Thursday 16:35 PDT

I just posted the following on one of Kennel Ration's YouTubers:

Oh Ken. Ken, Ken, Ken. The "not feasible" statement has been retracted by the Irvine Director of Public Works: "We regret any misunderstanding that may have resulted due to our characterization of the availability of PRT to meet the City's criteria". [ link ]

That's the truth. Delete this comment and you're suppressing it.

Let's see how long it takes for him to hit the Delete!

Answer (9/20): about two days!
You know who else puts out smears and repeats them even after they're exposed?



gPRT
Ken Avidor + Karl Rove = Ken McCainidor

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.

Mock Journalist, Part V - Bonehead Revisited

Remember the Ken Avidor-authored laff riot otherwise known as Was the ULTra test track bulldozed? Journey with me now to the days of yesteryear --

It was February 19, 2007, and Kennel Ration tried to use Google Maps to prove that the Cardiff test track had been removed. The ULTra website shows an aerial photo of the track, but Google Maps shows a vacant lot -- the track must be gone and ULTra a failure! was his line of reasoning. It didn't occur to Kenmore that the Google Maps photo might be -- oh, I don't know -- out of date?

I responded to him, also on February 19, with my own satirical take on his gaffe.

Have you tried our new information resource, The PRT-Centered Universe of...? In the course of doing research for it, I happened upon a posting to a Welsh message board:

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:20 am
Post subject: ULTra Cardiff Test Track... Bulldozed?
Does anyone know if the ULTra Test track at the end of Viking Ln is still there? [ellipsis in original]
Source

Now, over the years I have been critical of Vapidor's lame attempts at journalism, so it's good to see him, the ex-Transportation Editor of the Twin Cities Daily Planet, trying to ask questions, seeking the whole story.

Oh but wait -- notice the date. February 20 -- the day after his original blog post!¹

That wasn't a real reporter's question, it was Labridor desperately trying to get the 'proof' he should have tried to get before publishing the story! Which makes his 'story' a Lie.^®

1. Even accounting for time zones, 12:20am in Cardiff is 6:20pm in Minneapolis, and Kenwood's original blog post was at 10:11am.


gPRT
Ken Avidor got his tit caught in a big fat wringer

It's curtains for the propagandist

The obvious thing about Kiln Ovendoor's Talking Point about cutting down half the trees on the block is this:

Show of hands -- who doesn't have curtains or blinds on their bedroom windows?

Related: LA Times Steve Hymon blog

gPRT
She came in through the bathroom Ken Avidor

Rep. Bachmann gets a promotion

She's now Senator Bachmann. The jump-up is courtesy of Kennel Ration, the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist. Would I lie to you?

In Minnesota, the biggest supporters of PRT are the usual anti-rail transit suspects: Senator Michele Bachmann, Rep. Mark Olson (16b), Phil Krinkie.... and Dean Zimmermann [ellipses in original]. Source

Too bad no other Los Angeles Times readers know or care who Olson, Krinkie or Zimmermann are. People less concerned with Guilt By Association and more into finding additional transit alternatives probably care more that PRT has been endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund* and the EU.

Related: LA Times Steve Hymon blog

Also today: World Premiere!
New Feature!

* Click Skycab thumbnail

gPRT
Ken Avidor, the human cut and paste hot key

Missed it by THAT much

Post #200!

What is the margin of error for the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist? For instance, one of his 'proofs' that PRT is a hoax and a scam is that a felon proposed a PRT test track before he was a felon. Well, ATS proposed and built a test track in Wales, for a PRT system that is now under construction at Heathrow -- was that test track a scam too? Did ATS succeed in hoodwinking Cardiff County, the UK government and the EU into funding . . . . something that proved PRT works?

So no -- proposing a PRT test track does not prove PRT is a hoax or scam.

That's a pretty huge error though. Has Roadkill Bill International no Quality Control Division?

Here's another one, it comes from that golden age of anti-PRT propaganda known as 2004. It concerns this infamous piece of disinformation:


Truthtellers have long since debunked it based on what can actually be seen in the image. First, the 'ugly' guideway is the late-90s Raytheon version that was canceled years before Ovendoor created the image. Therefore, he was asking people to judge PRT on the basis of how it was not going to look.

Second, Wikipedia editors determined he was showing the guideway disproportionately large -- out of scale. Meaning he was asking people to judge PRT on the basis of how it was really not going to look!

Despite these truths he keeps on using this image. Hey Kenwood: repeating something over and over until the truth sinks in, catapulting the propaganda, doesn't make something true. Until now, the PRT community's counter-propaganda troops have relied on these facts to Fight The Photo.

But recently some additional facts emerged. Thanks to Google Maps and its Satellite and Street View functions, plus my experience in aerial photo interpretation, "PRT Is a Joke" IS A JOKE has determined that the photo was taken at the corner of 36th and S. Grand in Minneapolis. The business at left is a laundromat, and the one in the center is Present Moment Books & Herbs.

By itself, the location is immaterial. However if we look at what Labridor wrote about PRT and this particular location, it becomes yet another example of how you can't trust anything he puts out. Here's what he wrote in Wikipedia:

The illustration shows an actual PRT guideway (Raytheon) on an actual street in Minneapolis (where Dean Zimmermann and the CPRT propose to build a PRT system) Source

Now here's a map of said Zimmerman/CPRT proposal -- with a special enhancement!

Can you spot the enhancement? It's the Green Arrow. If you follow that arrow off the edge of the map and go another 3-and-a-half blocks, you'll come to 36th & Grand.

THAT'S RIGHT: Humidor was claiming Zimmerman/CPRT wanted to PRTify a place that no one was talking about PRTifying.

Kenjob should not take this as a total defeat though -- I've shown that Hippy Paradise is not in danger.

Recently: Leave your car at the Coliseum and take the PRT to campus (Morgantown)

gPRT
Ken Avidor is the world's longest underwater tunnel

The fibber's latest fibs

Bon jour gadgetbahners, I have indeed returned from a great holiday in France. So you can understand if I look down the list of the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist's smelly output of the past two weeks, and simply smile at how trivial it (and he) is.

Ken Avidor has been a busy boy though. For entertainment purposes, the most fruitful of his prating have got to be his contributions to the Action Alameda News blog. The blog about life in that San Francisco Bay Area community¹ had a post about Peter Calthorpe's pitch for redevelopment at Alameda Point (a, b; also here), and Avidor had to chime in with his usual Talking Points.

I'll skip over the old ones that have already been debunked, and focus on two interesting New Fibs. They are just as lame as New Coke.

1. Kenny-Boy wrote a letter to Action Alameda News, and signed it "Ken Avidor, Alameda." He lied so his smear job would gain the added legitimacy of local relevance. What do you call that -- a sock puppet address? But maybe he's really moved there! It's possible I guess. Advice: It's California, Kenwood, wear your sunscreen!

2. After his Minnesota residency is exposed by Atren, the Action Alameda author is intrigued enough to do a follow up. An interview with Ken is recounted, in which he talks about the origin of his PRT hatred:

...says that his opposition to PRT is rooted in his experience in 2004, watching the City of Minneapolis approve a study of a PRT system. Source

Interesting and moving, except for one thing: one of Kennel Ration's biggest claims to infamy, his seminal anti-PRT fearmongering cartoon, dates from April 23, 2003.

But wait -- on his own website, Kenwood wrote:

I first encountered the strange world of PRT in 1989, two years after I moved to Minneapolis from Manhattan. Source

C'mon Ken, which is it -- 1989, 2003, or 2004? Pick one and stick with it. Or are you doing that time-distortion thing you do so well???

Archives: He's ready for warmer climates in his Sonny Crockett blazer --

Related: Some of what I saw in France (@Viropop)



gPRT
Ken Avidor puts the IN in 'inaccuracy'
1. Hey Ken, have you picked up on the fact I was in the East Bay area in mid-July? Coincidence???