Deepest Condolences

WikiLeaks is at it again, this time releasing the Global Information Files - a trove of email conversations apparently hacked from the private intelligence company Stratfor. As with prior WikiLeaks disclosures, those whose privacy was violated are mighty indignant. Expectation of privacy is something for legal experts to debate, but the practicalities in our current internet-connected world indicate that almost anyone can acquire information they want, through legal means or by brute force. Organizations, governmental officials, and wealthy individuals who rely, at least in part, on maintaing political power and control through secrecy appear particularly vulnerable.

Thank goodness for cloud computing.

The line between intelligence gathering to prevent acts of terrorism and secret police operating beyond judicial oversight to maintain the status quo has been significantly blurred. The leaks about Stratfor's activities, like Academi (nee Xe, nee Blackwater) before them, provide yet another example of how activities previously associated with governments are being privatized. Since the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations have free speech rights previously associated with individuals, we can only hope that the high court will eventually rule that corporations have a right to privacy. Then we can all incorporate so the we, too, can enjoy free speech and privacy rights.

Truth is, the lack of privacy is nothing new to the vast majority of us who have no political clout and seemingly less and less representation in governmental process. We can block our telephone number from appearing on caller ID devices, except when we call toll-free numbers. Do-not-call blocking doesn't apply to political parties seeking donations. And god only knows how the GPS inside our smart phones is being used. There's so much information available about each of us, some of it for free, that it's getting harder and harder just to be in the pursuit of happiness, let alone life and liberty. So to politicians, diplomats, and corporations who have their dirty laundry aired without their permission and then cry like a bunch of alley cats, the rest of us say: "Welcome to the club."

You meet the nicest people ...

FrankenHonda - '83 Honda C70 Passport with bigger Lifan Engine

It's important to have goals in life and one of mine is to stay physically active, so I made a commitment to run and cycle more. One part of my exercise strategy involves getting a new folding bike, that takes money, I'm not independently wealthy, and so something had to go. Unfortunately it was my beloved 1983 Honda C70 Passport. The fact is that I was seldom riding this scooter, so I posted it for sale online. Within two days, it had gone to a new home.

Those in the know immediately recognize the Honda Passport (aka C70, aka SuperCub) as a legendary product. Over 60 million of these vehicles were made since their introduction in 1958 making the C70, by some estimates, the most produced motor vehicle in history. The C70 is dirt-simple, ridiculosly reliable, cheap to operate, and so indestructible it should have been illegal. By the mid 1960's, Honda's ground-breaking advertising campaign "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" had forever changed the way Americans looked at motorcycles and showed how powerful lifestyle marketing could be.

My particular Passport was one of the last made and sold in the US, though the C70 continues to be made and marketed in other countries. My particular C70 had been outfitted with a more powerful, aftermarket Lifan engine. This didn't really change this simple, classic, reliable scooter, though it did make my FrankenHonda more powerful and flexible.

Honda has a history of getting it right, making a great product, have it develop a loyal following, only to discontinue it. The SuperCub C70 scooter as well as CR-X and 1st generation Insight automobiles are just a few examples. Discontinuing these products may have been a marketing decision or a matter of economics, but the beauty of these designs is that they are still recognized and appreciated for the cool products that they are.

Symba - C70 Cub knockoff with a few improvements, same classic style

As for the future of the SuperCub, there are some knock-off products available. Some folks consider the Symba better than the original SuperCub. In 2009, Honda showed off an EV-Cub, a concept electric scooter styled after the SuperCub. The media gushed that the EV-Cub could become a successful consumer product by 2010, but so far it seems to have remained only a concept. No matter. All those original Passports still have a loyal following. And the scooters themselves? They just keep going, and going, and going ...

Honda EV-Cub

I'm shocked, shocked to find ...

Like something right out of Captain Renault's mouth in the movie Casablanca, ABC Nightline reporter Bill Weir said "After this trip, I'll never see an Apple product the same way again." Weir had been touring the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, where many Apple products are produced. Are we really so shocked to learn that factory workers in other countries are treated the way they are? Are Americans really that naive?

To combat the negative press, Apple arranged for the Fair Labor Association to audit the Asian production facilities of the companies that produce iPads, iPods, and Macs. Some of the metrics to be used included asking employees how they were hired, if they were offered and signed contracts and whether they understood them, the condition of their dorm rooms and food, if complaints are acted upon, and their emotional well-being.

To understand the considerable cognitive dissonance displayed here, imagine doing a similar audit of the cabin and flight crews at most any regional airline in the US. If the same attention were given to their salary and working conditions, would the same shock be expressed?

Sad thing is, it's not just the service industries that are squeezing the average worker. Outsourcing of manufacturing jobs has been going on for decades. Much of our manufacturing infrastructure in the US has been lost. All the while a massive manufacturing network has grown and flourished in Southeast Asia and China: Most any product you can imagine can either be designed in short order or is already being produced.

America has plenty of anti-union sentiment to go around and we long ago lost respect for the folks who have the skill and ability to do the heavy lifting. Each succeeding generation seems drawn to industries where tremendous profit is made out of thin air rather than by producing a product or providing a valuable service. Near my neighborhood, the new Eastern section of the Bay Bridge that is under construction is being build with steel made in ... guess where?

So lets all take a few nanoseconds to feel guilt and shame about off-shoring US manufacturing, outsourcing service sector jobs, and the working conditions of the people who make our gadgets and then provide customer service for them. Perhaps Bill Weir and the ABC Nightline staff will do some investigative reporting on the working conditions in the US labor market. Perhaps then Bill Weir will never again look at flying on a regional passenger jet in the same way.

The Way Home

Waiting at the Hayward BART station, quarter to 8pm on a Thursday night, February. There's the usual, off-peak atmosphere on this Northern California night. Not many patrons and the few people here run the gamut from hyper-speed-freak energy to comatose office worker burn-out. Too many hours in the cubicle or too much white powder, it's the same obsession, different excesses. 

The short, two and a half mile night time ride to the station was equal parts invigorating and hair-raising. Savored the cool, dark, off-beat feeling like I was 25 years old, up for anything. Truth is, I'm 50 something, striving to hang onto that young-at-heart feeling for as many more years as blood, bone, and sinew will permit. After that it's too dark to see, too hard to contemplate. 

Nearly thirty years ago I came to the Bay Area. A computer programmer, fresh from the Illinois cornfields. Now I'm a pilot and flight instructor. What a strange trip it has been. My belt-drive bike proves I still embrace innovation, that I'm not yet an old-timer.

There are still a few more miles to ride at the end of the BART ride, but my legs tell me it won't be a problem. The last part of the ride will be hilly back streets, dark and quiet. And later I'll sleep. Not the sleep of a 25 year old, but the tired, heavy, dense sleep of a man, not young, but not yet old. Perhaps I'll dream of bike riding, or running the way it used to be.