New Kid on Block

Ken Avidor calls it a 'melt down' (Jan. 31 22:26), but the rest of us recognize it as satire. We welcome to the Big Show its newest practitioner, TransportEnthusiast, and wish him or her good hunting. From the Seattle P-I Forum:

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for another episode of:

THE TRANSPORTATION FUNDAMENTALISTS! If it's not in their transportation bible, it's HERESY!.

"Knowledge will be SQUELCHED! Dissension, STRANGLED! Debate, STOMPED!

Go ahead, mention PRT! I dare you! YOU WILL BE BEATEN DOWN LIKE A 19-TH CENTURY EVOLUTIONIST IN KANSAS!

DIE YOU HERETIC PROMOTER OF GADGETBAHNEN!!

I AM WEINERBAHNEN! I AM CARTOONIST! I AM ALL KNOWING!"

Welcome to the age of enlightenment.

***

"ALL SHALL FOLLOW THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF WEINERBAHNEN:

THOU SHALT NOT WORSHIP THE FALSE PROPHETS OF GADGETBAHNEN!
{thunderclap}

HE WHO WORSHIPS SCHNEIDER SHALL BE THROWN INTO THE FIERY PIT!

HE WHO WORSHIPS ANDERSON SHALL BE BANISHED TO THE FLOATING LUV POD!! (www.roadkillbill.com/PRT-LUVPOD%20-2.htm
l)

THY PROPHETS SHALL BE VUCHIC, SETTY, DEMERY, ISAACS! NONE ELSE!

I HAVE SPOKEN! I AM WEINERBAHNEN! I AM CARTOONIST! ALL SHALL OBEY!"

***
"ALL SHALL OBEY THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF TRANSIT FUNDAMENTALISM:

THOU SHALT NOT DEBATE! {thunderclap}

DEBATE IS THE WEAPON OF THE HERETIC GADGETBAHNERS!

THINE ONLY DEFENSE AGAINST DEBATE IS ATTACK!

ATTACK THINE ENEMY'S PROPHETS: ANDERSON, SCHNEIDER!

FILL THE AIR WITH MOCKERY OF THESE EVIL GADGETBAHNERS!

BANISH THEM TO THE FLOATING LOVE POD!

FOR IT IS WRITTEN THAT ALL WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THE HOLY WORD OF WEINERBAHNEN SHALL BE RIDICULED AS CULTISTS AND TOOLS OF THINE EVIL AUTO INDUSTRY!

HEAR MY WORDS FOR I HAVE SPOKEN! I AM WEINERBAHNEN! I AM CARTOONIST! I AM ALL KNOWING!"

***
"HEAR MY FOURTH COMMANDMENT AND OBEY:

THOU SHALT SUPPRESS KNOWLEDGE IN ALL ITS FORMS! {thunderclap}

KNOWLEDGE IS THE CURRENCY OF THE GADGETBAHNERS!

KNOWLEDGE CLOUDS THE MINDS OF LOYAL FOLLOWERS OF THE MOST HOLY WEINERBAHNEN!

HEAR ME, MY LOYAL SUBJECTS: GO FORTH AND DESTROY THAT SACRILEGIOUS TEMPLE OF HERETIC KNOWLEDGE KNOWN AS WIKIPEDIA!

WIKIPEDIA IS KNOWLEDGE!

KNOWLEDGE IS EVIL!

WIKIPEDIA IS EVIL!

I HAVE SPOKEN! I AM WEINERBAHNEN! I AM CARTOONIST! ALL SHALL OBEY!"

***
"HEAR ME AGAIN, O FAITHFUL SERVANTS!

JIMBO WALES, CREATOR OF THE UNHOLY SPREADER OF KNOWLEDGE WIKIPEDIA, IS AN ENEMY OF THE TRANSIT FUNDAMENTALISTS!

JIMBO CREATED WIKIPEDIA!

WIKIPEDIA IS A TOOL OF THE GADGETBAHNERS!

GADGETBAHNERS ARE EVIL!

JIMBO IS EVIL!!!

THE TRANSIT FUNDAMENTALISTS SHALL SEEK OUT AND DESTROY JIMBO WALES!!

I AM WEINERBAHNEN! I AM CARTOONIST!"
Source

Want to see a real meltdown? Take a look at ***'s old tBlog posting way back on July 25, 2005, comment 3.



gPRT

Wikipedia 1, You-Know-Who 0

An attempt by Ken to discredit the Wikipedia PRT entry is in the process of being slapped down. A neutral evaluation beats him every time.



gPRT

Low on toner

The Human Xerox Machine has been busy again, with largely identical anti-PRT letters to a British rail industry trade magazine, and the Detroit Metro Times weekly.

Are you ready for today's experiment? Ken's Metro Times letter is below. Click on each highlighted phrase, and you'll get a Google search of the phrase or key words. Thrill to all the other times Ken has used a talking point! Chuckle when his claims don't materialize! Try it, it's fun!

PRT a techno-scam

Except for the quote from Professor Vuchic, Mr. Guyette's story was very one-sided. As I once pointed out in an op-ed in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, personal transit is still a techno-dream. PRT proponents are masters at making extravagant claims and promises; however, it's important to recognize that PRT does not currently exist in successful public operation, and, in all likelihood, never will. PRT has a solid 30-year record of controversy and failure. Its main purpose in recent years seems to have been to provide a cover enabling its proponents to spread disinformation about real, workable transit systems.

The unsubstantiated claims of PRT proponents are always presented in the present tense as if the system is a success — which, of course, it certainly is not. Promoters never seem to fail to bash real transit, such as light rail (LRT), as "old-fashioned technology."

Sad to say, the media rarely check the veracity of PRT publicity and propaganda.

Basically, PRT is a stalking horse for the highway construction industry. PRT proponents can say things that the highway boosters could never say, such as "People don't like to ride with strangers." This anti-transit propaganda divides and conquers the opposition to highway projects. PRT bamboozles and confuses citizens and lawmakers about the real, workable, off-the-shelf transit solutions that can help communities free themselves from gridlock, pollution and dependence on foreign oil.

Don't fall for the scam. —Ken Avidor, Minneapolis, Minn.
Source

There you have it, all in one letter. Since 2003 he has simply repeated the same unsupported or disproven talking points over and over.

Related post: Puppetmaster (9/13)

gPRT
PRT allows anyone to climb aboard, drunks, prostitutes, Ken Avidor, drug dealers and do what they want in the privacy of the PRT vehicle... leaving behind vomit, used needles, condoms, grafitti, odors...

Meow

1. You-Know-Who is still having kittens, peddling that talking point that my Google search links, like the one in the sidebar, are somehow deceptive:

How's this for PRT fakery...

Go to Gow's new blog:

innovative-transit.blogspot.com/

Click on his Google search button.

This is the code Gow uses to exclude sites he doesn't want potential PRT devotees to see... Source

Blah blah blah, blah-de-blah. He's made this attack before, targeting the Google and Google News links at the gPRT What's New page.

Why don't you try it? Go to gPRT What's New and click on one of the Google links. Here's my question: how is it deceptive if the page of results lists right at the top the search terms that are included and excluded?

Readers of PRTJ2 should know: I take seriously my duty to protect you from the clumsy disinformation that spews from Ken Avidor's flying circus. You can count on me, when the rain starts to fall.


2. As I expected, the point of last weekend's post (Crumb & Crumber, 1/21) went totally over Ken's head. He thinks it's about his artistic technique. In reality we were lampooning one of his cartoons in order to make a point about his use of the "Uninformed Snap Judgment with Side-by-Side Visual Comparison" (2nd paragraph).

Poor, one-dimensional, literal-minded Ken. No wonder his cartoons don't have punch lines.


3. If Ken's claims of a PRT/paving/cars conspiracy were true, don't you think I could call up my buddies in the concrete industry to get sidewalks built on my block?



gPRT

Crumb and Crumber

(or: "The content of this post is clearly satirical")


Let's take a moment out of our busy day for some cultural appreciation. Specifically, art criticism. We'll look at a classic work by a great, recognized artist, and compare it with a more recent example by another artist working in the same genre.

Now, we could do weeks or months of painstaking research. Or, we could employ a quick and easy technique that seems to be growing in popularity in some circles: the Uninformed Snap Judgment with Side-by-Side Visual Comparison.

Here, for example are two works. The top picture is by reknowned artist and illustrator R. Crumb, who is generally acknowledged to be the seminal and most prominent figure in the underground comics movement. This master is acclaimed for his distinctive visual style, which is recognized for its critical, satirical and subversive depiction of American culture.

The second work is by some guy from Minnesota. Note the choice of thick, Sharpie-like lines, requiring liberal use of tint to create faux texture (or should that be 'faux liberal use of tint, in place of texture'?), whereas Crumb's technique is more delicate, with thin lines and fine crosshatching.



The Minnesotan also borrowed or, charitably, was inspired by Crumb's thematic symbols: the electric socket performing the same function as a Third Eye, the rounded dental work, the demented stare of the dehumanized and, most noticeably, the radiating waves of--of what? In the Crumb piece those waves create an aura of Anger, an almost purposeful desire by the subject to reach out into the third dimension, grab the viewers by the throat, and subjugate them to the will of who or whatever is controlling him via the Third Eye.

In contrast the other subject is passive, in Receive mode. The waves might be heat, from the data/power cord. Or are they waves of anxiety? Or maybe it's literally radiation; she does look bluish. It's hard to say. And why is it that, of these two zombie characters, the Minnesotan chooses to depict the female as a blank-eyed "mind-slave"? Whereas in the male's eyes Crumb still allowed a glimmer of awareness and purpose (albeit not likely the character's own)?

So what do you think? Is the Minnesota guy ripping off Crumb's style? Or is it derivative, what Hollywood would term an "homage"? Is his work Freudian? Rorschachian?

Or is it just plain "crumb-y"?



gPRT
Ken Avidor is like art--I know it when I see it

...Same Bat-channel!

What would happen if Ken Avidor borrowed the formats of popular mainstream TV shows? Get out your remote controls and journey with me through that scary alternate reality:

"The Antiques Loadshow"

Ken: -This is an interesting piece, an ornate chest-of-drawers.
Woman: Yes, it's been in my family for several generations.
Ken: There must be a fascinating story behind it.
Woman: My great-grandmother worked for J.P. Morgan, this was in her room in the servant quarters. When she married, she was given it.
Ken: So you're saying she worked for J.P. Morgan, the department store founder?
Woman: I think you mean J.C. Penney-
Ken: And that she was his mistress or something?
Woman: She was his housekeeper!
Ken: I bet she 'kept house' all right. So what did this concubine do to earn this remarkable $25,000 Stickley mirrored dresser?
Woman: Wow, I can retire!
Ken: Whatever. It's made out of wood from the endangered frandle tree—but you already knew that, didn't you, you pro-corporate, anti-environment—

*click*

"Irony Chef"

Chairman: -the ingredient in today's battle is: Context!
Fukui: Yes, the competitors must compete over the most accurate use of Context. Let's go down to the floor. The challenger looks like he's beginning by- what's that he's doing?
Hattori: It looks like he's using the Internet to research facts.
Ohta: Fukui-san?
Fukui: Go ahead.
Ohta: The challenger is indeed using the Internet. He's using Google, and reading multiple sources. Also, he has emailed original sources seeking background.
Fukui: Interesting. Let's go over to the other side, where Irony Chef Avidor is- WHOA, what is THAT he's opening?
Hattori: I don't know what's in that container, but it really stinks—

*click*

"Ken Eye For the Urban Planning Guy"

Ted Allen: -and so that's how a restaurant district is properly prepared.
Planner: Wow.
Ted: Now I'm going to hand you off to Ken Avidor, who is going to show you some transit alternatives.
Ken: C'mon, lil peanut!
[they run three miles to a train station]
Planner: Man, that sure was a long way.
Ken: It doesn't matter, what counts is that this light rail train by Parsons Brinkckeralph Lauren is proven technology.
Planner: What train?
Ken: It'll be along in a few minutes.
Planner: Where are the other systems?
Ken: What other systems?
Planner: The other systems. Ted said you would show me alternatives, plural.
Ken: Look sweetie, what are you, some kind of loony pro-car cult scam artist? Now don't think about new paradigms, or Tom won't show you how to decorate your new cost overrun-
Planner: My WHAT?
Ken: Look what you've done, making me ruin the big surprise-

*click*

"The O'Avidor Factor"

Ken: Welcome back to the Factor. We're talking with PRT cult leader Ed Anderson-
Anderson: As I was saying, PRT is not a cult.
Ken: Well, we can agree to disagree.
Anderson: Not really.
Ken: There's two sides, two sets of facts-
Anderson: No, there can be two sets of opinions, but facts are facts.
Ken: Oh, that's real clever, Mister Macho-Man. You think you can come on this show and pass off your hokum-
Anderson: Over 30 years of independently verified hokum-
Ken: Shut UP! Shut. Your. Mouth! I HATE YOU! HATE, you hear me?! Turn off his mike-!
Anderson (to off camera): Ha! You owe me $20.
Ken: -you're banned, mister, BANNED from the Factor! Man. What a whacko. OK, now it's time for the No-Spin Zone, where I'll prove to you that nothing spins—record players, lazy Susans, roulette wheels, planet Earth, whatever! Everything must move back and forth on one line, like a train-

*click*

gPRT
Ken Avidor loses traction on wet metal

New Year, same old ***

Welcome to 2006, and to the second semester of "PRT Is a Joke Is a Joke"! It's bigger and Blogger, and hopefully less glitchy. Remember, you can still go to Version 1.0 to view archived posts and the Glossary. Meanwhile, Version 2.0 will continue to be just as funny and inciteful. So let's get on with it, shall we?

We notice that Ken Avidor is still clinging to his belief that ULTra is not really PRT, writing about the Dutch company 2getthere (which he continues to call FROG, which is 2gt's Free Ranging On Grid peoplemover navigation/control product):

FROG, does not... I repeat, does not describe any of its products as "PRT". Source

This is slightly different from his earlier claim that PRT isn't mentioned on 2gt's site, a claim which (among others) we have already debunked (see He leapFROGs to the wrong conclusion, Dec. 9).

Alas, this modified claim (Ken keeps moving those goalposts) is no more accurate. From 2getthere's own Cybercab page:

The Cybercab is ideally suited for internal transportation in resorts or on company estates. The vehicle can also serve in a PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) network in city centers. Source

He just makes my job so easy.

Again, Happy New Year!

P.S.- I have enabled commenting, so play nice and don't ruin it for everyone.