While cruising alGore's internet this past weekend to find an analogy for something as finely tuned as President Bush's various border policies, I just happened to come across the Wikipedia entry for the Yugo.

For those of you who might have forgotten (and those of you still trying to forget), the Yugo is to compact automobiles what the English are to fine dining, the French are to bathing, and radical Muslims are to satire whether the understand the word, or not.

Currently the Wikipedia entry for the Yugo is a bit sparse:

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup.

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view.

Do tell.

Luckily, I managed to obtain a screen capture before the offending content was brought down, so you don't have to guess what "may not represent a worldwide view."

A larger, more legible (but no more coherent) capture is here.

Apparently, the writer is miffed that U.S. precision bombing isn't as accurate as he thinks it should be, as a U.S. air strike hit the automobile assembly line and not the weapons production lines on the underground floors below the automobile assembly line, or because—drumroll please—the United States was targeting the car assembly line on purpose all along.

Of course we were.

Fear the country that fears your Yugo.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:22 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Boy, the big three really dodged a bullet when the Yugo factory got hit! I think Yugo had upwards of 50% of the US market share prior to that. Good one

Posted by: Kevin at February 21, 2006 07:24 AM (o/IMK)

2 I remember watching Yugo try to make it up the hill on Interstate 15 going out of Bakersville. It couldn't get up to like more that 20mph at top end....too funny. An Autobahn type of car, no?

Posted by: Specter at February 21, 2006 11:01 AM (ybfXM)

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"Yeah, tech support? Medal of Honor: Rising Sun keeps crashing my HMMWV..."

Somehow, I don't think that is what they have in mind:

IBM, the world's largest maker of business computers, on Wednesday introduced new computing systems that it said extend the processing power of video-game microchips to corporate data centers.

The systems will open up new capabilities for businesses in the medical and military sectors, for example, as companies seek ways to use increasingly demanding and graphics-intensive computer applications, IBM said.

Driving the systems is the so-called Cell processor, developed by IBM, Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. for gaming consoles including Sony's PlayStation 3, scheduled for release later this year. IBM is now installing the Cell in its "BladeCenter" computer servers, a compact way of building large data centers that run corporate networks.

[snip]

"We see a commercial application for that Cell processor" in corporate data centers, Balog told Reuters. "Several customers approached us to take advantage of this highly graphics-intensive engine, which can render whole cities and landscapes on the fly."

The Cell chip already has found some uses beyond gaming, but the technology being introduced on Wednesday is meant to broaden the potential applications and customers, Balog said. IBM in June agreed to license the Cell processor to military equipment maker Mercury Computer Systems Inc.

With some military companies either currently able or close to being able to monitor real-time battles conditions via layers of GPS, airborne, ground-based and satellite video feeds, layered thermal, chemical scans, and constantly updating individual GPS data currently being tested, a live action, video-game surveillance view for commanders may be exactly what is around the corner in future battle management.

Now if they can just figure out how to add bonus lives...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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