The history of Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel engaged in production of World’s most outrageous and high-priced sporting goods dates back to ages. Having witnessed the Chanel snowboard with trompe l’oeil “quilting” followed by £1,235 Chanel skis utilized by Victoria Beckham in 2004. And the latest falling in number is Chanel bicycle, a pink Chanel tennis racket fixed with tennis balls. And updating its profile today stands $20,000 fly fishing rod (thanks to Lagerfeld for keeping the forte up) inviting the richie-rich daddy. The Chanel rod is scrupulously tied with monochrome Chanel flies and renowned “double C” logo on its gossamer wings. The flying rod comes packed in a quilted black leather box.

P.S.: The seemingly budding relation of Chanel with the sport of fly fishing is ages old as the fashion house’s founder, Coco Chanel, was a devoted angler who whet her skills while dating the Duke of Westminster in the 20s.

Via Guardian

When conventional forms of ultrasounds seem an interesting way to enjoy the company of your to-be born baby, here comes a chance to give your imagination a relaxing time. Against their ordinary (till now) black and white and coarse or difficult to make out features, this innovative forms focuses upon giving you a clearer picture of the movement happening in your fetus. As a part of medical imaging, it is now possible to take a look at the 4-D time-lapse ultrasound images of your child. It provides comprehensive, color imagery of your fetus along with facial expression.

Above it, you can experience this beautiful form of ultrasound that seems no less than a spa treatment and ignores the burden if making frequent visits to your concerned physician.

Via BookofJoe / WashingtonPost

News is the long awaited unveiling of iPhone 3G (as said by Steve) finally materialized at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on 9 June. Before getting into the technical specks involved, you would be glad to know that the phone is twice as fast as half the price. The new iPhone(TM) 3G from Apple sports revolutionary features of iPhone along with 3G networking, which is twice as fast as the first generation iPhone with integrated GPS for extended site based mobile services. The integrated iPhone 2.0 software offers support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and offers access to hundreds of third party applications by now built with the lately released iPhone SDK. It is retailed at $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model in the U.S. and is expected to reach 70 countries during this year.

It will initiate its availability by making to 22 countries i.e. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US. Available in two shades black and white, the phone provides a 10 hours of 2G talk time and 5 hours of 3G talk time with a 24 hours of audio playback.

More pics from the event:

Via Gizmodo

At the lately held Design Miami/Basel fair in Switzerland, Brad was found hunting for some exquisite and artistic forms of furniture to populate his new home abroad. And the gesture turned out into headlines for Brad Pitt as he ended up inking a pricey deal of $293,000 with a rococo styled Cinderella table. Dutch designer Jeroen Verhoeven used a solo chunk of Carrara marble to design this elite hollow white marble table. Available in counted six editions, the table gave him an opportunity to make up to news. Besides the table, his reflected an inclination towards few other unique items viz. an aluminum woven rug and a gold lacquer-coated fiberglass sofa. No matter what you say, but for sure he has his own way to experiment with his time, wealth or aptitude

Via | Bloomberg

Weighing 8-kilogram, the royal “Densuke” watermelon, full-grown at the northern island of Hokkaido lately got auctioned for 650,000 yen ($6,100) in Japan, making it the world’s most expensive watermelon ever sold. A nautical products dealer inked a neat deal with this black outsized watermelon, as an attempt to prop up local cultivation. The country is known for owning pricey melons and is often given as gifts.

Exemplifying this was another auction of “Yubari” cantaloupe melons that was held last month and generated a jaw-dropping price of $23,500. It was the first fortunate one out of the total 65 produced during season’s initial harvest.

Via FoxNews

Very often, we hear about a bundle of complaints attached with flights offering an impression that air travel these days is no less than a hell. Earlier flying used to be a fun activity against its present status where it has crooked into an absolute errand. With long lines, confined seating, you are expected to pay extra dough in the name of amenities. And in return feel fortunate if they happen to ask you for water. I doubt but Newsweek report claims that amidst ongoing scenario and floating bad thoughts about air travel, there is still some good there in skies provided you are ready to spill over the hefty amount.

There are airlines (mostly flying overseas) that propose magnificence like champagne, caviar, private cabins, and lie-flat beds. The eight most opulent airlines in the world enlisted by Newsweek in order are:

· Virgin Atlantic
· Qatar Airways
· Emirates
· Singapore
· British Airways
· Qantas
· Thai Airways
· Swiss International Airlines

Here are few interesting shoots:

Via Gadling

The very mention of few $$$$ over at EliteChoice gives my readers an indication that am going to unveil some diamond, Swarovski or precious stone encrusted product. But here I have an invitation for richie-rich die-hard book lovers who wish to extend their reading experience. How about keeping hands on some luxury publishing? Called ‘Michelangelo: La Dotta Mano’ (Michelangelo: The Wise Hand), the book comprises of a number of shoots of the Renaissance master’s statuettes and is seen as a much-hyped about coffee table book available on stands this year. Priced at $155,000, the book is available with a 500 year warranty. But a question remains, if not diamonds then what is that one thing that makes it demand such a hefty sum.

Skilled artisans from diverse grounds have worked together to produce this pricey book that is no less than an ‘art by itself’. The photographs are carved on high quality handmade paper with a black marble cover being a scale imitation of the “Madonna della Scala” (“Madonna of the Steps”), a bas-relief of the Virgin and Child sculptured by Michelangelo. Weighing 46.2 pound, the book is available in counted edition of 99 only and would make you wait for another six months from the day of placing an order. Go ahead and tag your name in owning this opulence.

Via BallerHouse/ NYT

We have been covering magnificent to minuscule forms of computer but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh have ventured into a different domain to develop a device called ‘mind-reading’ computer. Hoping to be a fully functional mind-reading machine, it aims at predicting the activity prototype a brain tends to create for a specific word, hence offering a better indulgence of how and where brain stores facts. They are also hoping that the mechanism would enable them improve treatments for language chaos and learning disabilities.

Around nine volunteers have taken the initiative to undergo this training process. They were provided with 58 words and were asked to enquire about the connotation and value of the words. As a part of the process, brain scans were done via magnetic resonance imaging, thereby capturing their thinking process amidst different words.

Then the computer was assigned with two new words and images and was anticipated to pair them up correctly, which finally happened. Tom Mitchell, leading then study disclosed the next step is to test brain motion for idioms rather than individual words.

Via ComputerWorld

Till day term ‘daylightning’ has earned success in inviting eyeballs in our environmental glossary. And your claim that it is the latest and much-in-news way to be green is also partially true. The latter argument—to be really haute holds lot of value with the coming of ‘SunTrackerOne’ by Ciralight that does away with the traditional ways of digging a hole in home’s roof and inviting sunrays to spread all across.

The new definition of daylight refers to the technology implemented in buildings purposely designed or retrofitted to proficiently imprison and allocate daylight as their chief lighting source. But till date it has been in a passive mode. Thanks to Ciralight for bringing this innovative technology into action by unveiling ‘SunTrackerOne’ that focuses upon distribution of the light in a cost effective manner. The system was displayed at the 2008 Las Vegas ‘LIGHTFAIR International 2008′ show. This lighting solution developed especially for commercial buildings is competent of turning off synthetic lights for up to 12 hours a day. Against passive skylights, this highly developed daylighting uses sun-tracking expertise and mirrors to align with the sun throughout the day.

Via | Aving

The buzz about the 2012 Olympics would stay alive until the game gets over. If it one end, the debate is about the proceedings scheduled then the other worth-considering issue seems to be the demountable nature of the erected stadium. Idea is to reutilize the stadium after a particular event gets over. If it happens it would be the first ever step with a revolutionary approach that would keep the cost within budget and invite poorer countries to play host. Folks, don’t doubt it to be a travelling circus. But how is it possible? The prospective stadium needs to be constructed using flat pack materials like an Ikea bookshelf that allows it a free movement to another Olympics city. The stadium is to have a stable 25,000 seat main arrangement and particularly for the Olympics, it will install a 55,000 seat upper tier.

In this regards, London is in talks with possible 2016 host Chicago because “both cities are decisive to construct main stadiums with minute numbers of permanent seats while developing giant seating gallows for the two weeks of competition, thereby accommodating around 80,000 people.

If this thought gets materialized then possibility is portable nature of stadiums would be the demand of coming generation.

Via Gizmodo/ TreeHugger