Riding out the credit crisis:

"The speculative economy is related to the real economy, but more as a parasite than a positive force. It is detached from the real needs of people, and even detached from the real commerce that goes on between humans. It is a form of meta-commerce, like a Las Vegas casino betting on the outcome of a political election. Only the bets, in this case, change the real costs of the things being bet on.... the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your interests is to make friends. The more we are willing to do for each other on our own terms and for compensation that doesn’t necessarily involve the until-recently-almighty dollar, the less vulnerable we are to the movements of markets that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with us.... Think small. Buy local. Make friends. Print money. Grow food. Teach children. Learn nutrition. And if you do have money to invest, put it into whatever lets you and your friends do those things."

(Douglas Rushkoff)

Inside the world's first billion-dollar home:

"Like many families with the means to do so, the Ambanis wanted to build a custom home....[it] will be the world's largest and most expensive home: a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai with a cost nearing USD 2 billion."

From Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis:

"You know things. I think this is what you do," she said. "I think you're dedicated to knowing. I think you acquire information and turn it into something stupendous and awful. You're a dangerous person. Do you agree? A visionary."

(2003)

The Parkplace car condo and the Garagemahals.

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"Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories. Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. "

Space debris.

"We are interested in reproducing animals that are at the peak of the genetic pyramid - they are the rock stars of the barnyard."

(David Faber - Head of Trans Ova Genetics)

Regine leads me to the work of avatar artist Gazira Babeli. I watch Gaz of the desert, a movie shot in Second Life.

Slow, succulent, and surreal.

Russia builds luxury Agalarov Estate:

"Aras Agalarov, the billionaire behind the project, has described it as 'a new kind of civilization... a kind of utopian social experiment - but without poor people.'"

(More here - via)

Despite tough times, ultrarich keep spending:

"Lee Tachman spent roughly $50,000 last month on a four-day jaunt to Miami for himself and three close friends. The trip was an exercise in luxuriant male bonding. Mr. Tachman, who is 38, and his friends got around by private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraris and Lamborghinis; stayed in V.I.P. rooms at Casa Casuarina, the South Beach hotel that was formerly Gianni Versace’s mansion; and played “extreme adventure paintball” with former agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration."

(via)

(via)

I've raved about Cao Fei before, and will do again. Her Cosplay series has become a saga. Check out Un-Cosplayers and Cos-Cosplay. Great stuff.

(image found here)

"He is attempting to travel across a frontier in time, to pass through the border between our era and a future so different as to be unrecognizable. He calls this border the singularity. Kurzweil is 60, but he intends to be no more than 40 when the singularity arrives... He takes 180 to 210 vitamin and mineral supplements a day, so many that he doesn't have time to organize them all himself. So he's hired a pill wrangler, who takes them out of their bottles and sorts them into daily doses, which he carries everywhere in plastic bags. Kurzweil also spends one day a week at a medical clinic, receiving intravenous longevity treatments."

Futurist Ray Kurzweil pulls out all the stops (and pills) to live to witness the singularity.