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This too is bullshit since keeping the higher paid jobs here in the USA spreads the wealth to local service industry which creates more customers that can afford airpods and other imported chinese garbage. You think poor Chinese or Indonesian workers are buying Harley Davidson? No, USA factory and service workers are.

I've actually been in a Harley Davidson dealer in Indonesia, so someone there is buying them.
Size of US Market: 320M
Size of Global Market: 7500M
There are now more billionaires in Asia than the US
Do the maths

If americans had to pay for "made in america" products they would not own much. Even Harley davidsons are made from china parts and assembled in mexico

This simply isn't true.
http://www.harley-davidson.com...

It is true that some parts are made overseas. The front forks are made in Japan by Showa, and some of the electronic components as well.

Nowhere is Mexico is a Harley-Davidson made, much less assembled. The bikes sold in the U.S. and Europe are made in either Kansas City or Milwaukee. The Street model is made in India (and assembled in Kansas City for the U.S. market), and the ones sold in Brazil are made in Manauas Amazonas).

So unless the electric HD handles like the current motorcycles they make, then it'll probably do fairly well.

I know there are a few niche companies making electric bikes, but its exciting to see a big name brand like HD testing out demonstrator models rather than just sticking to their 2 big pistons until they die of old age and irrelevancy. While I'm sure the other brands have their own electric bike projects in progress, HD seems to be in the lead right now.

Checkout Project Livewire. The bike doesn't even look like a current Harley.

Umm, no. You're the dumbass. Knuckleheads were made from 1936-1947, shovelheads were made from 1966-1984.

http://www.harley-davidson.com...

http://www.harley-davidson.com...

Umm, no. You're the dumbass. Knuckleheads were made from 1936-1947, shovelheads were made from 1966-1984.

http://www.harley-davidson.com...

http://www.harley-davidson.com...

Not only is it NOT A MOTORCYCLE! the person talking about it has never ridden a motorcycle.

which is easier on the driver's legs than putting a foot down the way you do while riding most motorcycles.

First all motorcycles. Not most. Second. Who the hell ever pulled up to a stop while riding and thought "Fuck. I have to put my feet down again!"?

Not all. Like it or not "trikes" are considered and labelled motorcycles. As such, your statement is not accurate.

Second, I know a number of people who dislike it due to weaker legs/ankle injuries/etc (and thus, are attracted moreso to the trikes, which, for the record, I HATE).

CM is like H-D. If we have to explain it, you won't understand.

Motorcyclists usually focus better on the task at hand (i.e. operating the motorcycle) than automobilists do, because they have fewer things such as passengers, radios/CD/MP3 players, heating/cooling systems, phones, computers, etc. to distract them from it.

Are you sure about that? Pay particular attention the link that says "technology."

hey also get direct feedback (in terms of wind, seeing the pavement rush past their feet, etc.) of how fast they're going, which helps in making judgments about (for example) how much to brake before making a turn. The more that vehicles mask the vehicle's speed from the operator (smoother ride, better soundproofing, etc), the more dangerous they become.

You'd think so, but then you probably haven't seen the kids driving crotch rockets down here in Tampa.

All three examples fail to load properly.

I'm not sure what I am waiting for but http://www.picnik.com/ doesn't do anything, http://maps.yahoo.com/ offers a few links at the top and nothing else. http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/home.jsp?locale=en_US does load, but there's a big hole where I guess the flash should be.

This is not a troll, I just wanted to see how good your good sites are, pretty bad is the answer.

Too bad you are just coming out as a troll saying "X sucks because I saw it here and here and it was annoying blah blah". Flash is not suited for all types of websites but luckily that thing was understood years ago by anyone working on the "web thingy".

If you actually pull your head out of the sand then you will see that people have actually started making good content using flash and the fugly era of shiny flash intros for websites is dead for the most part. Maybe you may want to take a look at Yahoo! Maps, Harley website, Picnik or the rest of the bunch where the flex framework is actually being put to good use. But I suppose its easier to just bitch about how the things were a decade back without even checking if anything has changed now.

Disclaimer: I have worked on the flash projects in the past and currently getting into flex for a new project so I maybe a bit biased.

If you look at the demographics for Harley-Davidson ownership you will see two trends: First, the average age is older -- certainly not in their 20s -- and second, the average income hovers around $80,000 per annum, which is an income that tends to be earned in the peak of one's professional life and not at the beginning.

I am aware of this fact about HD riders not because I'm a motorcycle nut, but because certain "baby boomer" statistics tend to resurface regularly in the media.

The demographics of newspaper readers (and subscribers) is also older. This suggests that older people want to be better informed than younger people, though there is this trend towards reading blogs in both.

The title of the article suggests grandparenthood. I'm not a grandparent at this juncture, nor am I about to be in the near future. But I'm over 50, so that automatically suggests a few things. To the extent people who purchase Macintoshes these days are not in their 20s seems to indicate to me several factors:

They are better able to afford a new Macintosh.
They make decisions based on more input (better product education).
They don't like the fact that others' computers are harder to learn and use.
They like the integration between the hardware and operating system that Apple is selling.
They like the better quality of a Macintosh over the quality of other machines.
They regard it as a better investment than a pee cee that one will need to replace within 3 years.
They like feeling "hip" and "young."

In my case, I just wanted to be able to get my work done. I was tired of the problems I was constantly having with Microsoft's operating system. I had experienced Mac-envy for years and had enough money to buy a Macintosh. And, so, well before I was 50, I bought my first Mac. I don't plan to go back.

This Harley Davidson customizer is a cool example of something built using Flex (though granted, its not built using Flex 2.0).

A few more:
- Garbage (the band)
- The Zucker Brothers (and Jim Abrahams)
- Cray Compter
- The Dells
- The Marquette Golden Eagles... Uh... Gold... Uh... Warriors? Hilltopers? Uh... Dwyane Wade went to school here!
- Fighting Bob La Follette
- Sewer Socialists
- Harley-Davidson
- They brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to America
- Douglas MacArthur
- Bratwurst
- Numbered Highways
- Birthplace of The Republican Party
- Svetlana Alliluyeva (Stalin's Daughter)
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Heather Graham

Looks like a 100th anniversary fatboy.

Nonononono...

These are scooters.

This is a motorcycle.

So now I can have exhaust pipes coming off my laptop? Cool.

Can they be made to look like the pipes on a Harley?

Mmmmm chrome....

> in the US? I remeber seeing a couple of old
> people riding motorized bikes but ive only seen
> them once.

I believe they're mostly made by these guys.

"Why not a diesel powered cell phone?"

This might be slightly off topic, but its related to the supposition that Mac users are more interested in using their computers to actually accomplish some work, rather than working on their computers...

Apple has (used to have?) the AppleMasters program, a group of noted international leaders in various fields who use Apple technology in the performance of their work. Apple used to have a list of their names and bios on the site, but it appears to have been taken down. Some of the names of AppleMasters that I remember are...
* Douglas Adams (Yes, *that* Douglas Adams)
* Donald Glaser - Nobel physicist
* Arthur C. Clarke
* Murray Gell-Mann - Nobel physicist, namer of the "quark"
* Herbie Hancock - composer/musician
* Gregory Hines - dancer/actor/singers
* Tom Clancy
* Richard Dreyfuss
* Richard Dawkins - zoologist, evolutionist
* Michael Crichton
* Sydney Pollock - film producer/director
* Richard Leakey - noted paleoanthropologist

No doubt one can create a comparable, or even more distinguised, list of notable notables who use Windows/Linux/Intel/AMD technology (as well as Sun, IBM, HP, SGI, etc.), but to paraphrase Steve Jobs, can you imagine an IntelMasters, CompaqMasters or DellMasters program?

"Applets" are passionate about their Macs, and feel an allegiance to the company. Why? The fact that Macs can be viewed as "status symbols" might be part of it, but more to the point, Macs just work. Everyone else treats their computers as commodities because, well, they are.

The only other comparable attitude by a consumer population that I can think of exists in the motorcyle world. Harley Davidson riders are passionate about their bikes and The Motor Company, even if they own bikes by other manufacturers. *Most* other bikers really couldn't care if their bikes were Hondas/Suzuki/Yamahas/Triumphs/BMW.

BTW, I own Toshiba (four towers & 2 laptops running Win2K & Linux), IBM (1 Linux laptop), Sony (1 Win2K laptop), and Apple (G4/OSX) systems. If everything were going up in flames, I'd make sure I had a firm grip on the Mac and my backups, I'd try to save the Sony (wouldn't be difficult, it so d*mn small!), but everything else is so replacable (probably with BrandX(tm) computers), that I wouldn't even care.

My personal preferrences. ...anactofgod...

And I have owned Harleys and Buells.

Hacking hardware == good for sales.

This is similar to how Harley-Davidson sells motorcycles: they encourage aftermarket hacking, so much so that they provide (overpriced) parts in the accessories catalog...

This, of course, doesn't count the scores of yuppie/image riders, but even they slap on a bit of aftermarket chrome.

Hacking hardware == good for sales.

This is similar to how Harley-Davidson sells motorcycles: they encourage aftermarket hacking, so much so that they provide (overpriced) parts in the accessories catalog...

This, of course, doesn't count the scores of yuppie/image riders, but even they slap on a bit of aftermarket chrome.

If I wanted a two wheeled beautifully designed vehicle I would have already bought a V-Rod at this auctions prices... Or I would have bought two of these Monsters first... I love my Monster... They have more sex appeal than any gyro oriented battery operated piece of tech, and are 100x more fun! If you're looking for transportation on this scale... I would walk.

An interesting fact about the Boss Hoss bikes:

When the company first started, their original name was Boss Hogg. Harley-Davidson, Inc. threatened to sue the company for trademark infringement over the use of the word "hog" related to motorcycles. To avoid the potential legal battle, Boss Hoss caved. Harley-Davidson is one company that actively and aggressively protects their image, some critics say, to the extreme.