An unemployed 30-year old German man lit his 1995 BMW on fire to protest high gas prices.

Amazingly, the display did not immediately cause OPEC to increase production and lower prices, so I guess we have to call this effort a failure. I'll sympathize somewhat because gas costs over $9 a gallon in Germany right now, but this is still one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of -- although it did secure the man, whose name has not been made public, his 15 minutes of fame.

Making matters even worse, the Associated Press reports that he doused the car in gasoline first. So apparently the untold story of high gas prices is that not only is driving getting more expensive, but lighting your car on fire because you can't afford gasoline is a considerable hardship for many people.

A better solution: don't light your car on fire, sell it -- trade down to a used sub-compact, or take public transportation and walk - if you're like most people, you could use the exercise.