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The EnergyStar-Approved Gas-Powered Alarm Clock

April 1st, 2010. By Hunter West

Remember that fridge you bought with the EnergyStar label? Oh, y’know it may have even cost a bit more than other models that lacked the label. But it’s worth it, right? You’re using less energy…saving on hydro, and being the good environmental steward that you are. 

Don’t bet on it. As revealed last week in The New York Times and in the contents of a government report issued March 26^th, the EnergyStar program can’t be trusted. Okay, well maybe now that the proverbial dung has hit the fan things will improve. But for anyone who has bought anything bearing the blue EnergyStar seal in recent years—well, you really don’t know what you’ve got. 

Because EnergyStar may not know what you have, either. 

EnergyStar is run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in tandem with the federal Energy Department. A great idea, with lofty goals. As a consumer, you can be assured that by purchasing an appliance with the blue seal you are buying the very best, most efficient item in that class, on the market. 

Or are you? 

Audits are wonderful things. And when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) did a nine-month investigation, the auditors uncovered some interesting factoids: 

• A manufacturer can download the coveted EnergyStar logo from the government website as soon as they are registered as an EnergyStar partner. Many simply pasted the logo on items that had never been submitted for approval.  
• Many approvals are handled by an automated system. EnergyStar officials claim that final approvals are always vetted by a human being, and that the automated system is only used for screening. But this is allegedly not the case in all matters. 
• Many EnergyStar appliances actually use more power than others not carrying the EnergyStar logo. 

In what would make excellent fodder for a movie, the GAO set up four fictitious companies as part of its audit and submitted to EnergyStar various products seeking the EnergyStar seal of approval. Most products just existed on paper. However energy consumption data was issued as if the products were, indeed real. Figures submitted in some cases were 20 percent less than the best-performing appliances out there. That’s quite a feat. 

No red flag. They were approved. 

An air purifier was submitted for approval. Basically it was an electric space heater with a feather duster on top (see photo). 

Approved. 

And here’s the best one…a gasoline-powered alarm clock. An item I suppose for those who are into backwoods Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: EnergyStar, EPA, GAO
Posted in Consumer Fraud | 3 Comments »

Legal Challenges to Health Care Reform: Justice, or Just Us Pouting?

March 25th, 2010. By Hunter West

Some lawsuits are there to right a wrong. To seek justice, and elicit compensation. 

Others are simply put out there to make noise. For posturing. 

As part of the continued opposition to the Obama health care reform bill, 14 states launched legal challenges to the health care reform, claiming that requiring Americans to purchase health care coverage flies in the face of the Constitution. 

Okay. So 13, of the 14 attorneys general who have filed lawsuits are Republican. The GOP is known to be against the long-held Democratic dream. The White House has been told not to worry, that the legal challenges are not winnable by the plaintiffs. 

And never mind that Timothy Stolzfus Jost, a professor of law at the Washington and Lee University (disclaimer: he’s a Democrat), blogs on CNN that there is no legal merit to the challenges. “…These cases are going nowhere legally,” he says. 

But beyond all that let’s look at the fundamental claim that government has no right to tell me that I HAVE to buy health insurance. 

Fine. Then why must I buy automotive insurance? The last time I checked, auto insurance was a requirement. You’re not allowed to drive a car if you are uninsured. Get caught, and you face a hefty penalty. 

Now, I’m a careful driver. I don’t take chances. And I own my car outright. I can see if I was making payments to a bank, a manufacturer or a finance company, then I might be compelled to have insurance in order to protect their investment in the case of an accident. If I default on my payments the repo comes and gets the car, and the bank sells it for as much as it can get. 

However, you have to have a vehicle to do that. If the vehicle is totaled the driver has nothing Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Health Care Reform, HRC
Posted in Emerging Issues, Insurance, lawsuits | 1 Comment »

First Responder Distraction a Risk to Other Drivers

March 22nd, 2010. By Hunter West

In the rush to get people to stop texting on their cell phones, playing with their GPS devices or even working the laptop sitting on the passenger seat beside them WHILE DRIVING, a large segment of the driving population has been all but ignored in the debate.

Emergency service workers—the police, firefighters and paramedics who are first responders to an emergency. 

Have you seen inside a modern ambulance lately? Or a police car? It’s a tech heaven.

Computers and keypads, high-end GPS. The list goes on. 

There is little doubt that such rolling technology is having a positive impact on the capacity to respond to an emergency, and to save a life. 

But what has been forgotten—at least until a New York Times article came out on March 11^th drawing attention to the issue—is the potential for distraction by first responders who are multi-tasking behind the wheel and shouldn’t be.

As the article highlighted, drivers are supposed to key in, upload and download information while the vehicle is stopped. Once moving, that task is entrusted to the accompanying paramedic, or police officer. The partner. 

However, there have been instances where the riding paramedic is in the back, attending to the patient. The driver, intent on shuttling a patient in obvious distress to hospital in the quickest time, will not wait for vital information to come before weaving into traffic. Should that data become available while en route— Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Accidents, Automotive | No Comments »

Vintage Cars Rock as Hard Drive on Wheels may be Hell on Wheels

March 12th, 2010. By Hunter West

I have a prediction: this whole Toyota mess is going to spawn a re-birth of vintage cars.

 

I have a friend who has a vintage Volkswagen Beetle. An original Veedub. It was made at the original Wolfsburg factory in Germany, has a carburetor and no pollution controls. It coughs, and wheezes. Despite the obvious fact that it’s loads of fun to drive, my pal has had it parked for a few years now due to his attempt to respect the environment—even though legally he can drive it as is—given the fact the car is so old it is grandfathered and is not governed by modern-day pollution control standards. 

He would sit there, at the red light, an obvious Old-World stench belching from the exhaust pipe, cowering under the scorn of other drivers sitting behind the wheels of their gleaming Toyotas that didn’t stink so much. 

So he parked the car. There it sits in the garage, replaced by a more modern vehicle. He’s aware there are others in the vintage car communities who have done the same. They’re driving their vintage cars less, if at all, out of respect for the environment. Besides, newer cars are that much safer. 

Or, are they?

Don’t be surprised if you see more old cars out on the road now. Cars that drive by mechanics, not electronics. The only circuit you’ll find is the battery that connects the starter, the headlights, the horn, the wipers and the radio.

That’s it. Cars according to KISS: ‘keep it simple, stupid…” 

Are cars getting too complicated? 

Toyota has been beleaguered with trouble. We all know that. We’ve all heard about the recall, and the sticky pedals. We’ve all heard that Toyota said it was NOT electronics that were at fault, then say they weren’t sure, and then say again as late as this week that in their view the electronics are fine. It’s sticking pedals and floor mats that are causing unexplained acceleration. 

And yet we hear of reports where Toyota owners have experienced more incidents whereby their recalled cars have sped away seemingly under their own power AFTER the safety repairs were made. This week a guy driving a Prius is lucky to be alive after his car sped up along a California Interstate. He said the pedal stuck and wouldn’t let go. He even tried to pry it free with his hand. It wouldn’t budge. Floor mats were not the issue.

His car wasn’t on the recall list. 

On Wednesday a woman was just heading out of her driveway when her Toyota suddenly lurched forward, sped up and she slammed into a retaining wall across from her property. 

Okay, so is the problem mechanical? Or electronic? Or a combination of both? Do you ever recall a 1964 Impala doing this kind of stuff?

Most agree that cars are getting increasingly complicated. Some say, too much so. Well if that’s you, then you don’t want to ever meet up with the 2010 Lexus HS 250h, manufactured by Toyota. 

More computing power than a moonshot 

Here is a car that can literally drive itself. Roman Mica, a reporter and producer for CNN reviewed Toyota’s latest marvel, calling the Lexus HS 250h a technological ‘tour de force.’ You don’t drive the car any more, Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Toyota, toyota recall
Posted in Accidents, Automotive, Emerging Issues | 1 Comment »

If the FDA Wore a Uniform

February 25th, 2010. By Hunter West

You gotta love the good ol’ FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) for its renewed stance on oversight on things such as drug advertising. Four months into the Obama Administration, the FDA gets a new leader—Margaret Gamburg—and all of a sudden things start happening.

Among other crackings of the whip, the FDA issued draft guidelines designed to clarify what is appropriate in drug ads. You know, things like upping the music volume when all those nasty, ‘adverse reaction’ bits appear. Or the use of distracting images and visuals to take the focus away from what you are hearing. 

The renewed focus on what consumers are seeing in medicinal TV ads—which seem to take center sponsor stage on the major network television newscasts each night—stems from a few well-placed cat calls from John Dingell and Bart Stupak. Back in 2008 the two congressmen openly questioned if drug advertising properly presented product benefits and risks. 

Among other complaints, Stupak criticized Pfizer for using the inventor of an artificial heart, Robert Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dingell, DUI, FDA, Gamburg, OxyContin, Stupak, Trasylol
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 1 Comment »