When cameras lie

tony g — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:11:57 GMT

my breath was taken away by the sheer meanness of mugshotdujour.com

When cameras lie

Peter Walsh — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:02:07 GMT

mugshots.com is a better indication of the society

When cameras lie

KRW — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:32:22 GMT

The best part of Mickey Kaus's comments on Obama's explanation are:

Obama never describes his own views as the products of anything except an accurate perception of reality... He presents himself as near omniscient, the Archimedian point from which everyone else's beliefs and behavior can be assessed and explained.

Though I would disagree that this observation is applicable more to Obama than many others, including at other times, Hillary. I actually think he is probably more a victim of this mentality than a perpetrator as Kaus portrays him. There is way too much of this sort of thinking in our higher education systems in this country. Getting paid for your observations of the other rats in the cage does not make you any less of a rat in a cage yourself.

When cameras lie

Richard, Dawsons Landing, BC, Canada — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:28:50 GMT

Accidents caused by cameras? What, they jump down and force the car behind to follow too closely? It seems that most people take driving lessons from the same place that Jeff Bridges did in Starman. "green means go, red means stop, yellow means speed up"

Got new for you. Yellow (amber) means STOP - unless unsafe to do so. Red means STOP no matter what. It is not the driver that spikes the air at a yellow that causes accidents, it is the driver behind who wants to run that yellow light.

When cameras lie

Sean, NY — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:17 GMT

Re: red light cameras, I think the problem is people panic-stopping because they aren't sure if they will make the light. I know occasionally I get caught unsure if the yellow will give me enough time to pass the intersection and the only option aside from going through it and hoping is to come to an unreasonably sharp stop.

I wonder just how many accidents really happen because someone passes through a light one second after it turns red - BEFORE the crosstraffic even gets its green. I think these cameras are primarily about boosting revenue in a way that makes those opposed to them seem indifferent to human life, a variation on "think of the children".

The cameras (if they must be used) should be set to activate with the crosstraffic green light (1/2 to 1 second delay there), not the drivers red light. That won't be done though because it would cut too sharply into the revenue generated from them.

When cameras lie

Michael B, Norman, OK — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:06:08 GMT

"Obama never describes his own views as the products of anything except an accurate perception of reality... He presents himself as near omniscient, the Archimedian point from which everyone else's beliefs and behavior can be assessed and explained."

Kaus could be described in exactly the same words...

When cameras lie

Justin Ritmiller — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:52:33 GMT

re: Rye Rye
Classic B-more club track. Looping a short vocal backed by a minimal bass and drum track. Been around since the later 80's and really broke out in the early 90's with "Doo-Doo Brown". Still going strong in the downtown clubs.

When cameras lie

Johnny Photon, near Indianapolis, IN — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:35:05 GMT

That comment about security cameras reminded me of a time a friend of mine gave me a disk with footage of someone slashing tires where he worked. He hoped I could enhance the images. The footage looked like one of those bigfoot videos. It could have been bigfoot for all I could tell.

When cameras lie

Jason, NYC — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:53:06 GMT

10335 on Pongout.

When cameras lie

Dan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:06:30 GMT

The problem with red lights began when someone had the bright idea of increasing the 'safe' time for drivers to beat the traffic, even thought the light was red. Humans are incredibly adept at gaming systems, and soon found out that there was a no real need to slam on the brakes for a red light, because the other drivers didn't get a green light until a second or so after your light turned red.

This time period has been creeping up for a long time. It's now common at large, multi-lane intersections to find a several-second period when everybody's light is red. In my opinion, inattentive drivers have become acclimated to this safe period, and count on it as part of their driving paradigm.

What I believe is happening with red light cameras, is that when the timing of the lights is changed, and certainly when the timing is different at various intersections, it interrupts the driving paradigm, and causes mistakes in judgement.

Personally, I believe there should be a yellow light in both directions. The drivers switching from red to yellow (then to green) would quickly learn to look both ways when the light turned yellow, and safety and driver awareness would be enhanced. This would also allow for red light cameras in both directions....

When cameras lie

Matt, Waldort, MD — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:46:41 GMT

I went a couple of clicks deeper into the water purifier link...

Kamen has developed a Stirling Engine generator that powers the distiller with its excess heat while also providing electricity. The beauty of it is that the fuel can be anything that burns, including cow poop (seriously).

When cameras lie

Patrick, Chicago, IL — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:11:25 GMT

On the Kamen purifier, here's a Newsweek article that talks about how it works, pricing possibilities, etc. (Try and ignore the glaring typo in the sub-headline)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/130735?from=rss

When cameras lie

Bill, Hobe Sound, FL — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:32:13 GMT

Red Light Issues:

Back in the 1960's I lived in Memphis TN. The counsel decided that because many people when seeing an amber light were stepping on the gas to get through it (true), rather than stopping for the light as they should made a change. They made the amber light less than a second. Great idea .. ya think?? Of course not, this move meant that it was impossible to clear the intersection driving at the speed limit without violating the law when the signal changed. Also not enough time to stop safely.

This lasted only a few months and they decided to put the amber time back to normal and delay the green signal on the crossroad by about 1-2 seconds.
This worked much better.

The idea of putting the amber light on on the cross street is also bad. Back in the 60s I was in Booneville, MS to attend a funeral of one of my dad's relitives. This small city had probably some of the oldest traffic signals I had seen.

These signals apparantly had only THREE total lamps in them. On one side Red was on the top, and on the cross street Red was on the bottom. Amber was on in all four directions when the light changed. The problem was that the drivers waiting for Green would actually start through the intersection on amber!

For this reason I think that four way amber is a bad idea.

Solution: Leave Amber times long enough to clear the intersection at the speed lmit. Include the four way Red for a reasonable time. Let the cameras click. Issue tickets for violators. With the amber signal correctly set, anyone who rear ends people that stop is tailgating or disregarding the signal.

If this hurts the revenue stream, I am sorry. This SHOULD be about safety rather than ticket revenue.