5 Things: Prius Recall and Twinkies in Jeopardy

1. Recall for Toyota Prius: Toyota announced a voluntary recall of 670,000 vehicles to inspect and, in some cases, replace the steering intermediate extension shaft. Toyota dealers will inspect the extension shaft to determine if it needs to be replaced.  The inspection and repair will take approximately one hour depending on the dealer’s work schedule. In a second recall, approximately 350,000 of these same Prius vehicles are also being recalled to replace the electric water pump for the hybrid system. Owners should received notification via mail starting next month. You can read more here at the Toyota site.

2. Moves like Jagger: Wow, the Rolling Stones are celebrating a half-century in the music biz. That is amazing. Enjoy this photo retrospective in the LA Times. Wow. 50.

3. Leggy in California: While that could describe a lot of people, it's actually a thing – the leggiest creature on Earth is a West Coast millipede – smaller than a human pinky finger, the female sports 750 legs and can spin silk from long hairs that cover her back, thereby creating her own "clothing." Hmm. Leggy and thrifty, too. Photo and more at NationalGeographic.com.

4. Who You Jivin' With That Cosmic Debris? Faithful readers of this space know I have an odd fascination with space junk. It's crazy, right? So please enjoy this 24 image NASA slideshow, "Spacejunk: Worse Than You Think," detailing the kinds of things that wreck havoc on Hubble and require windshields on space shuttles to be replaced, due to damage. Then, enjoy this Frank Zappa video, from my youth: "Cosmik Debris."

5. Save the Twinkies: This could be the end of the road for Twinkies – Hostess Brands said yesterday that it will go into liquidation by end of business today unless bakers return to work by the end of the day Thursday. "We simply do not have the financial resources to survive an ongoing national strike," Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said in a statement. The liquidation would result in Hostess' nearly 18,000 workers losing their jobs. The bakers' union represents around 5,000. Labor union reps say this is actually a mischaracterization of the situation, and that the company was planning to shut down operations anyway – and are simply blaming the unions for the company's woes. You can read more here. This is bigger than Twinkies, btw – Hostess also makes Ding Dongs and  Wonder Bread. DING DONGS AND WONDER BREAD!!