All sorts of goodies at the Bonhams sale in Monaco last week. Everything from posters and route markers to fire suits, skid lids and cars. If I won the lottery, I now know what I would buy.

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All
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Use SeatGuru to search airplane layout charts before you select your flight seat so you'll never again be stuck with only partial reclining ability or in the back near the stale coffee. SeatGuru calls itself "the ultimate source for airplane seating, in-flight amenities and airline information" and it works -- I've used it. Even though the site is intuitive, there are directions right on the home page.

It's simple: Look up your airline. There's all kinds of info that you can navigate using the tabs that pop up, such as baggage rules, traveling with infants, policies regarding unaccompanied minors and travel with pets. Amenity info is listed, along with phone numbers that may be of use, all specific to your airline.

To get to the good part, the seating chart, break it down further by type of plane. A cool, color-coded chart assists you in picking the best seats for your needs (long legs, near the bathroom, not near the bathroom, etc.). First-class is included. Here's an example.
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Sears means business when it comes to tools. Its Craftsman 1,470-piece Professional Tool Set includes a 300-piece Base Essentials Set, 198-piece Professional Essentials Set, 189-piece Specialized Essentials Set, 204-piece Advanced Access Pro's Set, 106-piece Advanced Professional Tool Set, 89-piece Specialized Access Professional Tool Set, 83-piece Ultimate Fully-Polished Ratcheting Set, 77-piece Heavy-Duty Mechanic's Set, 94-piece Auto Specialty Professional Tool Set and 130-piece Professional Impact Set. It's available online, and via the Sears catalog (item # 34131), for $8,600. Save on shipping (since Sears charges by weight) and select store pick-up, if offered in your area, when ordering.
Link to original post on Luxist.
I only read it because I like the photo.

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The Fleur de Lys restaurant in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay may serve French cuisine but that hasn't stopped them from adapting their own version of an American classic: the hamburger. Called the "Fleurburger 5000" it's no Plain Jane either, featuring a juicy Kobe beef patty topped with a rich truffle sauce and served on a brioche truffle bun. And this burger comes with a bottle of 1990 Chateau Petrus, served in Ichendorf Brunello stemware that you get to keep.

It sounds (and looks) vile, to be honest. All dark and rich, brioche is far too sweet, the black truffles so pungent you won't be able to taste anything else, and it looks like they've poured gravy all over it too.

Should you decide to indulge no worries about bragging rights: you can bring a friend (they get a free burger when you order yours) and you'll also get a certificate in the mail (along with your keepsake glass) so you'll have both a witness and paper proof.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClCmO42_tQ0]

Thanks Adam!
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4&hl=en]

Pretty shweet graffimation (that's a new word I just invented).

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY&hl=en]

By Adam Buxton - the man is a comic genius.

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So I went for a full medical the other day at Preventicum, and they gave me a sweet DVD of my brain to take away with me. All my veins and major organs are there, and you can animate sections of it. Very cool. I made some of it into a movie, and added the Benny Hill theme tune because it makes everything funnier (or so I'm told).

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrpaCOb_BGk&hl=en]
Particularly the last ones...

Rather odd to be searching the internet for pictures of what happened when the telly was finished for the day. Still, have found some funny old test cards and idents (you might like the music too).

It's interesting how some of the designs still look sharp today. I'm not sure how much of that is due to me having rose-tinted specs on.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk28Ej2kLu0&hl=en]
Good montage from 1962 to 1985. Funny how the early ones look so modern.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPR1OftQoWs&hl=en]
Nice bit of music from the continuity man.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLXjb9aq2UI&hl=en]
Plus of course the Thames Television classic (oh how things have changed - no problems with phone-ins back then)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0-60Ag0jig&hl=en]
This was always my favourite, but with the Thames music.

Spectator Business is a new magazine from The Spectator team. Edited by Martin Vander Meyer, it's a monthly look at the City and so on.

In look and tone, its not a million miles from its parent publication. They have tried to change a few things on their website though. Regular feeds from Dow Jones Newswire complement their own features, blogs (in a section called 'Trading Floor') and a weekly update; all of which means a more considered feel to the deluge of financial dross we are bombarded by on other websites.

My one real criticism is the music that punctuates the otherwise very good video pieces (current one is on non-doms). It would be better without the synths. Still, the whole thing sits very neatly within the Spectator's main site.

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Melting ice-cream... van, originally uploaded by zoom_eric.

It's hot.

These photographs of Japanese custom scooters come from Pink Tentacle's search of bike shop galleries, auction sites, and Flickr. Follow the links for more images.

* * * * *

Bikeshop Rodeo has killer photos of their mean machines.

Suzuki Skywave

Honda Forza

Suzuki Skywave

Honda Fusion

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Gull Craft transformed Honda Forzas into these retro-futuristic KYBELE cyber scooters, and their photo report shows how to make your own. (Via AutoblogGreen)

KYBELE Cyber Scooter

KYBELE Cyber Scooter

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Flickr user tokyo scooter stuff has thrown together an awesome collection of found photos of custom rides.

Suzuki Skywave

Suzuki Skywave

Yamaha Maxam 3000 Concept @ Tokyo Motor Show

Yamaha Maxam @ Tokyo Motor Show

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This Yamaha Maxam is for sale on Yahoo! Auctions. With only a few hours left as of this writing, the highest bid is 400,000 yen (under $4,000).

Yamaha Maxam

* * * * *

From Alfa Auto:

Honda Forza

Yamaha Grand Majesty

* * * * *

From Lotaus:

Suzuki Skywave

* * * * *

From M-Style:

Suzuki Skywave

* * * * *

The Japanese Scooters Flickr pool has lots of great photos, too. Not sure what these guys are riding, but it looks like fun.

Beat (Photo by gori-jp)

More outrageous modes of transportation:

- Dekotora photo galleries
- Extreme Japanese custom vans
- Dekochari art bikes

Thank you Pink Tentacle!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzY3r76Ax48&hl=en]

Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke, Survivor) has a new book coming out: Snuff. As part of the jibber jabber in the run up to it, his marketing gang have commissioned some fake porno trailers (including this one).

Here is the book's blurb: "Six hundred dudes. One porn queen. A world record for the ages. A must-have movie for every discerning collector of things erotic." Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. With six hundred men. Snuff unfolds from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600, who await their turn on camera in a very crowded green room. This wild, lethally funny, and thoroughly researched novel brings the huge yet underacknowledged presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction at last. Who else but Chuck Palahniuk would dare do such a thing? Who else could do it so well, so unflinchingly, and with such an incendiary (you might say) climax?

Droog Design's Do Hit Chair is a cube made from .04" steel. It's shipped with a sledgehammer for you to customize it's shape yourself. Created by Marjin van der Poll, it's available from Unica Home for $6718 for one that he pre-hammered. A smash-your-own model is $5924.

Link (via Paper Magazine)

UPDATE: Here is a video of the chair being customized. Link

Post nabbed from BoingBoing.

A fascinating post from Pink Tentacle:

Kage-e (”shadow pictures”) — a popular form of Edo-period woodblock print — were appreciated by children and adults and commonly used as party gags. These pictures consist of two parts: a “shadow” image and a “real” image. The shadow image, which typically bears the shape of a common, easily identifiable object, is viewed first. The real image, viewed second, reveals the surprising true identity of the shadow.

Here’s a nice example by ukiyoe master Kuniyoshi (ca. 1852). It shows what appear to be the silhouettes of goldfish…

But look again…

It’s a flying tanuki crushing a hunter under the weight of its mammoth testicles.

Here are a few more kage-e by Hiroshige (ca. 1842). The shadows cast on shoji doors belong to men in interesting poses.

Pine tree

Uguisu (Japanese bush warbler) on a plum branch

Salt-dried fish

Kettle

Hawk

Stone lantern

Goose on a rock

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwlpTgbQTE&hl=en]

'nuff said.

Thanks BOB at Friday Linkage

This is the Uno. Aside from its looks, what sets it apart is that rather than coming from the darkest Honda garages or the research labs at Triumph, it was created in the workshop of Ben J Poss Gulak, an 18-year-old high school kid from Canada. He learned engineering from his grandfather, and has always tinkered.

Tinkering is a mean word for the Uno. The smog he saw at a recent trip to China (he is in the Canadian science team, which competes in international fairs) inspired him to start work on a compact electrical transport solution, and this is it. Frame is made from angle iron, supported by mountain bike wheels, driven by electric motors.

It has two gyros, one for forward and backward movement, the other for turning. Like a Segway, to go forwards, you simply lean forwards. To slow, you shift your weight back.

There's a big story and loads of pictures about it here.

(Thanks for the spot Gary!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglsrwrLJuk&hl=en]

The Apprentice. In Lego. You're fired.