Holocaust Remembrance in SL

As we all know, the Holocaust was a terrible period in the Jews’ history and the greatest genocide of the modern history. If you have never heard personal stories of survivors or you’re interested in seeing what it was like to be a Jew during that time, you can visit the US Holocaust Museum to experience it.......

Continue reading with Lizzy in the EXPLORE section

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Get Down to Earth, with Lutricia’s Luxuries

A store with a mix of clothes and other items, whether you’re looking for something with family in mind, or if you want something on the darker side, Lutricia’s Luxuries has plenty to offer the Second Life shopper.

Check out the story in DESIGN.

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The long awaited blog update:

A Day in the Lab with M
Greetings everyone!

A hearty welcome to our new blog network. There is so much going at Linden Lab and in the Second Life community, we wanted to be able to encourage people to post and share but do it in a way that is easily navigated by our readers. Hence, the new blog structure with different channels for different topics. Hope you like it.

I've introduced myself and posted before on the Secondlife.com blog so you know me already. But our comms team thought it might be fun to share "...a day in the life of..." starting with a day in the life of M Linden.

There is no typical M Linden day but they generally go something like this:

• Get up before the sun, grab a coffee and scan email, read SL news and blogs, the NY Times and the WSJ. I call this "Mark time." Like Blue, I am not a morning person
• Go to the gym for a workout then walk to the office (this is when I get my mind ready for the day)
• Catch up with my two pod mates -- Catherine (PR) and Philip (Chairman) who sit on either side of me, share a laugh, move their stuff back onto their desks which is always overflowing on to mine (I am the neatest of the three in our pod) then get to work
• Peruse our very extensive metrics dashboard to see how the company is doing (with literally hundreds of measures for everything you can imagine from Resident satisfaction to registrations in last hour to frame-rate-per-second) for 10-15 minutes
• Have 1:1 meetings with leaders of the big projects underway in the Lab (most recent was Judy on localization of the Second Life experience for international markets)
• If its a Monday or Wednesday, I usually lead our executive meeting where we talk about the opportunities and challenges of the day. If it's a Friday, I give a "state of the company" talk at our Friday Lunch here in the Battery Lab
• Review some work done by one of the teams -- maybe a new design for the Land store, or a UI improvement we are planning
• Hit the snack store at 3PM with everyone else
• Have a press interview (most recent was the BBC) on exciting things happening in Second Life
• Attend inworld meetings with service providers, partners, press, research firms but before I do I usually have to respond to inworld messages and forward comment cards on to folks in the Lab who can help

That's it in a nutshell. Enjoy the blog!

M(ark) Linden

By the looks of things they may actually have got it right, there is a lot to read and different areas for different interests, many Lindens introducing themselves with 'the day in the life' posts.
So far it looks great! Well done Team Linden go see for yourself HERE

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SLSC/Koinup Photo Contest

SL Shakespeare Company’s Twelfth Night, Act 1
Photography Contest on Koinup

Shakespeare, Second Life and Brescia, Italy: The SL Shakespeare Company joins forces with Koinup to launch the world’s first major photography contest featuring a professional theatrical production based entirely in the virtual world of Second Life. Starting March 1, the contest invites participants to attend the SL Shakespeare Company’s open-ended run of Twelfth Night, Act 1 and take photos. Over L$100,000 in prizes will be awarded to the winners.

The contest consists of a main contest whose final submissions deadline is June 15, 2009. Several mini-contests with weekly or bi-monthly deadlines and prizes will be held starting in April. These mini-contests will be held in conjunction with several “Variations” on the open-ended run, where, for example, an all-female or switched-genders cast interpretation is tried.
To give all participants a chance, the contest introduces a special “Unedited SL Photography” category with its own exclusive prize.
The contest also has a special Avatar Photography category for photography that focus particularly on actor avatars. To help facilitate this specialized component, the SL Shakespeare Company will be holding special actor avatar photography sessions starting in April.

In efforts to recognize photography based not only on artistic merit but also on their appeal to different people, the contest will be judged by a panel of well-known Second Life residents from several different arenas. Judges include AM Radio, Ananda Valeeva, Beyers Sellers, Dana Vanmoer, Eshi Otawara, Frolic Mills, Ina Centaur, Jaymes Kjeller, Prad Prathivi, Rightasrain Rimbaud, Saffia Widdershins, Sarah Nerd, Tara05 Oh, Vint Falken, Verde Otaared, and others.

Shows occur weekly on Sundays at 1 PM PST and Tuesdays at 6 PM PST at the SL Globe Theatre. Performances are free except for shows on the last Tuesday and Sunday of each month. Donations are gratefully accepted.

About Twelfth Night, Act 1
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is the story of a shipwrecked girl named Viola, who chooses to go incognito as a boy eunuch. Act 1 establishes the love triangle that Viola, Duke Orsino, and Olivia become entangled in, and also introduces some of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters—Malvolio and Feste. Unlike the Bard’s other plays, Twelfth Night exists only in the folio editions.

About the SL Shakespeare Company
The SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC) is a resident-funded and resident-supported professional theatre company that embraces the best of what Second Life (SL) has to offer. While it is primarily known to provide quality live Shakespearean theatre available to anyone in anywhere in the world, SLSC is also the curator of Second Life’s most historically accurate theatres and architecture relating to William Shakespeare.

About Koinup
Koinup is a media-based social networking platform geared specifically for virtual worlds. Koinup users submit and share photography and machinima to share their stories and art outside their virtual world. The Koinup website features many tools to help users present and syndicate their work, and is also a center for some of the most exciting photography contests in virtual worlds. Koinup currently helps share the following virtual worlds: Second Life, The Sims, World of Warcraft, IMVU, OpenSim, Lively, vSide, Kaneva, There, and Other Worlds.

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Cartoon of the Day

By Bixyl Shuftan
Click for full size image

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Second Life's media prejudice

When you look at real-life media reports about Second Life, you often hear about sex or finance scandals. Yet, you see very little about the actual productive uses of virtual worlds.

For instance, the Relay For Life campaign for cancer gathered more than 55 millions of Linden dollars in donations last year. Between sex and money stories, you don't hear about that. Why?

Mostly because the traditional media tend to be biased towards bad news. When SL became an interesting phenomenon for them to cover a couple of years ago, they were telling readers and viewers how it was a promising to use virtual worlds. All seemed fine. When other reporters scratched the surface, they started seeing how many users come here for sex. They saw the "stock exchange" and "bank" collapses that gave SL some very bad press.

Those stories actually became symbols of virtual world activity, instead of only a part of what goes on here.

It is a bit sad that the media work like this, but it is reality. I work in the media and publishing industry, I know quite a bit about it! Negative stories and criticism tend to be crunchier, more interesting to publish. It is so easier to sell to the public when there is controversy than when the story is constructive.

If any media reporter is reading this piece, I invite you to take one more look at Second Life. There are tens of thousands of us who use it on a regular basis for good reasons. There are ways to accomplish ourselves artistically. There are ways to gather money for good causes. It is a nice way to meet people you wouldn't otherwise see in RL social situations. Some, who have health issues, break their social isolation with virtual life.

I could go on and on but the point is already clear enough. Without abandoning the critical thinking that is essential to journalism, reporting about SL shouldn't be limited to the bad news. The truth is out there. It's up to reporters to make a bit of an effort to find it!

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Open the Box with Dana

Meet the crew - This week saw us doing new crew pictures since we have had quite a few join our team of intrepid reporters, we now have an office manager, Christina Munro. If you see any of the crew about be sure to say hi, without them we wouldn't have such variety of things for you to read. Thank you all for the hard work you all do.

Well its that time again, no not time to get out into the real world but Relay (Relay For Life) time again and I have been helping out with quite a few things and finding out how it all works from behind the scenes to the point where I was overwhelmed.
I can honestly say I have a great deal of respect for all the organisers behind the scenes of RFLinSL they have to give 150% to getting everything just right and most of the time they get a lot of pressure from people, who have absolutely no idea of the work involved, and often forget that everyone behind the scenes does this voluntarily - I don't know how these people keep their tempers I know with the amount of disrespect I saw I could not do it, I am human after all.
All these volunteers have my utmost respect and admiration for all they do.

I have also been helping with the RFL Clothing fair run and organised by the Relay Raiders, each year this gets bigger and better, but again I get shocked by the attitudes. Some seem to think they have a right to tell the organisers what they can and can't do - talk about temperaments!
Its amazing what these volunteers do, it is absolutely astounding the hours and work put in, on every aspect, they do not deserve the disrespect some give them.
I appeal to all those involved please remember the organisers are volunteers for a great cause that is important to so many people, the way some have spoken to them and argued with their decisions would be enough to make me not want to do it again next year!!!!
Thankfully they have a lot more patience with peoples temperaments than I do!
Great job from a dedicated group of people.

We have spent some time this week exploring some new places and found Southern Fun a themed community and a beautiful place to visit you can find out more about them on their Sponsor page HERE
Southern Fun is 8 sims with shops, ranches, homes and so much more well worth visiting for the beautiful surroundings and friendly people.

I guess this last couple of weeks has opened my eyes to how much of themselves people are capable of putting into Secondlife and just how many dedicated people there are here with us.
I know that not everyone appreciates them but I bet those that abuse these volunteers don't realize the damage they can do to a volunteers willingness to do this year after year.
So if there is a moral to this weeks Open the Box its remember 'Volunteers don't have to do what they do - give them the respect they deserve!'

Dana Vanmoer

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Fair Fun

Looking for the fun events in the Community Fair I found a huge party going on at the main stage with good music and lots of dancing.
There were dances everyday.
If you fancied car racing it was in the sky. It is almost transparent so you felt as if you will go through the wall any minute if you do not steer carefully.
On the ground you could play some fun games with tricky consequences; I sat and became a blowing leaf , falling with the others to the ground , but never touching , being lifted to twist in the wind..............

More in the EVENTS section from Gemma at the Dreams Fair

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Cartoon of the Day

By Bixyl Shuftan

Click for full size

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Exhibits for Your Body and Soul

Here’s more about the Fair!
At the entry to the Community Fair you can pick up a map that shows the location for each participant and some of the gathering points for places.
I was amazed to see the number or exhibits has grown to 53! Each booth is numbered to indicate who is occupying it.
You can also grab a cute free clown avatar, either human size or tiny. Look for it.
The diversity of the exhibits is wonderful.
If you would like information on sign language it is there. If you need some bolstering up of your inner self you can find some words of wisdom and a place to go.
If you are a caregiver and are overwhelmed by your duties you will find comfort and a supporting shoulder.
One of the note cards has RL resources that will give you guidance on life issues you face as a care giver.
It is truly amazing how much you can learn here at the Dream Fair during this week.
Their concentration in the Dreams sim is on Autism and Stroke but this week is packed with information for every need. Breast cancer awareness, Heart issues, Aids and mental health to mention a few.
The Better World Island has a wonderful note card that you can pick up that will allow you to tp to locales that demonstrate ways you can make a difference in RL for some project going on in the world if you would like to do that.
I sincerely hope you will not miss this event.
My next story will tell you some of the fun events going on at the fair that might entice you to go see.
To make your entry easier go here to begin http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dreams/132/128/25

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Relay Raiders Clothing Fair 2009

Relay Raiders HQ, Haute Couture,
Second Life.

The Relay Raiders are proud to announce the dates for Second Life’s 3rd Annual “Clothing Fair”_ Events are set to launch on Monday, March 16 at 10:00 am SLT, and run 24/7 through Sunday, March 22, 2009 when the doors must close at 9:00 pm SLT.

Find out more in the RFLinSL section

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Dreams Community Fair

The Dreams Community Fair 2009 is underway. It is wonderful! The participants have placed their booths filled with so much material about sources of information about in world support. for numerous health issues as well as real world support as well.

Coninued in the EXPLORE section

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Snapshot of SL

Click for full size

Send us your snapshots with a single line of text and your avatar name,
if we like them we will publish them here. Email to dana.vanmoer(at)gmail.com

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Photo contest winner!

And the winner of the SL-Newspaper photocontest is : SLGigi Core !

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Skybeam community center grand opening

After all the hard work getting our new community center together, it's time to break it...errr...break it in...yeah that's what I meant...*grins*
Dust off those formals...prizes for best dressed. Today from 2-5 SLT with the lovely Dak providing the music.

See you there!

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Valentine Fun

Valentine day has never been a favorite holiday for me in real life. I have recollections of the time when I was teaching and the day came. All the kids came with valentines from home and some we had made in school for exchange.
But.. There was always that one kid who brought one for everyone else in the class … and only got a couple.
My heart hurt for that kid!
This was not a one time sight, it was a yearly one!
So to me it was greatly overrated as a holiday.
SL has shown lots more fun for the day.
The Lindens , some of whom I am sure , do not like the holiday either went all out to show some linden love to the avatars they work for. Two hearts on the map, decorated to the maximum.
I tried to get there in the morning about 4 times and the sims were full. Finally I made it later in the day and here were the cute Lindens in cubicles offering kisses!!
All around were volunteers who help newbies waiting for hugs. It was great!!
I wore the lowest prim outfit I had to get in . It was a skin from Lemania that looked like an outfit for the great swimmer Esther Williams. That was it!! Nothing else just the skin! Don’t worry I was totally covered.
I actually got to see and greet the great Yeti Bing who turned out to be a Flower Pot!!
I jumped into to a cubicle and kissed cupid Linden, then got in line to kiss another Linden!
Such fun!
I cannot wait to dunk them at the Linden Dunking next week after the Health Fair at Dreams sim!
Oh, don’t miss that!! I will be writing about it during the week.
I must tell you this was the most fun Valentine day I have had I have had in either life!

By Gemma Cleanslate

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Corner of Revolving Time

The Corner of Revolving Time has been evident in second life for over a year now and welcomes residents to come and pick up free copies of trees, plants and flowers year round.
With the past December holiday season an amazing thing happened at the “Corner” as people started leaving item donations to share with others and somehow in the spirit of giving it grew and expanded.
Currently the Corner of Revolving Times sits upon a hill top in a customized 60 X 60 Dome with additional spheres on the sides built by Ee Maculate. The build alone is awesome!

As new holidays approach the Corner of Revolving Time now evolves as well and friends from all over second life leave their mark on the Corner with what they make and share with others.
You will find a few items here and there for sale but that revolves as well as time slips forward.
A new addition to the Corner would be the Corner Playground across the bridge where you can meet up with friends, hang out in the trees or simply lounge around.
Go to the EXPLORE section to continue reading.................

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My Precious

My Precious offers high quality fashion that conveys the essence of elegance, glamour and playfulness.
I don't limit myself to certain styles. Everything in the store ranging from casuals to ball gowns illustrates my passion for beauty and creativeness in this wondering virtual world, which I hope this can be shared with ladies by wearing my designs.
Find out more about My Precious HERE

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One World. . .One Hope. . .Let's Relay!!!

As many know each year we at sl-newspaper support Relay For Life in SL and this year will be the same you can find a new button on our navigation which will lead to the section for RFL in SL where you can keep up to date on events and activities taking place inworld.

Its that time of the year again! The American Cancer Society's signature event Relay For Life is getting under way in Second Life™
Last year residents raised over L$55,000,000! Let's work together to smash that total!

Go to the RFL in SL Section to find out what you can do..................

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SL In-World Transactions to be Taxed

As a result of the worsening financial condition of the world’s largest economy, a new tax is set to take effect April 1^st, 2009. The little known details of this new tax, now included in the high profile U.S. Stimulus Package, will be applied to all web-based commerce conducted through servers housed in the U.S. This reporter has now confirmed that, because in-world currency is transferable and convertible, SL is among several simulations whose in-world transactions will be affected.
President Obama’s $879 billion dollar stimulus plan, recently passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress, contains a number of tax increases found in the low-profile “Proposed Stimulus Funding Mechanisms” section of the bill. Included among these tax increases is a 16.75% sales tax on all transactions conducted in-world beginning April 1^st, 2009. The provision, proposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Electronic Industry and Security, has garnered little attention to date, as these taxes amount to less than one-half of one percent of the total funding provisions in the package.
A representative of the administration, speaking on condition of anonymity has confirmed that in-world transaction will be affected and were purposefully targeted given large amount of SL transactions and the obvious revenue potential for the U.S. government.

“Given the fact that sims such as yours, are totally recreational and so can be construed as a ‘luxury’ purchase by those fortunate enough to have disposable income, it was reasonable to target these transactions. This is completely in keeping with President Obama’s stated mission of wealth redistribution.”

“The disparity in our world today between those that have the financial means to participate in online recreational games such as SL, and those who are less fortunate due to no fault of their own is glaring and shameful,” the source continued.

In addition to generating an additional and as yet untapped funding source for this package, this initiative also changes the strategy of the current U.S. administration’s position from creating an environment of encouraging economic fairness, to legislating it. However, reactions from SL residents who have been interviewed have been noticeably sanguine. Here are some comments from SL residents:

“I think it’s time for this kind of thing, I mean I’m not really rich in my mind, but I suppose for someone who’s unemployed and got 8 kids to feed and buy stuff for and only gets welfare, I probably am rich to them. It’s not really their fault, and I can afford it, so I suppose that’s fair.”

“I don’t really like it – but if it means more people will be able to live more comfortably and maybe even be able to buy a computer to enjoy what we do in here, then I’m OK with that.”

“I don’t live in the U.S., but I support it because it’s not fair that so many Americans have so much and can afford to buy stuff here in SL, while others don’t even have a nice house or flat screen television of their own. The rich have too much and if you have the money to buy stuff in here for fun, then in my book, you’re rich. Maybe 17% isn’t enough!”

Judging by the handful of reactions so far, it appears that SL residents will be willing participants in the U.S. administrations new initiative to achieve economic parity through the redistribution of wealth, be it real or virtual.

"Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self-control and adversity with more fortitude!" C. Asinius Pollio

Submitted by FoxM Ember

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Content creators frustration with Linden permissions

There are many out there in Second Life who create for the creators - what do I mean?
You know that fantastic sofa with loads of animations you just bought? or that AO that has you posing while you stand and chat? what about the door script on your house?
These are the builders' suppliers, each is created by someone and because of the very nature of their sales they have to sell their creations full permissions - dont they?
After all if they didn't then a builder couldn't add an animation to a sofa or modify a door to fit or if they could they couldn't then resell their creation.
But this leads to an obvious risk - what is to stop anyone from then taking those creations and, instead of using then in a build, just reselling them as animations or doors or whatever?
The answer is nothing - Lindens answer - file a DMCA claim which can cost thousands after the original creator has already lost thousands.
We are not talking pennies here - people are losing money on a daily basis and a lot of the time it can be through pure ignorance on the builders part.

Yesterday I spoke to Sylva Petrov a noted animator in Secondlife:

Sylva Petrov: Due to ignorance or intent, every time I sell animations to builders, I risk them becoming tomorrow's freebies
Dana: How?
Sylva Petrov: If the builder doesn't change the perms he is giving them away essentially, and quite a few think that just setting the permissions on the containing object is enough. I even got yelled at yesterday for asking for samples of a builders work so i could show her!
Dana: no because you can copy from the contents if the perms are not set
Sylva Petrov: she SWORE up and down that the mlp2 scripts set the permissions when it was sold, people believe all sorts of urban legends
Dana: If someone sells something to me full perms then I would take for granted it was all of it - including the animation
Sylva Petrov: yes, but they're not, they're supposed to be selling them no copy or no transfer.
they set their own part, the bed for example, to it, but they don't realize the contents are wide open. Ignorance probably does more damage than intentional thieves.
Dana: Can anything be done?
Sylva Petrov: Social change is difficult, expensive, and not very effective - technical changes are cheap, easy, and almost always work.
Dana: Don't you point out and make an agreement with the builders about setting perms?
Sylva Petrov: We can roar ourselves hoarse to the builders about proper permissions setting, but what of the builder that starts tomorrow? A technical fix will eliminate the 'honest' mistakes.
dana Vanmoer: What you are asking for is that LL sets a secondary permissions system?
Sylva Petrov: yes, so we can say how the people that buy from content creators can set the perms afterwards
They can give us owner-after-next permissions
The ability to set a property on an item that will force the item to become either no copy or no transfer on the next owner to our buyers.
The way it would work is if i toggle that switch - lets call it the 'limited full perms' switch if they try to make it copyable, transferable will gray out if they make it transferable, copyable will gray out
Dana: So after you give a full perms object, it automatically becomes either no copy or no transfer if they give it to someone else - wouldn't that be difficult to do?
Sylva Petrov: Linden labs collects millions of dollars from us a month to do difficult things that's what they're paid to do. According to a programmer, it shouldn't be 'that' difficult

There is a JIRA on this very subject where many have voiced their opinions, it is as yet unassigned (surprise surprise)
Lets help those that make our lives better by supporting the content creators and helping them to protect their products from thieves and ignorance by voting on this HERE
And to Linden Lab?
Actually I can't say I am surprised this is ignored by Linden Lab, many will say its not a priority but I would argue that those same people would soon regret it if the content providers stopped selling full perms for the builders.
I love my AO and my amazing scripted furniture - don't you?

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Cartoon of the day

By Bixyl Shuftan
Click for full size

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Aspen, Colorado or reflections plaza, second life?

With the waves breaking upon the shore, we came across some beach chalets. Now there is somewhere I would like to live, a few feet away from the ocean. To be able to wake (rezz?) to the sounds of the sea is my idea of paradise.
We climbed the hill behind the chalets and were immediately surrounded by a beautiful grassy area populated with further rental housing, all with a magnificent view over the sea.

Read on in the EXPLORE section

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WARNING! Transfer security exploit

Last night we were tipped about a major security issue for all content creators in Secondlife.
I managed to create a copy of a non transfer item and give it to James. Once given the original permissions are reverted.
Anonymous: I was given information that results in any NO TRANSFER object now being turned into a TRANSFERABLE object. My friend was give 2 items which when in inventory are full permissions and can be given out
Our source then walked us through the simple process.
We will not tell you how it is done, or who showed us, but this is a major issue for all creators in SL.
JamesT Juno: we took a horse we had ourselves and made a copy we could sell or give away
JamesT Juno: we tried it too
JamesT Juno: we COULD reproduced it very easily

This has been reported to security@lindenlab.com and we hope they will act quickly to protect the already harassed content creators.

Hello, and thank you for your report to the Second Life security team.
This list is for reporting security issues that might compromise residents or the Second Life Grid.

We hope they do move fast before more find this method out and content creators lose more.

We will keep you updated on any replies from Linden Lab.

JamesT Juno
Dana Vanmoer
Click images to see full size

UPDATE:
Thank you for reporting this issue. I have created a security
ticket on your behalf (SEC-***) with the details that you provided.
We have been able to confirm what you reported and will be
escalating this to our development team who will ultimately deal
with the issue.

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Congratulations Edo and Saffire

Married last night in a ceremony at Avilion Grove
followed by a reception at Frank's dance and jazz club
Congratulations from sl-newspaper.com

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The Greatest Love hunt starts TODAY!

The greatest love hunt is approximately 200 designers coming together to give you samples of what they make - JOIN IN TODAY!
You can find a group joiner outside my main store HERE plus a poster with the starting landmarks outside

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No Limits 3

Read on in the PEOPLE section

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TAKE A BREAK IN SECOND LIFE

Have you ever fancied a day out? I mean a REAL day out. Maybe get a few friends together and have some fun? Of course you have. Being with friends for a while at the weekend makes a hard-working week worthwhile.

Kim Trefusis takes us a tour in the EXPLORE section

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Cartoon of the day

By Bixyl Shuftan
Click for full size image

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sl-newspaper photo contest

Click HERE to teleport to our Head office now

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Fortunate by Merit

There is a place where you can practice spirituality on your own terms in sl. It is a place where you can find someone to discuss questions of faith anytime you wish.

Find out more in the EXPLORE section with Gemma Cleanslate

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No Limits!

Where did we end up this time? Click the image to find out

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Robin Linden steps down

"To all my Second Life friends,

After nearly seven years, I’ve decided to step down from my role at Linden Lab on February 15. I’m planning to take some time to explore a few different avenues as I decide where, when and what the next chapter of my life will entail.

Watching the growth of Second Life from the early beginnings in Lindenworld to the unbelievably diverse, creative, vibrant community that exists today has been the highlight of my career. The people who built the world of Second Life are fantastic pioneers and I’m so proud to have been part of the genesis of this amazing experience.

I’ll be in Second Life as Robin Linden for the next two weeks, and after that as my alt, Taliesin Protagonist.

See you in-world and in the forums!"

Just a quick glance at the forums tells it own tale, Robin Linden will be sorely missed as the speaker for the residents and the connection she had with many. So ends another era and I can't say it any better than Troy McLuhan:

And so, over time, the old leaders set sail for new shores, and the Fourth Age of the world began...
Few can remember them now, the Linden Town Hall meetings at the corners of four sims, open to every resident of the land. Such tales seem tall now...
But like the wand of Starax or the CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + H hippos, they faded from memory and became the yarns of legend...

Robin Harper joined Linden Lab as their SVP (Senior Vice President) of Marketing and Business Development early in 2002, later moving to SVP of Community when they hired David Fleck. Some of her initiatives include the "Hotline" forum, later renamed to "Second Life Answers", and the regularly-scheduled community meetings.

Sources: Official Secondlife blog, Wikipedia

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Burning Ember - THE PODIUM

He hated public speaking, even here, in SL.

He was late, making last minute edits to the speech. He had decided to rez directly onto the stage. Bad idea…he froze. Paralyzed from the waist up, he felt his avatar’s knees weaken and legs soften like overcooked rotini soaking in a bowl of rich creamy Alfredo sauce. Each passing nanosecond ticked by tortuously, washing him with unrelenting waves of disorientation; he knew he was either totally and completely disconnected from reality – or irretrievably immersed in it, losing all sense of time, space and memory. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t think..........

Continued in EXTRA EXTRA
Welcome back FoxM

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