Loosely Assembled

The driver of the art work Shared Propulsion Car was arrested by Toronto Police on October 25 on Queen Street West in Toronto. The revolutionary vehicle is an art work create by the just-announced winner of the 2007 Sobey Art Award Michel de Broin. It was made of a Buick Regal 1986 body stripped of its engine, suspension, transmission and electrical system and propels by the will to power of its passenger. The vehicle retains the illusion of the mass-produced luxury automobile, but is now reduced to a shell with a top speed of 15km per hour. This unique car needs no petrol, produce no toxic emission and is not responsible for the innocents people killed for petrol in the Middle East. Furthermore, in this individualist society, this convivial car was proposed as a good solution to bring people together and take over the street. Dean Baldwin an experience driver, took the steering wheel and with his fellows Elaine, Dave and Dan drove the car carefully on the street. The reaction of the public was enthusiasm, solidarity and sympathy. They drove 9 blocks (from Lisgar to Strachan) before being pulled over by the police.

The driver and passengers were left to wait for 30 minutes in the car while we suspect the cops tried to determine which exact law was broken. They settled on “operating an unsafe vehicle” and a tow-truck was called.

We believe there is noting in the law against this car, the problem is only in the perceptions: police can’t accept a car to be modified and to be moving without petrol. They gave the driver an order to appear before a judge on the 21 of November. The problem for the court will be to argue that the Shared Propulsion Car can be dangerous while we all know that the danger remains in the use of petrol car. It is rather the other car that are obviously dangerous. We believe the court is taking a big risk of bringing our car to spotlight. It is always striking when art become politic and win its right publicly. Our Plan is to tow the car to the courthouse, win our cause and then be able to drive the car freely on the street of Toronto.

watch the video

Hazard: The powder in the kit marked “plaster of paris” is actually calcium hydroxide, which poses a risk of skin and eye irritation to children using the product.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08298.html

Safety and security is not only about fencing and locking a site or building. It’s also about measures to detect and ban unwanted individuals form certain areas. Philips is now offering an innovative technology to dispel humans (and also animals) from an area where they are unwanted. The new and patented dispelling light source (DLS) concept is based on disturbance of humans and/or animals using photosensitive stimuli. When switching a DLS system to the specifically programmed flickering mode, it directly induces negative psychological and/or physiological effects like e.g. aversion, discomfort, dazzling, disorientation, fear or malaise. As a direct result, humans and/or animals will be dispelled from the site. Proper selection of the flicker frequency avoids triggering of photosensitive epilepsy.

I predict a new nightlife subculture sprouting up around this “dazzling & disorientation” effect?

via yet2

Another terrible recall story: Flotation Tank Electrocution Hazard

i know it’s not new news, but still utterly disappointing

those white clinical looking earbuds have reproductive health issues

I smell something!

EPA Refuses to Turn Over All Greenhouse Gas Documents: “The EPA refuses to provide lawmakers with a full explanation of why it rejected California’s greenhouse gas regulations, saying that many of the requested documents contain internal deliberations or attorney-client communications it will not share with Congress.

(Via Wired News.)

Today, the Supreme Court will hear administration lawyers defend the indefensible: that the President can ignore the writ of habeas corpus and hold people indefinitely, without charge and without question.

The hearing challenges the administration’s attacks on our system of justice and the assertion that fear, not freedom, guides our country. The outcome could mark a significant shift back to our founding values of truth, justice and liberty.

As four Supreme Court Justices put it,

“[I]if this Nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny.”

Last night in SF my kids, wife and I witnessed a hit & run (a first for all of us). It was pretty intense, as it was a crowded area, involved lots of squeeling tires, and we had to literally rush out of the street to avoid being hit by the fleeing man in his white Ford pickup. I was searching around online to see if i could find any news about it, (couldn’t) but came to a terrible realization, hit and runs are way too common! On a simple google news search for the exact phrase “hit and run” i get 6,432 results for articles published in the last 24 hours. That means about 268 articles PER HOUR are published throughout this country about hit and runs. (i’m assuming there hasn’t just been a sudden upswing today).

The details of our experience barely even warrant a retelling, but what the hell. We were crossing the street near castro and 25th around 7pm, it was dark, there were lots of people out, several cars double parked on castro while people dashed in and out of shops doing errands. All of a sudden a mid sized white pickup comes ripping around the corner a block up the hill from us, revving the engine in a way that can only be described as reckless, the truck headed directly for one of the double parked cars, then suddenly (as if realizing he was about to rear end something) the driver slams on the brakes, goes into a sideways skid and crunches heartily into the back of this parked car. The engine dies. Everyone turns their heads, people come out onto their fire escapes and balconies, people come out the shops. Then we hear the truck start his engine back up again, it takes him 2 tries to get his truck unhooked from the rear bumper of this poor vehicles (going forward then back again) and he floors it again, this time right towards us (we are still slowly dragging the 2 kids along), we quickly get up onto the sidewalk and i whip out my camera to snap the trucks plates as it passes, but it doesn’t have one (on the rear). We turn back towards the scene to see a woman getting out of the car, and her companion coming out of the video store to meet her. A crowd gathers, police are called, many pitch in their version of the description of the truck and driver, we do as well. Then we spend the drive back to Caterina’s answereing questions about driving, crashes, jail, laws, licenses, mean people, irresponsible actions, and related ephemera.

The truck was a mid sized white FORD pickup (red logo on the back) driven by a shaved headed or bald man at least in his 30’s or 40’s wearing dark eyeglasses. The truck had no rear plate, and as i recall, no rear bumper either. The damage of a side impact would be found on the passenger side of the truck right about mid-vehicle. If you live in SF, keep your eyes peeled :)

In terms of my previous post about a car free portland, this stunning numerical realization just emphasizes the multifaceted inherent dangers of an auto-centric environment that we all just take for granted, accept, as if we didn’t have a choice, as if there were no other options.

(this is not a picture of the actual vehicle)

Banned Book Week

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2007, marks BBW’s 26th anniversary (September 29 through October 6).

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

So, i’m a bit early promoting this, but if not now, i’ll simply forget it

Aaron Patterson, FREE AARON PATTERSON, the name was wholly unfamiliar till i read his amazing, depressing, heroic, inspiring, nightmarish, true story in The Liberator.

Here is a tiny chunk to get you started:

One of the most chilling parts about Patterson’s experience is the message he etched into a bench while in police custody. Using a paperclip, Patterson’s message reeks with desperation and fear: “Aaron 4/30 I lie about murders. Police threaten me with violence. Slapped and suffocated me with plastic. No lawyer or dad. No phone. Signed false statement to murders.” (Ironically, the message would remain in the bench close to 20 years later and would help to further prove that Patterson was, in fact, tortured).

He gets sent to death row.

But… after 17 years, Illinois Governor George Ryan realizes that the Chicago Police, and especially a Vietnam War Military Cop cum Chicago PD named Jon Burge, had routinely and systematically used straight up torture to solicit false confessions from suspects, so the Guv pardons 4 of the victims, Aaron Patterson included. Jon Burge is also fired (but with full benefits and pension still intact).

Patterson gears up and gets political, fighting, as anyone would, against the broken and corrupt system that screwed him over so hard, and reaching back to help those still stuck within it’s horrific grip.

The established order, run by children of some of Chicago’s gangster legends, just wasn’t having it. Aaron Patterson was arrested for: attempt to purchase weapons and narcotics from an undercover informant. But this ‘informant’ is Mario Fox, a cocaine offender who may have been released from prison to concoct the story about Patterson. Apparently the testimony is all here-say.

So, Aaron Patterson’s sentencing hearing is in 4 days! (July 20th, 2007). If his story moves you, if you are interested in, terrified by, fed up with, or stridently fighting police brutality, and would like to help in some way you can and should

• Spread the word, call the press, blog the story, show up in Chicago, tell people who tell people.
• Get in touch directly with the POCC.
• Send Support Letters TODAY (they must arrive in Chicago BEFORE July 20th):
  
  P.O. Box 368255
  
  Chicago, IL 60636
• Write to Aaron Patterson directly,
  Aaron Patterson
  
  ID # 21664424
  
  Metropolitan Correctional Center
  
  71 West Van Buren
  
  Chicago, IL 60605