Reading is fundamental

And it still hasn't been mastered by Ken Avidor, the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist.

"Masdar Postponed" screams the headline of his post of earlier today. In his article, he writes that the launch of the Masdar PRT has been delayed. And yet what is in the article he quotes?

Masdar Postponed

The National:

Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Government’s clean energy firm, has discarded a 2016 final completion date for its signature US$22 billion (Dh80.8bn) development as the challenge of building a carbon neutral, zero-waste city has proved greater than first expected.

Masdar officials emphasise that the first phase of Masdar City will be finished by the original 2013 deadline. The rest of the development at the edge of the capital will emerge gradually over the ensuing decade as the company experiments with new technology, officials said.

Masdar PRT launch delayed, Heathrow PRT launch delayed (twice).

Why would elected officials want to waste taxpayers' dollars on these guys?

He doesn't read what he snips! Masdar (City) hasn't been postponed -- only the original completion date has been! Doesn't the on-time finish for Phase One count for anything?

And the PRT system isn't mentioned at all. I know Avidor lurks on the Transport-Innovators Google forum, so I know he knows that completion of the PRT is awaiting construction of the Masdar Institute of Science & Technology campus. Or does Ken think that the transit system should be up and running first, even if there is nothing to serve? Maybe in Sim City or Second Life, but not in real life.

Ken Avidor has an exacting standard: if a project -- even Masdar, a multibillion dollar test bed for a variety of new green energy technologies -- misses ONE deadline, it's a failure! Hey Ken, don't you know you flunk your own standard???

And ULTra? Tick-tock, Ken!

ALSO yesterday in The National:
The challenge that will keep changing

Abu Dhabi's Masdar initiative, one of the boldest attempts yet to revolutionise how we use energy, will confront a host of unforeseen challenges. And as we report today, Masdar has pushed back deadlines for when its zero-carbon city will be completed...
It is far better that Masdar confront these realities than push forward with the same plans in spite of them. Masdar, after all, is a venture into the unknown. The project will undoubtedly face a changing set of challenges. There can be no doubt, however, that Masdar must deliver. Its cause is critical for both Abu Dhabi and the world.

Masdar Institute under construction, late 2009
+

gPRT Er- Mork?

See him invent a new form of prejudice

Lately this little anti-anti-PRT war has been heating up, and the last couple days I've gotten really excited about it. Not only has Daily Kos been the scene of a whopping 50+ comment thread of funny, but yesterday Kenmore hinted at yet more hilarity to come:

I can always tell when something really embarrassing has occurred for the PRT guys when Mr. Gow tries to distract me with his silly comment spam.

Stay tuned.

by K*n A***** on Mon May 04, 2009 at 09:45:43 AM PDT

I had no idea what he could be fantasizing about. And today we found out: the Masdar PRT "is a joke" because torture occurs in Abu Dhabi.:

It turns out the PRT system is a joke... but what do expect from a country where a prominent royal family member tortures people [ellipsis in original]
Source

You can read for yourself* the really excellent comments by environmentalists who tore Kenwood a new asshole, so I won't do a recap here.

I do want to highlight a particularly distasteful -- yet amusing -- gaffe by Kennel Ration:

Don't believe greenwashing hype... there is no way that Masdar can be "sustainable"... it's in a desert. [ellipses in original]
Source

He's saying people of desert nations can't live in sustainable conditions. As I wrote in response, "the Mideast had desert cities long before Western colonialism, by their very existence they were sustainable."

Wow. You can't have a sustainable city "in a desert." What do you call that kind of prejudice: "Biome-centric"?

Update: we have achieved today's "whatever"!

Read the whole shebang at Daily Kos.

* I did, it was great to start the day with a big laff. Be sure not to miss:

• He gets Dubai mixed up with Abu Dhabi/Masdar
• Maybe to him they all look alike? Thermidor confuses Sheikh Issa ("BOOO! HISS!!!") bin Zayed Al Nahyan with Sheikh Mohammed ("YAY!!!") bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

gPRT
Ken Avidor OF ARABIA!

Propagandist lets loose with Cheney-like aim

The 2nd Podcar City Conference -- this time in Ithaca, New York -- has just concluded, which can mean only one thing: a Surge of anti-PRT propaganda from Kenthorpe Thermidor the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist.

If you get Google Alerts on PRT you've no doubt laffed at Kennel Ration's frantic, scattershot antics in the LA Times, Treehugger and the Cornell Sun. Therefore I won't do a detailed recitation here of his lame smears. Instead, I'll interpret (term from my museum NGO days) some of his Talking Points where they touch on broad PRT-related issues.

Hints of Dark Forces
"Who are the 'generous sponsors' funding this Podcar Conference?" he asks, linking to a page with no sponsor names at the website of conference organizer Podcar.org, the Institute of Sustainable Transportation (IST). In another example of his habitual or intentionally poor research, the list of sponsors is on a different page. The names on the list is further evidence of how PRT's support does not come from Dark Forces. The non-PRT sponsors are:

• SIKA, a think tank under the Swedish Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications
• Visit Ithaca, a tourism organization
• Cornell University
• Ithaca College Sustainability Program
• Eco Village at Ithaca
• Apricon, a Swedish project management firm
• Chemung Canal Trust of Elmira NY
• WNYY 1470AM Progressive Talk Radio
• NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
• Sustainable Tompkins
• Alternatives credit union
• C&S, a construction company with offices in seven states (four offices in New York)
• Ithaca Carshare
• Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, the Ithaca-area transit agency and a nonprofit company

Look at the number of progressive and/or environmental state and local organizations on the list! This is homegrown interest in PRT, not some outsider, top-down conspiracy -- which Kenwood claims when he alleges a shadowy "they" (unspecified) "were here in Minnesota four years ago." But IST was not in Minnesota in 2004; and Vectus PRT was not even on the map yet (POSCO didn't start it until 2005).

Rodiva also asks "Why are traditional transit organizations and professionals not participating?" -- well isn't TCAT, the Ithaca transit agency, 'traditional' enough for him?

Notice what group was not at the conference: the Discovery Institute. Fact: Discovery is trying to get Diesel Mobil Unit rail on King County's Eastside, which is a conventional rail technology!

Elitism
"Ithaca Podcar Conference Charging Students $60," reads another Kenweed headline. Ignoring that it's a professional conference renting the Historic State Theater, so costs must be recouped. And it must have been OK since Cornell is a sponsor (see above); the $60 student price was a $30 discount.

Implications of corruption
Kenmore has had this in his toolbox for a while. He trial-ballooned it when he tried to tie Ed Anderson to a conman in the Cabintaxi era, and later tried to make PRT part of the Zimmermann bribery case, though PRT was never part of the case. This time he has locked onto progressive sustainability activist Jake Roberts. Roberts is the host of the Podcar Conference, and because he recently had to step down as executive director of the Ithaca Festival, Kenwood hinted there must be some PRT responsibility. Except that was a cheap and empty smear: I found out (by reading Ithaca news for 5 minutes) that PRT had nothing to do with the Festival's fiscal problems, and corruption isn't even at issue. The organization was simply overextended.

Selective attention"Debbie Cook does not appear at the Ithaca Podcar Conference," screams the headline at the Dump Mark Olson blog (motto: No one posts comments since I banned Mr_Grant and A Transportation Enthusiast). "Congressional candidate Debbie Cook will not appear at the Podcar Conference as the Podcar website claimed," writes the Louella Parsons of the Luddites, trying to claim the Conference is "a bust." While it is mildly disappointing Cook chose to appear by video, I am encouraged that she chose to stay home to campaign against Dana Rohrbacher and have a presence in Ithaca. It's the New Millennium -- Cook telecommuted.

And like we did above with the list of organizations, let's look at the prominent individuals who were at the conference:

• Councilman Gus Ayer, California (D)
• Councilman Ed Porter, California (GP)
• Mayor Carolyn Peterson, Ithaca (D)
• U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, New York (D-22)

Liberals! Progressives! They were all there, and one can only assume that Amnesidor simply forgot to mention Rep. Hinchey (who only sits on Appropriations). Because their participation is more evidence PRT is not a right wing plot -- that Talking Point is effectively dead*: Peterson is well-known as an environmentalist, and even declared a Grateful Dead Day for god sake.

Add to the list officials who are participating in PRT in some way, such as John Garamendi (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) -- the last two enthusiastic about Masdar -- and we can say that PRT-friendly liberals not only outnumber Michele Bachmann and Mark Olson (neither of whom were in attendance in Ithaca)...

We can also say the liberals are more effective about PRT. When was the last time Bachmann or Olson did anything effective for PRT? Or even attend a PRT conference? Hinchey speaks of a new federal transportation bill that includes PRT -- why hasn't Bachmann done that? Why didn't the Resmuglicans propose PRT bills in all the years they controlled Congress?

Supporters are the ones who do things. Progressives, environmentalists and community-based groups are the ones who are organizing behind PRT, who are doing.



*Although that doesn't mean it won't rise again, zombie-like

gPRT
Tick-tock, Ken Avidor. Tick-tock.

Dave Pelton gets Greenhouse Gas on my Chocolate

The Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist apparently thinks a scientifically-validated concept becomes invalid if a Resmuglican seems to support it.

Yes, even though Personal Rapid Transit has been vetted by the likes of the European Union, Foster+Partners, the World Wildlife Fund, and engineering firms involved in the zero-carbon Masdar City project, one cartoonist thinks that the indirect involvement of one little Resmuglican, Dave Pelton (who?), proves PRT is "a flim-flam."

"Flim-flam," even though a PRT is being built at Heathrow, even though another one is likely about to be safety-certified by Sweden, and even though a successful demonstration of PRT principles has been safely operating at West Virginia University for over 30 years.

Of course, Kiln Ovendoor's argument about PRT and Pelton (again -- who?) seems so liberal, so progressive, all dressed up in Daily Kos's orange livery and with a photo of Pelton with Sleepy Thompson.

It's the same old cooties fallacy -- we hate X. X favors Y. Therefore we must hate Y. Such an argument is a false construction; to return to a previous analogy, it's like saying environmentalism is fascist because Hitler liked animals.

Let's turn it around. Ahem: oh, Kenwood? I've been seeing print and TV ads of strange political bedfellows actually agreeing something must be done about climate change. Someone has appealed to certain Resmuglicans to get their cooties on the anti-global warming movement.

This person has induced Al Sharpton to sit down with Pat Robertson; Nancy Pelosi to associate with Newt Gingrich.

Who has perpetrated these acts of environmental bipartisanship? Al Gore.

Come on, Labridor! Where is your attack on Gore? You know, I heard Gore has a big inefficient house! And he flies places -- in an airplane. Yeah, Kenmore -- when are you going to give the real 43rd President the Dave Pelton Treatment?

* * *

By the way -- congratulations to Daily Kos, the new home base for the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist's hilarious anti-innovation smear campaign.



gPRT
Ken Avidor is an inconvenient falsehood

What does it really want?

For years now this thing, this Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist, has been spreading its clumsy, obviously false claims, rumors and smears about advanced transit technology and the people who support it.

The image portrayed is anti-car -- and by association the crusade is progressive and environmental. Personal Rapid Transit is, it repeats with great conviction but zero evidence, is a pro-car stalking horse.

But the crusade contains some contradictions pointing to some interesting clues about how thin that anti-car image really is. Go back a few years and you'll find a cartoon chiding NPR's Car Talk -- even though one of the hosts doesn't even own a car.

Every instance where it huffs its way around an auto exhibition like an imam at a fashion show is canceled out by something else -- support for pro-highway, pro-gun, anti-choice, anti-marriage-equality 'Democrat' Elwyn Tinklenberg, for example.

It trumpets the Northstar Sierra Club resolution against PRT funding, but calls the World Wildlife Fund-advised Masdar City with its planned PRT network "just a lot of hype."

Which raises another contradiction. The plan is to ban cars inside Masdar City, with buildings separated by 10 foot wide pedestrian streets. There will only be intercity light rail, internal PRT, and encouragement of bicycles and walking.

In other words, Masdar effectively makes all motorized passenger transportation PUBLIC. You would think the propagandist would be all for it. Ask yourself why it's not.


gPRT
Ken Avidor puts the dor in dork

World Wide Webding a ling

The Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist has had a busy few days.

1. Head over to his Minneapolis Confidential blog (Motto: “Comments on this blog are restricted to team members”) and enjoy a new video bearing all the Labridor hallmarks:

• Statements framed in the form of a question
• High pitched jittery voice
• Low-angle jittery camerawork

I think he's trying to say that the FBI would never, ever, ever, EVER frame anyone.

Update: more pointless questions, jittery camera work (5/29)

2. Repeating some of his same old propaganda points on Daily Kos (he's still using the air conditioning lie), and pretending the entire transit world revolves around the Twin Cities.
Notable quotables in the Comments. First up:

"...to extend [PRT] to the entire Twin Cities metro area, the cost would be in the trillions of dollars. "

“Trillions”! The U.S. Gross National Product is ‘only’ about $10-11 trillion. Maybe he meant ‘bazillions.’ Next:

"The so-called carbon-neutral city "Masdar" you've been reading about is just a lot of hype." [Don't tell World Wildlife Fund! -Ed.]

Gosh, remember the time he said "there is no PRT project at London's Heathrow airport"?

Photo: JohnPP (Flickr)

PRT guideway under the car ramps at Heathrow. Photo: JohnPP (Flickr)
Heathrow ULTra pod on guideway. Photo: Artofthestate (Flickr)

Also: One supposes Cartoonboy must be smarter than all the stupid engineers involved in Masdar -- NPR, May 5 and May 6.
Prediction: he'll call this a "puff piece"

Will he cancel his National Geographic subscription?

Pandas must be gadgetbahners!

gPRT
Ken Avidor's motto: I Am Curious Yellow Journalist