Michele Bachmann is...

Greg, when can we expect you to remember you're supposed to be running a science blog?

Don't. Tell. Me. How. To. Blog. Alan.

But in fact, I'm looking forward to a transition to doing more science. But this has never, ever been a non-political blog.

Keep in mind that my political blogging is almost all about activism, and I'm a Franken supporter in Minnesota. So, the election for us does not end just because the sun sets on Tuesday.

Science is culture.

Alan, didn't you see my numbers earlier? You know, mathy-investigative-sampling-and-sorting-stuff-in-quasi-columns? You can go to the MN Sec. of State's website and replicate the experiment, if you're feeling more monkey than punky. Go Franken!

Not to mention that culture is not immune to being studied scientifically, nor should it be.

Alan, go get stinking drunk and kick something (inanimate) repeatedly. You'll feel much better about the election results when you're done. Or at least you'll be distracted.

Who is stopping you from celebrating Obama's win?

I am grateful that Greg Laden has devoted some of his blog posts to Michele Bachmann.

It's unfortunate that we have to blog about her bizarre antics more often than her war on reason and science.

I began blogging about Bachmann years ago because she promoted a controversial, faith-based monorail-like transportation concept called Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).

Sadly, I found most science geeks were just as pie-eyed with PRT as Bachmann was.

Heck, even the U of M got taken in by the PRT hucksters.... sort of the Piltdown Man of transportation technology.

The PRT movement is nearly dead here in MInnesota, but Bachmann still continues her crusade to establish a theocracy. If Galileo were alive and living in MInnesota, I imagine he would have a blog with a more than a few posts about Michele Bachmann.

Maybe he'd post some wacky videos like this video.

a controversial, faith-based monorail-like transportation concept called Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).

Is that like wishing yourself to someplace else,and when the wishing fails,taking the train?

I had no idea PRT was faith based! the one person I knew who promoted Zimmerman) was not a faith guy at all, as far a I know. Why is it faith based?

The idea is kinda passe now, though.

clinteas: I think it was base don a giant overhead erector set kind of thing that you'd hook up to and it would drag you around.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#27600886

Paul, yea, I got it this AM and put it up . Thanks, though!

"Why is PRT faith-based?

1) Like the concept of God, PRT does not exist. There are always a few PRT projects "in the works" or "on the drawing board", but what you don't tell you about are the dozens of PRT projects that have failed over the years, costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars that could have been spent on reality-based transit.

2) PRT has a small, fanatical following that insists that PRT exists and has stats all over the internet "proving" PRT is superior to conventional transit modes . If you present evidence that PRT doesn't exist and their stats are invalid, they have a million excuses... like creationists, PRTistas are moving the goal-posts constantly.

3) Reputable, peer-reviewed literature either ignores PRT or dismisses PRT as "infeasible".

4) Wikipedia has an entry on PRT written by PRTistas. The Encyclopedia Britannica has no entry on PRT.

5) The mainstream media rarely investigates PRT claims such as being able to build a PRT system with a robot.

6) The Darwin-deprived Discovery Institute.
promoted PRT.

7) Michele Bachmann and Rep. Mark Olson were virulent opponents of reality-based transit, but wrote legislation for PRT and both promoted PRT in the media.

8) Zimmermann is a convicted felon who attempted to scam an FBI witness with PRT. He worked closely with Rep. Mark Olson promoting PRT at the Capitol and Mpls City Hall.

9) Even if the PRT concept was feasible, it would encounter tall regulatory hurdles... chief among them would be environmental rules against visual pollution in historic and scenic areas... you're not going to see a monorail structure going down Summit Avenue in Saint Paul or snaking up the North Shore to the Split Rock Lighthouse.

10) Two grass-roots organizations in Minnesota that advocate for transit, The Sierra Club North Star Chapter and Transit for Livable Communities both have resolutions on their websites opposing public funding of PRT.

Learn more at the PRT is a Joke website.

Ken Avidor is associated with lightrailnow.com. Lightrailnow.com is a lobbying website funded by transit corporate rail construction interests which would be threatened by PRT deployment. When Ken bashes PRT, he protects his friends' bottom lines.

The only thing faith-based here is Avidor's rhetoric. Heathrow Airport has constructed a pilot system and will deploy it next year, with future expansions planned throughout the airport and to surrounding neighborhoods:

Guardian Heathrow article

The ambitious Masdar City project in the UAE is pure PRT and car-free. PRT service is expected to begin next year:

Masdar City

Masdar project partners include Foster & Partners, MIT, and C2HM Hill. C2HM Hill is also working on the multi-billion-dollar Panama Canal expansion - ask Ken if that is also "faith based".

Daventry, UK, is planning a PRT system, with another major consulting player, SKM, managing that effort:

SKM Report for Daventry

Sweden and Poland are planning systems, with a dozen communities in Sweden planning to have PRT installed by 2020:

Swedish and Polish PRT

So you can believe the words of MIT, Foster & Partners, 2 major international consulting firms C2HM Hill and SKM, and thousands of researchers and professionals across the globe. Or you can believe a single guy with ties to lobbyists for PRT's main competitor.

A.T.E. is my personal internet troll. He even keeps a blog about me.

A.T.E or ATren has an anger management problem.

Please ignore him.

PRT? WOW!
As tempted as I was at just leaving the above as my comment... because at first I was speechless... the more I thought about it,... I feel sorry for you guys. I live in San Francisco. So, obviously I've grown up with more than enough eccentric, krazy, sometimes seemingly out-of-this world behavior around me in my life.
But you guys have to deal with MICHELE BACHMANN !!! Like I said. I feel sorry for you guys!
p.s. Any chance I could trade you 4 conservatives from southern California for Senor Franken? 5 ???