"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.