Awesome. Enough said.

The Talus Watches are an interesting concept. This is the way they work. The first watch, called “AboutTime”, gives you an approximation of the time. “Going on quarter past one”, “almost six”, “a bit past three”, etc. Perfect if you want to take life a little more easy.

Then, there’s the “Timeline” watch, in which you’re only shown the hour, and not the minutes. Then, the numeral will slowly make it’s way from the bottom the the watch’s face, to the top. The minutes are thus expressed as a proportion of the distance traveled. In other words, if the number 2 is halfway up, you know it’s 2:30.

Talus Watch Tells Approximate Time [OhGizmo!]

Here is an interesting list of the best- and worst-selling cars by a variety of manufacturers. Forbes cut out intentionally low-niche cars like multi-million dollar supercars, but the results are still interesting. For example, Porsche’s best seller last year was the $42,000 Cayenne SUV, while its worst was the $45,000 Boxster convertible.

Every mainstream automaker wants to sell as many cars as it can for as much money as possible, but knows it can’t do that. So it designs different models for different price points and calculates production to match anticipated demand. Automakers love it when cars, especially higher-priced ones, sell out, and hate it when cars are left languishing on showroom floors, burning holes in the companies’ pockets and the dealers’.

Best- And Worst-Selling Cars By Company [Forbes]

Ted Breaux, the chemist-turned-Absinthe-brewer we’ve featured before, was on G4TV’s Attack of the Show last night. While I couldn’t determine whether or not the hosts were seeing green fairies, Ted did have some interesting things to say.

Surprisingly, Ted (who calls himself an Absinthe historian) claims that the classic “pour over sugar into glass, light sugar on fire” method using that cool spoon is actually not the traditional way to drink Absinthe. According to him, “the best way to ruin a drink is to dissolve sugar in it.” Apparently the sugar cube method arose because some wanna-be drunkards tried to brew their own Absinthe back in the day, but it tasted awful so they had to sweeten it just to stomach the taste. Ted recommends simply mixing the Absinthe with water.

You can still order the fairy over at Ted’s site, Jade Liquers [Product Link]

I remember building one of these with my Pop back in the day. We also tried the visible engine, this see through engine that I don’t think I ever finished. Come to think of it, I think was too antsy to finish any of this stuff. I suppose I can wait to see if Kasper might get a kick out of it.

Product Page [MamodSpares]

I understand the desire for businesses to appear original or avante garde, but this just seems like a ridiculous waste of time and money to me. What in the world is anyone supposed to do with this creation? Will it be displayed for eternity in a museum? Will some chocolate lover with more dollars than sense purchase it and keep the rocks as a souvenir?

The $5mn Valentine Chocolate has broke the records of the latest $1.65mn Diamond Fruit Cake. This time it is not created by a Chef or Chocolatier but by a Tokyo based jeweler. The bitter chocolate was baked with over 2000 sparkling diamonds, in the mold of an African continent. The combo becomes unusual as two luxury products, bitter chocolates and diamonds are set on the theme of Nationality.

A  Valentine Gift: The Most Expensive Chocolate Designed for Your Valentine [Foodmall via Born Rich]

Help us help you this year. Fill out our 1st Annual WWR reader’s survey and register to win a black Nooka ZOT watch courtesy of Nooka.com. Deadline for entries is Midnight, January 31, 2006.

All email addresses will be destroyed after the contest is over. Please tell us what you think about WWR and tell us a bit about yourself so we can expand and improve our coverage next year.

Survey Site

The name Pazzo literally translates to “crazy,” which might explain the kind of mad-scientist-in-a-wine-cellar approach to this unique blend. If you’re a fan of reds (personally I’ll stick to whites), this may be one to add to your list. Check out the history lesson, tasting notes and food pairing suggestions over at Vinography.

What is this, some sort of twisted Australian/French/Italian Frankenstein? Actually it’s just a very nice medium bodied dry red that has a unique character and is an excellent food wine. I won’t go so far as to call it genius — Janzen may have to do a bit more meddling with his chemistry set before it gets there, but it can’t be considered anything other than an unqualified success.

2003 Bacio Divino ” Pazzo” Red Wine, Napa [Vinography]

Tired of chewing gum that doesn’t contain real, hand-picked rainforest tree sap ingredients? Worry not, my tree hugging companions, Glee Gum is here to save you!

Glee not only offers chicle-based tangerine, cinnamon and peppermint gum, they also offer a do-it-yourself kit. Part science lesson and part eco-chic custom experience, these kits also reinforce the virtuous values of sustainability and natural over artificial.

They also offer DIY kits for chocolate and gummie candies as well. Glee’s Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kits [Cool Hunting]

Here is an interesting little site that turns somebody’s trash into somebody else’s treasure. From the pop can airplane seen here to an abacus manufactured from an old shoe and a few pencils, see if anything piques your interest. There are also a series of science experiments that demonstrate different properties of magnetism–fun and educational!

“The best thing a child can do with a toy is to break it!” Toys From Trash [Site Link]

If we were to peer backward from, say, 50 years hence at the books available today, we could probably identify dozens or hundreds that had something useful to say had we only listened. From today’s perspective, however, it is difficult to identify those insightful passages, let alone the books that contain them, from among the thousands that address some aspect of the future.But suppose we tried for something more modest – a list of 50 books covering broad topics that seem likely to be important in thinking about the future human condition. What might that list of 50 books look like?

The reality is that most look like really dry reading (and, coincidentally, most of them are). The analysis comes from experts who know what they’re talking about (Keynes, Nye, Friedman, etc.) but if you don’t have a better use of your time than reading the last four U.N. Human Development Reports, I suggest you find one.

50 Books for Thinking About the Future Human Condition [Rand Pardee Center]