It sounded like such a great, simple way to illustrate how much environmental damage is wrought by our meat-heavy diet. "A vegan in a Hummer," Michael Pollan declared on Saturday, "has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef-eater in a Prius."

Sadly, it isn't true, as Pollan has since acknowledged.

By now, we should all be familiar with Toyota’s woes. No sooner did the automaker finally ascend to the No. 1 global spot, displacing General Motors (MTLQQ), than it began to hit speedbumps and potholes. There were historic financial losses, lawsuits, and embarrassing, tragic recalls. At one point, it was widely believed that Toyota could do no wrong. All of a sudden, it could do no right.

New York Times scribe Saul Hansell has an interesting story today on the rise of Android, the Google (GOOG) smartphone operating system that is ever-so-slowly eating into the client base for Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile system. Android, Hansell claims, has a number of substantial advantages over Windows Mobile. For one thing, it's free whereas Windows Mobile costs between $15 and $25 to install.

Shares of the newly public Dole Food (DOLE) continued to sink on Monday, further supporting the opinion that the company probably should have waited a bit longer before emerging from six years of private ownership.

There's just too much debt—$1.9 billion—on the company's books, and the recovery just isn't strong enough yet for investors to feel good about Dole's ability to pay it off and return some profits to shareholders.

I worked with Buick for several years, and the perpetual problem with the original General Motors (MTLQQ) brand was that it just never seemed fresh or forward. It had been before: There’s a long history of compelling Buicks, but it all seemed to grind to halt in the late 1990s. At one point, the division sold six different models, but after 2005, a slimming-down process began.

I often wonder when I'm watching TV what the point is of repeating the same commercials over and over during the same show. Certain on-demand channels take this to an extreme—ABC runs six or eight spots for the same (Disney (DIS), of course) movie during a single hour. If the fourth iteration of the spot hasn't persuaded us to go see the movie, do they really think the fifth one will?

Wall Street's still reeling from Google's (GOOG) jaw-dropping numbers yesterday, as the company's stock has now risen to $552 a share amid news that profits rose 27 percent over this same period the year before. "We believe the worst of the recession is behind us," said a beaming Eric Schmidt yesterday.