360 DEGREES Weblog

A group of investors, led by Pallinghurst Resources, is planning to spend $450 million to restore the Faberge luxury brand, develop a new business to supply colored gemstones, and eventually partner with a leading diamond miner to create a diamond brand.

Pallinghurst has teamed up with Connecticut-based American Metals & Coal International Inc., South Africa-based bank Investec Ltd., and Texas-based private-equity fund NGP Midstream & Resources LPand, to embark on the projects.

The three partners recently paid $50 million for joint ownership of the Faberge brand, which Pallinghurst bought from Unilever in January for an undisclosed amount, through a company it set up in 2006 for that purpose, Faberge Ltd.

(RAPAPORT NEWS)

Flickr user Balakov recreated Charles Ebbet’s famous photo Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, c. 1932 with LEGO minifigs!

Snowpulse from Switzerland has developed the Lifebag, which is essentially an airbag that was specially designed to protect the head and thorax in the event of an avalanche while keeping you afloat so that you won’t be buried under tons of snow. It is deployed manually like a parachute, where the 150-liter shield takes less than three seconds to inflate. The Lifebag will deflate after 90 seconds, giving you a tiny air pocket to breathe should you actually get buried. The Lifebag retails for $1,100.

The Extravagant lamp is the latest lighting from Alex Vitet, with a translucent Corian shade complete with chandelier graphic.

Guerrilla marketing techniques have been around for years, but they’ve also acquired a bad rep for sometimes defacing public property; city officials tend not to look too kindly on adverts scrawled in spray paint on city pavement, for example. Now Street Advertising Services is offering a less antagonizing—and more legal—solution by creating images out of water.

The British company’s Street Art service uses high-pressure cleaning machines to wash brands, logos and adverts onto dirty pavements. First, clients provide their design, and SAS turns it into a giant stencil. Then, working at night, the SAS team blasts the stencil with water and steam on dirty walls, roads, pavements or even road signs. The result is a sparkling clean image in the shape of the company’s logo or message. Nothing but water and steam are used, and it’s all perfectly environmentally friendly and legal, SAS stresses. Pricing for a street art campaign with 15 to 20 adverts throughout a city begins at GBP 1,000 per city plus initial setup costs. Clients so far have ranged from newly opened businesses to global brands.

Just five years ago, Sean “Diddy” Combs asked Busta Rhymes to “pass the Courvoisier,” but these days, it is all about the vodka.

The hip-hop mogul has inked a multiyear deal in which he will help develop the Ciroc brand — one of Diageo PLC’s super-premium vodka lines — for a 50-50 share in the profits.

The agreement is the latest in which a celebrity is going beyond the typical role of endorser to share in a brand’s rise and fall.

Diageo said the agreement could be worth more than $100 million (€70 million) for Combs and his company, Sean Combs Enterprises, over the course of the deal, depending on how well the brand performs.

(INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)

For the mischievous host who wants to completely flummox his houseguests, this Absens Concealed Faucet will conceal all plumbing from view. A light touch on the faucet’s stainless steel cover exposes the fixture and its minimalist controls, and when you’re done, another push returns it to its hiding place where no one’s the wiser.

If you like this disappearing faucet, you can also use this same design in your shower, bidet or bathtub, switching that stainless steel cover for one that matches your bathroom’s tile, walls, or unique finishes.

When Amy Waldman first signed on to Facebook last year and started to send joking messages about good grammar back and forth with a new 18-year-old friend, Waldman’s 19-year-old daughter, Talia, upbraided her for not revealing that she was actually in her 40s.

“You have to tell her you’re old,” she explained, “because on Facebook, that’s creepy.”

Waldman created a Facebook group to commemorate the incident: “over 40 is ‘facebook creepy.’ ”

It’s no secret that Facebook, which started as a networking playground for college kids, is graying, and that the percentage of active members who are over 25 years old and out of school has risen to some 40 percent of the overall population of about 45 million.

Segway have teamed up with Ferrari to release a special limited edition version of their i2 Personal Transporter. Ferrari have used Segway’s as a transportation method around their Maranello factory for sometime now, the Segway PT i2 Ferrari Limited Edition comes in Ferrari’s signature color, red and features the Scuderia Ferrari logo at the base. It has a range of almost forty kilometers off one battery charge and can be easily stowed in the trunk of a car for longer journeys. It comes with a handlebar bag made of leather.