Ok, again not photo related, I admit. Little time at the moment, so I’ll just misuse my little site for some blog-type-content-stuff and get to photos again later. Here’s a story that caught my eye, and I admit it, I fell for it at first:

jalopnik top gear speeding prankJalopnik and some other car blogs published a story the other day that had as its headline “More speeding means safer highways“. Having fought against the introduction of a speed limit on the Isle of Man in the past and being a general petrol head, my heart jumped – could it be that someone said the unthinkable, came up with some miraculous study that proved speeding is good? Well, no…

The study referred to is here: HRAR_REPORT243 – it argues that drivers who put their foot down are safer due to increased adrenaline levels and faster reactions.

jalopnik australia speeding study top gear prankA closer look at the document quickly outs it as what it really is – a prank by the guys at Top Gear. Gotta be. No other way. How else would you explain the rather strange names of the researchers and the countless car manufacturers names in the reference section?

Have to hand it to them – well done, and no doubt it will feature in either the magazine or be part of an episode in the near future.

jalopnik australia speeding top gear prankMaybe stories like this show us that in our brave new web 2.0 world, where the border between a blog and  news site are completely blurred now, some more focus should be kept on editorial control.

Click on the pictures for bigger versions of the sections that give the prank away.

edit: Chief Jalopnologist Ray Wert just mentioned a good point: It’s clearly a prank, but who says it’s really Top Gear behind it? Mystery time! (Answers on a poastcard, please)