Bobby Bare Jr - The Heart Bionic

MacKay Meters

Until today I didn't know what the diagonal slot next to the coin slot on San Francisco parking meters was used for:
This slot is for prepaid Parking Meter Debit Cards. They come in $20 or $50 denominations, and they will be compatible with TransLink by 2010, making them good for travel on almost all Bay Area public transportation, including BART and MUNI.
The meter is powered by a battery the size of 3 'c' cells, and it lasts 1 to 2 years.

Go here for a list of Card resellers.




Thanks Mark Pritchard MeteroBlogging SF and DPT
Categories:San Francisco

2007 MINI Cooper

Today the MiniUSA website went live with the 2007 Mini.
Their website is weighed down with media features that slow page rendering to a crawl. Never-the-less I could see that the Mini has changed in almost every detail, while still maintaining the same styling design.
Though the "hard points" used in manufacturing and assembly probably haven't changed, the engine,body panels and interior are new.

Yet Another Timberland Sale: Dec 1-10

Shop online at Timberland and use promotional code FFDEC4 to save 40%.
Or print this coupon and save 40% in-store.

Categories:Consumer

Bench by Greg Bergere

I like the look of this bench from GO Build Studio in San Francisco.

But having once sat carelessly on the end of a Nelson bench, I know how easily it might tip up.

The Wing bench seems to ask your guests to carefully consider how they seat themselves (for everyone else, there's home owners insurance).

Thanks Eric Larsson
Categories:Design

Carnage at Oulton Park 2002 GT Champianship Race in the Rain

From Autoblog comes this link to a professional video of the carnage at the 2002 British GT championship race at a very wet Oulton Park Circuit.
The first collision at Knickerbrook is between two Saleen S7R's. A Viper collects both cars and a race official. Then a TVR Tuscan R plows through the mess. No one was hurt.


Thanks alexbirtwisle
Categories:Movies Cars

Newton's Cradle Lamp

"The familiar form simultaneously encourages and discourages interaction by presenting an unexpected juxtaposition between context and material."
Look. Don' t touch.
30x30x30cm
designed by David Curtis.

Thanks SuckUK
Categories:Design

The Rad Kart

The owner of this short wheelbase shifter-kart told me this was a new spec kart design he wants to promote called "Rad". The selling point will be low cost. He said that the tyres are only $8 each (in motor racing, tyres are one of the major costs). The 110cc engine is a copy of a Honda engine and is made in China. Unusual for a kart, it is a self-starter (you can see the motorcycle battery below the steering wheel). There's a disc brake on the rear axle, and no front brakes.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Thanks William Burroughs

THANKSGIVING PRAYER
William Burroughs


"To John Dillinger and hope he is still alive.
Thanksgiving Day November 28 1986"


Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shat out through wholesome
American guts.


Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind the
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.

French Press Travel Mug

I like the taste of pressed coffee, but I don't use a coffee press at home because it's a mess to clean. However this coffee press travel mug might be good for work. The lid has a strainer to catch any grounds that escape past the plunger, and there's a compartment in the base to store fresh grounds.

Cyclocross in Golden Gate Park

Cyclocross is a mix of road racing and moutainbiking. There are plenty of good spots to watch from, and lots of action.
Rocky Arroyo took this photo of the starting line last weekend. Click on the photo to see a larger image.

Categories:Sports

Austin Mini

This Austin Mini is for sale at Cars Dawydiak in SF. It was sold new in England and converted to LHD in the US (a relatively easy job). It has a 997cc engine, imitation Minilite wheels, Yokahama 008 tyres, wheel flares and sporty seats. It's not a Cooper. The restoration is superb.



Categories:Cars Movies

Night Photos

This is the first time I've used the night-time function on my camera. It was quite dark when I took these photos from Fort Baker and the Golden Gate Bridge, but I like the results.


Categories:San Francisco

Hans Wegner's Chinese Chair

When I first saw this chair I immediately thought it was inspired by Hans Wegner's Wishbone chair (The Wishbone chair is light, comfortable, and has a beautiful curve to the back legs). But this chair was on sale for $2,000!

I found that it's called the Chinese Chair, and is another of Wegner's many chair designs.

From Danish Furniture Design:
"Inspired by classical portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs, Wegner created a series of chairs... Of this series the Wishbone Chair is widely considered to be his most successful design."





Kennedy and Nixon are sitting on Wegner chairs in this last photo.
















Thanks Brayton International and Design Addict
Categories: Furniture

New Way to Search Craigslist

Listpic tries to help us search Craigslist by showing thumbnail images of the items. The result is only partially successful:
It doesn't let you search by neighbourhood, number of bedrooms, or any of the other Craigslist features. And the searches I made in SF included listings from other Bay Area cities.

Perhaps Craiglist will block Listpic from their servers and come out with a fully featured thumbnail search. It's a good idea.


Categories:Consumer Gadgets

Deee Lite

World's Ugliest Car?

I was looking through the list of Ugliest Cars in Britain. The list is just one persons opinion, and I don't agree with many of his choices. Sometimes engineering dictates styling: If the engineering is innovative, and the car is good, then the styling will become a symbol this goodness.

However, this 1957 Aurora prototype should easily top any list of ugly cars. This American car now resides in Britain, but probably doesn't qualify for the list because, thankfully, it never went into production.

Photo by
PHIL YEOMANS/REX FEATURES
Thanks Jalopnik
Categories:Cars Design

DEK Miniature Castiglioni Arco Lamp

This Designer Emulation Kit (DEK1) by Mark McKenna is sold by Unica. I like how the 9 volt battery anchors the lamp like the marble base of the real 1962 Arco Lamp.

Categories:Design

Street Seen

Clever image from the forums on Motoring Underground (a site for Mini enthusiasts).

Categories:Art

Kyoto Dining Table from Crate and Barrel

Because of repeated delays, Lani cancelled our order for a dining table from Sphere Designs. So now we're back in the hunt for an extendable table and chairs.

I'm keen on this table from Crate and Barrel:

There's nothing exceptional about it. It's just a very solid table that suits our Arts and Crafts style apartment.

Categories:Furniture

Polaroid

Photo by Rocky Arroyo

Thanks Rocky
Categories:Art

More Nobleness

Joel Lipkin sent me this photo of his Noble.


You might recognize the image, because "that pic has been 'around the block', so to speak, since 1G-Racing (the U.S. Noble importer located in OH) used it for a while in the ads they ran in Road and Track magazine, and it also showed up on the official 2006 Noble calendar produced in the UK."

Thanks Joel
Categories:Cars

A Noble M12 GTO 3R Obsession

Today I came across a website forum for US owners of the Noble, and a link to dozens of photos of the car.
I'm reposting some of the images here in case the link breaks.
More Noble here from last Saturday's post.







Thanks Joel, rclotusV8
Categories:Cars

Curved Couches

Back on August 11th I was bemoaning the lack of curved couches for San Francisco bay, bow, and barrel front windows. Then today I saw this beauty online: This is the Menlo Park sectional couch from American Leather. Each section is almost $3,000. This is more than we can afford, but it inspired me to look for something similar in our price range.

So I went Bellach's on the 500 block of 9th Street, and saw several affordable curved sectional couches. The one I like they call Monaco. It's a contemporary leather design that can be configured into semi-circle of 188"diameter. Too large for our 128" bay window, but I think I'm on the right track to finding what we need.










Categories:Furniture

Mamma Rocker

Montreal designer Patrick Messier created this fibreglass rocker, and won honors in the 2006 Best of Canada Design Competition.

"Made from a single piece of injected fibreglass with a high-gloss urethane finish, the chair evokes a ribbon suspended in space... Mamma’s comfortable shape was actually derived from a grid based on the Fibonacci series, a sequence in which each term is the sum of its two predecessors (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.), as found in nature (petals in a sunflower, spirals in a pinecone)..."


Thanks Pure Contemporary
Categories:Furniture