Saleen/Parnelli Jones Limited Edition Mustang

Saleen/Parnelli Jones Limited Edition Mustang
$50,000 for a Mustang? When Saleen's involved things get fancy and pricey. The Saleen/Parnelli Jones Limited Edition Mustang has a classic muscle car look that is reminiscent of the Grabber Orange Boss 302 Mustang that Parnelli Jones drove in 1970. Inside it's got the Saleen 302 cid V8 engine. Other details include 302 valve covers, a black striped “shaker” hood, a 1970 replica rear wing and rear window quarter panels. It's only available in the Grabber Orange shown here and it even comes with removable decals to make it look just like Parnelli's 1970 Mustang. They haven't announced how many units will be made but it will cost in the the mid-to-high $50,000 range.

Michael Jackson Refinances by Selling Songs

Michael Jackson Refinances by Selling Songs
Michael Jackson, struggling to pay off the approximately $300 million that he owes to the New York hedge fund, Fortress Investment Group, has announced that he has reached a deal with the group. Though the exact details were not released, a part of the deal has Jackson selling half of his shares in the Sony/ATV music library - 25% of the total collection - to Sony. After the sale, Sony will own 75% of the library. Jackson's portion, which he purchased in 1985, is currently valued at half a billion dollars and includes the rights to 251 Beatles songs as well as music by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks.

Cubi XXVII by David Smith - The World-wide Sculpture

Cubi XXVII by David Smith - The World-wide Sculpture
David Smith was foremost among the welder-sculptors who came to prominence in the U.S. after World War II. Following the example set by Julio González and Pablo Picasso, who created welded-steel sculptures as early as 1928, the Americans constructed their work directly out of iron and steel sheets and wires rather than employing the traditional method of casting.

In the 1930s and 1940s, influenced by Surrealism and Constructivism , Smith created hybrid figural sculptures and dramatic mise-en-scènes. During the 1950s he began to work in stylistic series ranging from the complicated abstract drawings-in-space of the Agricolas to the anthropomorphic and totemic sculptures incorporating machine parts such as the Sentinels and Tank Totems. In the later part of the decade and into the 1960s his work became more volumetric and monolithic.
Smith completed 28 works in his last series of monumental abstract structures, the Cubis, before his death in May 1965. These celebrated sculptures were composed from a repertoire of geometric cubes and cylinders of varying proportions. All of the Cubis are made of stainless steel, which Smith burnished to a highly reflective surface. He told critic Thomas Hess, “I made them and I polished them in such a way that on a dull day they take on a dull blue, or the color of the sky in the late afternoon sun, the glow, golden like the rays, the colors of nature.”
Some of the Cubis are vaguely figural, while others, such as Cubi XXVII, suggest architecture. This example is one of three Cubis usually referred to as “Gates”, which rise like giant rudimentary doorways framing a central void. By counterbalancing a cylinder that appears to rest precariously on edge with two small tilted blocks that look equally unstable, Smith emphasized the potential energy captured through the welding technique. The artist activated the surface of the structure through the curling traces left by the polishing process, creating, in his words, “a structure that can face the sun and hold its own against the blaze and the power.”
Price: $23.8 million

BMW Debuts New iPod Interface

BMW Debuts New iPod Interface
BMW has just announced the introduction of a new BMW iPod interface that will allow for seamless integration of the popular music-playing device into every current BMW model.
While probably not as comfortable as the iPod bed, a BMW is without a doubt the ultimate iPod accessory.

The new BMW Interface for iPod will be available for owners of the new BMW 3 Series Sedans and Sports Wagons as well as the 5, 6, and 7 Series. It will also be available for the new M5 Sedan and M6 Coupe. It will enable audiophiles to bring their entire music collections with them, plug directly and effortlessly into a superior sound system while maintaining uncompromised control over their driving experience. Since the new Interface is compatible with SIRIUS satellite radio as well as the recently introduced HD Radio, owners will be able to enjoy a broad selection of high fidelity broadcast music sources as well. The original BMW iPod Adapter will continue to be available for 2002 and later BMW models: X3, X5, Z4, and previous generation 3 Series.

The original BMW iPod Adapter was the world's first seamless integration between iPod and a vehicle audio system. The new Interface will also allow users to incorporate their iPods directly into their car's sound system, but with the newly available capability to sort their music according to their own playlists, as well as by artist, album, genre, podcast, and finally, a random selection of 500 songs from the user library. Artist, album, and song title will appear in the Display Monitor.

The seamless integration of iPod makes it effortless for drivers to control their music through their existing audio system and the multifunction steering wheel. The new BMW Interface for iPod enables drivers to easily access their entire music library, shuffle songs, skip between tracks and adjust volume -- all of this with no loss of sound quality or driving control.

The new Interface is compatible with all iPods with a dock connector, including the iPod nano and the fifth generation iPod. The BMW iPod Interfaces integrate the iPod through a direct connection in the BMW glovebox, providing outstanding sound quality and constant power to the iPod all while your iPod remains protected and out of view.

The new BMW iPod Interface will be available for customers to purchase at BMW centers beginning in July 2006. Pricing has not been determined.

Americans and Their Ideas

Americans and Their Ideas

I’m not saying that having ideas is a bad thing. But when you come up with an idea that puts you in the situation of asking “What were they thinking?? something is surely wrong.
An American investigative firm named Washington Research Associates has developed a free ebook which answers many American singles’ most pressing question: “is he/she actually married?”.
We all know that when we meet someone that we like, we tend to lie about our marital status. While men lie the most, women are more truthful.

So, this firm wants to change the way to find out if the person you are interested is married or not. For doing this, they started to create a e-book with information.

A single resource which will contain all the government repositories, information and instructions to determine whether that person is married or not. All this made online or by phone.

“It doesn’t matter if you met the guy (or girl) online or at a party, singles bar, or dance, or while waiting in line at the local 7/11,” says Washington Research Associates’ Director Warren Ryan. “Marriage and Divorce Records, USA takes the mystery out of determining somebody’s marital status. It explains what kinds of government public records provide the needed information, where they are, and how to access them.”

“Marriage and Divorce Records, USA” provides thousands of links and county/state government phone numbers, plus detailed instructions on how to get the information you need. Now it’s no longer necessary to take somebody’s word for their marital status — you can check it out yourself.

The e-book can be downloaded freely from here

Google, eBay And Amazon To AT&T: We'll Build Our Own Network

Google, eBay And Amazon To AT&T: We'll Build Our Own Network
AT&T and the telcos are threatening to charge Google and other Web sites extortion-type fees unless Google and others pay for adequate bandwidth. But Google and others may soon have this answer for them: No, thanks. We'll build our own fat pipe into customers' homes.

That's the speculation, anyway. Investor's Business Daily points out that big swaths of the wireless spectrum are about to go out to bid -- and whoever buys them could build a high-bandwidth wireless pipe into people's homes and businesses across the country.

I won't go into all the gory details, but there are two big blocks of spectrum up for sale, and Internet companies like Google are expected to bid on both.

Google, eBay, and Amazon could form their own consortium to spend the many billions of dollars needed to buy parts of the spectrum, and build a high-speed, nationwide wireless network.

Investor's Business Daily quotes George Dellinger, an analyst at research firm Washington Analysis, as saying "A consortium of new media companies could wind up leading the pack to buy that spectrum and provide a third (broadband) pipe into homes."

Sound far-fetched? Google is already building wireless networks in San Francisco and its home of Mountain View. The company is sitting on top of the biggest pile of cash south of Bill Gates -- probably close to $10 billion after a planned $2 billion new stock offering. It can afford to do it. And when it comes to cash, eBay and Amazon aren't slouches, either.

So the network neutrality debate may blow up in AT&T's face. When it comes to buying bandwith, I'll choose Google over the telco dinosaurs any day of the week.

New Ultra-Expensive Sandwich Hits London

New Ultra-Expensive Sandwich Hits London
All of London is abuzz about the McDonald sandwich. BBC News reports that the new sandwich, named after its creator Scott McDonald, costs $148 and is being sold at the London department store Selfridges. What do you get for your money? The sandwich uses 24-hour fermented sourdough bread, wagyu beef, fresh lobe fois gras, black truffle mayonnaise, brie de meaux, rocket, red pepper and mustard confit and English plum tomatoes. At 2,000 calories its not for dieters but a few curious Londoners have already sampled the rich repast. I think I'd still rather have the $100 Philadelphia cheese steak because at least your get a mini-bottle of champagne with it.

El Bulli Named The World's Best Restaurant

El Bulli Named The World's Best Restaurant
What are the 20 best restaurants in the world? According to Restaurant magazine, El Bulli, Ferran Adria's iconic restaurant in northern Spain is now top on the list, upsetting last year's winner the U.K.'s Fat Duck (shown here), which is now number two, where El Bulli was last year. Both restaurants specialize in experimental cuisine. French Laundry was tops in the U.S. at number three and Thomas Keller's New York restaurant Per Se ranked eighth.

1. El Bulli (Spain)
2. The Fat Duck (U.K.)
3. Pierre Gagnaire (France)
4. French Laundry (U.S.)
5. Tetsuya's (Australia)
6. Bras (France)
7. Restaurant le Louis XV (Monaco)
8. Per Se (U.S.)
9. Restaurant Arzak (Spain)
10. Mugaritz (Spain)
11. Can Fabes (Spain)
12. Nobu (U.K.)
13. Gambero Rosso (Italy)
14. Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road (U.K.)
15. Restaurant Alain Ducasse (France)
16. Jean Georges (U.S., New York)
17. Le Cinq (France)
18. Daniel (U.S., New York)
19. Oud Sluis (Netherlands)
20. Chez Panisse (U.S.)

The Guys That Never Sleep

The Guys That Never Sleep
Kaspersky warns against a new cross platform virus that can infect both Windows and Linux.
Though its intensity is not something to worry about the news that this kind of multiple platform virus was given birth is not good.

Experts state that cross platform malware is just now starting to develop as hackers focus on writing code that can infect different platforms at the same time.

The new virus written in assembler is not a real threat to Linux or Windows but a proof that these kind of projects can be developed in the near future. Called Virus.Linux.Bi.a/Virus.Win32.Bi.a by Kaspersky anti-virus company, the virus infects only files in the current directory. The concept can be developed with given interest and can become a serious threat to PC security.

Though considered to be very difficult, the building of such cross platform viruses is not impossible. Writing such malicious code does seem difficult because it is limited to functions that are available on all the operating systems but as hackers seem to be doing their research things are far from ending here. All companies have been advised to start protecting their non-Windows operating systems with adequate anti-virus tools, as, otherwise, things are going to turn ugly.