Land Rover Encino took the opportunity to milk some serious product placement out of MICHAEL JACKSON's untimely death by providing close to a dozen Range Rovers and Rolls Royce’s to the Jackson family, free of charge, for use in the late entertainer’s ultra-publicized memorial service. The vehicles were used to transport the Jacksons and other celebrity guests to Forest Lawn cemetery for the funeral service and also to LA’s Staples Center where the televised service took place. Some of the vehicles were supercharged, others were not. 

In return for the free use of the luxury rides Land Rover Encino didn’t have to pay for the daylong exposure their autos received in the media parade. Of course, there may not have have been an official deal on the matter. Thriller touched a great many lives and perhaps a few of those at the Encino dealership simply wanted to help the Jackson family through their time of mourning with comfortable transportation. Making sure to include a few supercharged models for the procession was a particularly touching gesture (Barf). (1) (2)

The last time URINE was turned into anything useful may have been in Kevin Costner’s epic floater, “Water World.” Until now that is: Scientists at Ohio University have discovered a way to extract hydrogen from human urine that can be used as fuel for fuel cell and hydrogen cars. From iCars Singapore: 

“According to the research, it is easier to extract hydrogen from urine, rather than extracting it from water. To retrieve it from water, more energy is needed, which then defeats the entire purpose in a way. This finding is made possible thanks to the fact that there is Ammonia in urine, and Ammonia is made up by one nitrogen atom and two hydrogen atoms.”

Entrepreneurs might want to start bottling their urine in the cellar. By the time relieving yourself has become a laborious victory several generations from now, hydrogen powered cars could be the norm. Who’ll be crazy then? Certainly not the old man down the street who sells a lifetime’s worth of mason jars filled to the brim with his liquid gold to the local hydrogen station! 

If this sets your prospecting wheel a turning or if you’re at all scientifically inclined the description of the study and its findings can be found here:

http://webche.ent.ohiou.edu/eerl/documents/vitse-cooper-botte%20JPS-2005-Ammonia.pdf

BERNIE ECCLESTONE is the billionaire President and CEO of Formula 1, and accordingly he doesn’t seem to give a #@!% what people think of him. In a recent interview with The Times, he discussed the merits of Hitler and Saddam Hussein and took great issue with democracy as being a destructive threat to modern society. Needless to say the article caused quite a stir. Here are the juicier excerpts of his crazy train chugging up the mountain to its self-destructive peak: 

“If you have a look at a democracy it hasn’t done a lot of good for many countries — including this one. I like people who make up their minds. If you have to keep referring to your grandmother before you do anything I think that’s dumb. I make decisions, sometimes wrong, sometimes right — so long as you get more things right than wrong then that’s OK.”

Well that’s not so bad. Contrasting his personal management style with democracy shouldn’t ruffle too many feathers. No harm or foul so far. 

“Politicians are too worried about elections. We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein, he was the only one who could control that country. It was the same [with the Taleban]. We move into countries and we have no idea of the culture. The Americans probably thought Bosnia was a town in Miami. There are people starving in Africa and we sit back and do nothing, but we get involved in things we should leave alone.”

He’s climbing up on a soapbox now, but these are still acceptable views even if they are a bit edgy and off topic for guy who’s supposed to be talking about cars. Go on then, Bernie. 

“In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people able to get things done.”

…

“In the end he got lost so he wasn’t a very good dictator. Either he knew what was going on and insisted, or he just went along with it — either way he wasn’t a dictator.” (4) (5)

Oooh, that’s probably not going to fly with the Jewish community. Those sorts of sentiments are generally best kept as “inside thoughts,” especially, once again, when you’re the CEO of Formula 1 and being interviewed by a major newspaper. Ecclestone later authored an article in The Times titled “I was a fool to talk about admiring Hitler,” a much different prompt than “What I did over summer break.” Here’s the link to the subsequent piece he wrote:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6652501.ece

It’s really more of an explanation than an apology and goes into even greater detail as to why Ecclestone admires certain aspects of Hitler's legacy and still doesn't think much of democracy. 

Several billion dollars must afford some big cajones. 

Sources

(1) http://www.tmz.com/2009/07/07/motorcade-sponsored-by-range-rover/
(2) http://jalopnik.com/5309245/michael-jacksons-funeral-procession-sponsored-by-land-rover-rolls-royce-dealer/gallery/
(3) http://www.icars.sg/2009/5514/new-form-on-fuel-human-urine/ 
(4) http://jalopnik.com/5307998/f1-boss-bernie-ecclestone-says-democracy-bad-hitler-and-saddam-ok
(5) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article6632991.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

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