The Hot List: Volume 33

Features, Lifestyle I By John Beltz Snyder I April 13, 2012
Every week we sift through a truly amazing amount of “stuff” in the dozen or so hours we spend online—you know, the time spent not driving sweet cars. A lot of the cool stuff we find has to do specifically with new cars, naturally, but there’s also a huge amount of awesomeness that doesn’t completely fit in the normal Winding Road world. Once, we were in the habit of simply reading, watching, or talking amongst ourselves about this web detritus, but recently we thought it might be a good idea to start sharing it with you all. Thus, The Hot List.
 
We aim to bring you a list of the most interesting bits of information we run across. Ten worth-knowing-about things that may or may not be related directly to the world of cars, but all of which we think our typical enthusiast readers will be able to really dig into. We don’t know, from week to week, what will show up on this list, which is part of the fun for us and for you.

Read, enjoy, and comment. If you happen to know of something that you think would make for a good inclusion on next week’s list, drop us a line at [email protected].

 
 
 
 
If you hate going shopping, we don’t blame you. The crowds, the wasted time, the horrible music piped through the stereo—it stinks. But sometimes you gotta buy things, and often these are things you’d like to try on first. So it is with sunglasses. Ray-Ban, though, has this website you can see what you’d look like wearing their various shades without leaving your desk. Shut-ins (hey, we’re not judging) rejoice!
 
 
 
 
Flying a kite with string is for your old man, man. If you want to get with the times, you need to fly this remote control kite. It’s got an electric motor attached to a propeller, and can be controlled from up to 500 feet away.
 
 
 
 
Are you, or do you know a gal who is fancies some nice shoes (don’t we all?) and obsesses over automobiles (she’s a keeper!)? While these retro-car-inspired shoes might be reserved for more courageous and devoted fashionistas, we humble-footwear folk can’t help but take notice and admire.
 
 
 
Now, to the man cave! The Brew Cave has enough room four thirty cases and four kegs of beer, with an external tap built in. Where’s our winter coat? We’re moving in.
 
 
 
 
These very, very fancy foosball tables from Teckell are made in Italy, and are designed in the Adriano Design Studio. They offer several different models, each employing transparent panels and elegant metalwork. We’re holding out on buying one, though, until they do a collaboration with Ferrari.
 
 
 
 
It can be annoying taking the roof on and off your Jeep (not to mention finding a place to put it). Rugged Ridge offers this power soft top kit for four-door ’07 to ’12 Wranglers. It costs $5000, and comes with a three-year warranty.
 
 
 
 
We’re suckers for reference books. “The bigger, the better,” say we, and this giant Earth Platinum Atlas might take the cake. It is 6 by 4.5 feet with 128 pages and around 30 photographs. It is selling for a surprisingly reasonable $100,000.
 
 
 
 
Oh, Canada. The Canadian Mint is creating a special dinosaur coin series, starting with the Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai. The best part: turn off the lights, and the dinosaur’s skeleton glows in the dark! Great, now we have a new hobby. Numismatics, man!
 
 
 
 
Science, man! Kobe University researchers are toying with the idea of a simple computer powered by swarms of crabs. By scaring them into running for their lives, the crustaceans can be directed into AND, OR, and NOT logic gates, essentially performing basic computations. We at Winding Road are trying something similar, only using CREEP, PINCH, and GET EATEN logic gates.
 
 
 
 
Want to see a Mazda2 driving on the walls using centrifugal force? Of course you do.
 
 
 
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