the setai - miami

designed by legendary hotelier adrian zecha. an intimate oceanfront resort in the heart of south beach. tropical gardens, sparkling pools, asian traditions of simplicity & elegance. stunning courtyards & warmly sophisticated lobby bar.

auberge du soleil in rutherford california

began as a fine french restaurant created by claude rouas but has evolved into one of the finest hotels in america. perched on the slope of rutherford hill overlooking napa valley. a collection of sun & earth toned cottages, every room has french doors leading to a terrace & sweeping views of olive groves and vineyards.

le sirenuse in positano italy

one of the finest in southern italy overlooking the islands of the sirens. most rooms have a seaview & jacuzzi. opened in 1951 when sersale family turned their summer home into a small elegant hotel. still operated by the same family almost 60 years later

howard hughes

we should all bow down to this man's genius, boldness & courage. aside from the fact that his little black book could have challenged hugh hefner's in hef's golden days, his ballsy decision-making style paved the way for aviation, aeronautics (& arguably astro). taking his ambitious spirit to the brink of insanity and social humiliation, howard hughes refused to let the external world determine his fate. while current media have profited from focusing on his psychological problems, his legacy has long survived him and we're not just talking on the biography channel. the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a non-profit medical research facility founded by his estate, invests about $450 million annually into some of america's most cutting edge biomedical research. it is the 2nd wealthiest philanthropic organization in the u.s. behind the bill & melinda gates foundation. oh, and the 2nd biggest medical research foundation in the world after the uk's wellcome trust.

as an even further testament that his controversial independence was more than just lunacy, the Institute functions much like ol howie did back in the thirties & forties - free from governmental interference and interest. in fact, the trust was founded as a tax haven for mr. howard's billions. nevertheless, this refusal to allow the government to regulate his estate has resulted in breakthroughs in genetics, immunology and molecular biology. see, while religious-pushing politicians have managed to allow the U.S. to fall far behind in the area of stem cell research as a means for cellular therapy, the Hughes Institute has been able to do whatever the hell it wants. it's not driven by tax dollars. like that sherlock holmes dude on those guinness commercials --- BREELIANT!!!

if he were here today to defend himself, i think it'd go something like this - "I personally fought the United States government in the name of free market enterprise, inspired decades of aeronautical innovation, became the wealthiest man in the world and left it all to science, and I slept with half of Hollywood. Sorry if I wasn't a picture of mental health there in the end. Little worn out."

spacetime

fundamental to a truly conscious experience of one's life is a more enlightened awareness of the concept of time as it applies to one's spatial experience, be it on earth or universally elsewhere. 

in layman's terms, time is probably not what you think it is. social conventions have determined our natural perception of time, which is quite often a short-sighted perspective that is measurable in arbitrary units (seconds, minutes, hours, days...). however, as man ventured into space travel, we learned something quite fascinating: SPACE TRAVEL = TIME TRAVEL... leading to some giant questions: Just what exactly is time? Is there really a "yesterday" or "tomorrow"?

believe it or not, this isn't science fiction bullshit; it's just science. 

it's easy to see how a year on earth might be a few years on mars because mars revolves around the sun at a different rate than earth. so it logically follows that if A is living on mars, and B is living on earth, after several years their two experiences will be 21 years apart. and you see how the longer "time" goes on, the further and further A and B grow apart. 

so if they finally communicated after 50 earth years, A would say, "wow, it's been 150 years since we last spoke."

but B would disagree: "no, it's only been 50 years."

that example may be numerically inaccurate, but you get the idea. more importantly, their realities also become less and less parallel as you get further away in the galaxy. mars and earth are relatively close, but let's say A is on neptune instead of mars. by the time A and B are this far apart, questions like "What did you do yesterday morning?" wouldn't even make sense because B's yesterday may have taken place several years ago to A. 

SO WHAT??? well, until we're actually zipping around the galaxy (or are we "now?"....), this idea can still serve a practical purpose in our lives here in the 21st century. when you stop thinking in terms of 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow,' the 'past' and the 'future,' you realize that this is one great big long magnificent NOW. your life is actually one long glorious moment, and this usually opens up quite a few doors for people who are frustrated with where they're at NOW (job sucks, spouse sucks, life sucks...). what on earth are you waiting for? the sun doesn't need to come up again for you to make the necessary changes and step into the shoes of the person you've always wanted to be. "I'm too old to do [such and such]...Ah, when I was younger..." This frame of mind is contagious among people who bind themselves to wristwatches and calendars for the sake of avoiding their deepest fears and wildest dreams. they live vicariously through television characters, film actors and sports stars, surrounding themselves with all sorts of anchors binding them to the comfortable past. 

but as you launch off into orbit, and you look down on earth from an outside perspective (or just meditate like the monks), you realize just how long life really is. whoever says 'life is short' must have some psychological problems. hell, there are a million lifetimes in a minute.

don't you think it's about time to start living them?...

love / learn / laugh

- apollo 

travel tomorrow

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