When we sampled Rolls-Royce’s delectable Phantom Drophead Coupé (the perfect complement to warm Tuscan sun), the Goodwood-based manufacturer was already putting the finishing touches to the final piece in the Phantom fleet. Joining the Drophead, and sitting alongside the hugely accomplished saloon and extended wheelbase versions, is this new Drophead Coupé, a peerless four-seater based on the 2006 101EX concept.

While the Drophead had more than a hint of nautical elegance, with its teak rear deck and sisal floor mats, the Coupé is a more elegant, sporting affair, if something with the inherent grace and presence of a Rolls-Royce could be defined as sporting. Ample power is provided by the company’s vast 6.75-litre V12 (kiss goodbye to your congestion charge discount), giving the car performance that belies its hefty proportions.

The company’s designers have done well to soften the bulk, creating flowing lines that accommodate rear-hinged doors (with push-button closing, naturally), and a drop down picnic boot for two. Forward vision at tricky junctions is provided by a bumper-mounted camera, while there’s the option of having a ’starlight headlining’, a fibre-optic light show embedded in the roof lining.

Craftsmanship, engineering, materials and finish are all first rate. Although Rolls-Royce are readying a more mass-market saloon to tap into the sub £200,000 market, the Phantom Coupé demonstrates more than ever that their core customer base has no need to fret.

Photo courtesy of: Jeff Voth – CarNews Media

In a quickly developing story, it appears that Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster issued an apology for ”acting like a jerk” a day earlier to push a Sacramento man to cease and desist his Craigslistblog.org site

Buckmaster was apparently was feeling media pressure and “getting some well-deserved flak” after firing off several terse emails to blog owner Tim White of Sacramento, to shut down his Craigslistblog.

Now that Buckmaster has backed off, the popular new blog site is still up and running.  A review shows it has many interesting articles and opinions on the popular website, offering a balance of positive and negative perspectives.  Full article

For as long as I can recall, I have been completely obsessed with designer handbags. I spent the majority of my youth dreaming of the day when I could afford to buy my favorite designer handbags. Here I am, some ten years later, still looking forward to that day. While I have been known to skip out on my bills to buy the latest trendy handbag, I have yet to spend more than $1000.00 on an individual bag. A girl can still dream, can’t she?

I was leafing through some catalogs over the weekend, and I was amazed at how incredibly expensive some of the high-end designer handbags really are. I knew they were expensive, but I had no clue how very expensive. Oh…the innocence of youth! I decided that it would be useful for our legion of faithful readers to have a handy reference of the most expensive designer handbags on the planet.

So here goes… It has been written about countless times in the press and in the blogosphere, but I simply cannot resist this little gem! If I had to name an all-time favorite design house, Fendi would be the one. I don’t know how they manage to do it, but they are consistently able to strike an incredible balance between innovation and classic design in all of their creations. Fendi designs some of the most exciting handbags in the fashion industry, and the “B.Bag” is one of the most sought-after handbags in the world. One might think that the $30,000 price tag might be a deterrent, but not for those with the means to support their addiction!

Another bag that has given me far too many sleepless nights is the Hermes “Birkin” bag! These bags were named after Jane Birkin, the oh-so-fabulous British actress and fashion icon. These bags are often duplicated, but never truly replicated. With a price tag of over $20,000, it is easy to understand why they are a favorite of vendors of cheap, imitation handbags. As you are likely aware, these bags are available by special order only.

Furthermore, the final costs will very much be dependent on the materials and hardware used in their construction. Wow! Do I need a Sugar Daddy, or what? If there was one other bag that creeps into my dreams with any regularity, it would be the “Muse” from Yves Saint Laurent. It is very much like a traditional bowling bag in shape and design. The first time I saw her was at Saks on Fifth Ave in NYC, and from that moment I knew one day she would be mine. If I had my way, I would choose the oh-so-supple white crocodile version. I cannot think of anything I would rather spend $20,000 on…aside from the “Birkin” bag mentioned above. Wouldn’t I make the perfect girlfriend? Wanna go shopping sometime?

Aston Martin could co-operate with Daimler AG’s Mercedes on ventures ranging from engines to new models, the British luxury carmaker’s majority shareholder, Kuwait’s Investment Dar, said on Tuesday.

Adham Charanoglu, business development manager for Investment Dar, which bought Aston Martin from Ford Motor Co last March, said it had held talks with Mercedes and with LVMH’s Louis Vuitton and PPR’s Gucci on branded merchandising.

Any brand development would need to be at the top end of the luxury market, with opportunities stretching from apparel, owners’ events and track racing to real estate, Charanoglu said, adding Aston Martin’s merchandising revenue would rise from $100 million in 2006 to more than $300 million by 2009. But Charanoglu said production would continue in the UK.  Full article

A substantial number of online food lovers, as well as many Las Vegas locals I know, credit Bellagio with offering the best buffet in town. It costs $20 at lunch, and the crowds can vary from teeming to nonexistent to teeming again in a matter of minutes. If the line swerves round the corner, don’t sweat. It moves quickly.

It is, as buffets go, classy. Among the many choices: a composed salad station offering a decent niçoise; kurobuta pork shoulder braised in apple cider with apple compote; dry-rubbed, St. Louis-style ribs; pizzas that emerge constantly fresh from the oven; curried duck breast (the most polished dish I sampled); sushi rolls; turkey with stuffing; and soft-serve ice cream.

Roving servers are sweet souls who won’t prod you to rush. I spied folks who looked like they’d been lingering for quite some time.

A remodeling of the buffet’s Parisian café setting, street lamps and all, will soon occur. No word yet on what the new look might be, though the hotel will be installing a new station offering – wait for it – flambéed dishes. Yeehaw!

Bellagio
3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South
702-693-8111
www.bellagio.com/restaurants

If you want to live like Hugh Hefner for a night, be prepared to dish out at least $40,000 to rent out the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa at The Palms in Las Vegas. Sitting atop the Palm’s Fantasy Tower is a two-story luxury suite, modeled after the world famous Playboy Mansion.

This incredible space, 9,000 square feet in all, takes up the entire 52nd floor of the hotel and showcases the best of everything including: a large living room, full bar, media room, dining room, fully equipped gym with sauna and a spa-style treatment room.

For some unexpected panache, enjoy the glass elevator, eight-foot, round rotating bed, an extra-large show tub, and pop-up plasma TV.

In the Hefner villa, the iconic bunny is everywhere – in the middle of the pool, in the artwork, even facing the Vegas Strip 18 feet high on the side of the building. They’re not quite yet sewn on the suite’s bathrobes. “We’ll get that on there, of course,” Palms owner George Maloof, says with a grin. “How could we not?”

“Our aim is to create something you’ve never seen before,” Maloof continues.

All this is sweet, but the true centerpiece is the cantilevered Playboy Jacuzzi pool (see above) with a glass end wall and the ultimate spectacular view of The Strip that seats you and 24 of your best friends. Time to go make that reservation!

In a study that could make marketing managers and salespeople rub their hands with glee, scientists have used brain-scanning technology to shed new light on the old adage, “You get what you pay for.”

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford’s business school have directly seen that the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price. And that’s true even when, unbeknownst to the test subjects, it’s exactly the same Cabernet Sauvignon with a dramatically different price tag.

Specifically, the researchers found that with the higher priced wines, more blood and oxygen is sent to a part of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, whose activity reflects pleasure. Brain scanning using a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) showed evidence for the researchers’ hypothesis that “changes in the price of a product can influence neural computations associated with experienced pleasantness,” they said.

The study, by Hilke Plassmann, John O’Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel, was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research, along with other studies the authors allude to, are putting a serious dent in economists’ notions that experienced pleasantness of a product is based on its intrinsic qualities.

“Contrary to the basic assumptions of economics, several studies have provided behavioral evidence that marketing actions can successfully affect experienced pleasantness by manipulating nonintrinsic attributes of goods. For example, knowledge of a beer’s ingredients and brand can affect reported taste quality, and the reported enjoyment of a film is influenced by expectations about its quality,” the researchers said. “Even more intriguingly, changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles.”

Article by: Stephen Shankland

Thomas Keller is a world famous chef. At the age of  52-years old, the French-American chef has won countless awards. His restaurants have been top ranked in Michelin stars including the highest three stars for the  French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, and the gourmet New York eatery Per Se.

Keller participated in an interview with Reuters. He spoke about his cooking philosophy, favorite dishes and the most difficult thing about being a chef.

When asked what was his cooking motto, Keller replied, “One of our overriding philosophies is the law of diminishing returns, which is: the more you have of something the less you like it. We establish our compositions based on the view that when you are finished with a dish, you wished you had one more bite. That way you have reached the highest flavor for that dish and it becomes memorable.”  Full article

They’re elegant, efficient, and exciting and require very little infrastructure. Airships have the potential to be more efficient than airplanes, cars, and even passenger trains and barges.

The Manned Cloud, with its fins and whale-like shape, resembles the Thunderbird 2. But, unlike the huge International Rescue rocket in the puppet series, this gigantic airship won’t be roaring off in a blast of flame and smoke to any international emergencies.

Instead, its designers say the 700 foot, super airship will gently lift 40 passengers into the sky for a serene cruise of the world.

The airship is a floating hotel called the Manned Cloud, and – according to its designers – it will be capable of circling the globe in a few days. The 20 bedrooms will provide the ultimate room with a view as the airship cruises at a height of 18,000ft. It has a restaurant, a library, a lounge and a gym on the first deck.

On the second level there will be 20 passenger rooms, terraces with panoramic windows, a spa and a bar room. The airship is powered by a giant rear propeller and also has two further engines pointing downwards for vertical take-off.

However, if you’re thinking of checking in, you will have to wait until its expected launch date of 2020.

Massaud, the French company behind the venture, is billing it as an ecologically friendly way to travel, leaving little impact on the environment – and eliminating the need for hotels.

Designer Jean-Marie Massaud’s team has been working in conjunction with the French National Office of Airship Research on the project since 2005.

A spokesman for Massaud, AurÈlie Ullrich, said: “The idea at the heart of this project is that passengers can see fantastic places like Thailand and the Caribbean without the need to build ugly hotels everywhere.

“It could land for a few days or for a week if there is a big event going on.

“We don’t want to be carrying around gallons and gallons of heavy petrol or diesel and we are looking into fuelling it with some form of gas.”

The cost of a night on the airship is yet to be decided, but it is likely to be out of the reach of most pockets.

However, it could provide the perfect hideaway for camera-shy celebrities.

Gucci is the flagship brand of the French luxury group – PPR. It is the world’s most coveted luxury brand according to a global luxury brands survey by The Nielsen Company.

In the latest survey, one in five global consumers said they would choose to buy Gucci (over any other luxury brand) if money was no option, making the Italian fashion brand that was revived by Tom Ford in the 1990’s the most coveted and aspirational luxury brand in the world today.

Chanel and Calvin Klein tied for second place in Nielsen’s 48-country global online survey, that was conducted in November 2007. In fourth place came Louis Vuitton, followed by Giorgio Armani, Christian Dior and Versace.

Two years ago in the same survey, Gucci also shared top honours in the survey with Giorgio Armani. But Armani has since slipped to fourth place in current global rankings.

Photo courtesy of: Heavenly.com

Although it’s only March at this mountain resort with the killer Lake Tahoe view, plans have already been established for May. Unless the exceedingly cooperative weather turns angry and decides to reverse course, skiers and snowboarders will be getting in their final runs until May 4 this year at Heavenly. In an unprecedented move, the South Lake Tahoe resort decided over two months out that it would extend its closing date, which rarely ventures into May and was originally supposed to shut down its massive, 31-lift system by April 20.

Of course, the reason for an extended season is the massive amount of snow Heavenly and all Northern California resorts have received this winter. Despite a slow start, the snow began arriving by mid-December, providing an early Christmas present. And it kept right on snowing through January and into early February.

Heavenly Mountain Resort received 167 inches of snow in January, marking the most snowfall in a single month since the resort began keeping data in 1975. The record snowfall has Heavenly’s snow pack 23 percent above average and heading into the second week of March the snowfall had exceeded 300 inches overall.

“We’re in one of those epic snow cycles that the Sierra mountain range is famous for,” said Blaise Carrig, Heavenly’s chief operating officer. “We beat the next closest month by 20 inches. There is no destination in the U.S. that has the kind of snow we have right now.”

Frankly, the Tahoe resorts were due for a wet winter. Two years ago was a down season and 2007 was characterized by warm temperatures and below-average snowfall. That combination led to a forgettable season in not only Tahoe but all of California where skier/snowboarder visits were down 1.6 million from the previous year (7.8 million).

For Heavenly season-pass holders like Justin St. Onge, it’s about time. The Marquette, Mich. native has been waiting for a season like this since he decided to call South Lake Tahoe his home six years ago.

“Yeah, definitely, it’s been a pretty good year, especially after the last two, which were horrible,” said Onge, 29. “We’ve had consistent snow all season.”
Russ Pecoraro, Heavenly’s director of communications, says extending the season two more weeks is a way to reward loyal pass-holders like Onge, who skis at least five days a week thanks in part to living only a few blocks away.

“It’s a chance to give people like our pass holders the value that they didn’t get last year,” Pecoraro said. “But it is important to know that it is weather dependent. If we don’t get more snow, we may not extend it.”

Like many Heavenly loyalists, Onge gravitates toward the tree runs, especially on powder days, which were frequent in January. One of Heavenly’s greatest drawing cards for expert boarders and skiers like Onge has always been its abundance of trees.

“Heavenly is so big and has so many tree areas that you can always find secret stashes (of snow) that no one knows about,” he said. “Even a couple weeks after a storm you can still find some stashes no one has skied.”

Good news for all Heavenly visitors this year has been the long awaited upgrade of the Olympic chair, which went from a dreadfully slow, old-fashioned two-seat wooden bench to a high-speed quad that cut the ride time from 18 minutes to around five.

“It was the type of lift that if you rode up with someone you had time to hear their entire life story,” laughs Pecoraro. “Olympic had been underutilized in the past, now a lot of people head over that way, so we got the desired result, people moving away from the Comet and Dipper lift.”

Not only does the Olympic lift now transport people up the hill in no time, they can easily access three new runs – The Pine, Cloud 9 and Bohemian Grove. Cloud 9 is a classic groomer run, The Pine is a mild tree run that is frequently groomed, while Bohemian Grove offers the type of tree skiing that makes Heavenly, well, Heavenly.

“It’s beautiful in that area, but it does get skied out in a hurry,” Onge said.

Article by: Jeffrey Weidel – freelance writer