Friday - February 05, 2010

Oops

Pious Prius may be in trouble! Toyota can’t catch a break, since their holier-than-thou mobile doesn’t seem to have any.

DETROIT — No sooner had Toyota dealerships begun to repair accelerator pedals on millions of recalled vehicles than the carmaker said it was considering yet another major recall, this time for problems with the brakes on its Prius hybrid.

Safety regulators in Washington said Thursday that they would open an investigation into the brakes on the 2010 Prius, which had been spared from the recall lists.

Other branding experts feel that even if safety fears about the Prius prove to be unfounded, the car will not escape the bad publicity which has dogged Toyota as a whole following the safety recall on other cars in its portfolio.

“If the corporate halo becomes stained , it is inevitable that it will pollute the Prius,” said Milorad Ajder is managing director of IpsosMORI Reputation Centre.

“In fact this will be accentuated on the Prius because it is positioned as being benevolent and ethical.”

Of course the Prius is exempt from the gas pedal recall. Like the human appendix, that device serves no purpose on a Prius. As Jeremy Clarkson put it, ”What about speed? ... ... Nope, it hasn’t got any.”



Other fun news about greenie bashing ...

Business Week cuts the mustard and asks “Is Global Warming a Crock of S*%t?” and concludes ... that you should come back for Part 2 and Part 3 next week. But in the meantime,

But after two centuries in which technology and science were key to creating our modern world, we’ve put the quest for honest, open, and rigorous science on the back burner, because widely publicized and aired “pundits” blame the advancement of science and technology for putting the planet in danger.

Things on the planet are warmer than they used to be, just as in the 1970s things were colder than they once were. The industrial revolution and greenhouse gases were rising in both of these periods, so the spirit of impartial scientific inquiry demands that one look for other factors that may have changed in the equation.

That is not denying things are different from the way they once were. No. The people being labeled deniers are simply asking why the nearly 15% of respected scientists who don’t agree with this climate hypothesis can’t be heard or are quickly dismissed as quacks.

UK’s CRU chief data faker Phil Jones could get 10 years in the pokey for fraud. Can we extradite Hansen while they’re at it?

everything in this post was stolen from Theo’s. He’s like the new Instapundit, only with hot chix instead of blended puppies. But mostly his place is a link dump. I try to write at least a few meaningful words about stuff and drop in a quote or two.



UPDATE: Not from Theo’s!
India Pulls Out Of IPCC: Says They Can’t Trust UN

India forms new climate change body

The Indian government has established its own body to monitor the effects of global warming because it “cannot rely” on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the group headed by its own leading scientist Dr R.K Pachauri.

The move is a significant snub to both the IPCC and Dr Pachauri as he battles to defend his reputation following the revelation that his most recent climate change report included false claims that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035. Scientists believe it could take more than 300 years for the glaciers to disappear.

The body and its chairman have faced growing criticism ever since as questions have been raised on the credibility of their work and the rigour with which climate change claims are assessed.

Guess they looked at the data and said Sari, sarong numbers? [oops, that was so easy and bad it was cliche] I bet Pachauri is just Mr. So Popular over there right now, and is finding his name becoming the new Hindi verb for telling a lie.

[Indian Environmental Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh] announced the Indian government will establish a separate National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor the effects of climate change on the world’s ‘third ice cap’, and an ‘Indian IPCC’ to use ‘climate science’ to assess the impact of global warming throughout the country.

“There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report” [he said].

Good for you India. Way to go.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/05/2010 at 11:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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