Love is a many splendoured Ducati

Motorcycling is more important now than it ever has been. And not just to me. Though to me it is up there with an up there thing. I know, that's not a terribly mature thing to say, but I just can't think of anything that matters more to me than motorbikes. Not just any motorcycle though. I like the kind that idle slowly and make a thunka, thunka, thunka sound. In my riding life I have had a Triumph, a Norton, a BMW, a Sunbeam, a Ducati and a Vespa (I have left out the japanese bike - because it was a two stroke Yamaha racer and it didn't count), and left the Vespa in because it was a four stroke and make a thunka, thunka, thunka sound at idle - there may have been something wrong with it but we'll never know because it was killed by a Nissan Patrol...

Which brings me to my point. Here is the spectrum. Sustainable - Unsustainable. Ducati 600SS - NIssan Patrol.
The argument for motorcycles is completely sustainable.

They use little fuel
They use little space (how many parking buildings and associated resource consuming facilities are needed for cars and SUVs)
They are less wasteful - most car journeys are taken alone.
If there were more of them and concessions were made for using them (tax, ACC payments) the roads would be safer - most bike accidents are caused by car drivers - because there would be fewer cars.

But mostly they are more fun. The most fun I had was my Ducati.

If anyone knows of a nice Norton Commando...

Thunka, thunka, thunka...

Comments

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer

ThoughtSpurs

Search This Blog