Toyota put the brakes on because their cars won't

Toyota has been fighting tooth and nail to avoid any liability for injuries and deaths caused by their cars.  Toyota has wanted the plaintiff to prove their cars are faulty.  However, Toyota is conceding defeat because the judge in that case has ruled that circumstantial evidence will be considered.

There are a huge number of unrelated incidents, with drivers who have no history of reckless driving nor suicidal behaviour, and they all suddenly decide to drive at 160 km/h through cities?  Sorry, Toyota, that's not plausible.  The judge has made the right call.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-16/toyota-enters-settlement-talks-over-sudden-acceleration-lawsuits

Buy Nothing Day is here at last

Novermber 29th 2013 is Buy Nothing Day in North America.

Novermber 30th 2013 is International  Buy Nothing Day.

https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

http://www.ecoplan.org/ibnd/

Do your part by not doing what corporations want.

Buy Nothing Day isn't just anti-corporatism, it's pro-environment.  There is too much waste, too much consumerism, too much "disposable" junk.

Stop buying things that you throw away.  Buy better quality stuff, and use it until it wears out.  My last cell phone was four years old before it broke from everyday use, long after it was "outdated" in terms of features.  ("Outdated"?  No, I could still make phone calls and still receive calls.  It worked.)  And I still use the laptop computer I bought in 2006 because it works too.  I use it for recording TV shows.

Arizona prisons are turning into death camps

Arizona prisons are turning into death camps, and like death camps elsewhere, many of the public think those inside "deserve it" and have no empathy for them.

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/14/arizona_horror_show_after_illegal_mistreatment_inmates_in_grave_danger/

Arizona prison horror: “Critically ill” inmates told to “pray” for healing

A new report alleges illegal and deadly mistreatment of Arizona inmates whose medical care the state contracted out to the country’s largest private prison health care provider.

Why I don't watch football, part 5: "Keep the redskins white"

I don't see any ethical difference between Daniel Snyder's refusal to drop the name "redskins" and a picture from 1961 of Ku Klux Klan members protesting for the team to continue having only white players.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/11/nazis-desegregating-washington-nfl-football-team

Mother Jones: Richard Cohen's 10 Worst Moments, Counted Down

You have to wonder where someone's head is - down the rabbit hole perhaps (or somewhere else dark, wet and dirty) - to think such things.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/11/richard-cohen-just-the-worst

No matter which one you read first, the others are worse.

Never "thank" an ex-soldier for his military service

"Thanking" ex-soldiers is not about showing gratitiude, it's about smug self-satisfaction and flag waving by those "thanking" them. If people really cared about them, they would be offering condolences for their lost innocence and their dead friends.

In May 2013, a series of pictures hit the news showing the faces of British soldiers - before they ever seeing combat, during, and after. You can see the lost hope, joy and innocence in their faces and especially their eyes.

http://12160.info/forum/topics/mesmerizing-photographs-of-soldiers-faces-before-and-after-a-war

Sacrifice to the fallacy that war can end

The enscription on the gravestone of 2nd Lieutenant Arthur Conway Young, who died on August 16, 1917, reads thus:

"Sacrifice to the fallacy that war can end."


The corpse worship that goes on every November 11th is not a call to end war, it is a call for blind support of war. And those who call for it the most are often the profiteers of war. In England, BAE (the biggest supplier of military equipment in the country) is the principal "sponsor" of the British Legion.

Why I don't watch football, part 3: "FrontLine: League Of Denial"

Frontline has produced a brilliant documentary on the effects and prevalence of concussions amongst football players.  It's not limited to professionals as many belief.  It happens to college players, and to teenagers.

Players of all ages have died from CTE, or Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  More than fifty brains of deceased NFL players have been examined, and well over forty were proven to have had CTE.  Many living former players are suffering from its effects: memory loss, mood swings, the inability to concentrate.  Many have turned to drug use, violence or suicide (e.g. Junior Seau).

The NFL owners knew about it all along.  And they chose to pretend it didn't exist.

The cause of poor journalism

A humour site posted a good joke about bad journalism:

Gene for poor science journalism discovered

If only it were true.  The actual causes of bad journalism are much harder to combat.

The first cause is the corporate-owned media.