360 DEGREES Weblog

Based on the company’s standard Evora, the new Lotus Evora S ($TBA) ups the ante with a mid-mounted, 345 hp 3.5L Toyota-sourced V6, a zero to 60 time of just 4.8 seconds, a top speed of 172 mph, a sport button that gives the driver more control over the throttle response, a higher rev limiter, modifies the stability control settings, and activates an exhaust bypass valve, 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels, Eibach springs, Blistein dampers, a forged aluminum double-wishbone suspension, and an Alpine-branded media system with a 7-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth, iPod connectivity, and video playback. No word yet on the price but this we will know soon as it will be announced on the Paris Autoshow.

The latest in the beautiful Louis Vuitton ad campaign shot by Annie Leibovitz features U2 frontman Bono (aka Paul Hewson) and his wife, Ali Hewson. WWD says that this is the first time that Bono has appeared in an ad without his U2 bandmates. It’s also the first time that a label other than Vuitton is getting a fashion credit, the pair are wearing their own clothing line, Edun, a line of ethical fashion. Vuitton parent company LVMH owns a 49 percent stake in the company. In the ad, Ali Hewson carries a new handbag that was a join project between Edun and Vuitton and has a special charm that is the French firm’s first made-in-Africa product. Proceeds from the bag will go to TechnoServe, a nongovernmental organization that fosters enterprise in the developing world; Conservation Cotton Initiative, which supports sustainable farming in Africa.

The ad shows the pair leaving a plane with a South African landscape as a backdrop and carries the tagline “Every journey began in Africa.” They donated their fees to TechnoServe, Conservation Cotton Initiative and Chernobyl Children’s Project International.
Previous ads have featured Mikhail Gorbachev, Keith Richards, John Glenn, Sally Ride, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Pele and Catherine Denueve among others.

You’ve got to love a public relations stunt when it comes with a photo like this. Head & Shoulders has taken out a $1 million insurance policy on Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu’s hair. Polamalu is a second year spokesperson for the brand. With Watkins Syndicate at Lloyd’s of London, the world’s leading insurance agency, Head & Shoulders created the first ever insurance policy to protect the player’s hair for the entire NFL season.

“Head & Shoulders has gone above and beyond this year by insuring my Samoan locks for a cool $1 million. This reinforces that my full and thick hair is unstoppable,” said Troy Polamalu in a press release. He has not cut his hair in over seven years. The hair even has its own website, Troyshair.com where fans of both the player and the hair can win prizes including a Super Bowl XLV VIP package.

If users of social media are interested in buying notebooks embellished with their online tweets or Facebook feed, doesn’t it stand to reason that they’d want a mug featuring the profile pictures of their online friends? California-based CrowdedInk apparently thinks so, for it launched a ?Friends? mug in precisely that vein.

CrowdedInk’s Friends social mug can be embellished with the customer’s friends from either Facebook or Twitter. The ordering process begins when customers sign in to whichever of the two social sites they’re interested in. From there, they can select up to 184 friends to go on their mug. They can also choose the mug style, colour and size?ceramic, stainless and glass options are all available?as well as customizing it with the images or text of their choice. Pricing on Zazzle ranges from USD 15 for a simple 11 oz. ceramic mug to USD 23.75 for a 16 oz. frosted glass version.

Don’t let your digital media have all the fun playing on clouds, let’s store our physical books, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and magazines on a cloud too. I did hear this cloudshelf has nearly a 100% uptime.

Design Carl Hagerling SEK 950 or about $ 130

If you?re measuring rainfall using your boots and those measurements start above your foot, well let?s face it- you?re in it pretty deep. As we have seen continues days of rain over here we are actually reaching water levels almost to our knees, so we don’t know how long these boots will? help us.

You may buy your Rain Level boots in various colors for ? 69 ($90)

Finally: A nice-looking Nooka with a face that’s actually readable. Taking cues from its unique perspective on time telling, the Nooka Zub Zirc Watch ($130) sports a familiar wheel of 12 dots to denote the hour, a simple bar for the minutes, a small window to count the seconds, alarm and chronograph modes, and a 20mm polyurethane band in your choice of six colors. Pick the color that matches your favorite attire, buy a few to mix-n-match, or buy all six and wear them up your atrophied arm like Swatch watches from the 80s.

We’re long-time fans of The Bureau Of Communication website, where you can find printable forms for everything from declaring your romantic interest to relaying bad news. Now they’ve gone all dead tree on us with Formal Notices From The Bureau Of Communication ($11). This collection of fifty fill-in-the-blank letters can help even the most staunch luddite in the family get their point across with candor, brevity, and just the right amount of humor.

Protect you, your companion, and your bike on overnight adventures in the Nomad Motorcycle Tent ($400). Made from coated ripstop nylon with a polyester floor, the Nomad offers 30 square feet of interior room, weighs just 13 lbs. when packed, and requires only three poles for assembly. It sure beats sleeping on the ground with your head inside a helmet.

You may not have believed it if we told you a few years ago, but Hyundai of all automakers is making serious headway into the premium market, taking on the Japanese luxury marques with aplomb. The Genesis coupe and sedan and the recently launched Equus make for sound arguments, but buyers discounting the rear-drive, premium Korean automobiles for their lack of all-wheel drive – an increasingly popular option on luxury vehicles – are rapidly running out of excuses.

Hyundai has now confirmed that the next-generation of both the Genesis and Equus will be available with all-wheel drive, putting the high-end Hyundais up against Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Infiniti, Acura, Cadillac and other luxury marques that offer full traction on their sedans and coupes.