Goddamn the world is scary place

And quietly, almost under the radar due to cost, human hands hungry for godlike powers, tinkered away at pets. Look at the design. It's as slick as a Crate and Barrel catalogue.

Now, now. It is interesting that something like this could have stemmed from the mind of a person allergic to animals who'd longed for a pet as a child, but some of these things...well. I am a firm believer that people should not try to control the workings of nature on a basic level. Killing off something in the name of survival is one thing, be it organism or virus. But, y'know. Trying to control the weather, or messing around with DNA. Bad business. Not our business. It doesn't serve a real purpose, just a selfish one; it doesn't further our survival. As much as I enjoy the documentaries on the Discovery Channel on how scientists have found what bits of genetic information can bring back dinosaur attributes in birds (giving them teeth, scales, etc), it doesn't have any purpose other than to serve our curiosity.

Anyway. Non-allergenic pets. Great idea, as an idea, but expenses aside, c'mon. Don't we have better things to do with our time, more important issues affecting society than the need for a pet? I'm quite allergic to just about everything, but still. I'm not going to bend everyone to my will. Jesus, why do humans want to play god so badly?

They don't go into heavy detail, but it's all genetic modification. I mean, they were listed as one of the Best Inventions of 2006 by TIME magazine.

And you can even order a TITAN Family Protection Dog online! (It's a German Shepherd, by the way.) $85,000, guys. Only! Don't worry, they have finance options.

Don't forget the Ashera GD, which is a cross of domestic and wild cats for that leopard-like 30 lb cat.

They also try to promote their spaying and neutering of their "products" as a hand in preventing overpopulation. A thinly veiled attempt to distract us from the fact that they don't want everyone to really be able to own a pet, just buy one from them for outrageous prices for all the genetic bullshit. Otherwise, why not just let us breed them?

I get the hunch that to also cover their asses from possible and maybe even predicted backfiring in the future, they lack any printed material on their work. Much, much easier to erase a whole website, right?

I'm sure we all know one day that Build-a-Baby's will be the rage, beyond even what Gattaca envisions. I will be able to have blue-eyed, red haired babies with muscles of steel and hypersensitive hearing. Joyous.

Gag me with a credit card and put me on layaway

A girl on Muni last night sitting behind us with her friend, on her phone:

"Oh wait, that's the party? Do I have to be invited?"

...

"Well, yeah. I know, I know Jaxton's going. ...Can you get me in?"

...

"A birthday party? ...Who is she? ...Well, can I just buy her a present or something?"