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Common Dreams reports:
In a slick protest and righteous reminder that Volkswagen has yet to leave behind its Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal, British activist and comedian Simon Brodkin sabotaged a VW presentation at the Geneva Motor Show Tuesday. As marketing chief Juergen Stackmann sang the praises of their new electrically powered Up! models, Brodkin ambled [1] onto the stage in VW-branded overalls, wielding a wrench and prop [labeled] "cheat box", and began climbing under the car to "fix it". "It's okay, I have the new cheat box", he calmly explained to the bewildered Stackmann. "No one's going to find out about this one."
[...] As Stackmann tried to haul him out from under the car--"It doesn't need a repair, it's a perfect car"--Brodkin referenced VW's [lying, disgraced] CEO with, "Mr. Müller says it's okay as long as no one finds out."
[1] Content is behind scripts. archive.is clears up that nuisance.
Previously: Rogue Engineers and Vehicle Emissions
More SoylentNews stories about VW.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Thursday March 03 2016, @09:17AM
Now, how do we nail Microsoft, SystemD, and other distributions about folding crapcode into their releases?
This last read of the day gave me something of much mirth to go to sleep on...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Informative) by anubi on Thursday March 03 2016, @09:20AM
Oh, incidentally, if you just want to see the act... its already up on YouTube. [youtube.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2016, @07:28AM
If you like this kind of activism, you will probably like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men [wikipedia.org] and their https://archive.org/details/The.Yes.Men.Fix.The.World.P2P.Edition.2010.Xvid [archive.org] (CC BY-NC-ND)
If for no other reason, then just to spite US chamber of commerce.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday March 04 2016, @07:42AM
Thanks! I wasn't aware of these guys...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2016, @10:13AM
For the former a pie in the face will do, for the latter - wait until systemdick is mature then draft a system to replace it that is a clusterfuck.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @01:46PM
...Brodkin referenced VW's [lying, disgraced] CEO with...
Some classy journalism right there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @08:19PM
Clearly, you've never worked in a design + manufacturing environment.
Changes of that magnitude don't get made without a suit requesting them and signing off on the final result.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @02:39PM
Have you noticed the difference between how they handle this in Germany vs how this would have been handled in the US?
In Germany: Presenter calmly tells the guy "Thank you, thank you, this car doesn't need fixing, it's a perfectly good car" *guy gets led away gently by security folks* Presenter continues: "Ok, let's continue with the show"
In the US: *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* Get DOWN TERRORIST, DO IT NOW! *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* The guy lays still on the floor, bleeding profusely, is picked up, and then bodyslammed against the floor once more. The conference is terminated right there, everyone is questioned and the news covers a 'Terrorist attempt' against the state!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday March 03 2016, @03:05PM
Well, he was already on the floor...
But that cardboard box or whatever he was holding was definitely a bomb.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @04:05PM
Really? Here's a guy throwing his shoes at a US President: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3Z_Kskl_U [youtube.com] Not exactly non-violent activism either.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday March 03 2016, @08:29PM
Not exactly violent either. From what I recall throwing shoes was a culturally based insult, and not intended to cause harm, but humiliation instead.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by pgc on Friday March 04 2016, @08:31AM
That was what they made of it, afterwards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2016, @10:07AM
Try to keep up please.
(Score: 1) by einar on Thursday March 03 2016, @07:27PM
But, yeah, we are rather peaceful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @09:12PM
And in Paris terrorists would be gunning down the audience.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @03:52PM
What was the whole point of this, I found it awkward and even not funny (especially for a British comedian)? It seemed more like a scream for five minutes of fame than a funny protest (against what actually?).
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday March 03 2016, @03:59PM
You're reaching here. Even if you didn't find it amusing, you should know exactly what he was poking fun at.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by pgc on Friday March 04 2016, @08:33AM
Wooooosh.
The sound of the joke as it goes over your head.
(Score: 2, Informative) by logan on Thursday March 03 2016, @04:04PM
When trying to open the archive.is link from TFS, Chrome shows a "The site ahead contains malware" alert. As pointed out by anubi above, the video is on Youtube [youtube.com].
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2016, @04:15PM
Archive.is is used by some malware people to get around blocks or archive malware sites. Those alerts pop up from time to time on there, like they do with archive.org and url shorteners. The difference seems to be that Google blocks the whole domain when it reaches a certain number, rather than reporting individual urls to the service and blacklisting those, like they do for bigger services.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Techwolf on Thursday March 03 2016, @04:51PM
Did VW really cheat or did they took advantage of a flawed test and actully pollucted less due to increased mileage?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Thursday March 03 2016, @07:00PM
They specifically designed hardware to behave abnormally when it was being tested in order to pass the legally mandated tests.
What would you call it?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 03 2016, @07:25PM
They specifically designed hardware to behave abnormally when it was being tested in order to pass the legally mandated tests.
Which is explicitly prohibited by relevant regulations...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Thursday March 03 2016, @08:18PM
No, they polluted far, far more. You're making the mistaken assumption that pollution scales linearly with fuel burned, which is completely wrong. For CO2, it's correct: that indeed is directly proportional to how much fuel you burn, so 15% better fuel economy means that much less CO2 pollution. The problem with diesel engines isn't CO2, it's nitrous oxides, which are really bad because they create smog (CO2 is mainly benign though too much of it accelerates global warming; smog is a far more localized and acute problem for human health). So these VW engines were producing far, far more NOx pollution than they were supposed to, and the slightly increased fuel economy was nowhere near enough to offset that.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2016, @07:39AM
The problem with diesel engines isn't CO2, it's nitrous oxides
That and particles, which are really dangerous for your health. Apparently you can get either one down but getting both down is a challenge...
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday March 04 2016, @10:58AM
Yeh... run rich, you emit lots of unburned fuel... hydrocarbons... CO. - but hardly no NOx, You don't have enough oxygen around to make any.
Run lean, you emit lots of NOx - but hardly any unburned hydrocarbons, you have so much oxygen around that any hydrocarbon around gets hitched.
But run in the "sweet spot", you emit BOTH!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]