[filmscanners] RE: CD Labeling (very OT)

["Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com>]

Best thing I remember for this was years ago in Germany - I got a little
reflective Polizei shield decal from the local Kri-po. You stuck it in the
rear window of your car and when you got zapped by a camera it showed up and
somehow it seemed the ticket paperwork always got lost in the mail.... :-)

tim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
> [mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Arthur Entlich
> Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 4:17 AM
> To: tim@KairosPhoto.com
> Subject: [filmscanners] Re: CD Labeling (very OT)
>
>
> Well, I don't know about the US, but here in Canada, we had
> "Photo-Radar" for several years.  In fact, for several provinces,
> including the one I live in, one of the reasons a right wing government
> was voted in was because they promised to scrap it.
>
> People were selling all sorts of devices to supposedly confound the
> radar cameras when they were in use.  Special covers for your license
> plate that supposedly made it record as a blank area on the photo image,
> reflective tape that supposedly confused the cameras.  The best one I
> heard about was a set of instructions you could buy for $5 that
> guaranteed they would prevent you from getting caught by photo-radar.
> As was later reported, apparently it consisted of a piece of paper on
> which was printed "drive at or below the speed limit!!!"
>
> However, the most effective method of not being caught by the photo
> radar system ended up being provided by the police.  They were so inept
> with the equipment that they ended up pointing the camera so it took
> pictures of the road surface, with no car visible, or they used the
> wrong shutter speed and the license plates were blurred, etc, and
> apparently well over half of the image that indicated above threshold
> speeds had to be tossed because they were unreadable.
>
> I never liked the concept myself, because it was a deterrent that you
> found out about 3 months later when a ticket arrived in the mail, and
> since it was a fine with no points connected to it (since they couldn't
> prove who was driving the car) it ended up a deterrent for the poor, who
> found the $100+ ticket hard to deal with.  Wealthier speeders (like the
> president and CEO of the provincial car insurance corp.) and several
> government MLAs racked up many of these tickets and just paid them or
> had them paid as an expense.
>
> So now we have a right-wing government here, and, as promised, the
> photo-radar is gone.  So are the revenues... To make up for it, they
> hired on police to do more hand held radar checks, and have been
> installing intersection cameras to catch people going through red lights
> instead.  How innovative those right-winger are! They couldn't even sell
> the Photo-radar equipment so that was a complete loss, and now they are
> investing in intersection cameras. I feel safer just knowing they are
> keeping the legislative seat warm with their tight-assed butts!
>
> The good news is that we have recall legislation here, after they have
> served 18 months.  Well, its 19 months now, and it looks like I may just
> be busy after Christmas seeing if I can motivate the 70 something
> percent in my riding who want them out...
>
> So, to answer your question... no, here in BC Canada we don't believe in
> CD-R reflectors to defeat photo radar devices, but we do seem to have
> short lapses when we believe in the tooth fairy and vote in right-wing
> governments to "protect" our economy from children, the disabled and the
> poor and sickly.  However, we're slowly awakening from that nightmare,
> and hopefully, we'll all get out our garlic, mirrors, silver crucifixes
> and wooden stakes and put an end to this night of the living dead.
>
> Art
>
>
> Alessandro Pardi wrote:
>
> >>Arthur Entlich wrote:
> >>
> >>Well, I always wondered what to do with the coasters I had from bad
> >>burns, and I wanted to figure out something creative to do with them.
> >><snip>
> >>
> >
> > Well, here in Italy I've seen CDs attached to cars' rear
> windows. I was told
> > that this is somehow supposed to make police autovelox
> photographs unuseful
> > (you know, the device that takes pictures of cars exceeding
> speed limits).
> > Strangely enough, no one was able to give any technical
> explanation why :-)
> > Do you in the US have this kind of superstition, too?
> >
> > Alessandro
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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