The Flying Luxury Hotel

The Flying Luxury Hotel
Even though the Aeroscraft dwarfs the largest commercial airliners, it requires less net space on the ground than any plane because it doesn't need a runway. The airship takes off and lands like a helicopter: straight up and down.
This is not a Blimp. It's a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It's the Aeroscraft, and when it's completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.
Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft's weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body—driven by huge rearward propellers—generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising. During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent.

This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010. Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason: The craft would have a range of several thousand miles and, with an estimated top speed of 174 mph, could traverse the continental U.S. in about 18 hours. During the flight, passengers would peer at national landmarks just 8,000 feet below or, if they weren't captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants, even a casino.

To minimize noise, the aft-mounted propellers will be electric, powered by a renewable source such as hydrogen fuel cells. A sophisticated buoyancy-management system will serve the same purpose as trim on an airplane, allowing for precise adjustments in flight dynamics to compensate for outside conditions and passenger movement. The automated system will draw outside air into compartments throughout the ship and compress it to manage onboard weight.

The company envisions a cargo-carrying version that could deliver a store's worth of merchandise from a centralized distribution center straight to a Wal-Mart parking lot or, because the helium-filled craft will float, a year's worth of supplies to an offshore oil rig. "You can land on the snow, you can land on the water," Pasternak says. "It's a new vision of what can be done in the air."

Aeroscraft
Purpose: Long-range travel for passengers who are more concerned with the journey than the destination
Dimensions (feet): 165 h x 244 w x 647 l
Max Speed: 174 mph
Range: 6,000 miles
Capacity: 250 passengers

The $30 Million Diamond Bikini

The $30 Million Diamond Bikini
Victoria's Secret doesn't have the lock on diamond garments. This year's 2006 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue features the $30 million Diamond Bikini. The bikini, designed by Susan Rosen with Steinmetz Diamonds, contains over 150 carats of D Flawless diamonds. Some of the diamonds are the rarest in the world including a 51-carat, pear-shaped diamond, a 30-carat emerald cut, a pair of 15 carat rounds and a pair of eight carat pear shapeds. The stones are sent in platinum for one valuable and very tiny bikini. After the jump, Molly Sims models the teeny weeny pricey bikini.

World's Most Expensive Bunny

World's Most Expensive Bunny
Harrod's is showcasing the world's most expensive bunny. The bunny is made to look like the iconic Lindt chocolate bunnies, which are traditionally wrapped in gold foil and sold around the Easter holiday. Though the critter matches the 200-gram chocolate double in size, the Harrod's bunny is inedible, made not of chocolate but of 24-karat gold. It is inlaid with diamonds, rubies, citrine and topaz, and is valued in excess of £20,000, or approximately $35,000.

On display until April 16th, you can bid on the bunny by visiting it in the Candy Room at the Harrod's Knightsbridge store. All proceeds will be given to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Alternatively, you can buy yourself an edible Lindt chocolate bunny, sold in a set of three for $10.99.

The Tower at Carnegie Abbey

The Tower at Carnegie Abbey
A project in Portsmouth, Rhode Island will ring in a new era of luxury living for the town near Newport, once the summer home of some of America's richest and still an excellent place to while away the summer. The Tower at Carnegie Abbey will have 80 condos in the 220-foot-tall tower. The tower is part of the $220 million Carnegie Harbor Village complex which includes the Carnegie Abbey golf course and sporting club. The tower has views of Narragansett Bay and will have 24-hour concierge service, a fitness center and spa. The interiors are designed by Ralph Lauren Home and the building is expected to be a second home for wealthy tenants. At the base of the tower there are 21 Royal Cottages, which are townhouses selling for $2 to $3 million and 35 waterfront estate lots have been sold. The units in the tower range from $695,000 to $7 million for the penthouse. Around half of the units have already been sold and occupancy is expected for next year.

The World's Most Expensive White Wine

The World's Most Expensive White Wine
A record for the world's most expensive bottle of white wine has been set with a $90,000 1787 Sauternes from Château d'Yquem. Stephen Williams, Managing Director of Antique Wine Company said that the company has been "working for some time on this commission and the purchaser is a long standing customer of ours." The client is a U.S.-based wine collector and the wine was sold by a private collector in France. The bottle has been inspected and re-corked several times during the past century. The grapes were picked when George Washington became the first President of the U.S. and so the wine has value as a piece of history regardless over whether the wine itself has held up through time. Williams is taking no chances getting the wine to the client. He picked it up from France in his private plane and will fly it over to the U.S. to personally hand it to the new owner.

New Record Case of Wine Sells For Over $170,000

Case of Wine Sells For Over $170,000
Yet another wine record has been broken. At a Christie's auction in New York on Thursday, a six-magnum case of the famed 1985 Romanee-Conti from Burgundy sold for $170,375 dollars besting a Romanee-Conti record set only in January of $136,000 for the 1971 vintage. Each magnum is two bottles so the price works out to over $14,000 a bottle. According to the AFP, five other lots also went for over $100,000 including a double-magnum of Chateau Cheval-Blanc 1947 that went for $135,125 dollars. California wines are starting to get pricey too, a lot of 21 bottles of Napa Valley's Screaming Eagle spanning the 1995-2002 vintages sold for $52,875 dollars.

Parmigiani Fleurier Launches Ladies Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Launches Ladies Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier debuted their new women's line last week at the premiere and after party of Friends with Money (the new Jennifer Aniston movie). The watches are being shown off this week at Baselworld and include the Kalpa Grande, Donna, and Piccola models which are available in gold or steel with pave set diamonds and dials in mother of pearl or guilloche. The watches feature calf skin straps by Hermés. The most interesting watches in the collection are the Kalpa XL Tourbillon Diamonds and the Toric Retrograde Perpetual Calendar, the ‘Luna Blu’ (both shown above). The 30-second tourbillon has two time zones and an open window that shows the weekly power reserve indicator.

The Toric Retrograde Perpetual Calendar, ‘Luna Blu’ has a retrograde date indicator and displays days, months, and leap years. If you are more concerned about the diamonds than the tiny movements and functions then the Kalpa haute joallerie is your time piece. It is covered in over 17 carats worth of diamonds. After the jump pictures of the diamond-covered Kalpa, The Kalpa, Donna and Piccola models and Joan Cusack, Director Nicole Holofcener and Jennifer Aniston celebrating at the Parmigiani Fleurier sponsored after party for Friends with Money.

Oscar Best and Worst Dressed

Oscar Best and Worst Dressed
This year's fashion offered a few hits and as always some startling misses. This year the predominant color seemed to be no color at all. Many gowns were some form of beige or nude.

Best
Men
1) Ludacris's tasteful black-on-black Armani ensemble.


2) Paul Giamatti's Hugo Boss suit, tasteful, elegant and quite slimming.


3) Will Smith's midnight blue David August tuxedo. Not all men can pull off wearing a vest but it looks quite handsome on Mr. Smith.



Women
1) Reese Witherspoon's elegant vintage Christian Dior.


2: Ziyi Zhang's Armani bustier and Swarovski crystal-covered skirt. As fabulously dazzling as the costumes she wore in "Memoirs of a Geisha."


3) Salma Hayek's azure satin gown by Versace. The color was gorgeous but it did show the lines of her foundation garments.


4) Jessica Alba's gold Versace gown. I'm not sure what she's doing on at the Oscars but she looks good.


5) Jennifer Garner's Michael Kors gown. Shimmering, flattering, and takes good advantage of that post-baby cleavage.



Worst
Men:

1) Phillip Seymour Hoffman's tuxedo. On a man of a certain girth on all black ensemble with a silver tie is not flattering.


2) Jamie Foxx: turquoise shirt and shadow-striped suit seemed like an attempt to attract attention now that it's not his year anymore.

3) Was Morgan Freeman wearing an ascot around his neck?


4) Gary Busey, ah, Gary Busey.


Women:

1) Maggie Gyllenhaal's Bottega Veneta gown. It looked liked living room drapes hanging on drooping gold chains. And what's with all the gowns with pockets this year? Is there a purse boycott I was unaware of?


2) Jennifer Lopez's vintage gown from Rita Watnick at Lily et Cie. There's just too much going on here, wraps, pleats, surplus fabric. Her impressive figure looks best in simpler outfits.



3) Michelle Williams's screaming yellow gown from Vera Wang. A beautiful girl but that color is not flattering with pale skin and the tulle frills at the top combined with the drapery over the lower half seem to draw attention to all the wrong areas. In nearly every picture the neckline is flapping up. Also the necklace which uses blackened metal is too harsh with such a delicate look.



4)Naomi Watts's shredded catastrophe from Givenchy. The color made her look washed out and the dress looked as if she had a bad run in with a lawnmower.



5) Charlize Theron's black Christian Dior. We realize she probably has to wear Christian Dior since she shills for their fragrance line but this dress would be a beauty without that giant shoulder pouf.




Most gorgeous accessories

1) Keira Knightley's Asprey Bulgari collar. It probably would have worked better with a strapless dress but it's a show-stopper of a necklace.


2) Amy Adams's aquamarine and diamond earrings (a loan from Carolina Herrera who designed her gown). They look heavy but so gorgeous with her big blue eyes.



3) Nicole Kidman's Fred Leighton bracelets. Just the right touch of sparkle with her Balenciega applique gown.


4) Jennifer Garner's chandelier earrings.


5) Jane Seymour's tiny guitar purse.

Bobbi Brown Chocolate Collection

Bobbi Brown Chocolate Collection
Chocolate plus cosmetics? It brings to mind childhood and Bonne Bell lip glosses but with makeup magician Bobbi Brown and Vosges Haut Chocolat involved, this is a treat for grownups. Here are the details on Brown's new limited-edition fall color collection which was inspired by chocolate. Bobbie Brown also has created a dark milk chocolate Beauty Bar. The $6 bar will be on sale starting in July at Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and four freestanding Vosges stores. The bar includes one of the "it" ingredients of the moment, matcha green tea which is supposed to speed up the metabolism. Brown's chocolate-themed makeup includes an eyeshadow palette, Chocolate Cherry nail polish, blushes and lip duos and also goes on sale in July. Alas, they are not flavored.

Seven Star Hotels?

7 Star Hotels?
We're just becoming accustomed to the six star hotels. Now we get word of seven stars. The Emirates Palace is being built by the government of Abu Dhabi. It claims to be the most impressive resort ever to be built in the Middle East. It's lavishly styled with 114 domes covered in mosaic and over 1,000 crystal chandeliers. What makes the Emirates Palace interesting is its tech-forward approach. The hotel rooms include the largest plasma televisions we've seen offered in a hotel (50-inch for rooms and 61-inch for suites). All areas of the Emirates Palace including the beach, pools, and gardens will be covered by a wireless network. There is also a library offering books, films and music to enjoy during your stay.

Homeland Security aide suspended after sex sting

Homeland Security aide suspended after sex sting
The deputy press secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was put on leave and his security clearance suspended on Wednesday after being arrested on charges of using the Internet to try to seduce a 14-year-old girl, an official said.

Brian Doyle, 55, was arrested on Tuesday night in a sex- sting operation and accused of obscenely propositioning an undercover agent he thought was a teen-ager.

The Homeland Security department is one of the federal agencies responsible for investigating child pornography and online exploitation of children, through its immigration and customs unit and the Secret Service. Department officials said those agencies were not involved in this case.

"The department is cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation," said department press secretary Russ Knocke, Doyle's supervisor. "We take these allegations very seriously."

Doyle had been placed on "a non-pay status and his security clearance, employee badge and facility access permissions have been suspended," Knocke said.

He gave no personal information about Doyle, but current and former colleagues expressed shock and surprise at his arrest.

Doyle faces 23 charges in Polk County, Florida, related to use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. He was being held in a suburban Washington jail pending extradition to Florida.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Doyle was taken into custody at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, while he was online with undercover detectives.

A statement issued by the sheriff's office said Doyle contacted a 14-year-old girl whose profile was posted on the Internet and initiated a sexually explicit conversation. The "girl" was actually an undercover Polk County detective.

It said Doyle gave his office phone number and his government-issued cell phone number. He also was accused of using the Internet to send pornographic movie clips and having explicit sexual conversations in online chats with the supposed girl.

Germany confirms bird flu in fowl

Germany confirms bird flu in fowl
Authorities in the eastern German state of Saxony said on Wednesday that tests had confirmed for the first time the presence of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in domestic fowl.

The confirmation of bird flu at a large German poultry farm is the second instance of H5N1 in domestic fowl in the European Union after an outbreak in France in late February.

"This is the first case of H5N1 in domestic fowl (in Germany) and this makes it somewhat explosive," Saxony's minister of social affairs, Helma Orosz, told a news conference. "Tonight we will start to kill all the birds (at the farm)."

Several EU countries, including Germany, have reported cases of avian flu in wild birds, but most have so far managed to keep it out of domestic flocks.

The federal press office said in a statement the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, a national veterinary disease agency, was conducting follow-up tests to determine whether the H5N1 virus was the most highly pathogenic Asian strain.

"This first case raises many questions," Chancellor Angela Merkel said in the statement. "It shows the situation is serious. Everything will be done to prevent it from spreading."

Parts of the farm which housed more than 16,000 turkey, geese and chicken had been exempt from a poultry lock-up which has been in force across Germany since February 17 to prevent avian flu spreading from wild birds to domestic fowl during the migration period.

"The farmed geese were allowed to leave the stables for short periods to take in water, otherwise they cannot lay eggs," said Margit Gey, spokeswoman of the local authority which had granted the exemption.

Gey added that the birds which had died of avian flu had been turkeys, which were held in a separate coop and had no contact with the geese.

The first birds at the farm -- the largest of its kind in the state -- had died on Sunday, officials said.

A restricted quarantine zone with a radius of 3 km (2 miles) was established, along with a larger observation area inside a 13-km radius from the location of the H5N1-infected birds.

The European Commission in Brussels said the situation would be discussed on Wednesday afternoon by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health in the light of the information received from the German authorities.

A Racecar for the Street

A Racecar for the Street
Launched for the 2005 model year and continuing unchanged for 2006, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren was developed and is manufactured jointly with the automaker’s Formula One racing partner, McLaren.
It has a full carbon fiber monocoque shell with fanciful styling that includes lots of slats, vents and scoops; doors that open upward; and a nose that looks like a cross between a Formula One race car and a Mercedes-Benz SL on steroids. Only 500 are hand-built per year by a team of highly trained technicians at the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, England. SLR McLarens sell for more than $450,000.

Performance is truly staggering: zero to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and a top speed in excess of 200 mph.

Such blazing acceleration and speed comes from a 671-hp, supercharged 5.5-liter V8 engine tuned by Mercedes-Benz's AMG performance division. It’s mounted to a lightweight aluminum frame behind the front wheels in a front, mid-engine configuration for optimal weight distribution. Its dry-sump, racing-inspired lubrication system is said to help shorten the engine so it can be mounted lower in the frame for better aerodynamics, and for a lower center of gravity to aid handling and high-speed stability.

A five-speed automatic is the only available transmission. It includes “comfort” and “sport” modes with different shift parameters and can be taken through the gears manually via steering-wheel-mounted paddles or the console gearshift lever.

Bringing a 3,732-lb. supercar safely and expediently to a halt from 200 mph is an engineering challenge that Mercedes-Benz and McLaren engineers solved with ceramic composite brake discs, making the SLR one of the few production vehicles to use such technology. These special rotors offer better heat resistance, are stronger and have a longer service life than conventional brakes.

A retractable spoiler mounted in the trunk lid aids deceleration and stopping. Slamming on the brakes at speeds over 59 mph triggers the spoiler to deploy at a steep, 65-degree angle, acting as an air brake.

The SLR McLaren is the first production car with a front crash structure made entirely of carbon fiber, which is said to offer exceptional energy absorption in a collision. Other safety measures include front, knee and side airbags, as well as an Electronic Stability Program that controls braking and throttle to ensure proper traction.

Carbon-trimmed sport seats with deep side bolsters embrace occupants. The interior is swathed in leather and aluminum trim and features a cleaner central-control panel, compared with other Mercedes-Benz models, which are bedecked with many buttons and knobs. The SLR McLaren is not wanting for features, including a standard navigation system.

As if owning a handcrafted $450,000 street-legal race car isn’t exclusive enough, McLaren buyers can take advantage of an “SLR Unlimited” program that offers customization via 15 interior leather upholstery colors and 13 exterior paint treatments in monochrome or metallic finishes. Larger, 19-inch asymmetrical turbine-look wheels can be swapped for the standard 18-inch rims, and brake calipers (visible behind wheel spokes) can be finished in either red or gold. No other options are available.

Only 500 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports cars are hand-built each year for those who can afford and appreciate its mind-boggling performance

Hottest Sports Cars for 2006

Hottest Sports Cars for 2006
Never have so many sports cars been available at such a range of prices, from a $19,995 compact car to the $1,250,000, 253-mph Bugatti Veyron, and with performance capabilities extending from Spartan weekend touring to full race-track potential.

It’s a golden age of ever-increasing brute horsepower and extreme top speed on the one hand, and greater sophistication and dependability on the other. Gone are the cranky cloth tops, oil leaks, Prince of Darkness electrical accessories and the need for carry-on toolboxes that characterized the sports cars of the previous “golden age,” the pre-emissions and safety standards 1960s.

Still, the things that made a sports car great back then and hot right now haven’t changed, particularly some degree of high-performance capability and stunning looks. Some of the players from that previous era (Aston Martin, Chevrolet’s Corvette, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, Morgan, Porsche) are with us still, plus names unfamiliar back then (BMW, Honda, Lamborghini, Mazda, Nissan, Saturn).


We’ve chosen our 2006 Hottest Sports Cars list of eight current greats with an eye on value, extreme performance and sheer physical beauty. The Corvette Z06 manages to combine all three, but even if a six-digit Aston Martin or Ferrari can hardly be called a bargain, or a Pontiac Solstice won’t do 200 mph, two out of three isn’t bad.

A Year of Firsts
Both calendar- and model-year 2006 will see a number of firsts, several of which are featured in the preceding hottest-cars list. Aston Martin is introducing the $110,000 V8 Vantage as a Porsche Carrera S competitor. The 253-mph Bugatti Veyron will finally become available around midyear. Cadillac is adding a supercharged 440-hp “V” version of its XLR luxury roadster.
The Z06 edition of the Chevrolet Corvette has raised the supercar bar for everybody. The third-generation 510-hp Dodge Viper coupe and the all-new Jaguar XK8 will debut. Lotus is adding the Exige, a track-focused coupe version of its Elise roadster. The all-new Pontiac Solstice roadster is on sale, and in May ’06 will be joined by a differently skinned (though mechanically identical) version from Saturn, the Sky. And as Porsche releases its eagerly anticipated Cayman S, BMW gears up to launch a triple threat in June: Z4 Coupe, M Coupe and M Roadster.

True sports cars come from companies that validate the vehicles' capability through competition — motor sports. Obviously that’s true of such companies as Ferrari, but even Pontiac has a long history of NASCAR and drag-racing competition, and sports-car newcomer Cadillac several years ago embarked upon a serious — and successful — international racing program including Le Mans 24-Hour challenges.


The Miata has its own spec-racing series and is a popular Sports Car Club of America competitor. No road-race weekend is complete without hordes of Corvettes and Porsches on the track, and though the Jaguar XK and Aston Martin V8 Vantage are intended to be GTs (grand tourers) rather than stiff-legged racecars, full-race versions of those cars are active in top-level international competition.

Some of the most stunning sports cars are mass-production versions of auto-show concept cars, which start out as one-of-a-kind vehicles intended to showcase a company’s technological talents and to serve as no-limits styling exercises for its designers. The Porsche Boxster was one, and the Pontiac Solstice is another.


The ’07 Jaguar XK starred at international auto shows for two years as a concept car, at least in part to gauge public interest in the new shape, which was finalized and is going into production. And the current buzz-machine is the all-wheel-drive, twin-turbo, 400-hp Skyline GT-R coupe, so far seen only as a Nissan auto-show concept car but scheduled for production as an ’08 or ’09 Infiniti model.

The world’s very first automobiles were sports cars. They were at the cutting edge of what then passed for “high performance,” though that may have meant barely 20 mph. And just as is true today of horses — once the country’s prime movers but now used almost entirely for pleasure — the world’s last automobiles could very well someday be solely for sport, as well. When we’ve tapped new energy sources and means of travel, the last lingering terrestrial four-wheelers might just be designed purely for fun, as utility will have been found elsewhere.

But well before that happens, there’s plenty of time to take advantage of this generation’s glut of splendid pleasure machines. In the automotive industry, sports cars are known as “reward cars.” People buy them not because they need one — who needs 500 hp or a convertible top? — but to reward themselves for … well, a year of hard work, a bonus thoroughly earned, putting all the kids through college, or a promotion well deserved. Isn’t it time you came up with your own reason?

Sports Car 101

Sports Car 101
Enthusiasts have been arguing over what a sports car is since Jaguars were called Standard Swallows. Basically, a sports car is a car that has better road holding and performance than a standard two- or four-door passenger car (to say nothing of an SUV or pickup truck), thanks to a lower center of gravity, a more tightly tuned suspension and steering system, a performance-oriented transmission, finer aerodynamics, high-performance tires and a better power-to-weight ratio. This is why a sports car is plain fun to drive. A splendid Lexus or a limber Range Rover can be immensely satisfying, but a real sports car pastes a permanent smile on your face.

A sports car is also about style and impact. It's a car that, after you park it and walk away, compels you turn around for one more look. "Oh my god," you say to yourself, "that car is so cool." Tell me the last time you said that about your Explorer or E-Class.

Some sports cars are really street-legal race cars. The $440,000 Porsche Carrera GT is the most extreme example, closely followed by the Saleen S7 ($409,000) and the $143,345 Ford GT, which in fact is a close copy of a 1960s Le Mans winner, the Ford GT40. Even at the low end of the price spectrum, some sports cars have such strong race car characteristics — the Honda S2000 and Lotus Elise, in particular — that they'll happily go straight from the showroom to the track. Race-prepped MX-5s, Corvettes and Vipers are also popular as amateur-driven sports-racers.

Other sports cars are better spectators than racers. Cars such as the Jaguar XKs, Maserati Coupe and GranSport, Audi TT and Mercedes-Benz SLs certainly have athletic genes — a highly modified version of the Jag XK has won the Trans-Am pro-race championship four times — but they're more for stylin' than all-out performance, and happiest during comfortable cruises and weekend touring. The Jags and Mercs don't even offer manual transmissions, for example.

There is no such thing as a front-wheel-drive sports car, though there are a few that have all-wheel drive (Audi TT, Lamborghini Gallardo and Murcielago and several versions of the Porsche 911). Front-wheel drive is fine for low-powered passenger cars, in terms of efficient packaging and reasonably good traction, but making front tires steer, brake and transmit power to the road wouldn't work in a performance car. Also, placing the engine and drive wheels at the same end of the car would compromise its balance. True, the Porsche 911 has for over 40 years had its engine and drive wheels at the same end of the rear of the car, but the configuration has always presented problems for Porsche engineers. Today the 911 is one of the best-handling sports cars on the road, at least in part thanks to an excellent electronic stability-management system.

Purists have long insisted on manual transmissions as the mark of a true sports car, and some of us honestly prefer the more direct control a stick shift imparts — we can choose in advance the gear we want to use to most efficiently exit a corner — as well as the admittedly minor skill it takes to work one well. Sports car nerds like to throw around the expression "heel and toe," which in fact has nothing to do with heels or toes, but can only be done with a traditional manual transmission. The maneuver involves working all three pedals (gas, brake and clutch) simultaneously: slowing down by braking with the left side of your right shoe sole, while at the same time blipping the throttle with the right side of the sole and depressing the clutch to downshift with the left foot.

In fact, the only sports cars on sale in the U.S. that don't offer automatic, manumatic or clutchless sequential-shift transmission options are the Honda S2000, Lotus Elise, Morgan Aero 8, Dodge Viper, Ford GT and Porsche Carrera GT. (It's no coincidence that these are also the hardest-core sports cars in the land.) The pure, clutch-and-stick manual is slowly on its way to the land of starter cranks and wire wheels, supplanted by high-tech sequential-shift transmissions.

Microsoft Launches New Mices

Microsoft Launches New Mices
Based on their number 1 mouse, the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse, with its High Definition technology, they want to launch another two mouse. One is optical and the other is laser. Both will cost less then $30.

“Since we launched our High Definition line just last September, we have sold over a million units,” said Rusty Jeffress, general manager of the Hardware Group at Microsoft. “We design our proprietary chip technology to provide our customers with the best possible performance so they enjoy their computing experiences no matter where they are.”

For notebook users, the new Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 offers an upgraded version of the Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse. Often, a laptop users find themselves working in small spaces - from the seat of an airplane to a cramped coffee shop - where sometimes the only place to use their mouse is on a corner of the airplane tray or a small coffee table. With the updated High Definition technology, users will enjoy smooth and precise tracking regardless of the surface. In addition, this mouse has a smaller receiver than the previous version, which makes it more portable and easier to stow.

For the desktop, the Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 features a five-button, ambidextrous design, a Magnifier button for real-time enlargement and editing of any section of the screen, and a Tilt Wheel that makes navigating and viewing detailed spreadsheets and documents even easier. The new Wireless Optical Mouse 2000 is an affordable high-performance mouse featuring High Definition Optical Technology, an ambidextrous design with silver accents and three buttons.

Here are the advantages of this High Definition technology from Microsoft:

Improved responsiveness - With 1,000 dots per inch, all Microsoft High Definition mice deliver the right amount of responsiveness in relation to hand movement, requiring less hand motion in small spaces such as coffee tables or airplane trays.
Greater precision - Microsoft High Definition mice capture 6,000 frames per second to accurately track hand movement and prevent stopping or skipping, even when moving very quickly. The mice are equipped with a state-of-the-art chip, developed by Microsoft, which requires less power and maximizes efficiency, delivering an average of more than six months of battery life for wireless mice.
Smoother tracking - Proprietary Microsoft Intelligent Tracking System — the brains of the tracking technology that reads the information the sensor is relaying — means smoother tracking without interruptions or skipping, even over unique or uneven surfaces.
And the prices:

Wireless Laser Mouse 5000: $49.95
Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000: $29.95
Wireless Optical Mouse 2000: $29.95

How To Make Her Orgasm

How To Make Her Orgasm
Now we all know that every woman is different and there is no surefire method to guarantee that every woman you sleep with will reach orgasm. But there are ways to increase her chances of doing so and your chances of bringing her there.
There is one thing that all women can definitely agree on when it comes to orgasm, however. If you can seduce their brains, chances are, their bodies will follow. And because an orgasmic woman is a happy woman, if you keep her sexually satisfied, she'll want more sex, which, in turn, will garner you more orgasms.

So are you ready to make her splash?

Seduce her mind
If you want to make sure that her body surrenders, you must first have sex with her brain.

Talk about sexual plans
It's okay to get her mind going with visions about what you're going to do or what you imagine doing to her. Talking about sex is the first step in enriching your sex life.

Reveal your fantasies
In the spirit of talking about sex, you need to be open about your fantasies, within reason, of course. Tell her about the one in which she's stripping in a gentleman's club, for example, and you have no idea who she is, but she approaches you and begins silently seducing you with a dance in front of hundreds of men. In turn, you can ask her deep, probing questions and get her to reveal all the crazy things she imagines when her brain is wandering into the realm of orgasm.

Reminisce about past sexual experiences
If you can recall a time when you made her waters fall, talk about it. By doing so, you will stir those feelings she experienced when she was reaching her peak.

Make her feel sexy
From getting her to put on lingerie to looking at her as though she was the hottest woman on Earth, making her feel sexy will make her feel sexual.

Awaken her body
Now that you've managed to stir her mind, the rest is a matter of mechanics and technique.

Relax her body
Steering clear of her sexualized body parts, take a few minutes to give her a light massage that'll awaken her senses. Rub her shoulders, her back and her thighs -- lightly tap each area with your fingertips.

Ignore her vagina
The best way to encourage a woman's orgasm is by ignoring the area from where it originates for a while. Start rubbing her body more aggressively, kiss her body and go near her vaginal area without actually touching her inner lips (labia minora). Do the same to her nipples: kiss her breasts without actually placing your mouth over her nipples.

Use your mouth & hands
Spread her legs and bring your mouth to her clitoris. Use your tongue to lightly tap against it for a minute. Eventually, start pressing your tongue against her clitoris and the hood while you lick it. At this point, use your fingers to manipulate her vagina. Because you have more control with your fingers than you do with your penis, you can manipulate her clitoris and G-spot more easily. She may reach orgasm at this point.

Do two things at once
If you can, suck her nipples while your fingers are doing their thing inside her. Or, you can tickle the outskirts of her anus while you penetrate her. Accomplishing two tasks at once will confuse her senses and may lead to orgasm.

Penetrate her
This is a tough one because some women like quick thrusts, others prefer slow thrusts, and yet others like a combination of the two. I recommend that you do the latter. Start off with slow, deep thrusts and then increase your speed -- but not so much that you're no longer penetrating her deeply. If she responds in a positive fashion, place her in a position that will allow for full penetration. She may orgasm at this point.

Use toys
While many women will have reached orgasm at this point, some may not be able to. Remember; it's not your fault -- especially if you've tried all the aforementioned tips. It may be because she can't surrender her mind to the situation, or isn't as well-acquainted with her body as she should be. If that's the case, sex toys may help her discover the spot that drives her to orgasm. Start off with a simple vibrator and if you like the reaction you get, incorporate other toys into your sex life.

5 Steps To Get Her To Role Play

5 Steps To Get Her To Role Play

1- Use subtle hints to get her attention
It's no secret that communication is the key to any relationship. At the first sign of boredom -- whether it's hers or yours -- gently bring up new ways to spice up your sex life. Subtle hints like "You would look so sexy in something like that" when you pass a lingerie/sex store or "I'd like to put the cuffs on you tonight" when you see a cop are great ways to plant the first seeds of a healthy dose of role playing.

Keep in mind, however, that it's crucial to gauge her reaction to your subtle hints. If you come on too strong at first, there is a good chance you'll come off as "creepy nympho guy" and she'll shut the idea down before it even has a chance to get off the ground.

On the flip side, if you don't come on strong enough, she might take your subtle hints as nothing more than everyday flirting. If that's the case, you can prepare yourself for yet another night of three minutes of missionary-style sex with the lights off.

2- Defuse any uneasiness with humor
There is a fine line between bringing your woman into the fantasy world of being someone else and telling her she is a boring lay. The best way to make the transition is to use humor. Using humor puts you in control of the situation in a way that is non-threatening to her. Think about it for a second: Nobody is ever afraid of the guy doing stand up at the Funny Bone comedy club.

The same applies in the beginning stages of role playing. Cracking a joke about what a weird request you have or how silly you feel for even thinking of such a thing is a great way to make your girlfriend feel comfortable about a situation she may initially feel uneasy about.

3- Encourage her to express her fantasies
The last thing you want to do is show up at her door with a blonde wig and a cheerleading outfit for her and nothing for you. It's not exactly fair for her if you're the only one who's getting to live out your fantasy about being with someone else. If you do that, it won't take her long to figure out the whole thing is just about you and has nothing to do her or your relationship.

Encourage her to live out a few of her own role-playing fantasies by going into sex shops together and having her pick out something for you. That way, you'll make her feel like this plan is every much her idea as it yours. You'll also send a clear message that you are so confident in the relationship that she can fantasize about somebody other than you.

4- Take the situation seriously
While cracking jokes and being funny may have gotten you to this point, it will only get you on the couch for the night if you break the mood and laugh at her. The goal is to make her feel comfortable and you can't do that by making fun of how she looks, how she sounds or what she's doing.

So much of role playing is about being in the right state of mind. It's damn near impossible to get to the mental place you need to be if you think somebody is laughing at you or judging every move you make. If you take the situation seriously and show her some respect, she will do the same thing for you. If you don't, you'll be lucky to even get the "three minutes of missionary-style sex with the lights off" ever again.

5- Deal with your own insecurities
It can be pretty stunning at first to see how much your woman can get into this. You're bringing out a part of her you never thought you would see -- her with somebody else. It's easy to get a little intimidated the first time you hear her moan "Harder Miguel" or "I love your big rod."

Women can smell your insecurity like dogs can smell fear. The key is to be confident and never forget that you're the one getting her off -- not anybody else. role playing is fantasy, it's not real, and neither are your concerns about her being with someone else.

Florida banks hacked in new spoofing attack

Florida banks hacked in new spoofing attack
Three Florida banks have had their Web sites compromised by hackers in an attack that security experts are calling the first of its type.
Earlier this month, attackers were able to hack servers run by the ISP that hosted the three banks' Web sites. They then redirected traffic from the legitimate Web sites to a bogus server, designed to resemble the banking sites, according to Bob Breeden, special agent supervisor with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Computer Crime Center.

Users were then asked to enter credit card numbers, PINs and other types of sensitive information, he said.

According to Breeden, the affected banks are Premier Bank, Wakulla Bank, and Capital City Bank, all small regional banks based in Florida.

This attack was similar to phishing attacks that are commonly used against online commerce sites, but in this case hackers had actually made changes to legitimate Web sites, making the scam much harder for regular users to detect.

Phishing attacks generally require users to click on a bogus Web link, but this attack worked on users who had typed in the correct URL for the banks in question.

Breeden said he had not seen this particular tactic used before. He called it a troubling development.

"The bad guys have created a way to take away the safety of typing the address of your bank," he said "We have to address it now and say to people, 'Even if you do go to your online bank's Web site, you need to be very careful.'"

Though Breeden believes that the scam was only operational for "a matter of hours," and probably affected fewer than 20 banking customers, the technique appeared to be very effective at extracting sensitive information. "Probably some very smart people fell for this," he said.

The banks' ISP, ElectroNet Intermedia Consulting, does not house consumer data, so any information obtained by the hackers would have to have been provided directly by victims, the Tallahassee, Fla. service provider said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the crime with the help of ElectroNet and the affected institutions, ElectroNet said.

The hacking was contained within an hour of being detected, according to the ISP. However, ElectroNet did not say when the attack began or how much time had passed before it was discovered.

Although scammers have traditionally targeted large financial institutions with phishing attacks, that is now changing, according to Rich Miller, an analyst with Internet research company Netcraft. "Lately we've seen phishing attacks move down the food chain and target much smaller, regional banks," he said.

Smaller banks such as those in the Florida scam can sometimes make easier targets, Miller said. "The big banks are able to put more resources into securing their sites," he said.

Like Breeden, Miller had not seen this type of attack attempted previously.

The three banks in question could not be reached to comment for this story, but Premier Bank is now asking customers to change their passwords after the bank was notified of a phishing scam, according to a note on the company's Web site.

20 people who changed the industry

20 people who changed the industry
Reflecting on two decades of tech development and trying to identify 20 of the most influential players is tough, but we skimmed the cream with the help of longtime industry watchers. The result: a list of technologists, savvy business leaders and forward-looking IT executives who made a difference.
NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE
Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner: Cross-campus Internet workers
They might not have invented the router, as is often believed , but the two Stanford University employees built one heck of a company to exploit it.
The two recognized the multiprotocol router's commercial potential and founded Cisco in late 1984; when they left in 1990 (Lerner was forced out, and Bosack left of his own volition immediately thereafter), the company had grown from an unknown, four-employee start-up to a 250-person, publicly traded industry trend-setter with a market cap of $224 million. Today Cisco remains the router leader, as well as a dominant player in the access, switch, security, storage, VoIP and wireless markets. That market cap? It had grown to more than $120 billion as of late last month.

Desh Deshpande: Framed the future.
Deshpande launched a data-services revolution in 1991, when he founded switch maker Cascade Communications and propelled the concept of frame relay into the industry's consciousness. Cascade quickly became a dominant network vendor, growing from a one-person start-up to a $500 million company with 900 employees that Ascend Communications acquired in 1997 for $3.7 billion. Thanks in large part to Deshpande's efforts, frame relay has proven to be one of the most successful data services ever, the longtime de facto data communications standard for enterprise networks. After selling Cascade, Deshpande co-founded Sycamore Networks in 1998. Ever the entrepreneur and always the revolutionary, Deshpande this time brought the concept of intelligent optical switching to the foreground.

Bob Metcalfe: Talk about a legacy.
As a young engineer at Xerox PARC in 1973, Metcalfe invented Ethernet. Little did anyone know the technology, meant to connect local computers, would become synonymous with networking. There's no end in sight for Ethernet's dominance. Now operating at gigabit-plus speeds, it's a choice for even local, metropolitan and wide-area networks. Since his early days at PARC and then 3Com, which he founded in 1979, Metcalfe has been one of the industry's preeminent visionaries. He continues in that role today, helping develop upstart technology companies for Polaris Venture Partners.

Ray Noorda: LAN man
Noorda took over the helm of struggling Novell in 1982 and in the process of resurrecting the company created the market for network operating systems. His insistence that engineers figure out a way to turn a bunch of disparate PCs into a networked entity turned Novell into the go-to LAN software vendor for years. Noorda's insight - that getting LAN technology entrenched in corporate America would require teams of highly trained and certified individuals - spawned reseller and certification programs still widely imitated today

Radia Perlman: No path uncovered
Though a prolific inventor to this day, Perlman is perhaps best known for her seminal routing work of the 1980s. Her spanning-tree algorithm, a network staple, made robust, scalable networking a reality. A much-respected educator and collaborator, Perlman today still specializes in sophisticated routing protocols and network security as a distinguished engineer at Sun.

Yakov Rekhter: Today's transport king.
MPLS has come of age, with carriers and large enterprises adopting the protocol in their next-generation networks. Rekhter is known as the father of MPLS, though others, such as renowned routing expert Tony Li, worked on the protocol. Rekhter, who is now a distinguished engineer at Juniper Networks, has several other essential protocols to his credit as well, including the ubiquitous Border Gateway Protocol.

THE INTERNET
Mark Andreessen: Internet revolutionary.
In 1993, while studying at the University of Illinois and working part time for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Andreessen and colleague Eric Bina created a user-friendly, graphical browser. Its first version, NCSA Mosaic for X Window System, was so wildly popular among peers, who had been used to plain text browsers, that the duo quickly created Mosaic browsers for non-Unix systems. Andreessen went on to develop a commercial version, initially called Mosaic Netscape, and the rest is history. Andreessen continues to think big as chairman of Opsware, the data-center automation company he co-founded as Loudcloud in 1999.

Tim Berners-Lee: Weaving the Web
Berners-Lee dreamed of a universal, easy-to-use information system and forever changed the way people network with his revolutionary World Wide Web. He continues to influence Web standardization and development as director of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Vint Cerf: Net weaver.
Cerf is widely hailed for his role in defining protocols that made it possible to stitch together stand-alone research networks to form the ARPANet, the precursor of today's Internet. In particular, we have him and fellow pioneering pals like Bob Kahn to thank for the now-ubiquitous IP. Today Cerf is tinkering with IP at the application layer in his position as chief Internet evangelist at Google.

Jon Postel: Orchestrating Internet standards.
Postel was another of the many quiet powerhouses behind the early Internet. He's credited with creating a clear, concise template for Internet standards and maintaining that set of unified standards documents. As Network World columnist Jim Kobielus notes, "He was the maestro who coordinated the development of many of the most fundamental open standards, without which the Internet and World Wide Web would never have risen so fast and spread so wide." Postel died in 1998 at the age of 55.

COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE
Laurie Bride: Open systems pioneer.
As an enterprise architect at Boeing throughout the 1980s and '90s, Bride had the industry's ear regarding the need to interconnect disparate computing systems. Much of early open systems work traces back to Bride, who authored the TOP portion of the Manufacturing Automation Protocol/Technical Office Protocol and actively worked on and demonstrated the Open Systems Interconnection model and TCP/IP.

Bill Gates: Opening windows the world over.
Since forging and then ditching his OS/2 partnership with IBM many years ago, Gates has been profoundly influencing the way enterprises develop, deploy and use software. Some might not appreciate his business tactics, but you usually don't get to deliver on your vision by being the nice guy.

Lou Gerstner: Leading the way to global services
Although not a technologist by training, this former RJR Nabisco executive left his mark on the industry by realizing sooner than others the importance of services, open standards, the Internet, e-business and Linux, and helped usher in the age of flexible computing and services-oriented architecture development. With that vision, Gerstner turned the lumbering blue giant he ran from 1993 through 2002 into the powerhouse it is today.

Linus Torvalds: Open source's hero
The open source movement is strong and growing, more so with each passing day, thanks in large part to Torvalds, who published his Linux kernel in 1991 while a university student in Helsinki. Today Torvalds works at the Open Source Development Labs to maintain Linux and accelerate its enterprise adoption.

Scott McNealy: Changing mind-sets
Preaching "the network is the computer" gospel, McNealy opened minds to the idea of the networked environment and seamless connectivity in the late 1980s and early '90s. To follow that, in 1995 McNealy took the industry in a new direction - to the write once/run everywhere world of Java

TELECOM
Phil Evans: User advocate.
Evans, a president and longtime board member of the International Communications Association, helped shape the telecom industry in the post divestiture era. Widely respected as a network visionary, Evans influenced a generation of telecom and data communications managers in spearheading the ICA's educational efforts in an age of telecom services such as ISDN and frame relay. Evans crafted telecom strategies at a variety of Fortune 500 companies, including Ashland Oil, Dresser Industries, FMC and Occidental Petroleum. He also co-wrote The Network Manager's Handbook.

Harold Greene: Dictated change.
With his infamous 1984 Modified Final Judgment, this federal judge broke up the Bell System and forever changed the telecom industry. He expected competitive local and long-distance service to blossom if AT&T were a long-distance carrier and local services were left to seven regional holding companies. In reality, his decision led to regulatory and legislative wrangling that continues today. One has to wonder what Greene, who died in 2000, would make of today's market in general and the new AT&T in particular.

Ed Whitacre: Telecom's biggest gun.
Last year Whitacre brought the Bell System breakup full circle when he led SBC's acquisition of AT&T. The move was only natural for the tough-minded, savvy executive who has been reshaping telecom boundaries for years by acquiring fellow regional Bells Pacific Telesis and Ameritech. Now he's at it again, with AT&T's proposed acquisition of BellSouth.

SECURITY
Shlomo Kramer: Father of the firewall
Wherever there's an enterprise network, firewalls stand guard at its entry points. Some may argue that a garden-variety firewall no longer provides enough enterprise protection, but no one can deny how significant the technology has been for corporate security during the last decade. Kramer and his compadres at Check Point, including CEO Gil Schwed, get credit for inventing the firewall, and Bell researchers Bill Cheswick and Steve Bellovin get the nod for educating the masses in their widely read Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker.

Taher Elgamal: Encryption go-to guy
The world of data is a more secure place thanks to Elgamal. While chief scientist at Netscape in the late '90s, this encryption guru pioneered the SSL protocol that is a primary security mechanism for extended enterprises and the Web. Before that, he oversaw the engineering team at RSA Security that developed the industry-standard RSA cryptographic tool kits. He has moved on from Securify, which he founded, and now is founder and chairman of his own company Ektasis in the eCommerce 2.0 market. He serves on the boards of Securify, Phoenix Technologies, Tumbleweed, hifn, Facetime and Vindiciaan.