The other day I took my one year old son on his first train ride. I knew that he would enjoy the short trip (just a couple of stops and back) and I wanted him to get the feeling of riding a train. While on the train I noticed a teenager text messaging on a phone.
I smiled to myself, thinking that here’s a teenager holding a Smartphone in hand on a train with a modern Wi-Fi enabled network with 3G coverage, and yet she’s still communicating via a 30 year old technology.
For years, I rode a Suzuki Hayabusa, a hypersports motorcycle with a very large engine. Felt like Han Solo’s (he shot first, you know) Millenium Falcon when you opened the throttle – instant, strong forward movement regardless of speed or gear. Open throttle and you are heaved down the road. Thus, I had to name the machine something. It was a grotesque bronze color, so for a while I called her the Copper Rhino, but eventually I settled on the name Aluminum Falcon (Hayabusa is the Japanese name for a variant of the Peregrin Falcon) as a good play on the name Hayabusa and also because the intake system set up a resonance in the upper midrange that reminded me of the warbling cry of a Wookie.
