Horse 957 - Built to keep the Rabbits Out

I didn't write the following, but it is indeed priceless. The story is reproduced in full:



The most famous of the Chinese Emperors of the Mung Dynasty. Emperor Nasi Goreng's legendary rule lasted for 100 years "as long as it takes to pickle an egg", though sinologists agree it was nearer in fact to a 60 year reign. His reign was famous for the development of Chinese cooking and the expansion of the rice and noodle houses that served the needs of the burgeoning traveling middle class who had begun to take fashionable pilgrimages to bathe in the health giving waters of the Big Pond (now known as the South China Sea).

More importantly he began the construction of the Great Wall of China (the only man made structure visible from space)

Little is known of the Emperor's early life. Born to the 4th wife (the beautiful Tel Stra) of the Emperor Mee Goreng, his childhood was spent in a secluded palace on the shores of the Big Pond. He was not expected to inherit the throne and is supposed to have devoted his time to the refinement of traditional dishes of Chinese Cuisine - wishing thus to win the people's ovation and fame forever. On the unexpected deaths of the 17 older brothers during the mysterious summer illnesses of 1225 (now believed to be caused by a rare virus passed on by reading contaminated correspondence) he was summoned to Peking and accompanied by his favourite duck, crowned the unexpected emperor of all China.

The visit of Marco Polo to China in 1275 had opened the country to a new scourge, Giant Angora Rabbits. Originally given as a gift to the court of the preceding Emporer Mee-Goreng the rabbits were adopted as accessories by the fashionable followers of the Imperial court, who carried them in small handbags, or displayed them on the roofs of their traveling litters. Soon a fashion for pet goldfish replaced the fashion for bunnies and, not wishing to kill an animal so obviously sacred to the visiting Polos they (the rabbits) were released into the Western Deserts where they bred to plague proportions.

Soon the depredations of thousands of starving Angoras were threatening the rice crop and after unsuccessful attempts to control the scourge with compulsory rabbit stews (Immortalised in the poem "My other Chinese Cook" by James Brunton Stephens) the Emperor decreed the building of the greatest wall ever known to mankind.

The emperor enjoyed good health for most of his reign but in 1289 he became ill after a particularly large meal of Rabbit pie. His doctors were divided as to whether he was struck down with dyspepsia or Mixam-it-osis. Even lowering him in the waters of the Big Pond, supported by a broad band of imperial silk failed to arrest the course of the illness and within a year he was dead. After the customary 6 years of compulsory mourning he was buried beneath the great wall at Dai-Lup where to this day pilgrims visit to pray fruitlessly for a speedy recovery from illnesses. He was succeeded by his son Pisan Goreng (1290-1303).

Horse 956 - In which Top Gear Australia hires a trumpet player and I blow my own

http://www.ausmotive.com/2008/12/19/top-gear-australia-loses-cox-and-blows-morrisons-trumpet.html

It is perhaps not uncommon knowledge that one of the hosts of Top Gear Australia, Charlie Cox, has upped sticks and will be more than likely replaced by trumpet player James Morrison. Now I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing but just on the quiet I can think of a person who might be better suited to the job...

Me.

In many respects I really am the best person to be on a program such as this: in terms of technical knowledge I know more than Clarkson whom it appear only vaguely knows what "torques" and "horsepowers" are, I seem to be as annoying as Hammond and I'm more fearless than May. One thing that seems perfectly self-evident to me about this sort of job is that one needs to have a modicum of journalism skills and as far as that goes, well what numbered Horse are we up to now? Nine-Hundred and Something?

One of the obvious things about appearing on television is that the medium is about communicating something. It is perfectly reasonable to ask whether or not I can communicate anything, but I should think that because I've spent time either at the front of lecture halls at uni or perhaps in front of children giving small talks, that television can't be all that different. Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I if nothing else am enthusiastic for what I might want to say.

Of course there is the general question about the wisdom letting me loose on television in the first place and to an unsuspecting Australia public. Let me assure you that if I was allowed on television, then the world will have changed forever. I can see Logies and OAMs and possibly the invitation to be the first President of an Australian Republic, because the people out there in TV land would loev me so much that they simply couldn't contain it any longer. Then again I could be just spouting rubbish...

... but it would be a different kind of rubbish!

Horse 955 - Holden and One Step to Stupidity

Three days before Christmas last year, Holden announced they've been given a giant wad-o-cash to "develop" a new small car for Australia. I supposed that it's likely to be the Astra version I (I as in after H, not 1) and they released an official sketch.



Jalopnik reports that test versions have been seen in both the Austrian Alps, and other reports have seen the car at the Nuburgring, highly camouflaged - just follow the links.

http://jalopnik.com/393650/2010-opel-astra-spotted-testing-in-alps-2011-saturn-version-not-far-behind
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/opelsaturnastra-/1001679444

Me being the little snoop that I am, managed to scab a couple of pictures from Auto Express in the UK:


I conceed that this is a very big guess, but Auto Express' sketch does employ some of the styling features which have already been employed in the Insignia and the press releases coming out of Opel.

There is however a snag to all of this. Due to the Global Financial Crisis, Opel and Vauxhall are trying to cut themselves loose from GM in America. If that were to happen then not only does Holden lose potential export markets for the car, but it's just possible that the whole project as far as Australia is concerned never eventuates: at least as far as the Astra is concerned.

If Opel and Vauxhall leave GM, then Holden is left in the same group as Geely, Daewoo and GM North America and without access to European technology and design work. Holden themselves already decided to drop the Vectra from their lineup which proved to be really stupid as its replacement, the Insignia won European Car of the Year for 2008. They also shot themselves in the head by replacing the Opel Corsa with the Daewoo Kalos (both of which carried the Barina nameplate) and in doing so replaced a 4-Star safety rated car with a 2-Star safety rated car and a corresponding drop in sales. What happens then if they accidentally do not have access to the car which they've been given wad-o-cash for?

Currently Holden sell the Daewoo Lacetti under the name plate Viva. Most folk might actually recognise it as the Chevrolet Lacetti which itself features in Top Gear's "Star in a reasonably priced car" segment in the UK version (which is still better that Top Gear Australia). The Lacetti itself is expected to be replaced by the Chevrolet Cruze.

What I greatly fear is that Holden who have a proven history now with replacing fairly good European cars with rubbish Korean ones, will be buying American developed Korean rubbish and then building it in Australia. I have seen first hand the quality of American cars on American roads and quite frankly I was left totally underwhelmed. Should Holden choose to go down this path then I actually expect that by 2015, there will be no Holdens produced in Australia at all and it will have been their own fault.

I believe someone else had something interesting to say to Holden:
You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed, and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
The red pill in this case, could very well be the first step into oblivion; and just to remind you, Holden will be taking $149 million in taxpayers funds to go there.

Horse 954 - Nadal es un Pollo Gigante

There is a Spanish Restaurant not too far away from where I work. Amongst the overpriced specials probably involving juz, rocket, tofu and torremolinos and other assorted faux and erzats Spanish words was the menu item: Nadal es un Pollo Gigante.

Now my Spanish to be honest is only slightly better than my Polish (Kiedy, Po Co, Witaj and Usta - being "when?" "what for?" "hello" and "lips" - like Larry the Cucumber I know four words in Polish) but I'm pretty sure that Nadal es un Pollo Gigante means "Nadal is a Giant Chicken". I could of course be totally wrong about this but consdering that Pollo is also the Italian word for chicken and I can't think of what else Gigante could be for other than Giant, I'm assuming I'm right.

In which case: Why is Nadal a Giant Chicken? Is it being used in the perjorative? If so, then I still don't understand as Nadal showed quite stoic and strong qualities in the Australian Open final to beat Federer in five sets. Are they perhaps using it as some sort of mascot type thing? Again I am confused as the common chicken Gallus Gallus is the national emblem of France and not Spain.

I suppose that the only thing that Nadal es un Pollo Gigante could mean is that he literally looks like a Giant Chicken. Maybe I'm just ignorant but I can't say I ever noticed this before. I mean if you look at the picture below, there's no evidence at all that he looks like a Giant Chicken.



PS: Most of this story is a fib - except the fact that I think that Nadal es un Pollo Gigante

Horse 953 - Jesus: The Untold Years

The question cropped up recently as to what it would have been like to either be or grow up around Jesus, while he was a boy and into adulthood. In fact the Bible itself offers not a whole heap of answers on this at all.

We know from scripture that Jesus had four brothers; these being: James, Joses, Simon, and Jude. We also know that he had a sister called Salome and one other sister who remains unnamed by scripture (that is to say that she had a name but we don't know what it was, though I'd like to think that it was Elizabeth).

It's reasonable to assume that Joseph, Mary and the seven kids probably led a pretty normal sort of life in Nazareth. Joseph was a chippy by trade and one would assume that the five boys learnt their trade in carpentry as well. But what of their home life?

I grew up in a home with only a sister and I can tell you that things got pretty heated at times. It is normal that children fight and being a house with seven kids in it, it would sometimes be a noisy place. Though Jesus himself would have been very different since he never sinned once, not ever.

I bet Joseph's thinking "One of those darn kids broke my hammer, now who was it? Probably not Jesus 'cause that kid never does nothin' wrong... Joses! Get your sorry butt over here right now!"

"It's time for you to go and study now Jude"
"But muuuuuum" (and I have both heard and done this many times) "Muuuuuum, the Torah is boooring!"
"Why can't you be a good boy and study like your brother Jesus?"

or

"Dad, Salome and Simon are saying sware words"
"Are you telling porkies?"
"No dad."
"Hmm.... No, you're not, are you? You never do, do you?"

Here was a boy who whilst working in His dad's shed, never used His own name in vain when He hit His thumb with the hammer. He never short changed His customers when he worked in the shop. By the same token He never told a lie to protect His mates either.

I think that it would have been obvious that Jesus was different to other children. He wouldn't have shared a lot of traits that make kids so unbearable.

Horse 952 - We Don't Know What We're Doing

I find it sooooo encouraging that the people who attended the World Economic Forum found "no answers" to the Global Financial and Economic Crisis currently going on. There is a lot to be said about the competence of people who have been sent to these sorts of things when the best that they can acheive are remarks like: "we don't know what to do, only that we need to do something and we need to do it fast". Um yeah. That'll Play.

It seems to me that the same people who got us into this mess are the same people who are expected to get us out of it. If you look at the bald facts, it was in theory an abundance of liquidity that caused this thing and Governments have been asked to "bail out" companies by an injection of... more liquidity. It has been likened to giving a heroin addict a shot of heroin to cure them of their heroin addiction.

All up, employees of Wall Street securities firms received $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. Merrill Lynch is currently being investigated for making between $3 billion and $4 billion in bonus payments in late December, days before the securities firm was acquired by Bank of America. Merrill Lynch lost $15.3 billion in the fourth quarter. It's little wonder when President Barack Obama wrote off the shebang as "shameful".

I'm not an executive of a billion dollar company, but even I can describe what's been happening. Furthermore I can do it in one word. Greed. And it is not as we were told in the 80s good either. If I can see that then how come the people at World Economic Forum found "no answers"? Are they members of companies now putting out their hands for bailouts? Isn't this just greed all over again?

The World Economic Forum was in Davos, but I reckon that they should have asked Davros.




I bet that he would have EXTERMINATED the Economic Crisis in no time

Horse 951 -

This is a case of a post having to be pulled before I even wrote it.

Last year, Team Vodafone who won Bathurst and who's driver Jamie Whincup won the V8 Supercar Championship, apparently spent some time in talks with Toyota:

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/content/hero_news/july08/teamvodafone_courts_toyota/
In the wake of news that Ford will not back TeamVodafone next year, team owner Roland Dane has confirmed that he has been in talks with Toyota.
As reported in the latest edition of V8X magazine, Toyota Motorsport Manager, Todd Connolly, admitted that he has regular meetings with “a prominent V8 Supercar team owner”.
Dane confirmed that he is that man.
“We have not only spoken to Toyota, but other people in the industry over a long period of time just to understand what the demand is for the market,” he said.

I spent a bit of time, quietly hacking apart what a Toyota Aurion V8 Supercar might look like and came up with this:


Not that this matters much anyway, for I happened to hear the following news on the radio, and I would have provided a link but Fairfax Digital are not nice.
'The Australian Rally Championship has been left in tatters by the withdrawal of the last official factory team in the series and top-name drivers Neal Bates and Simon Evans.
Toyota withdrew its support from rallying yesterday, ending all involvement in Australian motorsport. It was part of a move by Toyota to cut non-essential costs.
It followed Ford and Holden in slashing its spending on motorsport but took it to the next level, trumping its rivals' multi-million dollar cuts on their V8 Supercar programs with a total withdrawal.
The decision ends 20 years in the Australian Rally Championship, the speedway support of national champion Brooke Tatnell, a program of drag racing and even support of the youth-focused Australian Drift Championship.
The biggest casualty is Bates, who won three national rally titles for Toyota and provided the cars to give Evans two more.
"I'm devastated by it. I only got the news last night (Tuesday)," Bates said yesterday. "I'm sad but I feel privileged to have had the success we have had from all sorts of cars, from the original Celica through to the latest Corolla we designed and built at our vase in Canberra. The worst thing is that people are going to lose their jobs and this is like a family."
Bates and his co-driver Coral Taylor still plan to compete in the opening event of this years ARC, Rally Tasmania next month, and the team's home event in Canberra in March.
He is also hopeful of finding buyers for Corolla rally cars.
"I want to keep going, but I don't plan to send myself broke," Bates said. "We've already had a few possibilities come along today, but there is a huge difference between a possibility and a signed deal."
Evans' plans are unknown, although he has rallied before in Subaru cars and has offers to compete in the China Rally Championship with his co-driving wife Sue. '

Herald Sun - January 29 2009.

So I guess that means that this whole post is one of what could have been rather than this might happen.

Horse 950 - Six Month Old Scoop!

I was walking through the newsagent this morning when I found this:



I find it a little amusing that Wheels Magazine are playing on the ignorance of the general public. I've already seen this trick before by Holden themselves, and perhaps this story was fed to Wheels Magazine by Holden simply for the publicity (I wouldn't put it past them) but nevertheless, Wheels have published a picture and emblazoned it with the word SCOOP as though it was a big deal.

Guess what Wheels, not only can I provide you with the details of your so called "scoop" but I can even provide a better still photo than what you can - this is why:

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/815A76AC6BD40BD3CA2574A2002037DC
HOLDEN is believed to be preparing a twin mid-sized family car attack that will cover both the cheap and ‘prestige’ end of the segment.

In the surprise move that is set to mirror Honda’s successful two-pronged Accord/Accord Euro strategy, the Insignia – Opel’s new mid-sized glamour car that debuted late last month at the London motor show – will arrive in Australia priced between $35,000 and $50,000.

I note that this was dated the 11th of August last year. Also of note is that the Insignia won the 2008 European Car of the Year Award over the Ford Fiesta 7 by a mere one vote - it's little wonder then that Holden are so antsy about getting the car over here ASAP.

Personally think that instead of the grille treatment shown on the Wheels cover, the Holden Insignia/Torana will probably look something like this:



We'll probably be getting the 2L in-line 4 at 101kW, the 2L Turbo diesel at 122kW, and HSV will probably run the 2.8L V6 Turbo at 197kW.

In due course the current Epica (Daewoo Tosca) and the Insignia will both converge, into the new car on the Epslion platform at about 2011. Maybe by then the Commodore will have faded into obscurity, who knows?

The big question on all of this though is what happens to Opel, Daewoo, Vauxhall and Holden if Big Daddy GM in Detriot carks it. Opel have already threatened to buy themselves out for €1 and are currently considering a €1bn bid from SolarWorld AG. Whatever happens, if Holden decide to get the Insignia, there'll be a lot of hype for it.

Horse 949 - Not Laughing at $31

While the world goes O'Barmy, the BBC threw this report up during Background Briefing on the radio this morning:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7813418.stm



Motorcyclists in Nigeria have been wearing dried pumpkin shells on their heads to dodge a new law forcing them to wear helmets, authorities say.
Officials in the northern city of Kano said they had stopped several riders with "improvised helmets", following this month's introduction of the law.
Kano Federal Road Safety Commission commander Yusuf Garba told the BBC they were taking a hard line with people found using the improvised helmets.

"We are impounding their bikes and want to take them to court so they can explain why they think wearing a calabash is good enough for their safety," he said.

This at first sounds like a haha that's funny story, until you consider all of the implications.

Even a cheap motorbike helmet in Australia is likely to set you back about $60. Remember that this isn't Australia we're talking about but Nigeria where the GDP per capita is about $2027 a year. If you assume that GDP is a fair measure of wages, the the average wage is a paltry $38.98 a week. This means to say that a helmet (not the motorbike) but just the helmet, is going to cost you one and a half times your weekly wage. If you then consider"passengers often steal the helmets once they reach their destination" then having what is in effect your weekly wage stolen every so often, is pretty scummy.
Let's put this in perspective, if someone stole $1500 from you, you'd be pretty miffed I'm sure of it.

It does however highlight something which I find a little disturbing though. When GM and Chrysler were given $25,000,000,000 the world seemed to breath a sigh of relief, yet if someone in Nigeria is fined 3000 Nigeria Nairas or just $31 for the privilege of barely scraping a living, the natural reaction is to laugh at them. Somewhere in all of this we appear to have lost the value of $1, it might not seem like a lot to us in the West, but in some parts of the world, people's livelihoods are eked out on less than what we might pay to go to the movies and there's not really a happy ending either.

Horse 948 - I Am Not Making This Up

This post falls into the realms of "I am not making this up... Seriously".

On the eve of Barack Obama becoming President of the USA, he's been compared with a few other presidents such as John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln; and perhaps it was a little perverse of me to notice that both of these presidents were assassinated - my sister came up with the supposition that Barack might be as well, simply because of the political tensions which might come about.
Here in Australia, we haven't had Prime Ministers who have been killed, but we do happen to be the only country that just sort of, well... lost its leader.

On 17th December 1967, the then PM Harold Holt decided to go swimming in the surf at Cheviot Beach. Admittedly he had sprained his shoulder previously and despite being advised against it, he went off for a dip anyway. As fate would happen, he never returned.

The Coroner's Report didn't find foul play or communists, submarines or as someone in my Year 9 History class theorised "Giant Migratory Squids" were the cause but rather a simple case of drowning caused by conditions with had turned nasty quickly.

Imagine my surprise then, when reading through The Age (the Fairfax newspaper of Melbourne) I happened to find this:
http://www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/www/html/1863-harold-holt-swim-centre.asp


At first glance it would appear to be in rather poor taste to name a swimming pool after someone who drowned. After all, what sort of confidence could you put in such a venue? Then you realise after looking at their website that the title is probably worthy:

The new pool was to be named the City of Malvern Olympic Swimming Centre, however following the tragic death at sea in December 1967 of Malvern's local member and Prime Minister of Australia, the new pool was named the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre. The Centre was opened by the Prime Minister, John Gorton in March 1969.

The truth is that Harold Holt was actually a rather good swimmer. Certainly it would be appropriate for the local swimming pool to be named after its most famous resident. Although having said that, it's still one of those little useless facts that makes you go "What?" and have to justify it with "I am not making this up... Seriously".

Horse 947 - What's good for General Motors

... is good for the USA.
But they're too stupid to realise it.



Almost a year ago I reported that GM through their Pontiac division were going to pick up the Holden Ute for their line-up but give it the rather stupid name of G8 ST.
http://rollo75.blogspot.com/2008/01/horse-850-its-ute.html

352 days later, GM in America have announced they they're not going to take it after all.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090106/BUSINESS01/90106080/1014

Dealers were told today that the new Pontiac G8 Sport Truck, the car-pickup slated to hit the market later this year, has been killed, Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said.

Dear GM,

You could have practically invented a new market for a car in the US by undercutting the bloated and flabby "pick-up trucks" which dominate the roads (most of which I might add have the handling of a brick and the style of a freshly laid cow pat), but sadly this is not to be.

You've now rejected the idea of selling the ute and the stationwagon, both of which are based of the G8, so this more or less proves that:
A - you don't know a good idea if it bites you in the face, and
B - you don't really understand your own markets anyway.

GM, please die soon. You're already braindead. Please stop scything the American taxpayer's wallets by taking their taxes without just cause. Let me assure you that that bailout package you received, will probably amount to nothing anyway, so you may as well accept your fate and just apply for bankruptcy ASAP.

Your ex-friend,
Common Sense.

PS:

With Deepest Sympathy.

Dear America,
You got screwed out of the UTE! You poor unfortunate souls. I feely deeply sorry for you.

Yours regretfully,
The people of Australia.

Horse 946 - A Monetary Coup d'Etat

The Prawn formerly of The House of Bach and The Esteemed Empire of Toongabbie has of late become married to his belle and I wish them all due happiness together. The following however relates to a recent post from his blog and a due warning for the would be traveler.

http://jamisonprawn.net/2009/01/married-and-back-in-sydney/
And Fiji was incredible as well - so relaxing, so humid, so expensive. Well, sort of expensive - things were basically the same cost as $AU, and the exchange rate was pretty much 1:1. But then you go into a resort where there’s no restaurants outside or around the resort, and all the food inside is very expensive! But it was very nice.

The resort was pretty awesome all round... very luxurious and relaxing. There was plenty to do, and heaps of Fiji culture too, which made it great.

If you look at the above excerpt you find the word expensive mentioned 3 times. Now I know (but not from my personal experience - more on that later) that Fiji should be a relatively cheap place to buy anything because of its relaxed taxation rules. So then, why we're things so expensive? Again, we find the answer in the post itself.

"things were basically the same cost as $AU, and the exchange rate was pretty much 1:1"

Perhaps he could be forgiven with all else that's been going on for overlooking a minor detail that might have cost him a pretty penny and that is the currency exchange pitfall. A casual glance at XE.com this morning reveals this (at time of posting):

1.00000 AUD = 1.22927 FJD

Oh dear.

Instead of his A$1.00 buying nearly F$1.23 it was only buying F$1.00. This means that someone was having a rip to the tune of 23c of every dollar. If I use my Commonwealth Bank EFTPOS card they only charge me 3% on overseas transactions, so even taking that into account, things were 20% more expensive than they should have been for our unsuspecting traveler.

Why is this so, I hear you ask? Yet again, we find the answer in the post itself.

"and heaps of Fiji culture too"

Indeed there was.

Fiji in my lifetime has suffered four military coups. Corruption in Fiji not only runs rife but appears in some respects to be instituationalised. This is more or less accepted by the general public at large, and is practiced to such a degree that the Fijian Independent Commission Against Corruption was itself subject to its own inquiry at one stage. Businesses who's main form of revenue is from tourists, are relatively free to fleece their customers without fear of reprisal as in the above case. Personally I suspect that this general culture has been allowed to permeate generally through society.

During the trial of the 2000 Coup Leader George Speight in 2003 (of which I went over to Fiji to help record whilst still working for Auscript), the Australians who went over were advised to spend as few Australian Dollars as they possibly could, and wherever possible to deal with the locals in Fijian Dollars. At that time the Australian Government was so distrustful of the situation that they issued the warning to their employees directly and possibly in travel warnings documents.

All of this relates to the general warning from the Romans of Caveat Emptor, "Let the buyer beware". It also is good to remember Murphy's Golden Rule which states "Whoever has the gold makes the rules." If you have cash, it is normally advisable to hold onto it for as long as possible and wherever you can, to dictate the terms by which you'll give it away. Business operators and especially in places like Fiji know this, because once they have your money, you can bet your little cotton socks, that they're never giving it back to you...
unless you can stage a military coup of your own.

Horse 945 - The "All New" 2009 Chrysler CopyPaste

Plagiarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes! Remember why the Good Lord made your eyes, don't shade your eyes, but plagiarize! Plagiarize! Plagiarize!
Only be sure always to call it, please, 'research'!



I am never forget the day my first book is published.
Every chapter I stole from somewhere else.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-naias09-chrysler200.jpg,0,1175245.photo

Sad but true, but the Chrysler 200C which has just been unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show and hailed as "innovative" is little more than a copy of GM's work in Europe with the Opel Insignia.

Seriously, can the people at Chrysler honestly claim that they came up with something, even down the to fold and trim lines at the front of the car as their own? It's like someone sitting in an exam room and turning in an identical essay to the person sitting next to them.

I understand perfectly well that Americans clearly can not style cars if the North American Ford Focus is anything to go by, but simply ripping off the work of another company must surely either rank as either plagiarism or copyright or trademark infringement or some such. It's as bad as Ligier's JS41 in 1995 which was an "independent" design and not at all a copy of the Benetton B194.

I know that you're in financial trouble Chrysler, but I'm going to have to give you an F on this and make you sit a make-up test.

And who deserves the credit?
And who deserves the blame?
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.

- Thanks to Tom Lehrer