Sonntag, 5. Dezember 2004

Virgin Galactic Private Spaceflights. Maverick billionaire Richard Branson is a man who likes to live on the edge. In the case of Virgin Galactic, he is looking for a few brave, and rich, souls to join him. Branson has tied up with Burt Rutan, the developer of the award winning SpaceShipOne space craft, to design re-usable space vehicles based upon the SpaceShipOne design. According to a short piece in Popular Science, $190,000 will buy you [base "]a week of preflight training and a three hour vertical cruise complete with three minutes of weightlessness.[per thou] Pilots from some of Virgin[base ']s other airlines will be trained to fly the space craft, starting with the VSS Enterprise by the end of 2007. [Luxist] 6:03:07 PM    comment []

Hotel Vernet. Need a Paris getaway? Hotel Vernet is a small hotel located in the center of the city near the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysses. Hotel details included the leaded glass fin-de-siecle ceiling in the dining room, a cigar salon, and suites with small balconies. They are offering currently offering a Perrier Jouet package which includes three nights accommodation, buffet breakfast, dinner at les Elysees, the gourmet hotel restaurant, a picnic basket for two (including a bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne) and two in-room massages. [Luxist] 6:02:26 PM    comment []

London's interactive X-mas tree. Rio de Janeiro has a Christmas tree floating on a lagoon and London's Tate Britain has just unveiled a green Norway spruce that can receive Bluetooth texts sent by visitors to the art gallery. It is the 17th year that the gallery has invited an artist to dress their Christmas tree. Mark Wallinger decorated it last year, Tracy Emin in 2002, and Catherine Yass fashioned a minimal neon tree four years ago. My favourite so far could be Michael Landy's interpretation in 1997. Sculptor Richard Wentworth's work of this year includes ordinary household light bulbs, multi-coloured broken plates and an antenna (to get those SMS) in the place of an angel. The plates decorating the branches will be auctioned off for the children's charity ArtWorks. Via textually and Londonist . [we make money not art] 5:53:27 PM    comment []

Namale Spa Sanctuary. The Namale Spa and Sanctuary was recently ranked as the number one Fijian spa in the 2004 Reader[base ']s Choice Poll from Luxury Spa Finder magazine. Namale, opened by famed peak performance coach Anthony Robbins, is located over 300 acres. The spa itself is set on a 10,000 square foot property, with fine wood interiors, private treatment rooms, a Jacuzzi, gym and waterfall dipping pool. The resort has also been named one of the top 50 romantic places in the world by Luxury Magazine. [Luxist] 2:09:48 PM    comment []

Balloon man. David Pescovitz: Cluster balloonist John Ninomiya has a Web site archiving his high-flying adventures: "Five years ago, I decided to fulfill a childhood dream by learning to fly with a cluster of large helium balloons. I have made twenty-three helium cluster balloon flights since that time. All of them have been among my most magical flying experiences... With half a dozen pilots worldwide, cluster ballooning remains something between an extreme sport and a personal eccentricity..." Link (via Slashdot) back to back, we have a photo of some wacko dude flying around with helium balloons and evidence picture from Iraqi prison. isn't the internet great? -- AP [Eyebeam reBlog] 2:00:06 PM    comment []