David's posterous

Yes, you can fly to see this in person

Possiblythemostbeautifulobject

Those of you who regularly read my thoughts will recall that I have a favorite museum in San Francisco. It is the museum in the city that gets the most visitors: the SFO Museum, which is the collective name for the displays spread out through the terminals at our very fine if slightly foggy local airport. 

I stopped by the museum - you might call it "airport" - today to map the electric car chargers. (Domestic, just go to level 1 and you'll find them. I took pictures. Elsewhere, mail me and I'll tell you.)

But I didn't know about two exhibitions currently in the International Terminal:

Italian motorcycles from the 50s and 60s. All 1-cylinders. All cool. One has a Campagnolo front disk brake. For real. 
Microscopes from the very beginning (1590ish) to a little before your grandmother was born.

These are exhibitions that happen to tickle my fancies  If you are flying via SFO, maybe wander over to the main check-in area in International and look at what the extraordinary curators have pulled together. 

Look what we made

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For the past year, I've been working with some friends in Palo Alto to fix something. 

Home thermostats - those contraptions on the wall that you poke with your finger when you're cold or hot - have been around since the 1880s. You still poke your finger at them. They still turn the heater on and off. That's pretty much all they do. Some of them have more buttons and levers. Some of them use fancy words like deadband.

We tried to make it better. 

sweet ride

My pal José is now riding perhaps the coolest vehicle of the decade.  

One piece stem and bars - leather wrapped? Check.
Chrome bell? Check.
Rod chainguard? Check.
Cutouts on the front fork lugs? You know it.  

Move over, all you hipsters on your fixies with those clip-on bars. José is here, and he is astride The Ride. 

(download)

Before

Chillies

Clockwise from upper-right: 

  • Fresh Thai, which took a while to remove from the branches but have a sharp, quick bite.
  • Santa Fe grande. Highly recommended. 
  • Some kind of Capsicum annuum - maybe the so-called Bulgarian carrot, named after the famous chess opening move. 
  • Hungarian wax. These are nearly as hot as the Thai chillies.
  • New Mexico. Do not underestimate fresh New Mexico chillies, which are almost like the dry ones only very different.
  • Rice vinegar.
I didn't end up using any of the salt or the green serranos that are right above the salt.