Rolex Watches

Retro Thing has the history on this Rolex watch (some POW's had an easy time of it!):

"During the second world war captured Allied soldiers found themselves in POW camps. The owner of the above watch was a soldier called Clive Nutting, imprisoned at Stalag Luft III...

"Along with other imprisoned soldiers, Nutting did work for the Germans, earned a wage, and had a unique opportunity to buy Rolex watches like the one above. During the war, Swiss Rolex found themselves cut off from their primary markets by the Axis presence on all sides. Yet Rolex was able to find willing customers among the Allied POW's that could afford their precision timepieces."

Todays Rolex watches are more like jewellery than timepieces. I'd like to see them reintroduce their older, less ornamental watches. Or come up with new clean designs.

Fifth Gear - Brabus Rocket CLS

Thanks Tech Blog
Categories:Cars Movies

Tyre Tread Jewellery

Car, motorcycle or mountain bike.
Available in Silver, Gold, Platinum or Palladium.
About $100 at BBD.

Thanks Uncrate

Steal this Idea

Make the blackboard larger, so that there's more room to write notes without the clock hands getting in the way. Now you have the perfect way to plan your day!

Thanks Gizmodo
Categories:Gadgets

Art Truck Evolution

The shell truck took Mike Garibaldi 400 hours to complete, and the shells add 400lb to the weight of the truck. It was parked near Potrero and 16th.

The photo below is from Evolvearts. Click on the link for more photos.




Categories:Cars Art

Google Search using Images Instead of Words?

I have no information on this image. And I have no way of finding the artist's name.

This made me think: Wouldn't it be useful if we could enter an image in Google, and get search results back? Imagine using a camera phone to snap a picture of an unknown object, then do a Google Image search to find out more about it!

Quiet Streets

The street near my garage were wonderfully quiet on Wednesday. The police closed off 7th Avenue and Hugo to clear this car accident. I wish it was this quiet all the time.

Radial Engined Motorcyles

Some time ago, a coworker quizzed me about the existence of a radial engined motorcycle. I mentioned this 1922 German 640cc Megola from the Guggenheim "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit. The engine is inside the rim of the front wheel, and rotates with the wheel (technically, that would make it a rotary engine).



Now this week I've seen two new radial engined motorcycles on the web. Both use the same Australian made 2800cc 110 horsepower seven cylinder Rotec engine.

The first radial bike is credited to Jessie James. The bike does not appear to be ridable. There is no coherent design. And it's misshapen.



The second bike by JTL Cycles is more noteworthy. The engine is integrated into the design. The bike flows over and around the engine. Choppers are not my cup of tea, but this is beautiful. Read about it here.







Categories:Cars

Turn Signals

Car makers face a challenge styling the front of their cars: There are so many seams. The hood, fenders, grill and bumper all have gaps. And the headlights, turn signals and fog lights create more clutter. The current fashion is to group the lights together behind a plastic cowl. It achieves a cleaner appearance with fewer seams and joins.

But it puts the turn signal too close to the headlight. When the headlights are on, the turn signals are very hard to see. Surprisingly, it's the European cars that are the main offenders: VW, Mercedes, Jaguar, and the newest Mini all have this problem. My 2004 Mini has some distance between headlight and turn signal, making the signal easy to see when the headlights are on.

Another concern is the trend of German car makers to use red rear turn signals instead of orange. That's not as bad as the combined brake-light/turn-light sometimes used by domestic car makers. But it can still be confusing.

Categories:Cars

Axis Flak Towers

Flak towers were built by the Luftwaffe to defend German cities from Allied bombing in the 1940's. The walls are up to 3.5m thick.

These towers are probably too solid to have been demolished after the war ended. So many remain today.

Thanks We Make Money Not Art