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“Toyota Hysteria,” my LA Times piece today
As I write in today’s Los Angeles Times, the imagery of Toyotas running amok like something out of a Stephen King novel is simply…
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Toyota stuck accelerator highway horror? Or highway hoax?
“On the very day Toyota was making a high-profile defense of its cars, one of them was speeding out of control,” according to CBS…
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It’s not just “Big” “Fat” “Rich” “Foreign-owned Toyota” that’s suffering
Toyota owners, every time there’s a new sensationalist headline or a congressman spouts more demagoguery regarding your make of car, the value drops. Last…
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Obama’s two-faced nuclear energy policy, my article in the Philly Inquirer
President Obama fully supports expanding the U.S. nuclear-energy industry – or so he’d have us believe. Obama got lots of publicity with his recent…
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Psychology behind denying driver error with sudden acceleration
I just came across this from a November article in the Los Angeles Times. Richard Schmidt, a former UCLA psychology professor and now an…
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What goes ’round comes ’round on global warming (my Forbes piece)
Some global warming skeptics have been using the remarkably cold winter and record snowfalls to attack the idea of global warming. Believers are crying foul.
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Can a “runaway Toyota” be stopped with the brakes?
There have been many driver claims that they tried using the brakes but it couldn’t override the engine at the full throttle into which alleged…
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The “Toyota Defense” to manslaughter
This was inevitable. CNN reports that one Koua Fong Lee, serving an eight-year prison term for killing three people when his 1996 Toyota smashed…
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Toyota’s sudden acceleration problem suddenly accelerates again
Yes, I know I wrote a blog with a similar title but this is new. I previously noted that in December the National Highway…
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Why the British media are so much better than ours
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Ralph Nader’s shocking solution to the Toyota “problem”
The answer to the problem of Toyotas running amok, says Ralph Nader in a Los Angeles Times op-ed today? Choose one response: 1. More…
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Disturbing parallels between the Toyota hysteria and the Audi 5000 debacle
Toyota stands accused of 34 sudden acceleration incidents over the last 10 years that are “linked to” or “associated” with fatalities, a figure that in…
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Toyoda’s coerced confession
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The Internet as medical diagnostic tool scores again!
I was having extreme itching in my toes that I’ve never experienced before. I reconstructed the circumstances under which it arose, plugged them in, and…
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Conning the can makers regarding bisphenol A
A Washington Post A1 article, “Alternatives to BPA containers not easy for U.S. foodmakers to find,” makes the case very nicely. The plastic hardening…
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The government’s conflict of interest in the Toyota witch hunt
You don’t need to look for ulterior motives in the government attacks on Toyota, which include not just the current congressional hearings but such things…
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Global warming as religion
Everything I write that I plan to place in a publication I first run past my best friend Matt, a truly gifted editor. One of…
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Getting it partly right on weather vs. climate
Eugene Robinson in today’s Washington Post protests that global warming skeptics are using the current (though very long) cold snap in the mid-Atlantic region,…
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George Will on Sarah Palin and the populist movement
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“Climate change of pace,” (the confessions of Phil Jones), my Forbes Online piece
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One cheer for Obama on nuclear energy
Obama has done something right concerning nuclear energy; credit where credit’s due. But he also did something very wrong, which we’ll get to. The president…
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Toyota “sudden acceleration deaths” suddenly accelerate
Predictably, in the wake of the media blitz about the alleged dangers of Toyotas suddenly accelerating, reports of fatalities linked (note: not “caused by”) such…
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Bisphenol baloney takes another hit
In a provocatively entitled paper in the current issue of the prestigious journal Toxicological Sciences, Richard M. Sharpe asks “Is It Time to End…
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U.N. Climate panel pummeled for misinformation, high and low
From the very top of the earth to the bottom, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just can’t get it right. I…
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Swine flu and heterosexual AIDS
About 57 million Americans, or something less than a fifth of the population, have contracted swine flu since April, the CDC says, of whom…
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Scientist at center of email scandal admits no recent warming
There has been no global warming for a long time, as I wrote recently in Forbes Online (“Show Me the Warming,” Nov. 30, 2009).
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Roundup of wisdom regarding the current weather icebox and the global warming debate
The Washington Post Sunday edition devotes a page to the discussion of what impact the current cold snap and immense amount of snow (a record…
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Pundits wiping “sneer” off Toyota’s face
Noteworthy is a tsk, tsk on page A1 of today’s Washington Post, “‘Toyota Way’ was lost on road to phenomenal worldwide growth.” More noteworthy…
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Flu Report Feb. 12 – What Swine Flu ISN’T Doing
As the CDC’s FluView Web site puts it, “During the week of January 31 – February 6, 2010, most key flu indicators remained about…
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Toyota Recalls Put into Context by Edmunds.com
Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, has obtained and reviewed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaint database. A key finding:…