The List:

It's not about what you need. It's not even something you would get if you had the money. It's what's sooo cool, you gotta note it.

Land Rover Type II

The Land Rover Type II (1958-1970) or III (1971-1983) are both fantastic trucks. They come in different lengths from stubby to quite long. As a fun toy, I would prefer the 109" wheelbase models, as the extended length would only be more wait to pull around with no use. (The model in the picture is a '69 type II 2.63 ltr. six-cylinder. Note they advertise this will seat 7 (3 in the front, 4 in the back, with 2 on a bench facing each other.) It _might_ have seatbelts.

Nacra F18 Infusion Catamaran

Ahh... A man and his boat.... Probably one of the fastest dingy racers out there. Fully equipped with dual trapezes and a spinnaker. The only other mandatory missing item would be a house on the water close to a fleet to race against.

Fortis SPACEMATIC GMT Watch:

Watches have started to go the way of the dodo in the sense that the phone in your pocket is a much better time piece then the device on your wrist. Thus this has pushed the wrist watch to a piece of jewelry rather then a tool. The problem I have with this is that the mens watch has become overun with busy noise. There are too many dials and sparkles to be able to simply tell what time it is.

I like the Fortis SPACEMATIC GMT watch because one look tells you the time. They have removed all of the noise, and made a very clean watch face that tells you both the time, and GMT time as well.

Wood/Hand Carved PC Case:

Suissa Computers Canadian company which makes the ultimate "green" PC case. What a great idea! The ultima te PC mod! These come fully equipped, but with a box like that, you could simply stick whatever you want in it, and in the future upgrade the motherboard and not need to replace the power supply or case. They have a bunch of very clever non-conventional shapes for the cases. I hope this catches on, and we see more and more hand crafted works of art for the tools that we rely on, and look at every day.

Worlds Best Keyboard

The Optimus Maximus Keyboard does not have silkscreened letters to tell you what button is what. Instead, each keyboard is its own full color OLED screen, and you can program whatever you want for each key. A bit overpriced at more then a grand a pop, but very-very cool!

Jensen Model #51:

Demonstrations of everyday physics are a good thing. An actual working model of a steam powered power plant is a very good thing. Jensen used to make these, and there are a couple of folks out there who have rebuilt them and documented their results. (very nice) They are excellent examples to how both steam power works, how it is controlled, and how it is harnessed to create electric power. ...The little electric generators are very cool too!

OnLine Training/Teaching

Read this article in SFGate about a guy who is making a living (or almost) teaching online.

• Salman Khan, math master of the Internet:

post turtle

(it's an old story with many versions, but it does seem very appropriate. ... much more then the original version about Prez Bush...)

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.

The old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.’

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.

The old rancher said, ‘When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.’

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain. ‘You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, she doesn’t know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.

Waiting for the Movie...... (will it ever arive?)

Years back there was the cannonball run across America. There is a guy making a documentary about the movie called 32 hours 7 minutes, which was the time it took the winning car to travel from New York to LA. Wired had a good writeup on some of the work done for the moving. Unfortunately, I think the webpage has said "almost finished" for the last 8 years....

On the driving like a nutbag topic, there is another race called the Gumball 3000 Rally (see intro vid) where a bunch of rich guys deck out their calls, go to lots of parties, and drive like freak shows on public roads across the globe. (looks like fun) During one of these events, which are a bit popular in Europe, a cop in Italy gave one team a bit of a hand. The video is fantastic; the cop has a psycho lead foot and the racing team almost has a hard time keeping up with him.