Over the weekend we brought you the megayacht, and today we’re following that up with the hyper-car (not to be confused with retro Apple software Hyper Card).

Starting at around $350,000, hyper-cars are so ridiculously over-the-top that you don’t even see really rich celebrities driving them – instead they tend to be relegated to motor shows, bullshit blogs like TSL, and episodes of Top Gear.

Automoblog has gazed into the 2007 hyper-car crystal ball to tell aficionados what to expect over the next 18 months, and gives you the kind of insight you rarely get in other car blogs:

The first time I saw the Pagani Zonda was actually on Gran Turismo 3 for the PlayStation 2 and I was instantly amazed. “Look at the exhaust, look at the two spoilers, the headlights, the shape” and so on.

Well worth the read, especially if you want to annoy your dazzled friends the next time a run-of-the-mill Lamborghini whizzes past. Lines like, “Oh, it’s cute, but it’s no Zonda,” are sure to impress grate.

2007 Hyper-Cars: What’s New? [Automoblog]

Forget everything you hated about the Tamagotchi. Finally, the Japanese have built something (potentially) useful – a wine-identifying robot.

The two-foot green and white prototype uses infrared to analyze the chemical makeup of wine (or anything else for that matter) and then uses whiz-bang cute logic to read you the results in the kind of childlike voice you’d expect from even the most clinical Japanese machinery.

…the robot could be used in the near future at wineries to test the taste of each bottle without actually unscrewing any corks.

Wow, you mean I could go on a wine-tasting tour and come back stone cold sober? Pass…

New Robot Can Identify Wines, Cheeses [Red Orbit]

Growing up for a while in Sydney, I can’t relate to living in a town without a really impressive opera house.

But, as always seems to be the case, it has taken middle America a little longer than the rest of the world to appreciate the beauty of a kickarse concert hall. (Europeans nailed this, like, 300 years ago…)

The New York Times are running an interesting piece on the new American passion for concert halls including the amusing (to some, perhaps) story of the new concert hall in NASHVILLE. Yes, Nashville.

Along with the Grand Ole Opry and other bluegrass and country music sites, “this particular symphony hall frankly finishes out that range of venues, of special places, that we had to have…”

We’re awaiting news on whether Vienna has been overrun by saloon bars…

In Cities Across the United States, It’s Raining Concert Halls [New York Times]