{"id":1118,"date":"2018-02-26T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2020-02-15T19:16:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T02:16:25","slug":"now-theres-a-choice-of-new-car-smells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/2018\/02\/26\/now-theres-a-choice-of-new-car-smells\/","title":{"rendered":"Now There’s a Choice of New Car Smells"},"content":{"rendered":"

News item<\/strong>: Stink bugs threaten New Zealand car imports<\/a><\/p>\n

The background to this story is much more serious than you would suppose from the headline. But that\u2019s what you get for calling an insect with a perfectly healthy Latin name (Halyomorpha halys<\/em>) \u201cstink bug\u201d. (The seriousness of the story stems from the stink bug\u2019s rapid global spread and its voracious appetite for crops, particularly fruits. Given that New Zealand is full of Kiwis, there\u2019s a problem.)<\/p>\n

Halyomorpha halys<\/em> is native to China, Japan and nearby countries, but has been introduced to other countries via imported goods from those countries. (For goodness\u2019 sake, don\u2019t let Trump learn about this\u2014he\u2019ll shut down all<\/em> imports from that region!)<\/p>\n

But serious or no, there\u2019s always a humorous angle to a story; the only question is whether or not that angle will pass the propriety filters of \u201cmost\u201d people.<\/p>\n

In the case of this news article, I see possibilities.<\/p>\n

There are currently twelve thousand cars that potentially contain stink bugs sitting on ships. They won\u2019t be allowed into New Zealand until they\u2019ve been fumigated. The approved insecticide damages upholstery. The insecticide that works isn\u2019t (yet) approved for use in NZ. But assuming the cars do get fumigated and landed, car dealerships will have a new problem.<\/p>\n

Stink bugs emit a pungent odour when threatened. I can\u2019t help thinking that a fumigant counts as a threat, so if I\u2019m right, those stink bugs are going to unload before they croak.<\/p>\n

You know that \u201cnew car\u201d smell that everyone seems to crave? There\u2019s likely to be twelve thousand cars in dealerships in New Zealand with a new \u201cnew car\u201d smell. And I think they\u2019ll be a hard sell. Dealers will have to offer heavy incentives (or should that be \u201cinscentives\u201d?) to move the cars.<\/p>\n

By the way, that \u201cnew car\u201d smell is made up of a cocktail of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)\u2014gases given off by the plastics and glues and fabrics that make up a car\u2019s interior. Some are potentially fatal in large-enough doses; others are merely bad for you.<\/p>\n

Which gives rise to the thought that if insecticides are harmful to humans, and if VOCs are so bad for humans, why wouldn\u2019t the VOCs kill the stink bugs? They\u2019re much, much smaller than we are, so surely the fatal dosage is correspondingly smaller.<\/p>\n

Or am I showing my scientific\/entomological ignorance by being pseudo-logical?<\/p>\n

If you were wondering about that Latin name, and something about bad breath was clanging around in your head, you\u2019re right; the \u201chalys\u201d in halyomorpha halys<\/em> shares the same root as halitosis\u2014the posh name for bad breath.<\/p>\n

Still\u2014at least halitosis is better than no breath at all.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I think we can safely say that twelve thousand cars might have very attractive price tags on them. In Canada (and elsewhere), dealerships resort to \u201chail sales\u201d to get rid of vehicles damaged in hailstorms. Might I suggest that Kiwi car salesmen start planning for their \u201chalys sales\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News item: Stink bugs threaten New Zealand car imports The background to this story is much more serious than you would suppose from the headline. But that\u2019s what you get for calling an insect with a perfectly healthy Latin name (Halyomorpha halys) \u201cstink bug\u201d. (The seriousness of the story stems from the stink bug\u2019s rapid global spread and its voracious… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,490],"tags":[664,529,528,530,527],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fake","category-the-commentaries","tag-500words","tag-hail-sale","tag-halitosis","tag-halyomorpha-halys","tag-stink-bug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}