More Perfect, except for...

MorePerfect.org (as in "a more perfect union") is a new, Wiki-based venue for getting people involved in thinking and writing about civic affairs, whether in their community, city, region, state, or at the national level.

A new article has popped up on MP. It's titled "Personal Rapid Transit," but the sub header is "Personal Rapid Transit is still a techno dream." Now who do you suppose wrote that? And not for the first time.

Now why would he do that, take the provocative step of going to a new citizenship-promoting website and post his retread propaganda? Do you suppose it might have anything to do with the fact that some of the people who have posted on MorePerfect happen to also be supporters of PRT? And what have they been writing about, if not PRT? The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Hold on a sec! The Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment, is what allows the free discussion of PRT in the first place! Guess that means the Bill of Rights is part of the Minnesota anti-PRT activist's shadowy anti-transit cabal: the auto industry, the highway lobby, Sen. Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater, MN)--and the Bill of Rights.

I can't wait to read Avidor's new blog, "Dump The Bill of Rights".


Update: MP has seen fit to delete Ken's offending "article."


gPRT

Crikey! (Reach out and touch someone)

"European researchers have conducted extensive analysis of PRT and see substantial benefits, calling urgently for a pilot project. Ken Avidor, closed to such views, told me on the phone "Fuck you" and hung up." Source

Here is Larry Fabian's account of his Crocodile Hunter-like encounter with the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist:

"My attempt to email the recent EU report on PRT to Avidor failed. I rechecked his website and saw that I had entered it as listed. So I googled him and found a phone number and called. I don't recall what time it was. To some people dinner time is 5pm. To others, it's 8. His website and the style of his cartoons don't give one the impression that he runs a 9-5 shop.

I simply asked for Ken Avidor (although somewhere I saw that he has used Ken Weiner as well...). He answered, "Speaking." I explained very politely that I'd tried to email him a European report on PRT. His initial reaction was something like "Don't bother." He asked who I was and I gave my name. He immediately associated me with ATRA and started about how "you guys" had tried to derail the Minn. LRT. I recalled that ATRA had never a position on that, but he went on that Mark Olson had read something by ATRA to the state legislature -- a sign of rather unclear thinking, I believe.

When I again brought up the EU report, he remarked that you guys "buy" these reports -- oh! if only "us guys" had such deep pockets, half as deep as the LRT crowd would be appreciated! Pointing out that planning and research stand on higher ground in Europe -- had he heard of that place? -- he blurted out "Fuck you!" and hung up."

Previously: Black & white and red-in-the-face all over (9/7/05)
Update: he wonders why SkyTran won't talk to him: 1, 2 !

gPRT
Ken Avidor is steel box frames... kind of resistant to bending

SPQR

Coming Soon to: The History Channel--

"Graffiti Murals of Ancient Rome"!

Voice Over: Think tagging is a modern urban phenomenon? Well think again! Smart Person: It turns out that even in ancient Rome, there were artists and political rabblerousers writing their thoughts on walls, usually in the dead of night. V.O.: A time when new ideas brought strange reactions! Smart Person: Look at this reconstructed pillar. The Latin graffiti is signed "Exclamatorum Asteriskus Maximus, the Aqueduct Skeptic." It reads: "Aqueducts are a joke! They are rivers in the air--impossible! It is naught but Pie In The Sky!" And this: "The people of Rome want to get their water in ditches in the ground! Ditches are PROVEN technology from before the Etruscans! Support ditchdiggers and say no to aqueducts!" Or this: "It will leak! Don't get dripped on by the rivers in the air!" And finally this beautiful mural from a public bath newly unearthed in southern France: the motto reads "Stop Julius Caesar and the Bogus Aqueduct Scam," and it's next to a drawing of Caesar's wife's head on an aqueduct. V.O.: Don't miss: "Graffiti Murals of Ancient Rome." Friday at 8, 7 Central, an exclusive presentation of--the History Channel!

gPRT
Veni, vidi, Ken Avidor

Mock Journalist

Regular readers of "PRT Is a Joke Is a Joke" and gPRT's See How They Distort Library are well acquainted with Avidor's record, in terms of his accuracy. He hits his target about as well as Dick Cheney on a quail hunt.

Some readers may be aware that for the last few months Ken has been on the masthead of a certain Minnesota news-site that focuses on local affairs. Mr. Avidor the anti-PRT activist is listed as Transportation Editor.

(We will continue this post as soon as everyone in cyberspace stops laughing.)
In May he posted a story about Personal Rapid Transit, tagged "Special." Which gives one pause: how can an article be a "Special" if it recapitulates inaccurate, disproven, irrelevant and moot things he's been repeating for the last 3 years?

Maybe he means "special" as in "well isn't that special," or "a very special episode of".

And if, as he asserts, PRT has had repeated setbacks over the years, why is THIS year the end of the era? Why not years ago? Why not last year? Oh wait, it was.

Anywho— turning to his latest thrust- er, stab at non-PRT journalism (another "Special"), "Shortage of parking at the Midtown Exchange disappoints bicyclists" (7/5)—what the heck kind of reportage is that supposed to be? It reads like a letter TO an editor, not a story BY an "editor." Content-wise it fails to do what journalists do—ask basic questions:

"On new projects, such as the new downtown library, only a bare minimum of racks are being installed." How many is that, under the building code? Which other projects?

[photo]"Bicyclist struggles to find a place to park her bike." What's her name? Where is she from? Is she "disappointed"? (Did she sign a release? Where's her helmet?)

"We expected to be able to park our bikes on the Greenway and walk easily to the Midtown Exchange." What led them to expect this?

"We were shocked to find that there was only a single bike hitch. There were dozens of bicycles locked to trees, railings and to one another." Why is the use of railings and trees unacceptable? Those have been longstanding resources for cyclists. Who were the people with bikes locked together? Were they traveling together? So what did it matter?

"We asked a representative of the developer why there was such a disregard for the needs of bicyclists and he said it was the city's responsibility to provide bicycle parking" Confrontational! Excellent interviewing technique. Did he ID himself as an official news "editor"? What was the name of the representative? Is it really the city's responsibility? What does the municipal code say?

"Many bicyclists have complained about the lack of parking" How many? To whom did they complain? What were some of their names and stories?

"Midtown Greenway Coalition is doing its best to encourage the city to install adequate bike parking on the Greenway." Who at the Coalition said this? What form of encouragement? Why then the confrontational tone with the developer's rep? Why not confront the city? Did he call the city for comment? Why not confront the Coalition—has it been encouraging ENOUGH?

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Still good questions to ask, by anyone aspiring to do good reporting. Like this, for example.

Read Part Deux

Also today: "Moron Mail"
Don't Miss: his Four-Letter Reply (see third comment, 4:44 pm)
Plus: And do not disturb at feeding time (4th comment, 8:10 am)

gPRT
No Ken Avidor can be built or operated without subsidy

Have Video, Will Distort

My my, Mr. Avidor (the Minnesota anti-PRT activist who doesn't like it when his name isn't mentioned, so I don't [. Exactly]) has been busy. And now he has a video camera!

His latest best-est post (complete with blurry YouTube video) calls out Green Party senate candidate Michael Cavlan, who only wants probing questions asked about such things as the 9/11 Commission report and the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone. Oh, and he supports PRT:

I asked him if he is wiling to help me expose the PRT hoax that Dean Zimmermann, Michele Bachmann, Ray Vandeveer and Mark Olson have used as a stalking horse to stop LRT and commuter rail in Minnesota with the assistance of a highway industry [sic]. Cavlan asked me for proof. Here it is.... [ellipses in original] E-mails from the affidavits of the Taxi 2000 lawsuit Source

Talking Point Alert! All Cavlan needs to knock that one down is to go to "See His Answers Become Nonresponsive," at the See How They Distort Library. (BTW, by "a highway industry" he means SEH, the firm Short Elliott Hendrickson. This axis of evil also designs public buildings, houses of worship and transit facilities (among many other things), and actually gives more campaign donations to Democrats (Are you exsmearienced?, 12/1/05).)

It looks like Kenny-Boy is satisfied with the 9/11 Commission and Wellstone findings. Well he's the only liberal who is. Of real liberals, at any rate. Of course, Ken will believe you're a liberal if you just pose with a train (I'll take three wallet-sized, 6/20).


gPRT

Update (7/10): Reader "A" from Minnesota notes via e-mail that Cavlan is—

"...the only anti-war candidate. He also took part in the Ohio recount for the 2004 stolen election."

If he opposes the anti-war candidate, anti-PRT activist Ken Avidor must be pro-war, right? Not to mention in favor of Resmuglican election theft. —Ed.

Editor's Note: Apologies

It was with great regret that I learned today that !!! !!!!!!, the Minnesota anti-PRT activist who doesn't like it when his name isn't mentioned (so I don't), also doesn't like it when asterisks are used instead of his name.

I am deeply and sincerely sorry for this. As a progressive-thinking person who believes in the fundamental goodness of all human beings other than war criminals, Neoconservatives and advertising executives, I regret causing the gentleman in question even a moment of hurt or embarassment.

I hereby resolve to take the following corrective action. I will no longer spell his name with asterisks. Asterisks, after all, are used for footnotes, and I can see how that could be misinterpreted as demeaning. Instead, I will start using the exclamation point. Not only is the "!" more positive, it has the added advantage of being more in keeping with his loud, insistent and repetitive nature.

And so I say to Mr. !!!!!!—sorry man, no hard feelings, OK?

I also regret that Mr. !!!!!! found a recent copyrighted article at gPRT (Ed Anderson's new project, 7/2) to be too difficult to understand. I quote:

"Here comes some more techno-mumbo-jumbo"

Again, I am so, so sorry. It is never my intention to write over the heads of my readership. My only defense is that Debunking is hard work, and Comedy-Debunking doubley so.

Here is my offer— !!!, from now on any time you come across one of my pieces that is too hard for you to understand, send me an email about it. I will be happy to prepare for you a special easier-to-understand transcript! Wouldn't that be great? For example, here is an excerpt from the Anderson article, accompa- with an !!!!!!-friendly version:

Original	!!!-friendly
Anderson described his test track as a 409 x 632-foot oval with 2100 feet of elevated guideway, one large curve, two small curves, and a siding with station/maintenance building. Vehicles will test at speeds up to 35 mph in the large curve and deceleration to 20 mph in the small curves.	Anderson said his test track would be a big Tic-Tac shape! It will be up on stilts, with two small bendy parts and one large bendy part. A special house will be where people can get on and off the PRT cars, and where smart people can fix things. In the big bendy part the PRT cars will be able to go a lot faster than you can run, and almost that fast in the small bendy parts!

That's all for now— and Thanks, !!!, for the links!


gPRT
Another problem facing Ken Avidor is what might be called "system droppings"

Reductio * absurdum

Local Man Denounces Pedestrian Footbridges

A self-styled walking and biking advocate spoke out today against construction of Bike/Pedestrian Bridges anywhere in the Universe.

The man, a Minneapolis resident who said he didn't like it when media failed to publish his name, said he preferred crosswalks.

"These overpasses are pie in the sky, whereas crosswalks are proven," he said. "Overpass proponents try to make them sound like a good thing by calling them footbridges!!! But really they are just bashing crosswalks!!! Overpasses are nothing more than gadget-crossings, people want their feet firmly on the ground with everyone else--if only because it's symbolically egalitarian!!! If lifeforms want to cross the street safely, we should wave in a friendly manner and ask motorists to yield!!! They are, after all, our friends, neighbors and fellow-citizens!!!"

"Building overpasses would be a mistake," he continued. "Rain and snow will drip off them onto people below, and people walking across will be able to see into bedroom windows!!! It's nothing more than a stalking horse for the pro-drip, cheap-thrills industry!!!"

Asked if he was aware that people have curtains on their windows, he fumed that footbridges are safety nightmares. "Drunks will throw up on them, and young people will use them as places to drink, or have sex!!! And are we going to call out the hook-and-ladder every time someone gets stuck up there?"

He also raised an aesthetic and environmental concern. "Just ask people if they want the trees on their street cut down for overpasses!!!"

The man said he would soon be releasing a definitive 'overpass report,' including illustrations showing what a footbridge would look like with the head of Sen. Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater) Photoshopped onto it.


gPRT
Like a bridge over troubled Ken Avidor