It’s a great day for us as Elitechoice post is being handpicked by Adam P. Schneider, a blogger from NYTs themomentblog, a daily blog that captures the world of fashion, design, food and travel. I am an avid reader of round-up section maintained and updated frequently by Adam at Themomentblog. He pulls in all the must-know pieces of news and strings them well here.

The post in lights at NYT Themomentblog is The Orchid: Eco-House Inks £7.2 mn Deal, Sets World Record.

Good thought Adam!

It’s being quite some time that Belvedere vodka is in news for its promotional strategies, thereby strengthening brand’s image. The latest tool it has picked is the Jagger Dagger, a sword developed by jewelry designer Jade Jagger, daughter of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and model Bianca Jagger. The sword dipped in 18K-white gold comes encrusted with 12-carats of brilliant-cut diamonds, 42 pastel sapphires, and a vital blue lapis lazuli square. The blade is formed using mirror-polished carbon steel with an impression of the similar tree twigs that adorn the Belvedere bottle.

The “Jagger Dagger” is being considered for tableside ice-picking service with the sword provided by servers at distinct nightspots i.e. 1OAK in New York, Crystal in London and VIP in Paris. Lately, Jade unveiled this revolutionary creation by throwing a gala party in the company of around 90 plus guests. The dagger is retailed at $250,000.

If you can’t afford to buy this luxury then would suggest you to go for other models that have white topaz and aquamarine instead of diamonds and sapphires. This one would cost you only $10,000.

FashionWeekDaily

Die-hard Muslims should lend all their ears here. Touted to be the World’s smallest Quran (the Holy book of Muslims); the quran is adorned on sapphire stones and fitted in pendants or wedding rings. They are been witnessed as a perfect accessory or emblem to be carried during marriage rituals. Counted 10,000 lines of wording is imprinted with a white gold whilst platinum have been extolled on mere 20 sapphire nanochips, measure just 5.8 mm by 9.8 mm. Developed and designed by Mir Enterprises, a single piece would cost you $4,084.

Company’s MD, Dr Mir Mokhtari told Gold News: “To give due amount of respect to the Quran, it will never be produced in big numbers. This limited edition jewellery will be designed for those who want to keep these words of purity close to them.

The stone is recognized as Micro Engineering of Quran as Art (MEQA) and took almost two years to give it a final shape. A layer of quartz protects the surface to guarantee the sacred text should not be made impure even with a mere touch. The Quran was featured at the IIR Dubai Bride Show from 23-26 April.

Via Zawya

Designer Lei Liu has put his thought upon giving form to an elite city car concept that would offer a stress-free ride even amidst jammed roads and digging space for itself in tight parking lots. Called Airwaves, this miniature coupe does away with the tension of bearing the awful jams and freeing you from the risk of dents and scratches. Instead of hinging outward, its electronic door spins upright to avert others being “doored”.

Besides considering the safety of its passangers, it gives equal amount of attention to other commuters on the road. The backside of Airwaves features LCD screen that keeps the onlookers engaged during traffic jams with useful information displayed related to weather reports, news or greeting words from the driver.

This people friendly car gives a deserving trinute to environment as well by making 0% emissions. I think you would agree with me that the safety of small cars is really important; therefore an accessibility of the special lift mechanism in Airwaves can offer good safeguard for the driver, passengers and pedestrians. It workd like this: The minute driver uses emergency brake, the car hits pedestrian and the cabin will lift up by inertia. During that hour, the outside and inside airbags will be unconfined to defend the people inside and outside.

More pics:

Via Tuvie

Truly, this is not the first device designed to help elderly or crippled walk unaided, but for sure amongst all, this one is really compact and user friendly so far. Developed by Honda, the walking assist device would be demonstrated at the International Trade Fair on Barrier Free Equipments & Rehabilitation in Osaka. The team at Honda is being working over this for past nine years.

After undergoing the processing since 1999, the device has now reached the viability phase and prospective customers are invited to get the first-hand feel. I wish I could also experience that. It’s no shocker that Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot contributed significantly in making this device possible. The data acquired from hip angle sensors is used by the control CPU to converse the flat brush less motors and offer the needful assistance to enable those using the device elongate their tread. Weighing 6.2lbs, the device can easily be wrapped around the waist and thigh. It comes with a battery life of 2 hours if used at 4.5km/hour.
 
Via | Crunch Gear / Honda

Raising eyebrows is obvious when Pianos seem to go digital. A Yamaha grand measuring 5 feet, 3 inches long is available in longer versions as well as there are models costing up to $150,000. The Disklavier Mark IV is the world’s first piano with an integrated Internet connection. On lines of preceding cohorts of Yamaha’s self-playing pianos, the Mark IV is the latest entrant offering a luminous, elegant, splendid presence in your living room. The only signal by which one can capture about something going bizarre is the power and Ethernet cords niggling out from beneath and a 2-inch-tall control panel peeking out from underneath the lower-left skirt of the device.

I am sure by now you must have witnessed digital player pianos in a hotel lobby or mall, singing holiday tunes all by themselves with keys and pedals frantically going up and down. Some important specks: History reveals that the established owners of these Disklavier pianos bought numerous floppy disks or CDs with recorded recitals by renowned pianists. Each album is priced at $30-$35 and a new twist is added via its feature of Internet connectivity. It lets you subscribe to live piano “radio stations.” At a mere drop of $20 a month ($200 a year), you can jingle into conduits like Classical, Broadway or Rock.

The Yamaha store is not less than the iTunes store, equipped with a 30-second foretaste of each song with only difference that an individual plays the songs live.

Via NYT

The very thought of being homeless as an aftermath of any natural calamity can unnerve you. But human tendency is that they keep safe alternatives ready to revive their strength even in crisis situation.

Practically speaking, temp-housing solutions firm Martin House-To-Go shares the similar human psychology as has thus invented a house to ride you through your contingencies. Dubbed as the ‘Fresh Start,’ the very look at the house is so real that even after abandoning your age-old home you still happen to feel homely in its geography.

Running on wheels, this woody house has 11′ high ceiling along with fully insulated shingle roof. It comprises of 11 windows, solid bamboo floors, and complete bathtub. The USP of the house is that it can bear intense weather.

Designed to walk on the road or everywhere, the entry to this house doesn’t require any license and is priced at $29,900.

Via LikeCool

Folks, am back with an exciting piece of news for you. Whilst days back I told you about the prestigious private dagger owned by Shah Jahan, all set to go under hammer. And today the auctioned finally happened and the bid process finally ended with the highest bid of 1.7 million pounds made by an anonymous buyer.

Germany is known to be a land infused with Ideas and the history proves it has had its share to offer. Mind you the aspirin, the airship, the printing press and the diesel engine are all invented by Germans. And now they have one more to be added to the list. BBC News crew lately visited Germany to get a feel of SBaggers, the robotized, fully mechanical restaurant with no single waiter standing and also plates ride over your head on steel rails to arrive at your chair. A complete futurama feel!

Good part is its functioning is admired by all. Located in Nuremberg, this fully mechanical restaurant follows an elite way for placing an order. It makes use of a touch screen that gives you access to surf net while killing time before the order flies to your color-coded seat. It is only at the cooking front that some manual exercise is done by some Elzar apprentices (70% human, 30% iron chefs) within the building. The great mind behind Baggers technology welcomes the huge market for such restaurants that are undoubtedly offers ultra fun while cutting costs to the owners as well as clients.

And BBC agrees to their argument that it is fun, delicious, fast, and no tips. Moreover, it absolutely erases the need for a terrible job of waitressing.

Check out the video:

Chris Clark, a 43-year-old man based in Maryland lately sold off his pricey possession of domain name pizza.com. The sale earned him almost 10,000 times of the price he spilled over in 1994. Interesting thing is that he got the domain name registered for mere $20 and have been paying the annual registration fee until this January. The virus to generate money entered his mind year when he got to know that the domain name vodka.com generated massive $3 million, and it was then he took a call to earn a slice of the pie. After online auction got over he uttered: “It’s crazy. It’s just crazy.” The opening bid for pizza.com starting with $100 but within a week’s time reached its worthy cost. Clark, who wish to get the cash within a few days time, has only one regret that he didn’t purchased more domain names earlier.

Via Gizmodo