Mein Gott, it’s official. Porsche have obliterated the competition and regained the world record at the famed Nurburgring track in Germany.

Clocking in with a lap time of 6 minutes and 47.3 seconds across the daunting 20.6km track, the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS now holds the coveted title as the fastest road-approved production sports car on the ‘Green Hell’. Given that the Nurburgring is a benchmark for some of the world’s fastest road cars, the latest win puts the Stuttgart clan ahead of some staunch competition including Lamborghini, Dodge, Nissan and Mecerdes-AMG.

Their closest rival is the Lamborghini Huracán LP 640-4 Performante which clocked in a lap time of 6 minutes 52 seconds last year, a full five seconds slower than the new Porsche.

To achieve this feat the car calls upon some serious engineering and power figures which includes a 3.8-litre twin-turbo boxer engine pumping out 515kW of power and 750Nm of torque sent to the rear wheels via a PDK twin-clutch auto. That’s enough to see the car hit 100km/h in just 2.8s before topping out at a ridiculous 340km/h (FYI: it has a 400km/h speedo). The price of speed and glory doesn’t come cheap though.

Local pricing will see the 911 GT2 RS pegged at around AU$645,000. If you’ve got several minutes to spare you can watch the full in-car footage below. Make sure you have a change of pants on hand.

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Whatever you’re expecting from a James Franco property, it probably isn’t this. The actor, writer, director, artist, student, teacher, and general weirdo is known for being a tad out there, so you’d be forgiven for assuming his habitat would be filled with discarded drafts for short stories, textbooks from various post-grad degrees, mirrors for naked selfies, and invisible art.

In fact, Franco’s recently-listed property in LA’s hipster haven of Silver Lake is surprisingly restrained. The boho-chic duplex combines two units for a total of three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Franco purchased the apartments in August 2012 for US$775,000 from the Emmy-winning costume designer for Mad Men, Janie Bryant. The hillside complex was also once owned by musician, filmmaker, and European princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg.

The 1920s Spanish-style property is described as a “Romantic Andalusian Hillside Compound” in the listing. The lower unit, set atop a single-car garage, is the smaller of the two. It boasts one bedroom and one bathroom, an eat-in kitchen with vintage cabinets, and a living room with hardwood floors, an arched ceiling, and an expansive wood-trimmed Palladian window.

The larger unit is a three-story villa with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The main-level living spaces includes a living room with exposed wood ceiling beams, a dining room with French doors, and a compact kitchen. The floor above contains a small study/bedroom and a larger master bedroom with an en suite bathroom. Through the larger bedroom you can reach the top-floor crow’s nest, and airy and light-filled space with commanding views of the Silver Lake Reservoir, Griffith Observatory, and the iconic Hollywood sign.

To complement the warm and inviting interiors, and make the most of southern California’s famously agreeable weather, the property has a number of outdoor nooks and terraces for al fresco entertaining.

The post James Franco's 'Rustic Spanish' Silver Lake Pad Is For Sale appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Men, it’s time to erase that rub-on sleeve tat and sell the bike. New research is suggesting that the bad boy days could be over with women now opting for more caring and trusting men over the cold, dangerous and unpredictable type.

This new revelation comes from a survey on Australian women and men alongside strong commentary from leading psychologist, Associate Professor Gery Karantzas of the Deakin School of Psychology, and sexologist, Dr Nikki Goldstein.

So why exactly are women stepping away from that once-fabled bad boy image that was so sought after?

According to Karantzas, it simply doesn’t matter where in the world or cultural upbringing a person comes from – the defining characteristic that humans tend to look for in a potential partner is warmth and trustworthiness.

“This idea that women are after a broody guy is garbage – no one wants to be treated badly in a relationship.”

“Physical attractiveness kind of matters but we don’t put anywhere near the emphasis that people think we do. Warmth and trustworthiness kills off everything else,” he explained.

“This idea that women are after a broody guy is garbage – no one wants to be treated badly in a relationship. Bottom line is for us to survive and feel valued as individuals we need people to care for us and we have a desire for human connection and affection.”

“And if you give people a trade-off where they can choose between a very good looking but cold person and someone who is less good-looking but very warm and loving, people always pick the friendly person.”

Whilst the claims do sound logical there’s also a bit of loose data to support Professor Karantzas’s strong viewpoint. Dating site eHarmony conducted their own survey amongst 1,000 Australians who were asked what celebrity they’d most like to spend the night with.

Women responded by putting men such as Chris Hemsworth and Channing Tatum at the top of their list. Good looking men no doubt, but more significantly these were both bonafide family men who often flaunted their dedication to their partner and children in the public eye.

Sexologist Dr. Nikki Goldstein believes the sex appeal of Hemsworth and Tatum originates from these factors.

“Aussie women are over the bad boy,” said Dr. Goldstein. “We like a cheeky guy but we also like someone who’s got a down-to-earth caring side and with Channing, he’s always talking about his wife.”

“He seems like a good partner, a good father and a good person. And he rocked the dad-bod for a while, so that makes him seem like a normal guy. We want someone we can have fun with, but who will there to tuck the kids into bed after bath time.”

On the flip side the survey found that it was also the same story for men. Women such as Margot Robbie, Delta Goodrem and Jennifer Lawrence, who are often known for their bubbly down-to-earth attitudes took priority over the bad girl image.

Neuropsychotherapist Dr. Trisha Stratford says that men tend to preference big smiles and kind eyes in a partner. Women meanwhile prefer a masculine face, a strong jaw and a definite brow.

“What that jaw and face shape relates to is a primal instinct that tells women, ‘this man is going to protect and support me.’” she said. Be weary though, if a man has a wide face, he’s more likely to cheat.

So the little conclusion from the pros on boosting your sex appeal?

Wear a dad bod (just once), be kind, funny, nurturing and trustworthy. Jesus. Sounds like a one-way ticket to friendzone.

The post Experts Say Women Are Trading Up Bad Boys For These Type Of Men appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The t-shirt is the blank canvas of menswear. They’re versatile, timeless, and generally flattering if you get one that fits. Best of all, it’s not hard to find a reputable brand that sells them by the handful at fair rates. After all, why would you need to spend a hundred-plus on something you will thrash day in day out and grace with pasta sauce?

Alas, the princes of luxury menswear supposedly have the answer.

Enter Givenchy’s newly-released Appliquéd Printed Cotton-Jersey T-Shirt. They’re retailing this bad boy at $1,067 with a straight face – no discounts. And it’s just a t-shirt.

You might want to know what the hell is up with these people. We do too. Here, we’ve taken a look at this Givenchy tee and what sort of witchcraft leads to a brand to ask us to part with a week’s salary, for the privilege of wearing something we’d normally be happy to sleep in after a big night out on the tins.

The Lowdown On $1,000 tees

So you could buy this tee, or treat yourself to a quick holiday. But, while it won’t make you taller or better looking, there’s a (heavily contested and by no means authoritative) method to the madness of luxury retailing.

“By making things more expensive, it’s postulated that snobs are more likely to make a purchase if it lets them signal wealth to others…”

Luxury brands like Givenchy generally use premium fabrics and employ the services of elite craftspeople. This shirt in particular is produced in Portugal, a respected manufacturing centre, from 100% cotton. Appliqué in particular, if done by hand, requires sophisticated work above and beyond what you would see elsewhere.  This all costs time and money, especially with EU production costs.

Economists don’t agree on this, but some brands use inflated pricing to attract a particular breed of consumer. By making things more expensive, it’s postulated that snobs are more likely to make a purchase if it lets them signal wealth to others and cement their position in the hierarchy of affluence. Sounds ludicrous, but look up the Veblen goods theory if you have a free weekend to lose yourself in dense economic theory.

You also need to consider that income growth across the globe is concentrated among those who already have it pretty good. The customer bases that prop up luxury retailers like Givenchy have more and more money to spend on items that most of us would never conceive as legitimate purchases. That’s not to say the luxury market thrives on inequality, but it does benefit from wealthy people consolidating their riches.

At the end of the day, it’s all about status, and the sensation of being part of an elite club. It’s why people go nuts over a Supreme metro card, anything Kanye lends his name to, or a triple-patterned Gucci shirt. Status symbols make you pay for the honour of joining the clan. Simple as that.

The Market Trends

Despite economic turmoil and some forecasted trouble with luxury retail, there’s a strong market for expensive-as-shit basics and luxury brands aren’t going anywhere – for now.

“Brands like Givenchy are safe to dictate absurd prices for a little while longer.”

According to a recent study, global luxury retail is estimated to grow by 2-4% in 2017, driven largely by an increasingly hungry and well-heeled Chinese market, both at home and in tourist locations across the EU.

However, the forecasts aren’t too encouraging in traditional hotbeds like the US. Regional assessments are less promising than the big picture. But if Bain’s growth projections are on the money, brands like Givenchy are safe to dictate absurd prices for a little while longer.

Are They Actually Worth It?

Should any of us simple folk part with over a grand – which could pay for a couple new suits, or chip away at a mortgage – for a t-shirt? Probably not.

It doesn’t stop bullets. It won’t get you that executive promotion you think you deserve, or make women fancy you any more than they do already. Sure, it gives the subtle nod to passers-by that you’re a filthy rich big shot, but it’s just a t-shirt.

But there’s still a market for people who don’t see it along those lines. Until that market dries up, the good people at Givenchy won’t lose too much sleep if you go to DJ’s instead.

Read Next

• Best Men’s T-Shirts To Buy

The post Expensive T-shirts: Would You Pay $1,000 For A Designer T-Shirt? appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Whilst it mightn’t save the world’s entire nature reserve, the Sinot ‘Nature’ concept yacht can certainly house a few species in its climate-controlled interior garden. Oh and did we mention this is a 120-metre floating luxury retreat made for the open waters?

Sinot designed this yacht as a beacon for the future of seafaring and they didn’t hold back on its footprint. With the ability to transport up a small navy fleet, ‘Nature’ is an audacious design exercise designed to demonstrate what’s possible in the world of luxury yachting.

This means there’s multiple decks to entertain yourselves and your guests on, eight grand VIP rooms alongside an opulent master bedroom. When sleeping gets a bit tired, there’s a spa deck, gym and swimming pool located at sea level on the rear deck.

Design-wise ‘Nature’ looks like nothing that currently navigates the world’s seas and that’s a good thing because you’re bound to stand out in this floating mansion graced with svelte lines.

The post Sinot Unveils The Modern Rendition Of A VIP Noah's Ark appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

If the 90s and the 00s were the age of the chest and the arms, the noughties have become the decade of the six pack.

They’re the picture of health, sported by fitness models, bodybuilders, Olympic athletes and MMA fighters alike, and seem to bond all guys in a common aesthetic pursuit.

It doesn’t matter what training you’ve done to get there, but if you have a washboard stomach to show for it, you must be doing something right.

As such, guys are going to further and further lengths to attain the set of rippling abs they just saw on the cover of Men’s Fitness, and it’s becoming increasingly apparent that negative body image is something that affects guys just as much as their female counterparts.

This has the potential to be drastically unhealthy for all men, especially when combined with the intense weight loss techniques that have become mainstream over the past few years. We live in a world where endless fat-burning supplements are marketed and Connor McGregor is seemingly able to drop an entire weight class or two at the drop of a hat.

So where does it all start to unravel? Where does the pursuit of the six-pack become unhealthy?

“Looking trim is one thing, but looking malnourished is another.”

It’s not hard to see when someone has begun to take their weight loss quest too far. Instant results and instant gratification are the desired norms these days, and a careful meal plan can soon devolve into copious amounts of caffeine, diuretics and thermogenics very quickly.

Soon, you or your buddy may have the six pack they desire, but the finished project looks more like something out of The Walking Dead than Mr Olympia.

Ultimately, the goal is achieving a healthy rate of weight loss, however you choose to do so. Extreme dieting and drastic techniques aren’t just likely to fuck your body up in the long run, but due to the fact they’re simply not sustainable, your recovery is more likely to see you pile on pounds once you finish whatever self-imposed suffering you’ve just put yourself through.

Here are a few tips we’ve accrued to make sure you’re not wrecking yourself in the pursuit of ‘dem’ aesthetics.

Don’t Take Initial Weight Loss As Gospel

If you’ve just started a diet for the first time, you’ll start to see results much faster if you’re doing everything right.

As your body adjusts to its new lifestyle, water weight and initial fat will drop off your body very quickly, and you may lose weight at 2 or 3 times the rate you normally will. The important thing to remember is that this is a normal thing, but not indicative of how your body will continue to respond.

As Such, Practice Patience

As fat loss begins to plateau and getting that body fat % down becomes harder, most people turn to more extreme measures. If what you’re doing was working before, keep at it and you’ll eventually see the results you’re after.

Even if it takes more time, you’re doing it in a way that your body can adjust to. For context, the Mayo Clinic recommends a healthy weight loss rate of 1-2 pounds a week, which should be enough for any reasonable human to be pretty happy with.

Avoid Too Many Fads

There are things you can do healthily to keep your metabolism pumping. Maybe try intermittent fasting, cutting down even more harshly on carbs or using Green Tea as an appetite suppressant.

However, there are a few things that should be left to the pros. Ramping up your weight loss by caffeinating the shit out of your body can do all sorts of nasty stuff to your heart and your sleep cycle, while dehydrating your way to a six-pack can cause super severe kidney damage.

Go By The Mirror

When you start looking at your stomach as a measure of your progress and health, it’s very easy to slip into the habit of disregarding anything else.

It’s important to keep perspective though, and being honest with yourself and how you look will help keep you grounded in your quest to get shredded.

If you’re starting to get bags under your eyes, starting to look pale or sunken, you may be depriving yourself of vital stuff that your body needs to function at its best.

Looking trim is one thing, but looking malnourished is another.

Little Help In The Fashion Department

How To Dress For Your Body Type When You’re A Skinny Guy

The post How Healthy Is Having Abs? appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Hey there wandering eyes, it’s time to get your rulers out because you could be prime cheating material.

A new study from the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior has found that men with a high facial width-to-height ratio (FWHR) also possess higher sex drives which in turn makes them more susceptible to cheating. That’s right cherub boy and plate face, we’re looking at you.

Whilst we can see a many paranoid partners running for their measurement devices, it’s important to highlight that the results come from two separate studies. Researchers from Nipissing University, Simon Fraser University, Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the University of Ottawa also participated in the bringing this surprising phenomena to light. The first study involved recruiting 145 heterosexual students – 69 men and 76 women who were all in romantic relationships. The dimensions of their faces were then measured from detailed facial photographs before having the subjects complete a sex drive questionnaire.

From this the researchers calculated the FWHR by dividing the distance between the upper lip and the brow and found that both men and women with higher FWHR ratings admitted to higher sex drives.

In the second study, 314 subjects were taken from a separate Canadian university and put through the same tests, but this time with an added questionnaire which gauged their attitude towards the topic of infidelity and cheating. The same correlation between high sex drive and FWHR was established alongside a new result: The close association between high FHWR and unrestricted sociosexuality (i.e. an interest in casual sex and less interest in sex bounded by a relationship). Oh, and the a greater intention to engaging with infidelity amongst other men (i.e, the squad, homies, boys or wolfpack).

Breaking down the science between these wild allegations is anything but straight forward but according to the researchers, your facial structure may be a sign of hormone exposure during key periods of development, such as while the human subject was a foetus.

More interestingly the brains behind the study highlighted previous data which looked at the effects of exposure to androgens (sex hormones like testosterone) leading to more aggressive and dominant behaviour alongside masculine features like stronger cheekbones.

Their conclusion? A wider face means higher androgen exposure which in turn means a higher sex drive and inclination to cheat.

Look over to your partner now.

RELATED: Why Cheaters Never Actually Stop Cheating, According To Science

The post Men With This Face Shape Are More Likely To Cheat appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

He might not be the best role model for angsty tweens but when it comes to fashion Justin Bieber is one figure who surges ahead with reckless abandonment.

His latest style antics, which may raise a few eyebrows, includes the discovery of a new way to wear the classic bomber jacket – half off. First impressions would be that the photographers probably caught him in the middle of putting on the garment but after no less than three photos of the Biebs with the half-off look featuring baby blue and gold, it’s evident that no f*cks were given and he’s just going to roll with it, creating a polarising new street style look in the process.

In addition to that there’s also the rise of the metallic sheen bomber which has become a serious men’s trend in 2017 amongst those game enough. Bieber’s celebrity partner in crime Lewis Hamilton also donned a very reflective hue with his cherry bomber earlier this year alongside a wine gold number at another event.

Think you can rock the metallic bomber half off? See the gallery to witness how it’s done.

The post Justin Bieber Discovers A New Way To Wear Bomber Jackets appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

It’s time to elevate your menswear game with the help of this week’s best dressed men.

It’s a stellar wrap up this time around with some huge stars hitting the red carpets and fashion shows of the world paired with that little awards show called the Emmys.

First up, Kingsman red carpet events. Given that the film focuses on suited-up spies, their real life counterparts needed to reflect that and in Seoul it was an all navy affair with Colin Firth, Taron Egerton and Mark Strong all owning it in style.

Elsewhere it was the Milan and London Fashion Weeks where A$AP Rocky, Lewis Hamilton and Neymar did the rounds in their finest luxury street threads.

The post A$AP Rocky, Ryan Gosling & Colin Firth Are The Week's Best Dressed Men appeared first on DMARGE Australia.