TheScooterScoop

Caught this on TV last night and I think Anthony nails it.

Howwwwwdy folks!  Just wanted to share a little video we put together to show you what’s in store from Yamaha for 2012.  Mitch Bergsma and I spent 3 days in the San Francisco sun to run their new Zuma 50F through its paces.  Things went better than I anticipated!  If you’ve got 7 minutes to spare, you should give it a watch!

No, not GREEK god like Thor, but GEEK as in nerd or code monkey… except were talking about Aaron Hillegass here, he’s more like a CODE GORILLA!  I mean, go to Amazon.com and look up “Cocoa Programming”, and you know what shows up first?  Aaron’s book, Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) by Aaron Hillegass, which looks like this:

Unlike his Second edition which looks like this:

And THAT’S when I noticed a trend.  Aaron likes monochrome colors… :D – HAHAH!  NOooooo! Aaron must like scooters.

So I decided to drop Aaron a line and ask him more about the scooter trend with these treasured tomes of his; to which he responded:

Yes, I am a scooter fan and I suggested it be on the cover of “Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X”. My wife, however, asked that I get rid of my scooter as she was concerned that it might lead to my premature death. In a conflict that required a trip to a couples counselor, I agreed to sell my beautiful red Piaggio BV 250 — not vintage, but a great ride.

I understand, being a new dad and all… it probably won’t be terribly long before he’s back up on two wheels.  We chatted about his old scoot a bit more:

I loved that Piaggio BV250 — it is the scooter that many urban Italian police ride. Super reliable, comfortable, and powerful enough to deal with Atlanta traffic. I rode mostly in the summer, so I took the windscreen off so I could feel the breeze.

I had to pass the motorcycle driving test and get insurance and tags to ride a 250cc in Georgia, but it was completely worth it.

Amen to THAT brother! Aaron sent me a link, where he described his essential riding gear in such a fine manner that it brought a tear to my eye… It’s like he summed up TheScooterScoop in one, off-topic post. I’d make Aaron an honorary Editor after reading his testimony on the fun and practical way he gears up to ride. You can read it yourself by going <HERE>.  Oh, but don’t listen to his advice at the end of the post.  I prefer that we preserve some of the more delicate genetics, just in case they contain a cure for cancer.

Billy Joel is no Innocent Man when it comes to getting caught rolling his scooter around town (Miami). Years ago I remember when he and Christy Brinkley’s Italjet Velociferos were up on the auction block, looks like he’s moved on to another love… Vespa. Credits to DailyMail UK for the scoop!

NPR Reports -
Prepare to fork over $5 for a gallon of gasoline by 2012, former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister says. That’s nearly $2 more than the current average price of $3.05 per gallon, according to the Department of Energy.

American demand for gasoline has returned to pre-recession levels, while demand from Asian countries has increased beyond levels in 2007 and 2008, says Hofmeister, author of Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk From an Energy Insider.

“There’s a psychology of oil pricing based on fear — fear of shortage, fear of lack of supply,” he tells NPR’s Jacki Lyden. The Obama administration sent a shock to the world trading marketplace when it said the U.S. is not going to pursue more off-shore drilling at a time when the world needs more crude oil.

Drivers’ sticker shock will be only one of the consequences of a gas price jump driven by higher crude oil prices. “The higher cost of fuel touches everything in our lives,” Hofmeister says. “We have all kinds of crude oil applications in everyday life, from the Chapstick to the lipstick, to the fuel in our gas tanks.”

Hofmeister advocates for a more pragmatic approach to meeting U.S. energy needs. “I’m not proposing we drill 20 million barrels a day [domestically],” he says. “I’m proposing we produce 10 million barrels a day — 3 million more than today, equal to what we used to produce 35 years ago. The oil is there. There’s plenty of it if we would give ourselves permission as a people to go make it happen.”

Alternative energy sources are the future, he says, but in the short-term, “we really have no choice — with the 250 million cars on the road today — but to put gasoline and diesel into those cars.”  Unless you ride a scooter, then you’re still in pretty good shape. ;)