If you're looking to travel in style and money's not a concern, you could opt for shares in a private jet, invest in a Louis Vuitton leather luggage set or spend six figures on any of a handful of street-legal, ultra-luxe cars. It'll take a good three-quarters of a million dollars to own something like the SSC Ultimate Aero.

The supercar produces 1,287 horsepower and features a carbon fiber-dashboard and center console with a digital temperature control unit and tire pressure monitor, for optimum driving conditions.But if you drive the Aero, be prepared to be outclassed by owners of the Lamborghini Reventón.

Only 20 drivers willing to part with $1.42 million will get to enjoy the car's fighter jet-inspired sharp edges and precise lines. You'll know the Reventón by its glass engine hood, solid aluminum fuel tank lid and opaque carbon fins screwed onto the black aluminum spokes on the wheels.

Read the complete story

It seems the Chinese government has come true on its promise to be more transparent but appears to have forgotten the reason why. Two new websites, for the Confucius Institute and the China Trade Union, have attracted equal parts ridicule, bafflement and outrage after the Ministry of Finance announced their cost: 35.2 million and 6.7 million yuan respectively. Given that almost any website can be put together for under 100,000 yuan tops, how did so much money get spanked on one site alone? Answer: massive incompetence and no paper trail.

The two companies involved, Hanfeng Education and Hanfeng Network, were established for that sole purpose, and happened to have offices next door in the same building. The parent of the enterprise, the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOFCL) also founded the Hanfeng companies. Having a private enterprise handle public money is a classic Chinese way of freeing up restrictions on where it all goes; no invoices have yet been presented.

Read the complete story

Austrian luxury designer and jeweler Peter Aloisson has something more to add to his kitty – ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you the Aloisson designed iPhone – the world’s most expensive iPhone. While diamond studded phones are nothing new, the only thing the iPhone Princess Plus has to its credit is being the most expensive iPhone.

The phone derives its name from the Princess cut used on 138 of the 318 diamonds on its surface. The rest of the 180 diamonds on the phone are brilliant cut and it has 17.75 carats of diamonds set in 18k white gold around its rim. All diamonds used are of the best quality.This iPhone Princess Plus has a price tag of €120,000 ($176,400 USD) its first customer is a Russian businessman who had pre-ordered it way back in October 2007 for January 2008 delivery. And if you can’t afford this, the poorer lot can buy the iPhone set only with brilliant-cut diamonds. This can be purchased for the more “modest sum” of €45,000 ($66,150 USD).

A Giroux “Daguerreotype” – the world’s first commercially-produced camera – is expected to set a world record price when it goes up for auction this May at WestLicht Auctions in Vienna.

The previously undocumented camera has been in private ownership in northern Germany for generations and is in remarkable condition given it is 170 years old.

The wooden sliding-box camera was made in Paris in September 1839 by Alphonse Giroux, the brother-in-law of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, the inventor of the first practicable photographic process.

Read the complete story

If you were a kid, or had a kid, at any point in the last 20 years, you’re probably familiar with “Guess Who”. This classic game from Milton Bradley taught many of us that it isn’t okay to be different, because you’ll just lose right away. In a slightly nerdier take, the fellows behind the WOMWorld/Nokia site found themselves with 40 Nokia Booklet 3Gs. So of course, they used them to play “Guess Who”. Instead of picking from a series of faces, each computer had a different mobile phone website on it. This is the sort of extravagance you rarely see, so drink it in. As to why they have 40 of these pricey netbooks, your guess is as good as ours. If you were wondering, at the going rate that’s about $24,000 worth of mobile computing goodness.

WITH Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the romantics among us will be looking for somewhere to take our loved one away for that special weekend. And those with deep pockets and a taste for the good things in life can treat themselves to a little luxury – and what could be the most expensive weekend in Wales.

A weekend break at Ynyshir Hall, in Powys, will set you back £1,500 for a two-night stay for two under its ‘star grazing’ package. For around £750 per day, you get a deluxe double room and a cookery demonstration with the hotel’s Michelin-starred head chef Shane Hughes.

You also get an upgrade to the ‘gourmand’ menu for dinner on one night with wine to match each course. Dinner is included on the second night’s stay, and you also get breakfast, afternoon tea and a hamper of local food.

Read the complete story

A Moneysupermarket.com survey has revealed who in Britain has the most expensive car insurance premiums. The poll suggests it is 17 to 21-year-olds in the G62 postcode area - East Dunbartonshire, Scotland.

However, thirty-something men in Swindon (SN5) and Sheffield (S1) also scored highly.  Steve Sweeny, head of motor insurance at the price comparison company, said that fitting this profile or collecting speeding convictions not only increases cover premiums by sometimes nearly 50 per cent but also risks licence point losses and fines of up to £1,000.

He added that the fact there were no women "anywhere near the tope of the table in our analysis" was clearly reflected in the amounts each gender pays for their policies.  The Institute of Advanced Motorists recently published findings to fight another driving stereotype - that of old people being a danger on the road.  In their research, drivers over 70 were found to be no more likely to cause crashes than any other motorist.

Says Fish Society chairman, James Smith: “Our members often want a ‘big spread’, and they will find these packs very convenient. They’d take a long time to make this selection and would be wondering if they had the balance right. We’ve done it for them.

The price… well, the price is the price. It’s not difficult to get to these price points if you are dealing in meaningful amounts of caviar. I can assure you they are good value.”

   The Most Expensive Seafood Hamper contains 17 kinds of seafood including 16 inch long giant Siberian crab legs, extra large crab claws from Chile, freshly cooked native UK lobster, four kinds of prawns including monstrous prawns from Madagascar weighing in at half a pound each, assorted more humble but nevertheless crucial shellfish, and as the magnificent centerpiece, 750g of Sevruga caviar.        

Lawyers are used to billing outrageous sums for their work but they have years of high costs, including spending thousands on bar review courses, to justify their bills. At least in their own heads. So while the rest of the world is shuttering at the new most expensive iPhone app, would be lawyers are salivating over its potential. Could it be that an actual Bar review course could cost only $1,000? Yup.

A $1,000 app called BarMax CA , designed to help law school students pass the California bar exam, was introduced recently and has already become the most expensive item available in Steve Jobs' virtual marketplace.

The app may seem expensive but for law school graduates used to spending thousands studying for their profession's ultimate exam, the app could be a bargain. The popular BAR/BRI Bar Review -- which comes with an iPhone app for paying members -- costs about $2,000 for example.

Read the complete story

At first glance it looks like another one of those kerrazey stories about the world's most expensive cocktail, which turns out to be crammed full of gold leaf and diamonds, or the similarly bejewelled £22,000 breakfast, but behind the headline, World's most expensive ham goes on sale, is simply the news that you can now procure a very fine leg of jamón ibérico from Selfridges for £1,800.

Which, surely, is not news at all. If you're interested in forking out many hundreds of pounds on good Spanish ham, you can buy a leg of Maldonado ham from the same batch on the internet for £1,322, or this here pata negra from Redondo Iglesias at £19 per 100g. Which only goes to show that Selfridges are selling something that's more cheaply available as "the world's most expensive ham" by bumping up the price.

Read the complete story