How About An Electronic Message Badge?
There are certain things that really annoy me as I walk around London and other places. I usually just want to get about my business in the quickest way possible.
- Perhaps the biggest annoyance, especially at the Angel is chuggers or charity muggers. I support various charities, but I won’t support one that uses chuggers. Many incidentally are ones, that C or myself have supported in the past. I don’t support them now! I can’t be the only person who feels this way and I do wonder whether using chuggers has proved unprofitable for some charities.
- And then there are shops, like W H Smith,that constantly offer me offers I don’t want. Most seem to be for chocolate based snacks or fast food, that I can’t eat as I’m a coeliac. Some assistants are so persistent, I only seem to be able to shut them up by being rude.
- The real annoyance are obese smokers, who block the pavement with their vile habit, thus forcing me into the road.
It strikes me that I coud have an electronic display on my shoulder perhaps controlled by a simple device in my pocket. It would display an appropriate message. For the three examples I have given, the message might be.
- I never give any money to anybody who approaches me on the street.
- I am a coeliac. Please don’t offer me foods that will make me ill.
- My son died of a smoking related cancer. Your behaviour disgusts me.
Obviously, you would make sure that the messages were not offensive or preached violence.
But it could be also be used for advertising or information such as.
- I am an electrician with good references. Contact me on 07xx-xxxxxx.
- Next week is Victoria Park Carnival. A free day for all the family.
- I’m getting off this train at Scunthorpe. I must be mad.
- We are sorry your train was delayed. There was a suicide at Finsbury Park.
The last comment illustrates how the display could be used in crowds to impart information and give answers. I was at Portman Road to see Ipswich Town today, and I feel information badges would be of use in crowd control. Today for instance, there were a lot of messages over the PA, asking supporters in some blocks of the stadium to take a different route out after the match. Stewards badges could have displayed the message.
Obviously as the messages would be under control of the wearer or their employer, either through wi-fi, Bluetooth, SMS or directly, appropriate messages could be displayed quickly as required.
The Untold Story of Hurricane Irene
I do find it strange to hear of a hurricane with the same name as my mother, who was a rather placid woman. In fact, I suspect too much so. On the other hand, I think she was rather calm under pressure!
I have just been reading a piece about how New York will be treating the city’s prisoners during the hurricane.
“We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, including a shutdown of the public transit system and the unprecedented mandatory evacuation of some 250,000 people from low-lying areas.
But in response to a reporter’s question, the mayor stated in no uncertain terms (and with more than a hint of annoyance) that one group of New Yorkers on vulnerable ground will be staying put.
New York City is surrounded by small islands and barrier beaches, and a glance at the city’s evacuation map reveals all of them to be in Zone A (already under a mandatory evacuation order) or Zone B–all, that is, save one. Rikers Island, which lies in the waters between Queens and the Bronx, is not highlighted at all, meaning it is not to be evacuated under any circumstances.
According to the New York City Department of Corrections’ own website, more than three-quarters of Rikers Island’s 400 acres are built on landfill–which is generally thought to be more vulnerable to natural disasters. Its ten jails have a capacity of close to 17,000 inmates, and normally house at least 12,000, including juveniles and large numbers of prisoners with mental illness.
We were not able to reach anyone at the NYC DOC for comment–but the New York Times’s City Room blog reported: “According to the city’s Department of Correction, no hypothetical evacuation plan for the roughly 12,000 inmates that the facility may house on a given day even exists. Contingencies do exist for smaller-scale relocations from one facility to another.”
So hard luck guys and gals!
Hopefully, they won’t have to endure the horrors of when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. This report is from the ACLU.
A culture of neglect was evident in the days before Katrina, when the sheriff declared that the prisoners would remain “where they belong,” despite the mayor’s decision to declare the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation. OPP even accepted prisoners, including juveniles as young as 10, from other facilities to ride out the storm.
As floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, power was lost, and entire buildings were plunged into darkness. Deputies left their posts wholesale, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests …
Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan. Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.
When is the United States justice system going to raise its standards to the level of the civilised world?
I suspect we’d be hearing more of this if Dominique Strauss-Kahn was still in prison on Rikers Island.
The Anonymous Widower 