Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Recently I was the owner of a Niu N1S/Civic. Niu makes electric mopeds and bikes. It was a really good little moped. There was one issue. The eleven kg batteries could not always cope with the cold that made the moped unreliable.

I traded my Niu N1S/Civic for a a 50CC 4-stroke moped running on petrol.

Battery power is great until it can no longer supply the energy that is stored inside. Do you know what beats a dead battery? Being able to kick-start your 50CC 4-stroke moped in -5 or -10 degrees Celcius.

Battery power needs some improvements if you ask me.

 

That's true. They can get you to your train (or even plane if you can afford one to Heathrow) when nothing else can too.

But, if we are using them as tourists, we are simply doing the wealthy elite thing, and that still leaves my question open. I'm a tourist in London too, these days (years), although one who doesn't have the money for black cabs.

Self interest rules, of course, and if it is me rushing for that train, I won't be wasting my time debating this, I'll be in the cab!

Have to stick up for the Uber drivers in London, though. So much cheaper, and the ones I've encountered in recent visits (last was 2019) have known all the shortcuts. Also, I'm amazed at the class of car they drive: I don't normally get to ride in Mercedes/BMW/etc.

 

Using this thread to glean perspectives. Was having a talk with a friend when she mentioned another friend of hers was going through some crap:

Do people have the right to put out restraining orders against family members, and what recourse is there when local government refuses to acquiesce, telling them instead to understand and forgive them because "they're family"?

This may be a far better fit for the philosophy hole thread if that's not been part of the hacker wipe (oh crap it's gone too, just checked), but there's an interesting avenue of discussion about cultural norms and the imposition thereof on individuals, whether cultural aspects can be demonstrably harmful and therefore needing excision, never mind tradition and blood ties?

 

Yeah, similar procedures here from what I can tell, but the pain is when there's plausible deniability on the part of the people bringing grief. Can see where the existence of TROs/preliminary injunctions/whatever else might just serve to light a fire under people's butts but given what's at play the fact that the reason given for denial was just "they're your family" irks. Didn't even make it past front desk with the request last I heard, and people in their immediate circles have been giving X pain for "being a bitch" about it etc.

This is where the whole Asian family norm enforcement sucks

 

It is tough jumping through hoops to get a protective order, never mind getting them enforced.

My wife and I had to get a temporary order against our neighbor's adult son. He has schizoaffective disorder and was clearly paranoid about my wife and I moving in because she's white (I'm black and the neighborhood is like 90% black), but it was fairly subtle until her parents came to visit. I think he thought her dad was a government spy coming after him which really set him off. He confronted her dad twice (not violently, but yelling at him), started taking pictures of ours cars and our yard, and finally started jumping from the neighbors deck to our deck (over a wrought-iron fence that could have seriously impaled him) to creep around our yard.

We ended up getting a temporary protective order against him, but when he came into our yard again and we called the police they kept implying that he must have been having an affair with my wife and we should just work that out on our own (definitely not the case lol).

Our neighbor was already trying to get him out of her house since he refused to be vaccinated and generally made her life a hassle, so she got her own protective order and he moved out. We just let our temp order expire because it would have meant jumping through even more hoops and it seemed unnecessary at that point, but yeah the whole process is tough to deal with, which I understand because it's almost always messy business

 

Honestly the bribery may work and there are strings to be pulled since that sorta thing just gets dangled around in front of people's faces. One of the nice things about local stuff is how much more blasé they are about taking bribes to get the gears churning, everything short of actively soliciting. Not sure whether the person in question can afford that of course but I just feel terrible for them given what details I know. Multiple sides to every story yes, but unless she did something criminal to her parents then the crap they did was beyond horrific.

Ahh crap, sorry to hear that happened @HHS-- police laughing things off that way is definitely messed up but compassion fatigue is a massive thing with law enforcement (plus the whole "defund police" shtick that I think is still going on?). Glad that you and yours are keeping safe but it certainly sounds like the guy needs intervention in a big way if he isn't getting it already; schizoaffective disorders are debilitating and harmful to everyone when left unchecked.

 

He was held involuntarily for treatment after they pulled him from his mother's house, but from what she told us they couldn't get him to comply with the medication regimen he needed and he left care as soon he was able to legally. My guess is he's living on the street. Honestly we were more worried about his safety than anything, people with untreated mental health conditions are much greater dangers to themselves than anyone else, but there's only so much that can be done on that front

 

When I was young and dumb, I left my dog in my car while I ate lunch in Asheville, NC one early summer day. When I got back to the car from lunch, a cop was there -- they'd jimmied the lock because a concerned citizen had called it in. I was genuinely clueless that it can get super hot/dangerous for the dog in those conditions. I got a ticket for a crime that carried potential jail time.

Hired a lawyer; he worked out a community service deal with the DA (and probably settled a few other people's cases too) while golfing.

Golf, man...

(Dog was fine, BTW. Seemed unaffected by the car heat and lived happily to age 18.)

 

Photovoltaic installations create lots of HF, supposedly not good for audio.

 

Some of these posts reminds me of the Baker Act system we have in Florida. I had to do it once with my GF since she had a mental breakdown years ago and she wanted to kill herself. What they don't tell you is the state doesn't pay for your time in the mental institution (which is normally three days min), so when you get out of there you will be billed for the cost. These intuitions don't' work for free, so they will try to sue you for a wage garnishment. Person who get sued gets into a worse mental breakdown and of course default judgment on the side with the mental institution (but you can't put a judgment lien on someone's main residence in FL if they own money on a debt, that's why OJ lives in FL ).

I noticed even more people who are young are getting Baker Acted due to mental health issues and also young folks with mental issues were doing more suicide attempts in my backyard. Tons of reasons why this is happening...some is due to personal issues like they are in the closet and their family will not accept them, others is due to family issues and other stuff. I remember back when I was in the public school system in FL there were issues of people trying to kill themselves back in high school. As usual, the public school systems don't have enough resources to combat mental illness due to our tax adverse nature of the state.

I think it could be something that might be related. I met a lot of people from the older generation (my father included) who do not believe there is a thing of mental illness. My father laugh his ass off saying "mental health is just a BS excuse the Democrats made up to make education standards weaker." However, my father lived in NYC for 30+ years you can't have mental issues or else you will be robbed/shot/killed/arrested. In matter of fact, I met a lot of people from older generations who were like there isn't a thing about mental illness, you are weak minded which is why these kids will not be successful against China. I know one person who is big into faith advising mental health issues = LGBT and that is immortal.

Sometimes I wonder about people. But I do know that FL IMO is not really a compassionate culture when people bring their values from other parts of the country and want to be left alone.

 

Something I've wondered before and have talked to 1 or 2 people here about, but I've always been legitimately curious why cams didn't switch over to electronic control when carburetors were switched over to direct injection starting in the 1970's IIRC (i.e. could already be electronically controlled). Would easily give us that at least a 10% if not much more efficiency boost if I were to guess. Would also give us more powerful and slightly lighter cars too (no camshafts and associated mechanical components) and I'm guessing cut down on smog / emissions in some way or another via the better control.

Hmm - searched it and here's some info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camless_piston_engine





IMO Would be so much more practical to have this as a stop gap that could be developed in parallel to electric vehicles rather than "EV only" - no EV hate, I just don't see the it being ready for more wide spread usage in 5-10 years. But of course dem gubmin workers don't have no motivation to do actually solve some problems do they?? And why would they if they could just piggyback on "the new thing" in EV cars AND make it look like they're actually doing something at the same time.

 

I believe F1 cars use pneumatically driven valves, but I'm not sure the technology is mature enough for everyday use. That said, variable cam timing is very common nowadays (while still using cams) and has given a substantial boost in efficiency. Honda's VTEC and BMWs VANOS are two examples, but I'm pretty sure everyone does it now. My BMW also has variable valve lift on the intake side (what they call Valvetronic). You can get an idea of how it all works in this interesting teardown video (this is a Supra, but uses the same B58 engine as my M240i).

https://www.motor1.com/news/364944/toyota-supra-engine-teardown-1000-hp/

 

Bet you're happy the VANOS in the B58 isn't as notoriously unreliable and expensive to repair as the old VANOS of the mid 2000's - I am lol. However, a computer controlled valve (maybe pneumatic isn't the best way, IDK) would still provide a much bigger boost in efficiency and performance from what I understand as the most VVT systems are still only some variation of 2 cam profiles vs what is technically an infinite or continuous number of profiles that should be used throughout the rev range.

There's also stuff like what Mazda did with their engines about 2-3 years ago that IMO was also very clever and innovative. Too bad most companies aren't trying to do smarter stuff like this and are just putting boring generic 2.0 turbo engines in everything as a "solution"... or making some sort of hybrid or electric that has about 0 driving enjoyment and doesn't actually save the environment or solve the energy crisis either... all while making the most of the vehicles bigger and heavier via this endless generic small-mid size SUV crap at the same time.........

 

No argument here, infinitely variable valve timing would be awesome. I don't think we don't have it for lack of trying, there are examples out there as you point out. Normally technology trickles down from motorsport and high-end autos to everyday consumer vehicles, but this one hasn't yet. Perhaps it just needs more time, or perhaps the obsession with a shift to electric means there will simply be no more time. Unlike many manufacturers, BMW says it does plan to continue development of ICE engines, so maybe time will tell.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2021/03/18/bmw-no-plans-stop-internal-combustion-engines/

I'm all about driving enjoyment, but I am under no illusions that is true (or has ever been true really) for more than a very small minority of drivers. For most people, vehicles are just another utilitarian appliance, and SUVs are pretty much the state of the art in automotive appliance design. It is hard to deny the practicality aspect, and that seems to be all most people care about.

I'm glad to still have choices, and having grown up with cast iron pushrod V8s, I'm super impressed with the level of technology in modern ICE engines. My current car is the sort of stuff I could have never even dreamed of as a kid. It is kind of sad to know that this is probably the end of an era. I'm glad to be alive to enjoy it.

Edit On further investigation, F1 cars use pneumatic valve springs, not pneumatic valve actuation. It appears the current rules don't allow for any sort of variable valve timing or lift at all.

 

I don’t have a beef with electric cars per se, for most drivers they would no doubt be great but the economics make it something only relatively wealthy people can own.

We seem to be headed into more of a car as a service type of system for most people which combined with the social credit system they seem hell bent on deploying would be a huge loss of freedom in a country where getting your first car is a rite of passage.

 

DIY Freevalve:

 

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