News Briefs

Toyota no longer reliability top-dog

According to Consumer Reports, Toyota is no longer number one for reliability among automakers. The company dropped from first to fifth place behind Honda, Acura, Scion, and Subaru. Consumer Reports is no longer recommending the V8 Tundra pick-up or the V6 Camry due to a lack of reliability. Domestic manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have been improving in their automobile reliability rankings. Of the three domestic brands mentioned, Ford has been more consistent than Chrysler and General Motors on quality.



Google able to block videos?

Google has recently revealed a new system for blocking and allowing videos on YouTube. The software is designed to take content from a copyright holder and make a “digital fingerprint.” This gives the copyright holder the ability to block or allow their material on the website. They can even go so far as to request that certain ads be run on the same page as the video when it’s playing. YouTube will then give a percent of profits from the ads back to the content owner. The software is currently in beta and there is no mention of when it will be finalized. Many were expecting this software a lot sooner. Google was hoping to have the system in place by September. An earlier implementation would have also prevented several lawsuits by Viacom over copyright infringement.



Gore’s film inconveniently contains errors

A court in UK has ruled that schools can show Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” so long as it contains highlights mentioning where the movie drifts away from scientific fact and becomes hearsay. Some of the statements made by the movie that are in question relate to polar bears drowning on their swims between icebergs. There has been no research to support this assertion. Another statement mentioned that the ocean would rise 20 feet “in the near future.” The scientific consensus is that the melting would happen over millennia and not in the near future. The documentary also mentions that the shrinking snowline on Mt. Kilimanjaro is directly related to climate change caused by humans; however, no scientific link exists.