Behold, the most expensive blackberry ever made. This phone, made by U.K designer Alexander Amosu, features 4,459 brilliant cut diamonds totalling a staggering 28.43 carats, all set right at home in solid 18 carat yellow gold. Wanna know how much it is? I’ll give you a hint….it costs exactly the same amount as a 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP-560-4. Yes. A brand new Lamborghini. The answer is $240,000.

So the question is…would you rather be driving one of the hottest cars on the road, or buying a phone that will likely last you no longer than 2 years max? Considering Blackberry’s are not exactly known to be a particularly reliable fruit, I think the choice is clear. Not to mention the fact that you’re gonna look super douchelike when the next generation Curve comes out. I can hear it now “Oh hey man, is that the old curve with a bunch of swarovski’s on it? how much did that set you back…musta been like 800 bucks!” This is the point where you sheepishly agree that it DID indeed cost you $800 bucks. You do NOT mention the other $239, 200.

If you want to see an array of other ridiculously exorbitant Blackberrys, feel free to check out a slideshow right here….but keep in mind, none of them come even close to this beast. Gluttonous.

Roman Abramovich, Russian oligarch, and owner of the best football club in the world,Chelsea, will soon be chilling on the largest and most expensive yacht of all time.

For years i’ve told Roman to not be so flashy but he just doesn’t listen.At least he took my advice and didn’t chrome the thing.Check out his little row boat:

Not too shabby hey? Take a wild guess how much this thing costs.. nearly..wait for it…1 billion ..sterling.True story.The cost of the yacht has nearly doubled to £724m. The yacht “boasts two helipads, two swimming pools — the larger of which doubles up as a dance floor when drained — and 6ft-wide home cinema screens in all 24 guest cabins.”[TIMES ONLINE]

An anti-paparazzi shield is attracting the most attention though.Apparently Roman doesn’t want the paps to know that people like me are on board (i dont mind really ,but he’s like that ) so he has fitted the yacht with lasers that will block any digital camera lenses in the area. Other security features include my personal favourite, a missile defense system.WTF yes please.

The yacht is due to be docked in Cape Town harbour next year for the World Cup 2010..and Abramovich will be flying to matches via helicopter.SMS me when you get here Roman..traffic is gonna suck…or just let me use the mini-submarine.

Life is Savage has already put in an application for membership at this little hideaway in Scotland.Im pretty sure they will accept an IOU.Im good for it..i swear.

It hasn’t even been built yet but already its making the mega rich folk around the planet drool.Dall House is to be situated at Kinloch Rannoch, Scotland.

Sign up fee is a mere 2 million pounds and the annual membership will set you back 500 000 pounds.The crappiest room goes for 6000 pounds a night, while deluxe accomodation is around the 14 000 pound mark.

And if you are worried that the riff raff might be allowed in ,dont stress.”Members of the exclusive club would be expected to have minimum liquid assets of £100 million.” ya whatever…. keep your kak resort to yourself..it rains in Scotland all the time.. im happy in Cape Town.

No Usage Based Billing

FIRST: I mentioned in Psst… Pass It On: Stop Usage Based Billing that everything in the Stop Usage Based Billing blog was in the public domain. It occurred to me that it might help to make this announcement a little more formal. So I have now officially registered this blog with a Creative Commons CC0 listing to place my Stop Usage Based Billing blog in the public domain. This will allow everyone the right to borrow any bits of this blog they may find useful. For letters of complaint, for example. You’ll find the creative commons badge at the bottom of this post, but applies to the entire Stop Usage Based Billing blog.

Of course the downside of registering a Creative Commons CC0is that supporters of Usage Based Billing people may attempt to use material provided in this blog in their continuing misinformation attempts.

You might ask: who in their right mind would support Usage Based Billing?

Sadly, the answer to that one is easy, the main pro-UBB lobby is of course those who expect to profit from Usage Based Billing. That is to say primarily Bell Canada, but can include everyone and every company associated with Bell Canada, including CTVglobemedia and every one they can control either through economic plums or economic sanctions. I’m sure that this type of manipulation is a lot easier during a world wide recession.

The only others supporting UBB are those who have bought into the misinformation being spread and promoted by pro Usage Based Billing lobby. There is no shame in that, after all you can’t beat the talented writers and advertising folks employed by CTVglobemedia. It’s even conceivable that some of those talented people don’t really understand the jargon and might not realize why this is such a big problem. I’d expect controlling the jargon would make it a lot easier to put your own spin on it.

I know we think of a lobbyists making a big noise to sell their cause, but when you’re lobbying for acceptance of something like Usage Based Billing which can’t possibly be supported by any rational argument, lobbying for a silence would certainly be the way to go.

If you’ve already signed the http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/ online petition, and are looking for something else to do to try and stop UBB, as a concerned Canadian it is always within your rights to make a complaint to the CRTC.

CRTC

Even if you have already submitted your comment or complaint to the CRTC specific to CRTC Ruling File Number # 8740-B2-200904989 – Bell Canada – TN 7181 to protest the CRTC’s extremely bad decision to allow Bell Canada to implement Usage Based Billing, you are still well within your rights to place another complaint through the CRTC complaints page I’ve just stumbled across on the CRTC website.

These pages offer you advice and explain the complain procedure to make it easy for Canadians to submit specific customer complaints to the CRTC in the areas of :

• television and radio (Broadcasting complaints: TV and Radio | CRTC),
• phone (Telephone service: making a complaint) including both land lines and cell phones, and
• internet service in Canada (rates, quality, access, legal actions and complaints)

I would venture a guess that a completely different group of CRTC staffers deal with the complaints made through this web form. In fact there would probably be different CRTC complaints staff sections to deal with each of the three different areas the CRTC is supposed to regulate.

At any time you can go to the CRTC online complaints department and submit a complaint here:

Ask a question or make a complaint
Send us your question or complaint about television, radio, telephone, cellphone, Internet or other services. CRTC responds to most questions within 10 working days. Find out more about how we handle complaints for Television and Radio, phone and internet.

1. Make a Complaint about Broadcasting

Perhaps you might wish to make a complaint about broadcasting. The CRTC first recommends that you complain to your broadcaster before complaining to the CRTC. This is reasonable. So first you should contact CTV and ask them why they are not covering Usage Based Billing. Remember, the CRTC first announced UBB in April, but just approved it in August. In all that time, why has CTV not covered Usage Based Billing? My most recent CTV web search came up with this:

Screenshot: CTV Usage Based Billing Search

The fact that more than six thousand Canadians have already signed the online petition calling for the dissolution of the CRTC– in spite of the apparent news blackout of Usage Based Billing– hasn’t raised a single microphone at CTV. Isn’t that a strong indication that Canadians are very are interested in the CRTC Usage Based Billing decision? Six thousand concerned Canadians would trigger CTV coverage of any other story. Yet CTV is not covering Usage Based Billing. Why?

CTV is covering the CRTC and CTV is covering news about the Canadian Internet. Here is an example in a CTV online article about the multi-billion dollar revenues generated by Canadian internet services CTV: Telecom Growth. But they are doing it selectively.

Could it be that Bell Canada isn’t allowing CTV news to cover this news? You can ask CTV news yourself. Send in your questions directly:

• to CTV news at: news@ctv.ca
• to CTV news online at: newsonline@ctv.ca
• or direct to Canada AM: am@ctv.ca

When that doesn’t work, you may send your complaint along to the to the CRTC about the fact that CTV is only selectively reporting the news to Canadians.

2. Complain about the Telephone Company

It would not be unreasonable to wonder about Bell Canada’s “confidentiality of customer records” I certainly would not trust any company who read their customer’s mail without permission, which is essentially what Bell Canada is doing with its internet “deep packet inspection”. Maybe they really are only reading the bits that say what kind of packets they are. Personally, I wouldn’t take Bell Canada’s word for it.

(Actually, its even worse than just reading their customer’s mail, they’re interfering with it too.)

Like everyone else in Canada, I’ve had issues with Bell Canada over the years. Even though they were incredibly high handed in the days of monopoly, the influx of competition seemed to make them ease up. After all. Bell Canada has always been there. Why not trust them?

Hmmmm. Not too long ago I had a problem with Bell Canada, and I ended up talking to someone in their “loyalty” department. To smooth my feathers he fixed the problem and gave me a $30.00 discount on my next bill. Then he actually told me that if I called back in three months and asked for the loyalty department and said I was going to switch to a different telephone carrier, they would give me another $30.00 discount. He also told me that Bell Canada would give me this “discount” every three months if I kept calling back.

What kind of business is Bell Canada running? I think that policy is twisted. In the first place Bell Canada is essentially bribing customers from switching to the competition. Class action suit anyone? Adding insult to insult, Bell Canada has such a low opinion of Canadian consumers that they don’t even trust us to stay bought.

If Bell Canada can afford to do this it strikes me that they are making too much money already. Lets look at this as a business practice. The first thing that really bothers me is that the Bell Canada Loyalty department is actually penalizing Bell Canada’s loyal customers. The granny who would never dream of switching doesn’t get that annual $120.00 savings because she is loyal to Bell. Call me crazy, but I just can’t figure out why Bell Canada doesn’t just improve service? Reduce charges? Compete fairly? Maybe they are so sure that they are going to get to be a monopoly again that they would rather bribe customers piecemeal as needed than clean up their act.

Personally. I would rather not deal with a company that treats its customers so shabbily. I’m going to be switching my land line to Teksavvy. The savings (yes, in fact they offer better deals than Bell Canada for telephone service too) will help my family budget for the increased internet costs that Usage Based Billing will cause us.

Warning: If you decide to do the same, make sure you call Teksavvy or whoever your new carrier is going to first. Arrange with the NEW CARRIER to arrance the transfer of service. If you do this, you will be able to port your existing Bell Telephone number to the new service. If you call Bell first and tell them you want to cancel, they are likely to disconnect you before your new service is in place, which means that you will not be able to keep the same phone number. (Just another way Bell Canada likes to mess with us

So, after you’ve talked to the phone company, you are supposed to go to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) and find your telephone companytheir list on , you are supposed to deal with them in an effort to clear up the problem.

If you don’t get satisfaction through this process, or if your company is not on the list, you can always go back and make your complaint to the CRTC.

3. Complain about Internet Service

I wouldn’t think there would be any limitation on how many complaints any one citizen is allowed to submit, so long as the topics are different. For example you could reasonably complain to the CRTC about:

• the fact that CRTC is allowing Bell Canada to implement Usage Based Billing at all
• the fact that the CRTC would rule in favor of Usage Based Billing in the absence of any meaningful public consultation
• the fact that the CRTC would rule in favor of Usage Based Billing without making sure that the Canadian public was informed of this sweeping change before the fact
• the fact that CRTC is allowing Bell Canada to charge you for Usage Based Billing if you (like me) are not a Bell Canada internet customer
• the fact that CRTC’s ruling will allow Bell Canada to increase your costs in accessing the internet
• the fact that CRTC has jeopardized your privacy by allowing deep packet inspection of your internet usage, and
• the fact that CRTC is allowing Bell Canada to “throttle” internet use by inflating customer bandwidth, and
• the fact that this CRTC decision to allow Usage Based Billing will allow Bell Canada to fraudulently bill internet users for the Bandwidth which the customer has not actually used but which has been deliberately inflated through Bell Canada “throttling”
• the fact that CRTC is allowing Bell Canada to implement Usage Based Billing in addition to what customers are already paying without providing any additional service to the customer to justify this increase
• the fact that CRTC is allowing Bell Canada to implement Usage Based Billing in spite of virtually unanimous opposition from the public (the small segment of the public that found out about UBB)
• the fact that CRTC allowed Usage Based Billing will make Canadian internet the most expensive in the world, and therefore unreasonably expensive, which is the opposit of &ldrquo;affordable&rdquo’
• the fact that CRTC allowed Usage Based Billing which will make internet access less accessible to Canadians due to these excessive new costs
• the fact that CRTC allowed Usage Based Billing will damage the Canadian economy by limiting Canadian internet access for purposes of education, technology, art, music, writing, resarch, film, science, research, business etc.
• the fact that there does not appear to be any good nor auditable way vouched for by Measurement Canada of measuring the usage in order to assess “Usage Based Billing” charges.
• the fact that CRTC allowed Usage Based Billing will interfere in the internet consumer market to the extent of eliminating the independent ISP’s ability to compete, and
• the fact that CRTC allowed Usage Based Billing will interfere in the internet consumer market to the extent of forcing Bell Canada’s (Sympatico) competition, the independent ISP’s, to break contractual agreements with their customers, and which will certainly damage and possibly destroy these companies, which will
• effectively neutralize and wipe out all Bell Canada (Sympatico) competition.

CRTC would like you to go through the same process as with the telephone complaint, where you try to resolve the problem with the service provider. So if you are in fact a Bell Canada (Sympatico) customer, you can direct your questions and complaints directly to Bell or the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services Inc. (CCTS) first.

Of course my problem is not with my ISP, my problem is with Bell Canada’s interference in my business relationship with my ISP and with the CRTC’s ill advised approval of Usage Based Billing. So for me, it is a case of going back to make your complaint to the CRTC. Perhaps if enough Canadians ask enough questions we will actually get real answers. Perhaps if enough Canadians complain, the CRTC will be clever enough to quash the Usage Based Billing regulation, and then consider actually adhering to their mandate.

It should be more difficult for CRTC to ignore these complaints as these complaints are supposed to be handled by a staff member within ten days. THESE consumer complaints are supposed to generate a human response. Perhaps if we help to use up their budgeted resources they might be able to grasp why it is bad to allow implementation of Usage Based Billing which will certainly affect the budgets of the Canadian citizens they are supposed to be looking out for. Maybe then the CRTC wouldn’t be so eager to completely ignore the wishes of the citizenry, as did in making this bad decision in the first place.

To the extent possible under law, Laurel L. Russwurm
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Stop Usage Based Billing.

This work is published from Canada.

My friend, who got all the most expensive golf stuff the other day, is going to be the proud recipient of the most expensive lighter. He’ll be the envy of his golf buddies when he whips this out to light his cigar.

This lighter costs $79,000 and is made of 18-carat white solid gold and contains 468 diamonds (5,2 carat). This rare lighter comes in an individual limited number out of 352.

S.T. Dupont has always been held in high regard by the cognoscenti but gained recent acclaim when some of its pieces were used by Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale.

So now I guess he can pretend to be James Bond

This picture is of the most expensive hotel in Europe. It can cost over $18,000 a night. It’s situated along the Mediterranean Sea in transcontinental state of Turkey.

With $77,000 I can spend 4 nights there and still have money left over to play…WOO HOO!!

I can’t wait to see what the rooms look like

Housed in this veritable temple of decadence, you’ll find a spa with real snow in one of its rooms, gold-plated mirrors on the floors of the bathrooms, 23,000 square meters of Italian marble, remote controlled toilets and the centerpiece—a pool and sunken aquarium that must be crossed by gondola.

All ABOARD!!!! Today is the most expensive train ride. The cost is $22,195 for a single room or $15,795 per person for a twin cabin. I decide to purchase (3) single rooms for a total cost of $66,585. The remaining $415 is for fun while on the trip.

“The Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express was unveiled by Britain’s Prince Michael of Kent in April 2007. The train’s Gold Class cabins are equipped with LCD screens, power showers, underfloor heating and individual air conditioning while chefs in the restaurant cars prepare the finest local cuisine. The Golden Eagle takes wealthy tourists and other travelers almost 6,000 miles in 15 days, with frequent stops for day trips.” – Most Expensive Train Ride

Fritz Knipschildt is the architect behind the most expensive chocolate in the world and is sometimes called the Willy Wonka of Connecticut. He founded Knipschildt Chocolatier in South Norwalk, Connecticut in 1999 and brought his Danish culinary training with him. All of his chocolates are handmade artisan products using only the freshest natural ingredients, with no additives or preservatives. He sells a chocolate called the Madeleine that must be ordered in advance. The Madeleine contains a creamy truffle ganache made from French Valrhona chocolate blended with fresh cream infused with vanilla pods and pure Italian truffle oil.

Knipschildt’s Madeleine

This extravagant yet simple ganache then has a French Perigold truffle rolled inside of it and the whole thing is dusted with cocoa powder. The ingredients alone don’t explain why this truffle chocolate is the world’s most expensive chocolate ever sold. Mr. Knipschildt’s explanation for the price tag is the tremendous amount of work that goes into producing these chocolates. The ganache is whipped and folded by hand for a long time to make it as silky as humanly possible, and he even has to perform the hand rolling of the Perigold truffle inside of the ganache within a refrigerated room so that the ganache hardens ever so slightly enough to be workable. Each one of these luscious truffle chocolates has a price tag of $250, making the confection cost approximately $2,600 per pound in quantity.

The Madeleine must be ordered in advance, and each chocolate comes with a personally signed card explaining how it was made and a unique serial number. Mr. Knipshildt has certainly created the world’s most expensive chocolate confection, and it’s probably worth every penny.

This lucious “Dragons” Armchair (check out the vicious-looking heads on the arm rests) recently sold at auction for €21,905,000 ($28,238,277), making it the most expensive chair in the world!

Why did it fetch that much? Perhaps because it was designed by Eileen Gray, the famed modernist designer, also known for her fabulous Bibendum chair, which was modeled after the rotund figure of the Michelin Man.

Nearly 22 million euros is certainly a steep price, but it is a striking chair. How much would you pay for the “dragons”?

While this past week’s Sean John Dark Taupe Stripe Suit was truly stunning, SuitUpp was selling it for only $295. Even though the value of the suit was above $600, it didn’t even begin to challenge some of the truly expensive suits out there. So the question is, how expensive can a suit really get and how are those prices justified? In this post, we’ll guide you through a world of extravegance and high fashion.

If you’ve ever shopped in and around Madison Avenue in New York, you may have stopped over at Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Gucci, and Dolce & Gabbana. Going straight to the most expensive product that they have, prices typically hover in the $2,000-$2,500 range. To get a made-to-measure suit, they may charge you up to an additional $1,000. Why not though? If you’re going for the best, it does have to fit perfectly. Is that all though? $3,500? You guessed it, the answer is a big No.

What you have to consider is that what you’ll likely purchase at your traditional NYC store is a made to measure suit and not a bespoke suit. Bespoke is a term not used so much in North America. It essentially means an item custom-made to the buyer’s specification. Made-to-measure typically means that the pattern is already there and the suit is simply being fitted to the buyer, whereas, a bespoke suit doesn’t come with a prior pattern. The term bespoke is analogous to the more familiar haute couture term in women’s fashion. The famous New York Designer Craig Robinson defines the difference between the two as “tradition and personality versus conformity and convention.” The Savile Row Bespoke Association in London is responsible for defining the standards for bespoke clothing and protecting its name for the large part. Savile Row is a street in London famous for its bespoke tailoring.

In the bespoke category, you’ll have to visit the likes of  William Fioravanti, Milan’s Caraceni, Kiton, Oxxford, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Savile Row’s H. Huntsman and Anderson & Sheppard. So, how expensive can these suits get? The most expensive one we were able to find was a Kiton suit that ranged from $6,000 all the way up to $30,000. At the high end, you’d get the pleasure of having Kiton’s master Taylor fly over to take your measurements. Wow.

So what makes a suit so expensive in the first place? Service, brandname, workmanship, and most importantly Fabric. If your suit is made of Super 220 Merino Wool, it might cost the taylor $5,000 dollars to purchase the fabric. So there you have it, fabric matters.

If you are looking for more information on some of the world’s most expensive suits, check out the following sites:

http://most-expensive.net/mens-suit-retail

http://www.forbes.com/2004/11/03/cx_ns_1103feat.html