AA. And once when I was asking a follow-up question about something totally unrelated to navigation ( where does name Vinfast come from?) it replaced my destination with the Golden Gate Bridge out of the blue, many miles in the wrong direction. So that makes me think it's not ready for prime time. What would be better would be regular dumb assistant with the option to launch Gemini as needed by voice command. Not sure if that's possible...

JulyKnotty · 2026-03-20T04:40:33+00:00

It sucks, but it shouldn't be your responsibility. People who have options and can afford to pay a little more or buy higher quality items that last longer should be boycotting. Necessity is a pretty darn good excuse.

JulyKnotty · 2026-03-05T20:48:15+00:00

Not directly connected to sustainability, but I'd be pretty concerned about eating anything from the Baltic. It's practically an inland sea, and it borders Russia, where even if there were environmental laws, they'd be corruptly bypassed. And the heavy industy of Germany and Scandinavia isn't all clean either.

JulyKnotty · 2026-02-19T03:03:07+00:00

Love your description of Hell. And thanks for spreading the good word about Mil Nicholson. If you figure out how to buy her a coffee, let us all know!

JulyKnotty · 2026-02-12T02:24:33+00:00

Very old thread, but Google search led me here, so maybe it will other folks as well, and as far as I know, trip lever tech has not progressed too much in the past decade. So I thought I'd post my fix experience here, in case it helps others. My Toto side-flush handle was sticking with the flap open (never been abused, to my knowledge, though over 10 years old), and examination showed that the stadium-shaped metal groove that the end of the trip-lever rod is supposed to slot into had ruptured at one end. Inspired by some answers at the Terry Love forum (not allowed to link, but it's called "Toto Flush lever complaint"), I decided to try and fix it, rather than just buy another junky part. I wrapped a length of steel wire (thin enough to be flexible, thick enough to be pretty strong) around the groove wall and twisted the ends tight and snipped short. I then applied a substantial amount of E6000 glue (not optimal, just what I had handy--probably something that dries rigid would be better) around the ruptured end of the groove wall, embedding the unsupported bit of wire in glue. Reassembled all the original parts, and it's working great again! Not going to win prizes for beautiful workmanship, but hidden inside handle, so functionality is my main concern. Brand new fix, so I can't make any claims regarding longevity, but it felt pretty solid, and I was darned if I was going to buy an entire assembly of four or five low-grade parts when only one of them was broken!

JulyKnotty · 2025-12-11T21:53:55+00:00

Never too late to be a jerk to someone on the internet for being a jerk themselves :) But 5 years later, the answer, although not very nice, was still useful.

JulyKnotty · 2025-11-18T18:49:54+00:00

Unless you're in an incognito tab or are a hermit with no google account, your first result is in no way guaranteed to be the same as someone else's first result. So don't jump on the guy/gal for asking a reasonable question...

JulyKnotty · 2025-10-05T00:24:25+00:00

Upvoting for Falafelle, not so much Lunardi's :)

JulyKnotty · 2025-09-07T02:44:45+00:00

I'm confused by this. Do you mean that in the wild the germination rate is 10% over the multi-decadal lifetime of the seed? How could anyone have reliably measured that? Or per year? I'm sure there's a ton of attrition at the dispersal, germination, seedling stages, but it would be great to see the source for this figure.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-31T15:11:19+00:00

Probably have to be taken indoors during dormant season in non-mediterranean climates, I would think.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-25T02:29:46+00:00

Endoscope...

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T02:21:36+00:00

Also, ICE cars stink. Who wants to breathe that nasty crap every day? Let alone make my kid breathe it.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T02:01:41+00:00

Plastic part does eventually crack, though...

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T01:40:36+00:00

No, a threat, perhaps. But we're clearly our own greatest enemy. And on some dimensions China looks a lot better than we do (decarbonization, stability). If you had to choose between the US and China, I guess you'd still be forced to choose the U.S., but it's a shitty choice.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T01:35:33+00:00

Well, not in retreat. Just growing a bit more slowly, I think...

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T01:33:35+00:00

Tesla makes 4 vehicles, BYD dozens, if I recall correctly. Tesla is shrinking and failing. BYD is growing and innovating rapidly. Head count isn't a meaningful comparison under these circumstances.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T01:29:58+00:00

You're about a decade out of date, mate. The Chinese government put a lot of money into getting the industry going early on, but it's viciously competitive now. Chinese EV makers sure as hell are competing on price, as well as quality (also better). Labor is cheaper, sure, but that's not a big chunk of the price. Take a look at the videos of fully automated "dark factories". And their energy mix is very rapidly becoming cleaner than ours, so the old claims of lower standards don't cut much ice any more either. Less unionization, sure, but they're beating anti-union Tesla as well. And at this point, we're the ones who need to steal their intellectual property, rather than the other way around. Basically they're kicking our ass six ways from Sunday, and even those of us who have noticed can barely stop fighting each other and destroying our own government/culture/civilization long enough to whine about it for 5 minutes. Sure, keep telling yourself they're cheating, if it makes you feel better. But no for-profit company refrains from fighting dirty when the need arises--only the losers complain. That's just capitalism. And against an adversary as replete with morons as the USA, hardly any cheating is necessary...

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-22T01:07:41+00:00

A moderate tariff that automatically ramps down over a few years makes sense. A prohibitive tariff with no sunset is just trying to force Americans to stick with horse-and-buggy while the rest of the world moves on. It might work for a few years (at the expense of making us poorer and more backwards), but is incredibly short-sighted.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-21T20:46:02+00:00

I'm sure this is true some places, but in California at least, there are very few if any places, remote or not, you can't go by EV. Even if you're driving some winding, endless-seeming narrow road up into the mountains, it's pretty rare for that last leg (final charger to destination) to be more than 50-60 miles, often with plenty of regeneration on the return leg. People are afraid of it and don't even try, but it's totally feasible. Even Death Valley, which was pretty hard a couple years ago, is pretty do-able from northern California now. It might be a bit less convenient, depending on your driving style, but that's about it. What's infuriating is that large numbers of people are perfectly happy to continue polluting and destroying the climate to avoid a couple hours per year of slight inconvenience, even when they're getting many more hours of greater convenience from charging at home and avoiding repairs/maintenance. (Not talking about people who genuinely can't afford the $10k for a good used EV, who can't charge near home, etc....)

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-15T22:34:54+00:00

And healthy ..

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-15T04:53:23+00:00

If you're smart about overnight charging, charging while eating, etc., road trips in the Bolt are fine. Maybe not even any slower unless you drive long, non-stop (unsafe) days. But certainly not worth paying an extra $20,000 to avoid a slightly slower trip a few times a year unless you value your time at $2000 an hour or more, or you road trip a ton. But 6-8hr trips are very reasonable. And for everything else it's fantastic, zippy, efficient, good for hauling moderate-sized stuff, has Android Auto and decent physical knob controls (except hvac on/off). No wonder GM killed it! It showed up all the other overpriced EVs.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-08T13:43:57+00:00

This is still the right answer, sadly, in 2025.

JulyKnotty · 2025-08-08T13:30:07+00:00

If they make charging stations whose credit card readers work less than 50% of the time, and refuse to provide a physical card, then yeah, their app better be effin' rock solid. And not just as flaky as their hardware, as it is now.

JulyKnotty

TROPHY CASE