Perhaps you’re getting your female sweetie this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra (90 carat diamond, 1200 pink sapphires, 2300 diamonds, $12,500,000)? Well then I have the perfect accessory for you: an 18K gold, diamond-studded cell phone for a mere $39,882. If that’s too pricey for you, they also have 18K gold faceplates in common styles and can make one to fit your phone. And, since, with those prices, you are probably an early adopter, when you upgrade your phone, they will take the materials back to use to make your next model spiffy too. (via Wired News)

From Not Martha, a neat find: Relan uses old billboards to make handbags, totebags, messenger bags, makeup bags. Billboards (unless they are the old-fashioned painted kind) are printed on vinyl-laminated nylon fabric and, as befits their use, are extremely durable. They are cleaned and ironed before being cut and sewn into new forms for their second lives.

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum has pulled out of a funk, as noted by the NY Times, and also stopped charging admission. Decorative arts museums are often the mini-holy-grails of my vacation trips, but I hadn’t developed an urge to try for London and the V&A;, fearing, perhaps unfairly, that I would find a stodgy setting and an unsettling journey into the history of the cultures conquered by the once mighty British empire. But Victoria & Albert has been able to generate some kind press in the past two months with their new British galleries, free admission, and plans for even more contemporary galleries. It could soon become, for me, a destination to plan a trip around (not that there aren’t other interesting and more important things to see in London).

ZDNet has nicely cleared up my confusion over who was responsible for what in the world of cable modem service. Their analysis of Excite@Home’s fatal blunder reveals that although @Home spent millions of dollars and a few years building up their network, their former customers (AT&T; most notably) will be able to replicate their network in a short amount of time and with much less capital. Excite@Home provided a small part of the cable modem’s physical network (as far as the network “route” was concerned) along with their ISP duties of email and user web hosting. For AT&T;, a switchover to their own systems was easier than Excite@Home may have anticipated. Some say AT&T; called their bluff and came out ahead, although AT&T; spokespeople still say they would have rather spent $307 million to acquire Excite@Home’s assets. That would have allowed them to gain future profits from Excite@Home’s other customers.

Martha Stewart is making her omnimedia business even more omni by adding finance and domestic travel to her growing content subject areas (second item, via MediaNews). What won’t she be willing to peddle? I’m expecting to see a Segway on her show next. It’s the perfect way for her to travel around her sizable estates, and she can create a special handlebar basket for lugging around her gardening implements (if the extra weight doesn’t confuse the gyros).

Someone on the Motley Fool discussion boards wrote up an observation on how Costco is cornering the champagne market. Citing a friend who works at a large West Coast wine distributor, the writer details a failed transaction with Trader Joe’s, which, before Costco came along, would’ve been a big deal for the distributor. Costco buys large quantities of Veuve Cliquot at $28.00 per bottle and sells it to customers for $29.95. They have not been aggressive about asking for a lower price from the distributor. A typical store would pay $30.67 per bottle. Trader Joe’s asked for 2000 cases at $26.67 per bottle. This pricing would allow them to match Costco’s retail pricing (after delivery and other overhead costs). The distributor declined, but, before Costco, that would’ve been a super opportunity. If their biggest customer is willing to pay more, everyone else must too. The writer’s analysis is that Costco has a long term strategy to drive their liquor competitors out of the market. Competitors can’t afford the prices Costco is willing to pay, and Costco can easily match any prices competitors can make profit on. Costco, therefore, is developing the ability to dictate pricing on certain goods. That’s the power of their massive customer base and lower overhead.

From the Molecular Expressions site, here is a 100 micron wedding announcement from the Silicon Graphics MIPS R10000 microprocessor. Many more silicon doodles can be found in their Silicon Zoo.

Hip hip hooray! Our cable modem service has been restored. We’ve lost our static IP and there’s a 1.5 Mbps download speed cap (there was already a 128kbps upload cap), but once you’ve had always-on broadband, you take what you can get.

I’ve been known to experience yearnings for a buttery soft leather purse or a finely tailored pocketbook. These coveted items are typically $200-$300 in comparison to my usual budget of $30-$50 for a handbag. But way up within the range of the high and mighty, or the less well-off victims of fashion, the bag that is currently deemed worthy of desire is $5,300. That is the price of a Birkin from Hermès. The lofty price tag is not the only barrier. There is an eight month waiting list, and the list is often closed unless, perhaps, you’re a Mrs. Seinfeld as Kate Betts reveals for the NY Times. Artificial or not, the scarcity does have some basis in the intensive hand manufacturing methods employed by the Paris saddle manufacturer that, like its counterpart Gucci, discovered the gold mine in luxury goods with a horsey provenance.

Hermès trains their leather craftsmen for five years before they can begin a Birkin. With the labor intensive work and the 35 hour work week imposed by the French government, output is limited. A UK Observer article goes behind the scenes, with not-for-PETA peeks at how the ostrich, calf, crocodile, and shark hides are carefully cut to provide only the highest quality materials. Workers hoard their tools, passing them onto favored apprentices. The result is a product that lasts generations. It is the heirloom silver of handbags, passed from mother to daughter, sent back to the factory for careful refurbishing. Despite the current trendiness and bloated pricing, the old world craftsmanship does demand respect.

Walrus, cobra, koala, or penguin? Vote for which animal should be added to Barnum’s Animal Crackers. (penguin. penguin. penguin.) I think your vote gets counted even if you don’t enter the private info for the contest. (penguin)