I’ve only seen this once in my life but it should be standard on everything, keys that have a little light you can turn on so they illuminate the keyhole if you’re in complete darkness. I saw one keymaker at a mall have keys like this 6 years ago but since they no other auto keymaker I found had these available.
Agreed. I find the security make-believe so infuriating that I haven’t taken a vacation flight since the mid-90s. And for a lot of that period I had a pass anywhere on one of the legacy carriers. I could literally go to Europe for about $50 round trip if I wanted, while the continental US was free. I never once used the privilege.
I did travel via airline a few times, but only for business and then only when forced. For the latter portion of my career I actually drove my RV for business trips whenever possible, even if it meant using my own vacation time to complete the travel.
My thought exactly. Have the shoulder belts cross in front like a “Cross-your-heart brassiere”?
Consarn it!
Those actually do work; not worn as shown in your photo, in which the harness makes matters worse by crossing both breasts instead of just one, but adjusted wider or narrower so that the shoulder belts come either inside or outside the breasts.
I know this because back in the early 70’s my brother-in-law had a 50’s car retrofitted to add belts – which they did by adding a rollbar and four point harnesses. (Most people who saw this setup assumed that they used the car for racing. They almost never drove over 55mph; they were just extremely safety-conscious, at least about cars.) Those were the only harnesses I’ve ever worn that I could really adjust to fit me. I think I wore the straps outside the breasts.
I wonder whether it’s partly because I have worn those that I realize how badly standard belts fit me. There are a lot of women with breasts as big as mine or bigger; I’d think there’d be more attention paid to the subject.
– I’m short. I’ve already got the belts on the lowest attachment setting (in two vehicles) and they still land high on my shoulder. If I managed to get them under the armpit anyway, I think they’d pull on the armpit, and land even more across my breast; and the belt wouldn’t function as a shoulder belt but more as a second waist belt. I do want them to work.
I’m pretty sure you can buy key rings with a little flashlight attached for that purpose. You can certainly buy tiny flashlights designed to attach to a key ring.
My concern about this is related but different. I want the frequently-used controls to be operable by touch without having to look at them and take my eyes off the road. Climate controls and sound are the most obvious ones that aren’t.
Putting various controls on the steering wheel is a good move; the car I drive to work has volume up/down, audio source select, and cueing controls on the back of the steering wheel. There are other controls, such as to answer/refuse a phone call, on the front.
The climate controls are the standard rotary switches, which is good, but they are unilluminated on a control panel where neighbouring buttons and switches have illuminated symbols!
The thought of having many of these controls on a smooth touch-screen that would require looking at them is one strike against the Tesla-style interior design.
Something like this?
I’d like to have a flashlight button on my car’s remote control fob.
A garbage can with a foot driven air pump and vacuum release. After you put in a plastic bag you suction out the air with a couple pumps and pull the plastic tight to the can.
Alas, it would probably be too susceptible to garbage juice.
I hate that too. It takes forever for the water in one of the bathrooms to get hot. Unless it’s the shower, I usually end up saying F it and use the cold water just so I don’t have to let the water run and run and run.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s a great idea, but I have to wash the covers at least once a week. Besides the dog hair from 3 dogs, the slobber from the Great Dane is ridiculous. That would be a lot of screwing and unscrewing of fabric. It would end up full of holes.
I envision something like a toaster cozy or like a cover for a gas grill. You would be able to just drop it over in one piece and it would fit the arms, back, sides and cushions perfectly. No tucking at all. I know, I’m dreaming. There are too many variations in couch size and design. If I was crafty, I could probably figure out how to make one but I’m far from crafty…very far.
Sounds like some of the furniture I saw in an IKEA catalog (several years ago). Some furnishings have slipcovers designed specifically to fit them.
Agree 100%. This is why I mentioned touch screens, but I didn’t elaborate. I’m astonished that we are still putting touch screens in moving vehicles of any kind.
For god’s sake, we’ve understood the ergonomics of this for decades. We incorporated HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick) in fighter jets eons ago, which means we know the value of allowing an operator to keep their attention out the window where it belongs. It’s arguably even more important in cars. So we are actually regressing in this regard. I suspect it’s because screens may be cheaper than manufacturing actual buttons and knobs, and the general public thinking they are cool.
A quiet vacuum cleaner.
The world would be a better place.
And my house would be cleaner.
And my cat would be less spooked.
Before my lovely wife goes to the grocery, she takes a picture of the yogurt drawer. In the store, she can look at the pic to see which flavors we need. BTW, we always need Cinnamon Roll yogurt. She also switched to another list app after Alexa refused to quit making suggestions for the grocery list.
If you’re building a house, you can get a central vacuum system installed. The noisy vac lives in the basement or garage, and you just plug in a hose to one of several ports throughout the house. The twirly bits in the carpet nozzle run on airflow, and the other nozzles are nearly silent.
A while back, there was some talk of electric cars getting equipped with some kind of noise maker so pedestrians, especially blind ones, could hear you coming. I never heard of any that made it to production. If they ever do that, I hope they let you choose the sound; I’d choose the sound of a horse-drawn carriage.
A balm or ointment that actually works on chapped lips and peeling cuticles.
I’ve had both all my life, and no lip balm or cuticle cream has ever done squat. They soften the peely area for awhile, but nothing ever makes the condition go away.
I’ve come to realize that the issue is because I’m a pale blonde living in a dry Mediterranean climate. Whenever I visit a northerly, damp area, these conditions get a lot better.
I don’t see how any balm/cream is going to make the issue go away permanently. You just have to keep applying the stuff, because the cause is recurring.
You’re right about the climate; but it doesn’t have do with whether you’re a pale blonde or not. It has to do with whether you’ve got dry skin. I’ve got Mediterranean olive skin and have – well, used to have – black hair, and I need (and used to need) both heavy duty skin cream and several applications of lip balm daily, even in a northerly damp area. It’s better in humid weather, though, and worse in the winter when the air’s much dryer, especially inside. When I’ve briefly been in extremely humid climates I hardly needed the lip balm at all.
I want a torch (flashlight) that emits an electromagnetic field such that whatever I point it at glows but the device itself puts out no discernible light.