Chasing Ice represents an effort to document climate change first hand. It compresses years worth of melting glaciers into seconds and readily shows how the arctic is changing.
If you live near San Francisco, you can see this movie next week at the Castro Theater. It will screen on February 6th.
According to the film’s website, you can also host your own screening beginning in the middle of this year.
Here’s a really nice video showing showing a Lufthansa Airbus A380-800 on its approach, and landing, into San Francisco. Have a look in case you’re curious about what happens at the front end of the plane — by which I mean the flight deck, not first class.
This is a trailer for a 140 minute film from PilotsEYE documenting the last flights of Lufthansa’s highest ranking captain, Jürgen Raps, before his retirement. In another trailer he marvels that the career choice he made 41 years ago was exactly the right one and adds, “Live your dreams, don’t dream your life.” Wise words.
The documentary is in English and German with English subtitles.
In the early 1990s, when I was studying industrial design at Cal. State, Long Beach, I saw a full-size rendering a student had done of an enclosed motorcycle. I thought — wow! — that is the future of transportation. Now a San Francisco company, Lit Motors, is making that future a reality in the form of an electric, two-person vehicle called the C-1.
The benefits of this type of vehicle are many. The low frontal area reduces drag. This, combined with weight savings of ditching half a car, means efficiency without sacrificed performance. As a bonus, you get the feel of a motorcycle while retaining the weather protection of a roof and doors. And with the C-1 in particular, you also get style, unlike so many other economy vehicles out there. I’m looking at you, Prius. Read the rest of this entry »
I spotted this heady mix of a motorcycle in San Francisco a while back. It looks like a vaguely Japanese heart beating in the frame of cafe-racing bobber, set up with knobbies and a long swingarm for hillclimbing.
I have no idea what it is but it’s awesome—much better than the sum of its originally far-flung parts. Hats off to whoever created this crazy thing.
I salute you!
Update: This bike is a highly modified Yamaha TW200.
My Montero gets a new set of Yokohama Geolander A/T-S tires.
I took my truck to Kahn & Keville in San Francisco today have a new set of Yokohama Geolander A/T-S tires installed.
These tires perform well on the street and yet sacrifice little off-road. I’ve taken them through mud, water, rocks, dirt, and snow, and never felt like I needed more tire. The only time I’ve noticed them lose traction is in snow deeper than a few inches, but that’s what chains are for.
If you’re looking for a versatile set of all-terrain tires, I recommend them. This is my second set. The first set lasted about 40,000 miles.
If you get new tires, don’t forget to rotate them every 6,000 to 8,000 miles. Read the rest of this entry »
If, like me, you’re inexplicably fascinated by construction sites but don’t have the time or the wherewithal to spend all day watching them, you’ll enjoy this.
I recently came across this time-lapse film of the corner of 30th and Church in San Francisco where, in mid-October of this year, MUNI replaced some tracks. This amazing video handily compresses three-and-half days (and about a million dollars’ worth) of ’round-the-clock construction into about twelve readily-watchable minutes. Consider it armchair travel.
This short film was posted on Vimeo by user Ken Murphy. Watch it here or click this link.
