"It's a 120-million-member social network that's adding over 300,000 users a day, with more than 4.3 million daily photo and video uploads, and seven billion monthly page views. It has Facebook's fastest-growing app, with 570,000 new daily users, making it the third-biggest app of all after FarmVille and CityVille. Hugely profitable, it's forecast to generate hundreds of millions of dollars this year, and is being aggressively courted by venture-capital firms valuing it in the billions. And it's run from London by a secretive Russian serial entrepreneur who has steadfastly refused to be interviewed or photographed. Until now.

Badoo is the world's largest social network that you probably haven't yet heard of. Run from 800-square-metre loft-style offices in Soho, it is brilliantly effective at providing one simple and universally compelling service: hooking up members according to their profile pictures and location. "Chat, flirt, socialise and have fun!," implores the home page, alongside photos of prospective friends such as Terri, 21 ("Wants a candlelit dinner"), and Christopher, 25 ("Wants wake up with a girl" [sic]). Sign in, and a message declares that "204,516 girls [or guys] near you are looking to meet a guy your age!". Explain your intentions (the pull-down menu's suggestions include "to talk about sex", "to get a massage", "to flirt") and Tatyana, Oshrit or Gary might just give you access to their stash of private photos.

Still barely registering in Britain or the US, the free-to-use network -- on the web and via smartphones -- is a mass phenomenon in Brazil (14.1 million members), Mexico (nine million), France (8.2 million), Spain (6.5 million) and Italy (six million). Relying on word-of-mouth rather than any marketing spend, it has cracked the internet's eternal conundrum: how to persuade users to pay hard cash in a world drowning in free digital services and content, by charging members each time they want to boost their visibility to others searching for a date.

A year after Badoo's 2006 launch, when it had 12 million members, Russia's Finam Technology Fund bought a ten per cent stake for $30 million, valuing it at $300 million (this year Finam will realise an option for a further ten per cent at a higher valuation). Today, A-list investors such as Sequoia and Accel are courting the business and there is talk of an initial public share offering. "Cracking the Anglo-Saxon market will probably give us double to triple today's reach," says Bart Swanson, recruited as CEO last September, having expanded Amazon into Europe and run EMI in France. "The opportunity for people discovery [through Badoo] is a horrendously large market -- it's a confluence of social, proximity, mobile, and it's extremely local. The basic mechanism of what Andrey has developed is genius -- just like Google with its AdWords, it's people paying for self-promotion. And it works...""

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-- From a photo session for Russian band "Vragi".

-- Gorgeous video by Chas Mackinnon and Brad Goble of Melbourne-based design studio BETTY WANTS IN. In February 2011, the five times world champions Fred Fugen and Vince Reffett from Soul Flyers were invited to Melbourne to provide advanced 3D coaching to some of Australia's leading Skydive athlete talent, - this is the result.

"These days, gamification is so hot that everyone is fascinated by it--even terrorists.

Is there no productivity issue that can't be solved with gamification?

Unlikely, as gamification, the idea of applying game mechanics to non-games, has conquered corporate America, education, and healthcare, and has begun to catch on in the expanding spaces of terrorism and militant Islamism.

In a recent article in Foreign Policy, security consultants Jarret Brachman and Alix Levine wrote on what they call the World of Holy Warcraft and argued that jihadist bulletin boards and chat rooms are making use of the same gamification techniques that Foursquare and airlines, among others, use. We took the opportunity to ask Brachman a few questions and to find out whether Anwar al-Awlaki reads Jane McGonigal too.

FAST COMPANY: Why do you both think gamification is such a good way of analyzing why people spend so much time in jihadist bulletin boards or chat rooms?

JARRET BRACHMAN: I think that it's less us thinking it's a good way to view them, and rather them thinking that it's a good way to incentivize partcipation in their own space. We actually stumbled on the gamification concept after briefing a room full of techies about how al-Qaeda and their global supporters are using the Internet. It was this group who were familiar with gamification that helped us to see what had been going on under our noses--we just didn't have a framework in our minds for understanding it, so we did so ancedotally. Gamification allows us to make sense of the introduction of points, status, levels--elements that are being introduced into forums of all kinds--in order to increase and enhance participation. But the difference is that with al-Qaeda, gamification is being used for promoting hatred and encouraging militancy, as opposed to rewarding you for brand loyalty in where you shop or on what airline you fly..."

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"This incredible set of photographs reveal capture some of the sea's inhabitants in a way you have never seen before.

The stunning pictures, taken off the coast of Hawaii, were taken in the dead of night with a special flash to give a wonderful display of colours.

Among the 'colour x-ray' style images are pictures of rare squids, jellyfish and shrimp. 0Measuring just a few centimetres in length they can be found living off the coast of Kailua-Kona.

Fine art photographer Joshua Lambus took the picture and believes he has been on more than 400 'blackwater' dives.

The 25-year-old had the idea after becoming frustrated with running charters for divers who just wanted to see turtles, dolphins and whales.

To get the unique images, Joshua waits until nightfall to head out about three miles on a boat. He then cuts the engine and dives into the water..."

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-- Yeh, it's uncensored. Obviously.

-- Reagan got jokes! Obama should tell terrorist jokes.

-- A-M-P-U-T Double EE, the glass is half full yea I still got threeee! This guy is great!

-- Australian Peacock Spider is one good looking spider! Also a pretty interesting video, but also one of the worst nature show narrations ever?...

"Dan Phillips is one of the most unconventional home builders you'll ever find. In fact, he's more an ecological social messiah than a home builder (see video below). For $10,000, he builds affordable homes for low-income people that are attractive, energy-efficient and save landfills. Most builders purchase building materials -- piles of wood, sheet rock, nails, bricks, and tiles -- that are used in construction and then, when the house is finished, the waste is discarded to the dump. Phillips, 66, salvages those materials, hauling them from the trash or even picking them up on the road, to build or remodel homes for low-income buyers.

He says he's just doing what people have been doing for years -- using whatever they can scrounge up to to build shelter.

"And if you ponder what could be used," says the Huntsville, Tex., resident, "then building materials are everywhere."

Phillips himself has been "everywhere": He worked as an intelligence officer in the Army, then as a dance instructor, an antiques dealer and a puzzle maker. Fourteen years ago he started a new career: Creating affordable homes for low-income families out of trash. He is a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber. His motivation came from the disparity he saw between landfills overflowing with discarded building materials and a lack of affordable housing. He started Phoenix Commotion, a for-profit company that hopes to solve the world's social problems associated with housing.

Phillips builds homes for as little as $10,000, making them energy-efficient with tight insulation, solar hot water and even a rainwater catchment system. He hires unskilled workers, teaches them marketable construction skills and then helps them find jobs when the project is complete. He keeps the landfills shallow by using truckfuls of leftover building materials such as lumber, tile and granite. Locals even hand off their old fixtures and doors to Phillips when they remodel, which he keeps in a warehouse and distributes free to low-income and needy people and organizations..."

-- Sounds like something I would do! Good man.

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-- I know the devastation caused by the recent tornadoes is no laughing matter and by no means am I trying to make light of it, but I had to share this guy. DAMN NATURE, YOU SCARY!!!