I noted that although it might be fun to look for American ‘vanity plates’, after I started to look, there just didn’t seem to be many where I was looking.
Of course, that was like waving a flag at ‘Lady Luck’, and I seem to see them now, even though I’m no longer looking.
Same as my weather luck – every time I open the door and step outside to go somewhere, the rain starts – but if I sit at the window and watch a nice dry day, there’s no rain… unless I get changed and put a foot out the door.
Looking at something else… this sailed across the screen.
SLAMIN
This one’s got me started on another hunt I recently gave up on.
Although camera blockers are generally illegal, that doesn’t mean they’re not sold and fitted.
I thought the idea had gone away (most debunkers seem to show they seldom work), but I’ve spotted a lot of so-called ‘tinted bubble plates’ fitted to cars.
They work in daylight – the light level is first reduced when it passes through the cover, then the light reflected from the plate is further reduced as it has to pass through the cover for a second time, before reaching your eye, or a camera. I’m not sure how well this effect works with the higher sensitivity of a camera, or if the light comes from a flash.
So far, I haven’t been able to get a decent screen grab of a useable example – not so much because of the cover’s effectiveness, but because the video always seem to be low-definition whenever it comes to these plates, and I can barely read ‘normal’ plates.
Typically, I saw quite a few good examples (which is what aroused my curiosity about their current legality) – but these dried up as soon as I decided to grab an example!
But’ I’ll keep trying, just for completeness.
I’ve got a US plate tracker now, but unlike our UK offerings, the US option needs a state, and that’s often too small to read – as can be seen in the above example (but I know it’s a Chrysler 300 anyway).
With 50 states (argue amongst yourselves about the actual number, I have better things to do), I can’t interrogate each one until I find the right one to get the car details.
Secret Scotland 