WombatNation

One of the things I really love about my Audi is that it has heated seats. While the SF Bay area isn’t the coldest place on the planet, it can still get pretty cold. Well, at least for a couple of weeks out of the year.

The surface area of a seat on a bike is quite a bit smaller than for a car, yet in chillier northern regions of the country, I can imagine that the first minute or so in the saddle on a bike that has been waiting for you in the wintry wonderland could be bracing. That’s why I like the thinking of the person who designed this heated bike seat.

As far as I know, this is not a manufacturer’s equipment option. If you’re thinking of customizing your ride with one of these, I recommend looking for one with a bit of heat-conductive padding. Maybe some wadded up mylar sheets. At least up front on the point.

via: Makezine via: Momentum

One of the many pleasures of our September trip to Europe was the thermal baths at Szchenyi in Budapest. The building was beautiful and the number of baths was amazing. Hanging out in the enormous outside thermal pool as the steam lifted into the night skies was particularly awesome.

Here’s a photo of me enjoying the baths.

Alright, alright, this wasn’t at Szchenyi. It’s in Yamanouchi, Japan (Photo by EPA at http://telegraph.co.uk). And those are macaques, but surely you recognize the resemblance.

Maybe I just haven’t been noticing all along that major US airlines are flying rust buckets, but when I looked out the window of a recent United Airlines flight from Houston to San Francisco, I was pretty amazed to see the sorry state of the wing. A few patches of paint had peeled away to expose what appeared to be rust and quite a bit of the upper surface of the wing appeared to have only the thinnest layer of paint remaining.