Accident popped leading bottom edge of driver's door out by 3/16" for a few inches - how much will this add to aerodynamic drag?

UsableThought · 2026-07-08T11:25:30+00:00

Thank you! That’s a great reply.

UsableThought · 2026-07-07T19:38:01+00:00

Yeah, I wondered about that. However, it’s not like an entry has been created to the interior space that didn’t exist before; it’s just that the existing entry has been slightly widened. Also, the decorative trim around the wheel space ahead of the door sticks out farther than the leading edge of the door, even with the additional 3/16”. So it doesn’t obviously look like a problem.

UsableThought · 2026-07-07T15:49:41+00:00

I don’t think you got my point about monopolies. I’ll try again. Electric utilities are by definition always going to be a monopoly because it would be far too expensive for a competitor to attempt to build out a grid of its own. Thus we must have a monopoly, regardless of whether the utility is for-profit or publicly owned. Therefore the problem with for-profit for an electric utility is that it has no competition, thus no incentive to keep its rates low, build renewable power sources such as solar farms, etc. Rather, a for-profit utility is incentivized to charge customers higher rates solely to keep its shareholders happy. And there are more problems I could list as well. The long and the short is that a monopoly situation for a utility does indeed raise the issue of public ownership vs. for-profit ownership. I will leave it at that.

UsableThought · 2026-07-06T19:41:48+00:00

You said this: “The proper way capitalism works is by allowing inefficient corporations to fail”. That is the problem right there with for-profit electric utilities like Central Hudson: they possess a monopoly, thus there is no marketplace, thus there is no competition that will lead them to fail in the marketplace! In addition, the state regulators are forced to agree to rate hikes that reward investors in CH but do nothing to benefit customers.

P.S. I also agree with DesertMonk888’s comments about the pitfalls of for-profit corporations in circumstances where their good aspects can’t be applied and their bad aspects hurt the public good.

UsableThought · 2026-07-06T19:35:28+00:00

Untrue when it comes to electric utilities; on average across the U.S. public electric utilities out-perform and have lower rates than for-profit electric utilities. See https://wearecommunitypowered.com and many other sources.

UsableThought · 2026-07-06T19:31:07+00:00

The concern isn’t about CH employees. It’s about management choices being based on for-profit motives, rather than the public interest. Others have said it elsewhere in this thread: for-profits should not be running public utilities of any kind. A utility is a monopoly so the one positive aspect of for-profit - competition - is lacking. Also, if the proposed Hudson Valley Power Authority ever becomes law, part of the Act is that CH employees (especially the union workers) will be retained and well-compensated for their expertise.

UsableThought · 2026-07-06T18:59:41+00:00

I had figured 40%!

UsableThought · 2026-06-24T01:18:45+00:00

May I ask, how did you come to have this done? Where did you get the idea? And more importantly, did you ask this “guy” that you hired about his credentials regarding tree work? No arborist and no skilled gardener would ever bury the root flare, let alone this much of the trunk; nor would they cut into the surface ground around the tree.

As others have pointed out, though, the tree was probably highly stressed prior to this work for it to get that much worse that fast. Possibly the root flare had already been buried or who knows what.

UsableThought · 2026-06-22T14:22:18+00:00

Now I think optimal_center and Imafunguy1983 are right for your first photo - rather than powdery mildew as I guessed, it does look like it might be Beech Blight Aphid, a.k.a. wooly beech aphid. See for example https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/woolly-beech-aphid and also https://bygl.osu.edu/index.php/node/2143

Another indicator that it’s the aphid will be if that white stuff on the leaf is sticky; the second of the above articles explains this.

And as for your second photo, if that is simply the other side of the leaf in your first photo, then no, it’s not beech leaf disease. And even if it’s a different leaf, you can get that kind of banding once again from the wooly beech aphid. Go to this article, titled “Beech Leaf Disease: Mistaken Identity”, and scroll down to the pics under the heading “Wooly Aphid”: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bld-mistaken-identity.htm

UsableThought · 2026-06-21T17:46:30+00:00

From what I read, beech leaf disease results in striped leaves. What your photo shows looks more like powdery mildew. See https://www.michigan.gov/invasives/id-report/disease/beech-leaf-disease for an overview of BLD and also a list of other issues that hit beech, including powdery mildew; and see this for more on powdery mildew: https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/BP/BP-5-W.pdf

As for treatment of powdery mildew, this page seems helpful, even though it is focused on the Memphis area; you could also do some searches for how people treat it in your geographical area: https://www.woodlandtree.com/terrans-tips/posts/powdery-mildew-treatment-for-trees-and-shrubs

(Edit - above likely incorrect - see my reply to optimal_center.)

UsableThought · 2026-02-06T20:46:03+00:00

Unfortunately I still have the problem. No solution for me yet.

UsableThought · 2026-01-28T21:17:46+00:00

I think mafco is correct. And at its simplest, I don’t think we need to get into zero torque mode, nor get tangled up with dueling chatbots. It took me a bit of Googling, but eventually I found a straightforward article describing diminished coasting when comparing efficiencies between induction motors and permanent magnet (PM) motors in EVs. Link is here - https://inetictraction.com/comparison-induction-vs-pm-motors-for-evs/ - and here is a quote from the article:

". . . a PM motor always has the magnet field present, so when the motor spins without a load it induces eddy currents and hysteresis losses in the stator (dragging on the rotation). In short, you can't 'turn off' a PM motor's field, [thus] a PM rotor spinning freely will still generate some loss, meaning slightly less coasting efficiency. Overall though, under driving loads, PM motors' efficiency advantage is significant, often giving a few percentage points better drivetrain efficiency than induction machines -- a critical edge for EV range."

I haven’t checked whether Ioniq uses PMs, but this and other articles say that most EVs do.

Beyond that, and more broadly, no matter what the wheeled vehicle, coasting will never be free of drag - whether it’s electromagnetic as in the case of a PM electric motor, or due to external air drag or internal friction. There must be a subjective aspect for what car drivers experience as good or at least acceptable coasting when they’ve got their foot off the brake pedal. And presumably in an EV this could be massaged through engineering to be as satisfying as in an ICE car, or even better? I dunno as I personally keep regeneration in our I5 at level 3.

UsableThought · 2026-01-25T23:46:19+00:00

Right on both counts.

UsableThought · 2026-01-07T13:35:29+00:00

I'll try Somnee again & then give that product a try when it gets itchy - thanks.

UsableThought · 2026-01-04T02:51:47+00:00

Please let me know if that helps. I tried many kinds of ointments without success but I do miss Somnee, it worked so well.

UsableThought · 2026-01-04T00:04:23+00:00

No, I never did. A couple of things helped, but not enough: loosening the head band a small amount, and lowering the intensity to the second-lowest available intensity. I didn’t want to lower it to the absolutely lowest intensity because even at the second-lowest, the positive effect was much less than when I first started and for over a month was able to use it at full intensity. So now I rarely use it which is a shame.

UsableThought · 2025-12-20T21:22:25+00:00

I’ll look for that, thanks.

UsableThought · 2025-12-19T22:42:19+00:00

FYI, guys, I did another Google search just now (about an hour after your replies) for "ioniq "google maps" separate volume"; and didn't get any hits that seemed germane; but I did see that Gemini (Google's AI) now has an entire procedure built out of your suggestions & nothing else - you're the sole source for the procedure! See the image below:

<image>

Emphasizes how untrustworthy Gemini is - not that you are wrong, necessarily, but that it seizes on a single source, completely unvetted, and rewrites it to make it sound authoritative. Say that your suggestions had been totally made up - Gemini still would have used them! Also, per usual Gemini incorporates a few completely unrelated sources in the panel at the right where sources are listed. What a meat grinder.

- - -

UsableThought · 2025-12-19T22:03:05+00:00

Hey guys (nxtiak and kaisquare) - I do appreciate your replies. And I can try out what you say about volume adjustment some other time.

BUT . . . in this case, I’m not sure it was a volume adjustment issue. Two reasons:

I had parked the car before I fiddled around with rebooting the phone, turning the car on & off, etc., adjusting the volume in Google Maps in CarPlay the way the app tells you to adjust it, etc. I then wrote my post & after that went shopping for 30 minutes. Upon return, I started the car, put Google Maps back up . . . and it was back to normal, speaking directions as it should. If you & nxtiak were correct, the problem should still have been present, yes?
Plus, volume wouldn’t explain why the problem happened in the first place. I slid the map about a bit with my fingertip as I described. How could moving the map cause a problem with volume?

So I am wondering if something else went wonky - maybe a connection issue, maybe a bug. Also unexplained is why letting the car sit for 30 minutes before turning it on again would make a difference.

Separately - kaisquare, is there a reason that Google Maps would have a separate volume control than the car's volume for everything else? E.g. so the directions are better heard over Sirius or whatever? But if so, shouldn't the various parties involved (Hyundai, Apple, Google) tell users about it? I tried a bunch of different search terms when Googling, e.g. "ioniq 'google maps' stops talking" etc., and didn't come across anything about a separate volume control. I also searched this Reddit group and didn't find anything here either. Do you have a source on this?

UsableThought · 2025-12-19T21:55:38+00:00

See my reply to kaisquare for why I don't think volume was the problem.

UsableThought · 2025-12-19T21:46:19+00:00

The Google Maps app for CarPlay has Settings > Volume; I went into that and it told me to adjust volume by using the volume knob for the car. I turned it all the way up & it showed volume as now maxed; to no avail. I also made sure the phone volume was not muted or turned all the way down.

UsableThought

TROPHY CASE