French auto maker Renault is offering a free Second Life version of its soon to be released New Twingo model hatchback coupe to Second Life residents. Find out how to get yours today.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
World Stock Exchange Relocates Headquarters
With the disappearance of the Second Life Investment Bank several weeks ago, many investors were nervously asking where the WSE had gone. They need not have worried. Read why in Finance.
Funny Anagrams
I found these and are so funny i just had to share with our readers:
DORMITORY = DIRTY ROOM
try these other words yourselves and see if you can come up with a funny anagram - remember there are no letters left over:
PRESBYTERIAN
ASTRONOMER
DESPERATION
THE EYES
GEORGE BUSH
THE MORSE CODE
SLOT MACHINES
ANIMOSITY
ELECTION RESULTS
SNOOZE ALARMS
A DECIMAL POINT
THE EARTHQUAKES
ELEVEN PLUS TWO
MOTHER-IN-LAW
feel free to leave suggested answers in the comments and I will reveal the answers tomorrow
DORMITORY = DIRTY ROOM
try these other words yourselves and see if you can come up with a funny anagram - remember there are no letters left over:
PRESBYTERIAN
ASTRONOMER
DESPERATION
THE EYES
GEORGE BUSH
THE MORSE CODE
SLOT MACHINES
ANIMOSITY
ELECTION RESULTS
SNOOZE ALARMS
A DECIMAL POINT
THE EARTHQUAKES
ELEVEN PLUS TWO
MOTHER-IN-LAW
feel free to leave suggested answers in the comments and I will reveal the answers tomorrow
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Virtual Angels
Be with us Sunday, June 3 @ 3pm while we party the night away.Bid on one of five potential supermodels, and win a one hour date with your favorite! All proceeds go to Virtual Angels.
Please note: The lucky lady WILL be treated with respect! :)
Wait! There's more!
Win a 1000L multi-store Gift Certificate to Simone! Silent Sparrow and/or Callico Creations! Just be the best dressed guy or girl wearing one or all of these designers' creations, and you will win a 1000L GC to any or all of their stores!
Awww, so you don't want to get dressed up? NO WORRIES! Grab a free t-shirt and just have fun with us!
Sunday, June 3 from 3 - 5 pm SL time.
Silent Sparrow Sim
And now, the weather.....
As we can see, today's outlook is largely sunny with patches of occasional lag and a brief outage in the North.
The subculture bars have shifted significantly overnight, with a new front of Nekos pushing back the Furries and the Tinies, further isolating Gorean outbreaks to the north - that's approximately twenty-three degrees with a lulz factor of four. Earlier in the south a freak Linden sighting has caused a ripple effect, pulling two fronts of noobies down to the south, allowing pleasant viewing of dragons for the rest of the day. In summary then, slightly fractious in the nines and sevens.
And that's the forecast for today!
(reproduced with the kind permission of Khamudy Mannone)
SL Newspaper in Dutch RL Magazine VIVA
In this weeks RL magazine VIVA, the sl-newspaper gets a lot of attention. In an interview with three SL residents we provided the magazine with the in-world pictures of the avatars.We are also mentioned as the newspaper with international information about what is going on in SL.
Altho the magazine is in dutch and impossible to read for half of our crew, the complete international SL Newspapercrew is happy to see our name and pictures in there. We specially want to thank Pam for pointing the VIVA reporters our way !
Also make sure you take a look at another dutch website that has a lot of information about SL and also worked on the interview in VIVA.
She's Having A Baby!
Pregnancy, the first in a series of articles on the different stages of SL, now over in the People Section.
Pollution in SL?
A while ago we posted a story about alternative energy. Wind turbines and stuff. Apparently a lot of people care about the environment (which I personally think is great) and express their feelings in SL too.
However, I did wonder about the 'dirty' side of SL industry as well. I mean, if there's clean energy, there's also notsoclean energy. So I thought, what energy source is important in Real Life? And does SL have it too? Right, oil. So I searched the map, rented a boat and set my GPS to this place. Wasn't hard to find, it rises above sea level by about 55 meters. No one seemed to be there, but it looked like the oil rig was fully auto-operated.
But I still thought, where does all this oil go? So I put on my scuba diving set and took the plunge. I followed the pipeline for several regions and finally saw a lighthouse. By the way, you should really try this: dive under water and look up at things above it. The views can really be amazing at times.
I still didn't have the answers to my questions though. Where does the oil go? I followed the pipe for a short while over land and I just found out it ended !! Very much to my surprise, it was all rusty inside as well. I detached my scuba set and put on a protective suit. Guess what? The pipe wasn't in use !!! And by the looks of it, it hadn't been used in quite a while.
Now I wondered ... Most of the prims in SL are made of wood. Where does the wood come from? Where are all those forests? And those who are skilled builders, know that you can also create prims of plastic. And plastic comes from? Right, crude oil. And what about all those ore mines for the metal objects?
You see my point? What are things made of in SL? Or do you know any places that really cause pollution in SL? Feel free to post a comment if you know the answer. Or if you have any tips for places to visit !!
However, I did wonder about the 'dirty' side of SL industry as well. I mean, if there's clean energy, there's also notsoclean energy. So I thought, what energy source is important in Real Life? And does SL have it too? Right, oil. So I searched the map, rented a boat and set my GPS to this place. Wasn't hard to find, it rises above sea level by about 55 meters. No one seemed to be there, but it looked like the oil rig was fully auto-operated.
But I still thought, where does all this oil go? So I put on my scuba diving set and took the plunge. I followed the pipeline for several regions and finally saw a lighthouse. By the way, you should really try this: dive under water and look up at things above it. The views can really be amazing at times.
I still didn't have the answers to my questions though. Where does the oil go? I followed the pipe for a short while over land and I just found out it ended !! Very much to my surprise, it was all rusty inside as well. I detached my scuba set and put on a protective suit. Guess what? The pipe wasn't in use !!! And by the looks of it, it hadn't been used in quite a while.
Now I wondered ... Most of the prims in SL are made of wood. Where does the wood come from? Where are all those forests? And those who are skilled builders, know that you can also create prims of plastic. And plastic comes from? Right, crude oil. And what about all those ore mines for the metal objects?
You see my point? What are things made of in SL? Or do you know any places that really cause pollution in SL? Feel free to post a comment if you know the answer. Or if you have any tips for places to visit !!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tattoo You
SA STREETER is a tattoo artist who custome designs tattoos, so if you're in the market for a personal tattoo for yourself or that someone special in your life - check out our story in the STYLE SECTION.
Sa also designs tattoos for clubs and organisations to give out to their customers. Could be just what you need for that competitive edge!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Bacchus Mall
Looking for the newest thing in malls in your Second Life? Then go read the Explore pageand find out all about Bacchus Mall!
Burning down the House!
Last night, a perfectly normal building contest ended in chaos, as a blaze broke out, engulfing several buildings.
The Dreams SIM (which you can go to by clicking here), run by a lady called "The Sojourner", offers help to those looking to learn more about building, and to pick up hints and tips. As part of this, they run regular building contests, for people to show off ideas and skills they have picked up there. This month's contest involved taking houses designed by the Lindens, and trying to edit them to cut down on the Prim count, while still maintaining the look, style and shape of the building. The objective of this was to see if these were then going to be low prim enough to place on a 512m piece of land, with the prim allocation that comes with land that size, and still have enough allocation left to be able to place some furniture.
Much fun was had by all, but when the contest was over, one of the houses caught fire... and then it spread.... and then the buildings started to collapse. One of the builders activated Duck powered water fire extinguishers, but to no avail. No one was harmed, but the fire still burns, with no end in sight. Hopefully the owners will have it under control in time for next month's contest.
The Dreams SIM (which you can go to by clicking here), run by a lady called "The Sojourner", offers help to those looking to learn more about building, and to pick up hints and tips. As part of this, they run regular building contests, for people to show off ideas and skills they have picked up there. This month's contest involved taking houses designed by the Lindens, and trying to edit them to cut down on the Prim count, while still maintaining the look, style and shape of the building. The objective of this was to see if these were then going to be low prim enough to place on a 512m piece of land, with the prim allocation that comes with land that size, and still have enough allocation left to be able to place some furniture.
Much fun was had by all, but when the contest was over, one of the houses caught fire... and then it spread.... and then the buildings started to collapse. One of the builders activated Duck powered water fire extinguishers, but to no avail. No one was harmed, but the fire still burns, with no end in sight. Hopefully the owners will have it under control in time for next month's contest.
Second Life Ballet
Review of the amazing show "Olmannen", by the outstanding Second Life Ballet company, over in the Events Section
Sunday, May 27, 2007
A memorial for fallen heroes ...
Tomorrow a memorial will be opening in tribute to soldiers that gave their lives in Iraqi and Afghanistan in favor of freedom ... see more about at Events Section ...
Sculpted prims
Not that I'm a specialist in Sculpted prims, but when I saw this ONE prim head I had to look again. Amazing what you can do with sculpted prims, and it will also save you a lot of prims on your land once you know how to make em and use em. (One prim head by Chip Midnight, using baked diffuse lighting.) - If you have more images on nice sculpted ONE prim items, please email em to us. We love to see them and add them to the designpage in our newspaper.(source : wiki.secondlife.com)
Saturday, May 26, 2007
David Morrell
Report on an SL audience with David Morrell, the writer who created Rambo, over in the Events Section.
The Versailles Project
Ever dreamed about visiting France? In the Middle Ages? All you have to do is click on over to the Explore page!
Interview with srv4u Conacher, a blues musician in SL
This week, we talked to srv4u Conacher (Ray Confer in RL), a blues musician in SL ... See the interview in Events Section ...
Friday, May 25, 2007
Amsterdam for sale .. again !!
Last March it was big news. The virtual version of Amsterdam, very life-like rebuilt in SL and (in)famous as a pick-up place for escorts, was for sale on eBay. And not only that, it was sold for a record price of US$ 50,000 !!!
Now it seems that the seller, Stroker Serpentine, and the buyer (Nedstede, a RL real estate broker from tne Netherlands) could not come to an agreement about copyrights of the unique buildings Amsterdam. Nedstede was under the assumption that they would automatically gain ownership (and the copyrights) of those buildings, so they decided to cancel the sale.
So, who knows what will happen to this beautiful city? Will it be sold again? And for what price? We will be keeping track of this for you.
Biggest record player in SL !!
Please go to the Explore section of this paper to check out the BNN sim with the biggest record player in all of SL. A must-see !! Also a story about how & why.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Nevi Community Public Park
Looking for a quiet, out of the way, plain rather than fancy place to just hang out? Then go to the Explore section and get a taste of life the way it used to be.
FRIENDS OF STICK BELLMAN
We will be having a memorial service for Stick at Carpe Diem on Friday 25th May at 12 noon (slt).If anyone wants to come they are more than welcome please IM me in world. (Trinity Dechou). Also if you have any pictures of Stick or Stick & I can you please send them too me I am going to work on a permanent memorial book and the more pictures I have the better!
This day is about Stick and Stick alone, many people will be there please if there is any animosity leave it at the door, Friday is not the day for that.
On a slightly happier note I originally planned to shut the church after our service for Stick but it shall remain open for a few more weeks and close on a slightly happier note.
A good friend of Stick’s, Dana Vanmoer is getting married in SL.
I asked Dana if she would like to use our dear church. I know it is something that Stick would have loved to have done and we also now get to close the doors on the church on a happy note.
Trinity Dechou
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Ourspace
As part of Sl-newspaper's quest to become the biggest and best presence in the world of Secondlife news reporting, we have now set up the official SL-Newspaper Myspace page. We cordially invite all our loyal readers to come visit and add us as your friend. We'll be trying to send out bulletins and information about all the comings and goings here at the paper, and all the special events and competitions we are running too!
Come check it out at http://www.myspace.com/slnewspaper
Alter Ego: The Exhibition
Details of a fascinating exhibition looking into the relationship between avatars and their creators in Secondlife, over in the People Section
Dixie's confession
Do you know the feeling that SL is taking over your Real Life? Well, I certainly have that feeling more and more. Last night I was on the phone (RL) with a friend and he said he wanted to meet sometime soon. So I said "hold on a sec, I'll send you a TP ...". Now, he doesn't know I'm on SL, so he had no idea what I was talking about, so I explained.
He understood why I was neglecting my RL (and especially him) lately now, but didn't really agree with that. Oh, we'll be fine, don't worry about it. Once I'm rich in SL like Miss Chung, I'll make more time for my Real Life again. LOL
You know that feeling? You had similar situations? You know what I'm talking about? I challenge you to put your anekdotes in the comments on this tiny article!
Tell me please, don't let me feel the only one addicted to SL ... ;-)
Dix
He understood why I was neglecting my RL (and especially him) lately now, but didn't really agree with that. Oh, we'll be fine, don't worry about it. Once I'm rich in SL like Miss Chung, I'll make more time for my Real Life again. LOL
You know that feeling? You had similar situations? You know what I'm talking about? I challenge you to put your anekdotes in the comments on this tiny article!
Tell me please, don't let me feel the only one addicted to SL ... ;-)
Dix
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
WORLD STOCK EXCHANGE HOSTS UNIQUE NEW OFFERING
On Sunday, May 20 the World Stock Exchange (WSE) approved the issue of an initial public offering (IPO) for a new type of exchange traded security with the potential to bring SL stock investing within the reach of thousands of new investors. Read the full story.....
A New Homeland For The Jews
JEWS ALL AROUND THE WORLD and in Second Life have a new 'home' with the opening last Sunday of the Ir Shalom "City of Peace" sim by Carter Giacobini and his very talented team of co-creators, CryptoMorph Lake and Lyric Wilberg.
In his opening ceremony speech, Carter told the crowd that when he started building the Jewish Historical Museum and Synagogue (JHM&S), he had planned on opening in September, or even later, but the desire of the Jewish community to set down roots had been so strong, the whole project had been completed just three months after the JHM&S had opened.
"I think that's a testament to the desire of the Jewish community to set up roots wherever we are," he stated. "Throughout our history, we have adapted and succeeded in every environment that diaspora has led us to. And, even though exile didn't bring us to SL, we still bring with us the desire and ability of adaptation, unity and community."
"We bring with us the need for family ties, to be with fellow Jews in an environment that we have made our own."
"My hope is that this place will serve as the foundation of the Jewish community on SL. To be the main place where Jews can come to take classes in our community centre; have parties at the country club; develop their businesses in our shops and Jewish Business Development Group; learn about our history in the museums, and to be able to be with each other in a safe environment."
"This is your city. This is your new home."
Carter went on to explain that the main focus of the site was locating the Temple Beit Shalom in the centre of the city, so that all things would be an outgrowth from that. Project contributor, CryptoMorph Lake, began construction on the temple, the day the island was born.
"The temple was the first thing to begin here - as it should be anywhere in any Jewish community," continued Carter, who paid tribute to the "wisdom and knowledge" of his co-creator Crypto and acknowledged the "amazing gifts of time and decorating sense" of Lyric Wilberg and the exhibition construction of Tomaso Rall.
Crypto wished "a big mazal tov and shehachianu" to the island, thanking everyone who had helped out in creating the final creation the crowd now beheld.
He referred to Ir Shalom as "a very unique place, one that is fully dedicated to serving the group with content you can't get anywhere else. A place of community and learning."
When Tomaso called out, "Here's to life!", the rousing response of "L'chaim" rang out throughout the crowd.
One of the highlights of the day was the announcement of the winning Torah design for the temple.
Photo above: Judges were unable to choose one winner from the entries above, so selected three Torahs for the synagogue. The winning entries were made by Mushund Mills, Janae McLeod and Nightspy Rebus & Rafi Tulip.
Among the many interesting sites to visit at Ir Shalom, is the Holocaust Memorial Museum which, to be expected, is a solemn testament to the darkest days of Jewish history in modern times. One of the saddest information plaques reads:
"On the walls, you can see scratch marks made by people trying to escape. To the left is where the crematory was placed. After the prisoners were murdered, they would be vaulted into the crematorium by use of a crude catapult to be disposed of."
No matter what you think of, or how you feel toward, Jews - this type of scar is bound to set you apart from others. An injury of this magnitude lasts forever.
Next door, at the Historical Centre, famous Jews featured include Modigliani, Leonard Bernstein, Marcel Proust, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Albert Einstein, Ann Landers, Golda Meir and Goldie Hawn.
The most poignant display is of Nazi Holocaust survivor, Liviu Librescu, who was also an aeronautics engineer and teacher. Liviu was recently murdered at the Virginia Tech massacre. More than any other display there, I was moved to bend my head for a moment's silence in honour of this simple man. Librescu used his body to barricade a classroom door to protect several students, but was gunned down.
The information sheet on Liviu urges, "Let those he saved now make the most of it."
(Photo above: Liviu Librescu (centre) is flanked by Ann Landers (on left) and Modigliani (at right).
Shops and businesses at Ir Shalom include the very wittily named "Mitzvah Bar Gift Shop" - specialising in alcohol and hats! (If you can help the also very wittily-named bar owner Jieux Shepherd, refine his chair scripts, he'd be ever so grateful!)
There is also a Rabbi's Attic shop; a Sisterhood of Ir Shalom drop-in centre and Bubbe's Bakery and Jewish Deli, offering chocolate chip cookies, donuts, and Bubbe's chicken soup, reportedly "good for what ails you".
One of the many people who made it to the opening (international time differences made it difficult for European and Israeli Jews to participate in the event), was Orthodox Jewess, Tam Hyun who said she had been keeping an eye on construction work for the past couple of weeks.
"It's tremendous - more than I ever thought was possible," she enthused. "It makes me feel welcome and not so much a stranger to SL. The island brings a bit of real life home to me."
RebMoshe Zapedzki took me on a tour of the shul, which is Yiddish for synagogue and showed me the ahron, where the torah, the set of guidelines on behaviour to God and man, is stored on a raised platform.
He paid tribute to what has been achieved, saying, "Communities are built by a small handful of people like Carter and Lyric and Beth."
Another guest, Kafka Schnabel who has been tracking Jewish developments in SL since the beginning, said, "I think this is a big step for the Jewish community of SL. We are creating a Jewish shetelt. I hope that this will lead to interesting new developments in SL Judaism, and hopefully also interfaith."
People celebrating the opening of Ir Shalom included Chana Beck, who describes herself as "Jew Crew", Yoni Schwartzman, Nemi McCoy, TamaraEden Zinnemann, Blayke Allen, Ghahir2 Binder, Cajh Writer, GruvenRueven Greenberg, Yoni Schwartzman, Gavriel Beerbaum, Charles Houston and Kirk Claymore.
Comments about the site ranged from Chana Black's, "This will be a wonderful community, I just know it" to Gavriel Beerbaum who said, "Wait until I spread the word about this at the Beit Israel Group in Portugal."
Another memorable event of the evening was a 'Magical Mystery Tour' in a bus, driven rather chaotically but with great panache, humour and enthusiasm, by sim owner, Carter Giacobini.
I would like to say that I took this tour, but for most of it, I was either running behind the bus, or flying above it trying to get on! At one stage, I did manage to board the double decker, but I got thrown around so much I fell out the back, with a great appreciation of how a cocktail feels in the shaker! When the journey (ordeal!) was over at last, there was the odd mention of "hire a limo next time!" "with a driver!"
At the end of the festivities, while we danced to the grooviest music I've heard yet on SL and I listened to the happy banter of Jews 'at home', I almost felt Jewish myself.
Photo above: CryptoMorph Lake, Carter Giacobini and Ever Student (front row) with one of the guests beside Tomaso Rall and Tam Hyun (middle) and RebMoshe Zapedzki, Gavriel Beerbaum and Nemi McCoy (rear)
(Photo above: TamaraEden Zinnemann (centre) and her friends who engaged me in a stimulating discussion of Judaism the day before the opening) More on this and other Jewish-related issues in later editions.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/IR%20SHALOM/250/137/23
Monday, May 21, 2007
Second Fortune : a SL version of Wheel of Fortune
Have fun with this game show! Learn more about reading the interview with the host FireEyes Fauna at Events Section.
New featured designer
Find out more about your favourite designers in the fashion section
This week we feature K.O. Designs
DanaXxX
This week we feature K.O. Designs
DanaXxX
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Real Linden Dollar Bill
Amazing found in money collection of our anonymous source. More to be read in the Finance Section of our newspaper.
Only in SL-Newspaper
First shots of Natalie's OLD-NEW love can be found in our Gossip Section. Think congratulations are in place :)
The Virtual Arms of the Law
About a month ago, I did an article on the influence of real world politics in Secondlife (http://15timez.blogspot.com/2007/04/vive-la-politque.html). This got me thinking, as many things do. If you take a look at the virtual world we all spend a good deal of our time living in, where is the the government making sure that everything is run smoothly, and seeing that our online community runs smoothly justly and fairly. When laws are broken, and the peace is disturbed, who does the regular citizen of Secondlife contact, to assist them and make sure their online experience is enjoyable and safe. Well, the answer is obvious... The Lindens, the representative of Linden Labs. However, again treating this virtual world as real, this means we have unelected officials, answerable to no-one, personally enforcing what laws they decide upon, if you can find one. The nearest similar setup to the law infrastructure in SL, would be the comic book world of Megacity 1, as seen in the Judge Dredd books, a dystopian land set in the future, where a group of state appointed officials roam the city, acting as judge, jury and executioner. If we aren't careful, the lack of democratic government in Secondlife is going to have a certain US President pushing to drive tanks into the virtual world, to overthrow our tyrannical rulers.
But on a more serious note, it seems that I am not alone in my concern about the lack of a proper legal and political system in Secondlife, and I met up with two such people, Ashcroft Burnham and Mondrian Lykin, two of the main protagonists behind a project tentatively titled "The Justice List", aimed at setting up a more structured and democratic for of governance for the citizens of Secondlife.
Ashcroft Burnham: In very simple terms, it's a legal system for SecondLife, but one that has real powers of enforcement, and one that doesn't need any help from Linden Lab to make work. There are lots of disputes and potential disputes in SecondLife that could do with formal resolution: disputes about broken agreements, land use, alleged griefing, extortion, etc.. Until now, there's been no way of resolving those in a formal way, and that can create problems. The justice list (and I emphasise that that's just a provisional title: we've yet to finalise a proper name for it) hopes to solve all of that. The enforcement is taken care of by a system of automated distributed banishment. It's a bit like BanLink, but based on a court system, rather than a network of individual decisions. People put an object on their land. It ejects anybody who's on the list (hence Justice *list*). Putting people on the list is the ultimate form of punishment.
Voodoo: So, the current system, as enforced by the Lindens, was not adequate?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, Linden Lab don't *have* any sort of system for resolving sophisticated disputes. They deal with (or, at least, try to deal with) incidents of serious disruption, and violation of the terms of service and community standards, but that simply doesn't cover a great range of the possible disputes that need to be dealt with. Breaking a business agreement, for example, or installing so many camping chairs on a piece of land that nobody else in the sim can get to use their land isn't covered by the terms of service or community standards at all. Sophisticated business can't easily emerge in SecondLife without a sophisticated in-world legal system.
Mondrian Lykin: They do have some kind of abuse reporting system, but that just deals with the ToS (Term of Service) issues.
Voodoo: So, how do you decide who should legitimately be on the list, and who has been unfairly nominated for inclusion?
Ashcroft Burnham: We establish an entire legal system :-)
Voodoo: with courts, judges, juries?
Ashcroft Burnham: Yes :-)
Mondrian Lykin: and a Parliament, and an executive
Ashcroft Burnham: There are a surprisingly large number of real-life lawyers interested in being involved in the project.
Voodoo: A cynical person would suggest they are looking at more of a way of getting money... even virtual money
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, actually, the opportunities for earning money are not very great in this system. There isn't a guarantee that we'll be able to make enough to cover our costs. We eventually hope to have salaried judges, for example, but I don't foresee them getting more than a few thousand Linden every month. Most people who are interested in being involved are interested in being involved because it's an inherently interesting thing to do.
Voodoo: Indeed. Now, you mentioned a Parliament? Setting up a government of SL too?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, after a fashion, yes :-) After all, somebody has to decide, ultimately, what the laws are that the courts enforce. There needs to be democratic legitimacy.
Voodoo: Democratic? So we would all get a say in their appointment?
Mondrian Lykin: The Parliament will be formed by members elected by those who adhere to the system. Each of them will have one vote, and the Parliament will pass the laws that will be applied in the territories where the system is applied.
Ashcroft Burnham: The subscribers, those who put the objects on their land that eject the people put on the list by the courts, they'd be the people who'd get to vote. Subscribing would be free. So, those who help the system to function get a say in how it works.
Mondrian Lykin: I think it is important to say that banishment will not be the only verdict issued by the courts; they will have other instruments, like fines, injunctions and such.
Ashcroft Burnham: Banishment will be used, however, against people who do very serious wrong, or breach the lesser court orders (i.e. fail to pay fines, etc.)
Voodoo: It all sounds like a pretty huge project... have you come up against any obstacles so far?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, we're fairly early on. It's hard to tell whether, for example, we'll be able to raise enough finance to acquire the land needed for the court and parliament buildings, and to pay for the server. But, so far, things seem to be going fairly well. Recruitment has gone quite well. We now have a strong management team putting together all the logistics, and the constitutional team is about to start meeting and working out the details of the constitution, too.
Mondrian Lykin: Resources seem to be the biggest issue, and of course, the recruitment. We have to follow at lest 3 main aspects: management, technical and constitutional. We formed 3 teams that are going to work on each, respectively, and we are about to start recruiting.
Ashcroft Burnham: If any of your readers would like to join us, they should IM me or Mondrain in-world.
Voodoo: What would you say to those who might say that this would be a pointless endeavour, since LL can overrule and disband this if the felt they wanted too?
Ashcroft Burnham: Why would they want to do that? We're not doing anything against the Terms of Service or Community Standards. LL have, in theory, the power to disband any in-world group or project, but that doesn't make every group or project worthless.
Mondrian Lykin: This system is user-generated, as far as it is good for the users that subscribe to it, there should be no reason for them to intervene in any such, if any at all, way
Ashcroft Burnham: They haven't intervened in BanLink, after all.
Mondrian Lykin: There exist already some communities who have their own laws, I am thinking to the RPG communities, or the Gorean communities, and such others
Ashcroft Burnham: But none of them yet have a sophisticated legal system capable of handling serious business and related disputes, and they tend to be narrow in scope. They have designed (of course, in other ways) their own system, and they obey to it
Voodoo: So, as long as your laws don't contradict the ultimate “constitution” of SL, the LL ToS, everything should be ok?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, indeed. And there'd be no reason for us to do that :-)
Mondrian Lykin: I think nobody would be happy to hear that LL intervenes in something that doesn't break the ToS. Business people on SL would be quite upset to hear that
Ashcroft Burnham: I think that this is a very exciting project, and could bring great benefit to SecondLife as a whole. The encouragement of sophisticated commerce through a refined and professional legal system could have a marked impact on the SecondLife economy.Imagine how much better that things like financial services would work if there was a sophisticated legal system to go with them.
Voodoo: Well, thank you for your time, and I'd like to personally wish you the best of luck with this.
Mondrian Lykin: thank you
Ashcroft Burnham: Thank you very much :-)
But on a more serious note, it seems that I am not alone in my concern about the lack of a proper legal and political system in Secondlife, and I met up with two such people, Ashcroft Burnham and Mondrian Lykin, two of the main protagonists behind a project tentatively titled "The Justice List", aimed at setting up a more structured and democratic for of governance for the citizens of Secondlife.
Ashcroft Burnham: In very simple terms, it's a legal system for SecondLife, but one that has real powers of enforcement, and one that doesn't need any help from Linden Lab to make work. There are lots of disputes and potential disputes in SecondLife that could do with formal resolution: disputes about broken agreements, land use, alleged griefing, extortion, etc.. Until now, there's been no way of resolving those in a formal way, and that can create problems. The justice list (and I emphasise that that's just a provisional title: we've yet to finalise a proper name for it) hopes to solve all of that. The enforcement is taken care of by a system of automated distributed banishment. It's a bit like BanLink, but based on a court system, rather than a network of individual decisions. People put an object on their land. It ejects anybody who's on the list (hence Justice *list*). Putting people on the list is the ultimate form of punishment.
Voodoo: So, the current system, as enforced by the Lindens, was not adequate?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, Linden Lab don't *have* any sort of system for resolving sophisticated disputes. They deal with (or, at least, try to deal with) incidents of serious disruption, and violation of the terms of service and community standards, but that simply doesn't cover a great range of the possible disputes that need to be dealt with. Breaking a business agreement, for example, or installing so many camping chairs on a piece of land that nobody else in the sim can get to use their land isn't covered by the terms of service or community standards at all. Sophisticated business can't easily emerge in SecondLife without a sophisticated in-world legal system.
Mondrian Lykin: They do have some kind of abuse reporting system, but that just deals with the ToS (Term of Service) issues.
Voodoo: So, how do you decide who should legitimately be on the list, and who has been unfairly nominated for inclusion?
Ashcroft Burnham: We establish an entire legal system :-)
Voodoo: with courts, judges, juries?
Ashcroft Burnham: Yes :-)
Mondrian Lykin: and a Parliament, and an executive
Ashcroft Burnham: There are a surprisingly large number of real-life lawyers interested in being involved in the project.
Voodoo: A cynical person would suggest they are looking at more of a way of getting money... even virtual money
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, actually, the opportunities for earning money are not very great in this system. There isn't a guarantee that we'll be able to make enough to cover our costs. We eventually hope to have salaried judges, for example, but I don't foresee them getting more than a few thousand Linden every month. Most people who are interested in being involved are interested in being involved because it's an inherently interesting thing to do.
Voodoo: Indeed. Now, you mentioned a Parliament? Setting up a government of SL too?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, after a fashion, yes :-) After all, somebody has to decide, ultimately, what the laws are that the courts enforce. There needs to be democratic legitimacy.
Voodoo: Democratic? So we would all get a say in their appointment?
Mondrian Lykin: The Parliament will be formed by members elected by those who adhere to the system. Each of them will have one vote, and the Parliament will pass the laws that will be applied in the territories where the system is applied.
Ashcroft Burnham: The subscribers, those who put the objects on their land that eject the people put on the list by the courts, they'd be the people who'd get to vote. Subscribing would be free. So, those who help the system to function get a say in how it works.
Mondrian Lykin: I think it is important to say that banishment will not be the only verdict issued by the courts; they will have other instruments, like fines, injunctions and such.
Ashcroft Burnham: Banishment will be used, however, against people who do very serious wrong, or breach the lesser court orders (i.e. fail to pay fines, etc.)
Voodoo: It all sounds like a pretty huge project... have you come up against any obstacles so far?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, we're fairly early on. It's hard to tell whether, for example, we'll be able to raise enough finance to acquire the land needed for the court and parliament buildings, and to pay for the server. But, so far, things seem to be going fairly well. Recruitment has gone quite well. We now have a strong management team putting together all the logistics, and the constitutional team is about to start meeting and working out the details of the constitution, too.
Mondrian Lykin: Resources seem to be the biggest issue, and of course, the recruitment. We have to follow at lest 3 main aspects: management, technical and constitutional. We formed 3 teams that are going to work on each, respectively, and we are about to start recruiting.
Ashcroft Burnham: If any of your readers would like to join us, they should IM me or Mondrain in-world.
Voodoo: What would you say to those who might say that this would be a pointless endeavour, since LL can overrule and disband this if the felt they wanted too?
Ashcroft Burnham: Why would they want to do that? We're not doing anything against the Terms of Service or Community Standards. LL have, in theory, the power to disband any in-world group or project, but that doesn't make every group or project worthless.
Mondrian Lykin: This system is user-generated, as far as it is good for the users that subscribe to it, there should be no reason for them to intervene in any such, if any at all, way
Ashcroft Burnham: They haven't intervened in BanLink, after all.
Mondrian Lykin: There exist already some communities who have their own laws, I am thinking to the RPG communities, or the Gorean communities, and such others
Ashcroft Burnham: But none of them yet have a sophisticated legal system capable of handling serious business and related disputes, and they tend to be narrow in scope. They have designed (of course, in other ways) their own system, and they obey to it
Voodoo: So, as long as your laws don't contradict the ultimate “constitution” of SL, the LL ToS, everything should be ok?
Ashcroft Burnham: Well, indeed. And there'd be no reason for us to do that :-)
Mondrian Lykin: I think nobody would be happy to hear that LL intervenes in something that doesn't break the ToS. Business people on SL would be quite upset to hear that
Ashcroft Burnham: I think that this is a very exciting project, and could bring great benefit to SecondLife as a whole. The encouragement of sophisticated commerce through a refined and professional legal system could have a marked impact on the SecondLife economy.Imagine how much better that things like financial services would work if there was a sophisticated legal system to go with them.
Voodoo: Well, thank you for your time, and I'd like to personally wish you the best of luck with this.
Mondrian Lykin: thank you
Ashcroft Burnham: Thank you very much :-)
In Memoriam: Stick Bellman
Stick BellmanMost of us knew her, most of us loved her.
She will be a great loss both in second life and in real life.
She will be a great loss both in second life and in real life.
Lynn Ryan passed away on Saturday 12th May taking her SL avatar
Stick Bellman with her.
Stick Bellman with her.
I know she will be dearly missed by us all.
We will be arranging a service at her Church on our land so people can say bye properly in their own way.
IM me (Trinity Dechou) if you want to know where and when.
We will be arranging a service at her Church on our land so people can say bye properly in their own way.
IM me (Trinity Dechou) if you want to know where and when.
Night night Stickie wicket, I love you, sweet dreams, love and hugs miss you xxx
Love your
Trinnie Doll
Saturday, May 19, 2007
King Kong lives !!!
Everyone knows King Kong. Or at least have heard of the name. After the original motion picture from 1933, there were also King Kong movies in 1976 and 2005 (click for IMDB info).
Check out the hairs on his arms, the teeth ... and mind you, the girl is not a real avatar, it's actually part of the statue !!! Have fun checking it out ...
The big gorilla holding the blond/ginger haired girl in his hand... it's on everyone's retina. Well, I guess King Kong has a Second Life as well !!!
Created using 219 prims for the ape and 221 prims for the girl, a live 20 meters high statue has been erected in the north-western corner of the Mauve region.
If you want my opinion: I think it's great artwork !!! Quite detaild and very good textures. For the real King Kong fans, here are a few photos:
Check out the hairs on his arms, the teeth ... and mind you, the girl is not a real avatar, it's actually part of the statue !!! Have fun checking it out ...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
What is it?
Sometimes you're just exploring the wonderful world of Second Life and then you see something weird. I had that a while ago and I just thought: "What in the name of Linden is THAT?" All moving parts etc, so I took a closer look.
I returned there recently and even now I have no clue on what it's supposed to be. Art? Some kind of beacon for aliens from Sixth Life? Who knows ...
Of course I couldn't help myself and take a look in the tower. Quite scary if you have fear of heights, or even claustrophobia, to look straight down in there.
And on the other side of the road, there was this huge dragon (at least I could make out what kind of shape it was), all made of crystal/glass shards. Now that I took the pictures and that I'm writing about it, I just hope it won't give me nightmares ... :)
If anyone knows what this is, or why it was created, please feel free to contact me !! My curiosity hasn't killed my cat so far, but still would like to know about this one.
I returned there recently and even now I have no clue on what it's supposed to be. Art? Some kind of beacon for aliens from Sixth Life? Who knows ...
Of course I couldn't help myself and take a look in the tower. Quite scary if you have fear of heights, or even claustrophobia, to look straight down in there.
And on the other side of the road, there was this huge dragon (at least I could make out what kind of shape it was), all made of crystal/glass shards. Now that I took the pictures and that I'm writing about it, I just hope it won't give me nightmares ... :)
If anyone knows what this is, or why it was created, please feel free to contact me !! My curiosity hasn't killed my cat so far, but still would like to know about this one.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Adrenaline rushes ...
When I arrived home (after a long flight, including the encounter with the truck), I finally landed on my porch again, fixed my hair (it was quite windy out there) and sat down with a 'sex on the beach' cocktail. Seemed appropriate.
And I started daydreaming, thinking back about another adrenaline rush I had 2 weeks ago. Don't know if it's the only one in SL or not, but I found a real rollercoaster !! All made of bamboo. Boy oh boy, I still get the shivers thinking about that ...
For those who are not too scared of heights & speed: click here for the SLurl. If you don't land at the rollercoaster right away, just fly South-East a bit. It's behind the houses.
And I started daydreaming, thinking back about another adrenaline rush I had 2 weeks ago. Don't know if it's the only one in SL or not, but I found a real rollercoaster !! All made of bamboo. Boy oh boy, I still get the shivers thinking about that ...
For those who are not too scared of heights & speed: click here for the SLurl. If you don't land at the rollercoaster right away, just fly South-East a bit. It's behind the houses.
Madame Mathy's 'Cabinete de Clairvoyancy'
by Miralee Munro
THE IDEA OF HAVING YOUR FORTUNE READ is an intriguing one, but far more so when there is every chance you will learn about your Second Life, as well as your RL.
Avatar readings are a relatively new concept, but the opportunity is now being offered by French clairvoyant, Madame Candice Mathy of Normandie, France.
Regular readers will know that SL Newspaper columnist, Natalie Niven is one of Madame Mathy's delighted clientele. (Apparently Natalie was given some very promising news in the romance department).
Madame Mathy says she "fell head over heels in love" with SL when she arrived here in March 2007 and loves creating her own avatar, something she is very skilled at through her abilities as a stylist. Through a interpreter, Madame Mathy (who does not speak English), says she also enjoys helping people by doing the clairvoyant readings.
I asked whose future is being revealed, the avatar's of the RL being? She replied that there was not much difference between the two, as it is the personality of a person which is being read and both the RL personality and the SL personality combine.
"Our personalities are the same," she explained. "It is more a feeling of things, and this, everyone will interpret differently. I speak rather, about what touches a person. It has to bring something of reality."
Most importantly, Madame Mathy believes that SL offers people a good opportunity for their spirit to grow.
I asked if the process of allowing your 'inner self' to be expressed so freely in SL made it more difficult for her to read people's 'other' life, since for most people the two are so completely different.
But she reassured me that the two combined to make the complete personality, and that it had no impact on her ability to read for the person.
Still, there was still some resistance from some people to the idea of clairvoyant readings. "It is never easy to open to somebody," she pointed out. "Whether it is the reality of SL or RL. People can be somewhat uneasy, but I find they speak openly with me."
"Clairvoyance is a metiér I adore," she enthused. "I became aware of my abilities when I was an adolescent, but did not use my abilities then."
With eight years experience in clairvoyance, Madame Mathy uses gypsy 'belote' cards in her readings, charging 100L per question.
She says she has been able to help people in many ways - from predicting a proposal of marriage, advising of gifts to come, warning of a fraud to such simple events as "a surprise feté or de soirée romantique".
If you plan to visit Madame Mathy in her 'Cabinete de Clairvoyancy', try and arrange an interpreter if you do not speak French.
by Miralee Munro
My second life flashed before my eyes
This evening I had been visiting the enormous Hudson Mansion (see Homes & Gardens) to let the kind man know that the story was posted and as usual the TP's didn't work. So I had to fly home 'manually'. Just when I flew over the nice beaches of mainland, I apparently wasn't paying attention and when I looked up, my second life flashed before my eyes !!!
I thought I was about to get crushed by an enormous truck coming right at me. But then I realized it was me coming right at the truck. It was a narrow escape.
The truck was actually standing there just behind the beach, stuck in the muddy grassland. When I looked around, it hit me. It must have been delivering 'land for sale' signs there, coz the logo was on the side of the truck. I figured it was stuck there, coz it was abandoned. The driver was probably trying to get help or something.
Nice adrenaline rush though ... :-)
I thought I was about to get crushed by an enormous truck coming right at me. But then I realized it was me coming right at the truck. It was a narrow escape.
The truck was actually standing there just behind the beach, stuck in the muddy grassland. When I looked around, it hit me. It must have been delivering 'land for sale' signs there, coz the logo was on the side of the truck. I figured it was stuck there, coz it was abandoned. The driver was probably trying to get help or something.
Nice adrenaline rush though ... :-)
Biggest Mansion in SL !!! (part 2)
Now in the Homes & Gardens section: part 2 of the article about the biggest house/mansion in all of SL. This time about the inside, the architects and other features on the sim.
Flooding detected in Mall
Even small people can create great chaos. For example in this Mall, they had to clean for over 4 days to get most of the coke out of the stores. Still very sticky walking around there !
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