crushed and filled with all I found

There's a new horror game from the creators of Slender called "Where Am I"; I lasted two minutes, but I creep out easily these days.

(from the events album)

I found a copy of the first ever Welcome Area, which was first seen on the Natoma sim, in Wonderous.

(from the events album)

The "Newbie Corral" sign amused me greatly.

(from the events album)

Miss? This is PG-rated land.

(from the events album)

Ah, well. I suppose she's mostly covered.

Then Wonderous lagged into the dust, and I lost connection. More later.

following the stream up north

Meandering for a bit, taking ports as they came in from friends, I ended up on the Beguile Sim, where there's what looks like--from the outside--a quarter-dome painted black. Once inside, though, it's a fully shielded full black dome on all sides, with a rotating, reconfiguring primset floating overhead.

(from the events album)

This was the first sight that greeted me.

(from the events album)

And then...

(from the events album)

And then...

(from the events album)

And then...

(from the events album)

And then...

(from the events album)

And then...

(from the events album)

The above art configurations are all from from Solkide Auer's build in Beguile; do check it out if you have the time to just sit and watch the magnificence rez in. It's very peaceful under the dome.

(from the events album)

Loki Eliot's cel-shaded dinosaur on Wonderous. The exhibit requires a HUD and some commitment to the experience, and being as I currently live in the land of Short Attention Span Theatre, I'm hoping I'll remember to go before SL10 ends!

breakin' our backs on breakin' down stones

So...blogging kills, now?

Also, random wandering about that site turned up Taiwan's Weather Girls (article from 2011), followed by their space-suited update. I am baffled.

Why are LEGO faces getting angrier?

NASA probes manage to catch a full rotation of Mercury; finally, we know what it looks like.

On Venus, it snows metal, and there's now scale mail for guinea pigs. Some point between the two of them explains things, but I'm not sure how.

(from the events album)

Meanwhile, ventured into SL10, starting with Toroidal Human Anatomy. There's a free male and female 'torus' avatar available by buying the lower part of the block prim, but it's a pretty neat exhibit either way.

(from the events album)

Wander over to Frankx Lefavre's Chrysalis exhibit while you're in the vicinity--it's the one with the butterflies right nextdoor. Use the ramp to get up to the middle platform, and pick one of the butterfly-patterned rings to sit on. Depending on where you choose to sit, you'll get a great view of Astound, the sim it's on.

you fight and you fuse, oh, you're a wild little bruise

Honestly, I think I just need to make a 'linkspam' category, and have done with it.

But here goes another round of wandering the net.

Photographer Jon Crispin has been taking photographs in a storage room of a former insane asylum. Why? Because in that storage room were discovered suitcases--four hundred in all. The room was discovered in 1995, and it's taken this long for Crispin to gain access to the room and its contents.

Can computer memory get faster and more stable? Two scientists--corresponding between Berkeley and Singapore--think so. And it's based on the science behind solar panels, and bismuth ferrite. Nanoferric technology seems to be finally coming into its own.

So, there's been this huge controversy brewing inside the SFWA Bulletin. I'm linking Seanan McGuire's commentary first, because she outlines the controversy very well, but I'd also recommend (as she did), reading some of Jim Hines' collected posts--none of which are anonymous, which is the main point Malzberg and Resnick seem to be fixated upon.

There's tons of really good commentary abounding--these are all authors or scriptwriters, keep in mind--but if you want another really good, really basic overview of the situation, writer Ursula Vernon tries to define the current controversy and decides if it's akin to an abusive relationship, or trying to housebreak a puppy.

(Also, see what I did there, Malzberg and Resnick? "Author" Ursula Vernon. Not "lady author" Ursula Vernon. See how easy that was?)

Also, if you scroll down to the bottom of this edition of Radish Reviews' 'Linkspam' post (one of many reasons I should just give up and adopt the term), you'll find actual pictured and scanned copies of the direct print-out to what Malzberg and Resnick said. Which is an interesting technique for later "but that's not what I said!" bleating.

Also, while this is really, really, really long, I recommend it for reading, and possibly bookmarking to read again later. It's the best essay on why real women hate fictional women, and why that leads to hating other real women, that I've ever read.

Not that anyone particularly needs it after that, but just in case you wandered off and read everything and did get mad--which is perfectly justifiable--here's a short list of calming websites. You're welcome.

I really dislike the writers (of more than this article) calling the stone carvings on the Washington National Cathedral "gargoyles". Put plainly, most of them are grotesques. What's the difference? Gargoyles are carved to carry water from the roof. Grotesques are just sculptures on the edges. But the fact that more and more stonecarvers are electing to carve representations of modern life--that, I think is pretty neat. And it will be just as baffling four hundred years from now, when those carvings likely need renovation.

Always puzzle your descendants. It keeps them on their toes.

never tasted as sweet a poison as you have

(from the mesh album; Meshworx' amazing grand chandelier)

Seen at Warm Animations, this truly stunning chandelier. It's from Meshworx, and the entire thing is only forty-five prims (impact; physical prims, five). Impressive and finely detailed.

Beyond the many things most gamers find wrong with Ms. Sarkeesian, why does it always come back to her Kickstarter funding? I understand that objection least of all.

Talk about your train wreck tracks...

And I don't know if I'm the only one who follows happenings in the Slenderverse--I know I'm the only one among my friends, so I tend to assume that no one else does, either. How'ver, artist Expression on deviantArt has come up with a set of mini-comics laying out the major features of the various vlogs.

• Part 1: Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID, and TribeTwelve
• Part 2: MLAndersen0, DarkHarvest00, and Seeking Truth/the Mystic
• Part 3: CaughtNotSleeping, Tulpa Effect, and Osiris Chronicles
• Part 4: TJAProjects, 5ze02, and 004Steps
• Part 5: The Angel's Game, MyDarkJournal, and the Outside Agents
• Part 6: The Dead Are Watching, His Collector/APCollection, and Apple of Our Eye
• Part 7: SAParanormal Hunters, the Undecided Five, and One Bad Dream
• Part 8: Afraid at Home, Future Refused 2 Change, and Coyote is Awesome (along with an extension, part 8.5, featuring Paranormal Investigation, and part 8.6, featuring Sword and Legend)
• And the last one (at least so far): PewDiePie.

She's also releasing some of her art in wearable form, so here's the Spreadshirt link for the CreepyPasta shirt, the Come to the Woods shirt, and the Fetch shirt.

If anyone's desperately in need of Shakespearean insults, this is apparently where you want to go.

Meanwhile, China's having odd foam-related problems; me, I'm wondering what they're using on the roads to create foam that swells up and covers city streets.

Interested in cultivating a bonsai tree? Try virtually first. That actually seems like a good way to test out the hobby, without all the expense.

"Worming" is apparently the new Japanese craze, and I just don't get it. I've had my eyeballs licked, and it does nothing for me. (Though, to be fair, it has never happened intentionally. Still, even intentionally, I don't think it would be my thing.)

Aaron Goodwin explains Big Steppin', Ninjavitis reviews the Agent Coulson action figure from Hot Toys, and if you watch television, here's the grand master, everything-included, list of shows that were canceled and then renewed.

bleed for a sinner; I just need a few pennies more

Insidious is getting a sequel! Though I'm not sure what that means in terms of the deaths from the original...

(from the haunts album; one of the command stations on the Doomed ship's interior)

Continuing from a couple days ago, we were covering the rules for Doomed...

4. We do ask that visitors at least attempt to look in-theme so as not to detract from the experience of others. There is a free set of uniforms near the entrance teleporter. All Doomed Ship avatars are designed around realistically sized human shapes and will require editing if you prefer to use a larger shape.

(from the haunts album; the main embarkation point for the Doomed ship)

For me, this is the big one, and it's seemingly the biggest one for people missing the point, too. "Realistically sized human" means "human". Or, "alien with a believable explanation as to why they're non-human, while still appearing humanoid/human". Acceptable reasons could include:

• escaped experiment from one of the science labs
• interdimensional entity who means harm
• twining lab plant which has achieved sentience
• reanimated person/animal/mineral/specimen with an agenda

(from the haunts album; alien infestation along a lower corridor)

Choosing your own adventure is the heart of all RP, but make sure that your vision doesn't destroy or diminish the vision inherent in the surroundings. On the Doomed ship, everyone's human; the (very) few who aren't (aliens, travelers, demonic entities) are generally corrupt and evil, through and through. And it's fine to be corrupt and evil, as long as you understand the dividing line. There are no "good" demons, though there can be "bad" humans, but above all else, there are no furs without a reasonable explanation.

Let's play the matching game again.


On the one side, Isaac Clarke from Dead Space 2; on the other, a random anime babe in shiny pink with some sort of unreasonably cute alien pet. See the difference?

Or let's talk about Ulrich K's various sf/fantasy pinups. On the left, his "Alien Hunter". On the right, his "Astronaut Girl". Which one fits the Doomed ship more? Big hint: it's not the lady in the bubble-helmet.

5. Limit scripted attachments where possible. Avoid attachments that cause excessive lag.

In other words, don't wear your resize-scripted, 100% particle-spewing, realistic-movement fur coat with your 217-prim hair, your 98-prim animated tail, and your intricately designed blinged-out beltbuckle that can be seen from Mars to the Doomed ship. You'll make several people--including the owners and anyone who gets near the perfect storm of lag you'll be creating--unhappy.

6. Limit use of over-sized avatars to large, open areas of the ship. Remove if asked.

Note: "large, open areas" does not mean "mess hall" or central gathering area. It means that if you're twelve feet tall, and want to play on Doomed, you'll either have to track down an avatar that's more realistically proportioned, or confine yourself to the docking bay, period. And since there are freebie skins and uniforms available on beaming in to Doomed, there's literally no excuse for tromping around, too tall for the ship.

7. Work and residential areas outside the role-play area are not public.

And not that that one really needs more explanation, but I'll make it simple: if you have to fly up to get there, or cam in from the outside to get there, it's likely not a place you're supposed to be. Don't go there.

Now I'm curious, so I'm going to be hopping about some over the next few weeks, seeing if I can get rules lists for other RP sims, and see if their rules make as much sense as the Doomed ship rules do.

let me spin you a yarn for a cent

Ken Lowery offered a suggestion on Twitter some few days back: "Take a real blues song title, with the world 'blues' in it, and replace 'blues' with 'feels'." What happens when you do that? This.

So, as happens some days, my attention drifts back to Doomed...I think mainly because I know people who play there, and there seems to be this nigh-constant battle between the RP the creators want, and the RP SL avatars give them.

Today, I want to go over the basic rules for the sim.

F(from the haunts album; interior corridor of the Doomed Ship)

Welcome to Doomed Ship, one of SL's largest and most immersive sci-fi/horror environments.

What is Doomed Ship? On one hand it is a role-play environment where players can immerse themselves in a space rescue/salvage mission gone horribly wrong. On the other hand, you can think of it as a haunted house in space, where visitors are free to wander the dark corridors, with friends or alone, exploring SL's most interactive environment, avoiding the dangers, and discovering the secrets of the NCS Persephone.

Now that it's been rebuilt, there are more hidden levels than ever. And you're free to wander the ship solely as an observer, just to experience the Persephone; but the owners of Doomed do ask that if you want to participate in the roleplay, that you accept the few rules that exist for the ship.

Namely...

(from the haunts album; Doomed Ship's...resident??...raver kitten)

The Rules:

1. Do NOT disrupt the role-play of others.

This, to me, would seem self-explanatory, but apparently some people miss it. For example, some people insist on showing up as petite kittens garbed in a modern logo t-shirt and a denim mini instead of, say, something that actually makes sense on the ship. Why do these people play on Doomed? No one knows.

2. There are scattered adult elements but this is not an adult sim. If you are looking for sex-focused RP I recommend Necronom VI.

Now, this is somewhat new--as in, only in the last six to eight months or so. Prior to that, the owners of the sim had Adult playtoys scattered about the sim, but the owners saw a distinct diminishing of ongoing storylines in the RP, and fewer steady players. Any RP sim wants steady players, as well as an influx of interesting new ones, but without that, sims get pretty desolate.

Play on Doomed gets dark, frequently, gets frightening frequently--it is, after all, a survival horror sim--but as the owners sat down and evaluated what they wanted the sim to be, they decided that keeping the dark and horrific aspects were fine, they'd just eliminate the sex. (And to be fair, most people weren't treating Doomed as a gang orgy sim, anyway.)

(from the haunts album; the child of darkness at play atop the dome above Doomed)

3. No child avatars in inappropriate situations as per the SL TOS.

What determines a child avatar, anyway? Because I'd as soon toss out the raver kitten as inappropriate, than this particular child, as long as she stays in non-Adult zones...but still, I'd have reservations about her attire.

Some side by side shots for comparison.

--=APPROPRIATE=--	--=INAPPROPRIATE=--

Seems fairly self-explanatory, right? Let me see if I can find more.


Seems to work.


See what I mean? Their point isn't that you can't RP a child on the Doomed ship, but come up with a good reason why a child would be on the Doomed ship. Like...a generation ship drifted into the Persephone's path, limping along on one engine, and the crew frantically scrambled aboard via [something scientific sounding]. Ergo, children on Doomed.

Or an entity was drawn to the distress beacon (alien origin)/an entity came through the portal (demonic origin), and proceeds to wreak havoc on the ship. Thus, children on Doomed.

Pick your poison; with a little bit of creativity, it can work in your favor, but you have to commit to the position. The position, in this case, being no happy, bouncy, lithping kids poking lollipops into the faces of the corpses in the halls; there has to be a solid reason for a child to be on Doomed, and it has to be a specific kind of child.

And you can't do anything not authorized by the Lindens; so no children in zones with Adult toys, and no children ageplaying with adults in sexual ways. Keep that in mind, and you'll be fine (and the owners of Doomed will breathe a great sigh of relief, too).

I think this one's getting long, so I'll do more with it later. Look for part II soon!

you're an urge that can never be cured

It's that time again: too many tabs open with things I wanted to share. So here goes, in no particular order.

Michael Zoellner spent an evening tracing--by hand--the PSR B1919+21 waveforms from the cover of a Joy Division album, then 3D-printed them. That's all kinds of cool.

Anyone besides me like to go camping? BuzzFeed posted a semi-brilliant list of camping hacks, some of which I'd never heard of before.

(Oh, and there's a real easy dodge that entry didn't think of--one can also buy two one-person sleeping bags, and zip them together for a two-person bag. If both of them are rectangular, and not the 'mummy' style, it works like a dream.)

For other hacks, wander over to LifeHacker for a brief history of mechanical keyboards, and why you want one. I know I want one, because at less than six months in on the new comp, I've already typed off the L, the >, and the ? from the keyboard I'm using.

If you make machinima, or just need background music for a project, do consider Incompetech. Everything Mr. MacLeod releases is royalty-free; he only asks that you credit him back for any project usage. He also recommends AudioMicro.com, as another excellent resource for royalty-free music. (Both sites offer low prices for commercial use, no prices for personal use, and exist solely to help folks out. I do like to encourage this, as it makes everyone happy in the end.

An avatar known as Brilliant Scientist (great name!) refitted Maestro Linden's linkset script, with some assistance from Ann O'Toole, and launched it on the wiki. If you need one of those, try that one--it creates far less lag than its predecessor.

Toska - noun /ˈtō-skə/ - Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.

No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.
Vladimir Nabokov, cited in A Field Guide to Melancholy by Jacky Bowring

Some days, everything has tentacles.

There's a bit of controversy raging around the Hawkeye Initiative currently. Blogger Natalie Reed explains it further. I get what everyone's saying, but I also think that several of these women are missing the point of both the Hawkeye Initiative, and the Escher Girls blog in the first place.

(Though I'd also single out this post, because it makes a damned good point.)

Also, at least according to one Jewish paper, women didn't exist during the Holocaust. This is a nigh-perfect case of good motivation leading to bad outcome. We know why they're trying to erase women from these photographs; but many of us are not comfortable with that conclusion. In addition, it's too closely kin to censorship, so it's disturbing on that level as well.

Moving in another direction entirely, go peruse the Rag & Bone blog. Much tasty literary eye candy--and paper-based art--there.

Finally, if you're like me, you have far more anti-skills than you have skills. But even if you're not, it's good to read through, because that article provides an excellent working understanding of the difference between life skills/coping skills and anti-skills. (Just an FYI: anti-skills are the bad ones. Anti-skills are the ones we have that are habitually responsible for holding us back, keeping us trapped, and keeping us wary and fearful. It's not easy to ditch them, either, but accepting that we have them is a great first step.)

let me open my teeth and cradle you there

RL Dolcett, anyone? Ergh.

Back on the 3rd, I spoke on a viewer controversy that's been brewing for some time. Earlier (as in, I past-dated it so it could be boring back in January), I linked Kirsten's initial EULA and credits in full. This had to be agreed to before I even downloaded the viewer. The CoolVL viewer was just a simple install, nothing overly complicated about it.

Then I opened each viewer in turn, on the grid.

(from the bizarre album)

The first thing "Blackbird" told me was that my outfit didn't exist. Which was strange to me, as I could clearly see my outfit, and it was the same one I'd been wearing the last time I logged in with Singularity. Odd.

Then I went looking for the 'About' tab. It's not under Help, first of all; it's under the 'S19' tab itself:

(from the bizarre album)

Henri is correct, no specific authors are listed other than KirstenLee Cinquetti under this tab.

(from the bizarre album)

How'ver, under the 'Licenses & Copyrights' tab, there's this. Which looks fairly official with all bases covered, to me. Unless Henri is claiming that he, himself, coded his viewer entirely by hand, with no help from any other code source, what Kirsten seems to have done is credit the original (hence, first) coder for purposes of licensing--then left off anyone else who might have had a hand in redoing the code, either in sections or in whole.

There's a further point at the bottom of that tab, to see "licenses.txt" for more information, but I can't seem to find that anywhere within the program files.

I had no warning that this viewer was infested with malware, adware or a virus, but I don't use the same program Henri uses to detect those sorts of things.

I then popped open the latest CoolVL build. I got a EULA agreement there, too:

(from the bizarre album)

Simple, fairly succinct, and to the point. Also, no virus warning either when I installed it, or when I ran it (not that I expected to see one).

(from the bizarre album)

Then I went looking for the 'About' feature for CoolVL. I begin to see his point, because whereas the Kirsten viewer just credits KirstenLee Cinquetti for everything, Henri Beauchamp credits anyone who might have stared at the code for five minutes:

The Cool VL Viewer is brought to you and maintained by Henri Beauchamp.

Special credits:

The Cool VL Viewer MacOS-X builds are courtesy of Hyang Zhao (v1.25 and former), Guru Coyote (v1.26.0 to v1.26.4) and Kathrine Jansma (v1.26.4 and later).
The Cool VL Viewer logo (Burning Ice) is courtesy of Amari Kanto.

Coders:

99% of the code in this viewer was written by Lindens (Philip, Tessa, Andrew, Cory, James, Ben, Char, Charlie, Colin, Dan, Daniel, Doug, Eric, Hamlet, Haney, Eve, Hunter, Ian, Jeff, Jennifer, Jim, John, Lee, Mark, Peter, Phoenix, Richard, Robin, Xenon, Steve, Tanya, Eddie, Avi, Frank, Bruce, Aaron, Alice, Bob, Debra, Eileen, Helen, Janet, Louie, Leviathania, Stefan, Ray, Kevin, Tom, Mikeb, MikeT, Burgess, Elena, Tracy, Bill, Todd, Ryan, Zach, Sarah, Nova, Tim, Stephanie, Michael, Evan, Nicolas, Catherine, Rachelle, Dave, Holly, Bub, Kelly, Magellan, Ramzi, Don, Sabin, Jill, Rheya, Jeska, Torley, Kona, Callum, Charity, Ventrella, Jack, Vektor, Iris, Chris, Nicole, Mick, Reuben, Blue, Babbage, Yedwab, Deana, Lauren, Brent, Pathfinder, Chadrick, Altruima, Jesse, Teeny, Monroe, Icculus, David, Tess, Lizzie, Patsy, Isaac, Lawrence, Cyn, Bo, Gia, Annette, Marius, Tbone, Jonathan, Karen, Ginsu, Satoko, Yuko, Makiko, Thomas, Harry, Seth, Alexei, Brian, Guy, Runitai, Ethan, Data, Cornelius, Kenny, Swiss, Zero, Natria, Wendy, Stephen, Teeple, Thumper, Lucy, Dee, Mia, Liana, Warren, Branka, Aura, beez, Milo, Hermia, Red, Thrax, Joe, Sally, Magenta, Mogura, Paul, Jose, Rejean, Henrik, Lexie, Amber, Logan, Xan, Nora, Morpheus, Donovan, Leyla, MichaelFrancis, Beast, Cube, Bucky, Joshua, Stryfe, Harmony, Teresa, Claudia, Walker, Glenn, Fritz, Fordak, June, Cleopetra, Jean, Ivy, Betsy, Roosevelt, Spike, Ken, Which, Tofu, Chiyo, Rob, Zee, dustin, George, Del, Matthew, Cat, Jacqui, Lightfoot, Adrian, Viola, Alfred, Noel, Irfan, Sunil, Yool, Rika, Jane, Xtreme, Frontier, a2, Neo, Siobhan, Yoz, Justin, Elle, Qarl, Benjamin, Isabel, Gulliver, Everett, Christopher, Izzy, Stephany, Garry, Sejong, Sean, Tobin, Iridium, Meta, Anthony, Jeremy, JP, Jake, Maurice, Madhavi, Leopard, Kyle, Joon, Kari, Bert, Belinda, Jon, Kristi, Bridie, Pramod, KJ, Socrates, Maria, Ivan, Aric, Yamasaki, Adreanne, Jay, MitchK, Ceren, Coco, Durl, Jenny, Periapse, Kartic, Storrs, Lotte, Sandy, Rohn, Colossus, Zen, BigPapi, Brad, Pastrami, Kurz, Mani, Neuro, Jaime, MJ, Rowan, Sgt, Elvis, Gecko, Samuel, Sardonyx, Leo, Bryan, Niko, Soft, Poppy, Rachel, Aki, Angelo, Banzai, Alexa, Sue, CeeLo, Bender, CG, Gillian, Pelle, Nick, Echo, Zara, Christine, Shamiran, Emma, Blake, Keiko, Plexus, Joppa, Sidewinder, Erica, Ashlei, Twilight, Kristen, Brett, Q, Enus, Simon, Bevis, Kraft, Kip, Chandler, Ron, LauraP, Ram, KyleJM, Scouse, Prospero, Melissa, Marty, Nat, Hamilton, Kend, Lordan, Jimmy, Kosmo, Seraph, Green, Ekim, Wiggo, JT, Rome, Doris, Miz, Benoc, Whump, Trinity, Patch, Kate, TJ, Bao, Joohwan, Christy, Sofia, Matias, Cogsworth, Johan, Oreh, Cheah, Angela, Brandy, Mango, Lan, Aleks, Gloria, Heidy, Mitchell, Space, Colton, Bambers, Einstein, Maggie, Malbers, Rose, Winnie, Stella, Milton, Rothman, Niall, Marin, Allison, Katie, Dawn, Katt, Dusty, Kalpana, Judy, Andrea, Ambroff, Infinity, Gail, Rico, Raymond, Yi, William, Christa, M, Teagan, Scout, Molly, Dante, Corr, Dynamike, Usi, Kaylee, Vidtuts, Lil, Danica, Sascha, Kelv, Jacob, Nya, Rodney, Brandon, Elsie, Blondin, Grant, Katrin, Nyx, Gabriel, Locklainn, Claire, Devin, Minerva, Monty, Austin, Bradford, Si, Keira, H, Caitlin, Dita, Makai, Jenn, Ann, Meredith, Clare, Joy, Praveen, Cody, Edmund, Ruthe, Sirena, Gayathri, Spider, FJ, Davidoff, Tian, Jennie, Louise, Oskar, Landon, Noelle, Jarv, Ingrid, Al, Sommer, Doc, Aria, Huin, Gray, Lili, Vir, DJ, Yang, T, Simone, Maestro, Scott, Charlene, Quixote, Amanda, Susan, Zed, Anne, Enkidu, Esbee, Joroan, Katelin, Roxie, Tay, Scarlet, Kevin, Johnny, Wolfgang, Andren, Bob, Howard, Merov, Rand, Ray, Michon, Newell, Galen, Dessie, Les, Michon, Jenelle, Geo, Siz, Shapiro, Pete, Calyle, Selene, Allen, Phoebe, Goldin, Kimmora, Dakota, Slaton, Lindquist, Zoey, Hari, Othello, Rohit, Sheldon, Petra, Viale, Gordon, Kaye, Pink, Ferny, Emerson, Davy, Bri, Chan, Juan, Robert, Terrence, Nathan, Carl and many others). The Snowglobe branch of the SL viewer includes source code contributions of the following residents: Able Whitman, Adam Marker, Admiral Admiral, Agathos Frascati, Aimee Trescothick, Alejandro Rosenthal, Aleric Inglewood, Alissa Sabre, Angus Boyd, Ann Congrejo, Archimedes Plutonian, Ardy Lay, Argent Stonecutter, Armin Weatherwax, Asuka Neely, Balp Allen, Be Holder, Benja Kepler, Biancaluce Robbiani, Blakar Ogre, blino Nakamura, Boroondas Gupte, Bulli Schumann, bushing Spatula, Carjay McGinnis, Catherine Pfeffer, Celierra Darling, Cron Stardust, Cypren Christenson, Dale Glass, Drewan Keats, Dylan Haskell, Dzonatas Sol, Eddy Stryker, EponymousDylan Ra, Eva Nowicka, Farallon Greyskin, Feep Larsson, Flemming Congrejo, Fluf Fredriksson, Fremont Cunningham, Geneko Nemeth, Gigs Taggart, Ginko Bayliss, Grazer Kline, Gudmund Shepherd, Hamncheese Omlet, HappySmurf Papp, Henri Beauchamp, Hikkoshi Sakai, Hiro Sommambulist, Hoze Menges, Ian Kas, Irene Muni, Iskar Ariantho, Jacek Antonelli, JB Kraft, Joghert LeSabre, Kage Pixel, Ken March, Kerutsen Sellery, Khyota Wulluf, Kitty Barnett, Kunnis Basiat, Latif Khalifa, Lisa Lowe, Lockhart Cordoso, maciek marksman, Magnus Balczo, Malwina Dollinger, march Korda, Matthew Dowd, McCabe Maxsted, Michelle2 Zenovka, Mm Alder, Mr Greggan, Nicholaz Beresford, Nounouch Hapmouche, Patric Mills, Paul Churchill, Paula Innis, Pixel Gausman, Peekay Semyorka, Peter Lameth, Pf Shan, princess niven, Renault Clio, resu Ampan, Ringo Tuxing, Robin Cornelius, Ryozu Kojima, Salahzar Stenvaag, Sammy Frederix, Scrippy Scofield, Seg Baphomet, Sergen Davies, Shawn Kaufmat, SignpostMarv Martin, Simon Nolan, SpacedOut Frye, Sporked Friis, Stevex Janus, Still Defiant, Strife Onizuka, Tayra Dagostino, TBBle Kurosawa, Teardrops Fall, Techwolf Lupindo, tenebrous pau, Tharax Ferraris, Thickbrick Sleaford, Thraxis Epsilon, tiamat bingyi, TraductoresAnonimos Alter, Tue Torok, Twisted Laws, Vadim Bigbear, Vector Hastings, Vex Streeter, Vixen Heron, Whoops Babii, Wilton Lundquist, Zarkonnen Decosta, Zi Ree, Zipherius Turas.

The remaining 1% of the code is what makes this viewer so much better and unique. This viewer includes code contributed by (in alphabetical order): Able Whitman, Aimee Trescothick, Aleric Inglewood, Alissa Sabre, Ardy Lay, Armin Weatherwax, Boroondas Gupte, Carjay McGinnis, Chalice Yao, Dale Glass, Elektra Hesse, Gigs Taggart, Guru Coyote, Hazim Gazov, Henri Beauchamp, Jacek Antonelli, JB Kraft, jcool410, Jonathan Yap, Kadah Coba, Kathrine Jansma, Khyota Wulluf, Kitty Barnett, Lance Corrimal, Latif Khalifa, Marine Kelley, McCabe Maxsted, Michelle2 Zenovka, Mm Alder, Moon Metty, Nicholaz Beresford, Nicky Dasmijn, Robin Cornelius, Satomi Ahn, Siana Gearz, Shyotl Kuhr, Sione Lomu, Techwolf Lupindo, Thickbrick Sleaford, Tom Meta, Vadim Bigbear, WhiteStar Magic, Zi Ree, Zwagoth Klaar and other, unknown authors.

I will say, that is a much more comprehensive list.

(from the bizarre album)

And the CoolVL 'Licenses & Copyrights' tab mimics the S19 viewer's list fairly exactly, which tells me that's just a standard legal block all viewers are supposed to list.

(from the bizarre album)

Then for some reason, I turned green. At least I go with the furniture? Still don't know why that happened (I didn't change eyes, outfit, hair, or skins while I was running these comparisons), but I took it as my cue to get off the grid.

Once off the grid, I searched through the CoolVL viewer files, and did track down the 'license.txt' file, with absolutely no difficulty. (The full text of that file can be read here.) And that has about the same amount of info that KirstenLee's EULA agreement had, only better organized.

So...and always keeping in mind I know next to nothing about viewer coding...I'd say, just in my opinion, that at least part of this is due to misunderstanding, on one or both sides. I'm fairly sure that Cinquetti thinks tossing in the copyright information into an installation agreement is the same as having it in the viewer; whether that's safe to say, I wouldn't be the one to ask. That there is more information, and more names, listed in Beauchamp's viewer is uncontested; but there's still one question remaining.

Does Cinquetti's saying "brought to life by KL" constitute claiming sole ownership of the viewer and its attached code? I ask that because of this, from Beauchamp's full listing in the 'license.txt' file:

The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim
that you wrote the original software.

Kirsten says, there was never a claim of sole ownership. Henri says, there IS a claim of sole ownership, by virtue of that single line under 'Authors & Credits'. So...who's right?

That, I think you'd have to ask an IP rights lawyer about, and I'm not one.

well, up and out and away with ye

Hi there. :)

It's been almost 6 years since I made my first dress. In fact, June 28th will be the exact date that I'd hit the six year mark. It's been a long, wonderful journey, this role as seamstress of what have been mostly formal and role play themed gowns in Second Life.

The time has come for a change, and the closing of this chapter of my life. I'll still be around, but I'll be focusing instead on my little jewelry shop.

Until June 28th, you can find all gowns at the main store on sale for only 75L each. After the 28th, the doors will close on Kouse's Sanctum in-world, permanently.

So if you have time, I hope you'll give me one last visit before the last pen stroke is made on this chapter, and maybe bring a friend. Enjoy the build, and maybe even enjoy one last moment on the log swing.

Thank you for six great years of Kouse's Sanctum. ♥ I'll always treasure the friends I've made along the way, my customers (which happen to be the loveliest bunch of ladies on the Grid), and the memories made.

-Kouse

(from the loss album)

I have always had a love for how Kouse Singh designs; notwithstanding the fact that most of my holiday gowns are made by her, most of my gowns, period, are either from her or from Evangeline Miles of Evie's Closet fame.

And already reeling from the death of Iain Banks, comes this news. So go while you can. Pick up the outfits you've wanted since whenever, wander the build, and mourn the passing of yet another beautiful, irreplaceable thing on the grid.

I am lonely wherever I go, sanctuary is all that I know

Digital painting is an art form all its own, if a more technical one than most. But there are aids for it, that can also work for painting in general. The artist behind the Ranarh account on deviantArt is trying to make digital portraiture a wee bit easier.

Tiny Tips: Keep an Eye Out
Tiny Tips: A Mouthful
Tiny Tips: Easy Braider
Tiny Tips: Blending In
Tiny Tips: The Five-Colour Trick
Tiny Tips: Wild Skin Colours
Tiny Tips: Skin Tutorial
Tiny Tips: Snuffles
Tiny Tips: It's a Material World
Tiny Tips: Keep It Low

She has others on painting backgrounds, waterfalls, rock formations--she's really a great one-stop resource for both budding and established digital artists.

Saint Lucas, anyone? Well, not so much, but some familiar faces from Star Wars drawn in religious icon form. Beautiful work.

Speaking of art, did I mention the Vochol Beetle? Commissioned by several art and museum groups, and crafted using over two million glass beads by Huichol artisans in Nayarit and Jalisco, Mexico, it's a stunning tribute to both art cars and the arts in Mexico.

Moving to games, Metal Gear 5 is planning on a sooner-rather-than-later release, and to that end, has released nearly six minutes of 'real gameplay' footage. I'll warn you now--it's actually painful for me to watch. Not due to gore--there isn't any--or horrific things happening, per se--it's just I've had lower-body injuries and I've done the pulling-myself-across-the-floor thing. It's not fun. This video makes it seem as grueling as it actually is, so...yay for realism?

And now fun new toys! Or at least, new disturbing ones. Which brings is to Japan and Sanrio, who's decided this year's best nightmare-fuel offering is the reversible Hello Kitty. What does she reverse into? A turkey, of course.

If you think you really need one in your life, they go for $28 on Sanrio's main site--where you can find other cuddly wonders like the octopus sausage, Hello Kitty with a suntan, and Hello Kitty's severed head on a string. Enjoy?

Next up, science--the MindWalker's been launched, subject to review by the European Commission. It actually utilizes an EEG cap that measures electrical activity across the scalp to control the exoskeleton. This could be big.

Also, Dmitry Itskov wants everyone to live in virtual reality. No, really, that's his goal:

Mr. Itskov says he will invest at least part of his fortune in such ventures, but his primary goal with 2045 is not to become richer. In fact, the more you know about Mr. Itskov, the less he seems like a businessman and the more he seems like the world’s most ambitious utopian. He maintains that his avatars would not just end world hunger — because a machine needs maintenance but not food — but that they would also usher in a more peaceful and spiritual age, when people could stop worrying about the petty anxieties of day-to-day living.

"We need to show that we’re actually here to save lives," he said. "To help the disabled, to cure diseases, to create technology that will allow us in the future to answer some existential questions. Like what is the brain, what is life, what is consciousness and, finally, what is the universe?"

Grand dreams, indeed. By 2045, we'll see if they're dreams that can come true, too.

Speaking of robotic aids, someone else has an idea. And it was an idea gained through watching Chobits. Danny Choo is currently in the process of designing a Smart+Doll, based on his Mirai Suenaga mascot character, that he's hoping will be fully interactive.

Whatever that's going to end up meaning for Japan.

And finally, if anyone's been watching ABC's "Once Upon a Time" series, there's going to be a spin-off...sort of. Titled "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, it will tell the tale of Alice's journey down the rabbit-hole, but--as we might expect from the changes wrought on "Once Upon a Time", ever so slightly altered from the stories we know.

I'm still willing to give it a solid viewing, because I'm enjoying the first show so much. We'll see how it goes.

the filthy streets and the calloused feet and bloodshot Irish eyes

[21:47] MystiTool HUD 2.0.2: Entering chat range: Daenerysss (16m)

But of course you are. Because "Daenerys" and "Daeneryss" were already taken. *facepalms*

[21:37] Jxxxxxxx Mxxxx: EM's needed in [sim name redacted] for Griefing ...Avatars are coming and going who are wearing griefing items. Please and Thank you.
[21:38] Mxxx Mxxxxxxx: I'm here, who are they
[21:39] Jxxxxxxx Mxxxx: [redacted]
[21:39] Mxxx Mxxxxxxx: not showing on radar
[21:40] Emilly Orr: Wearing griefing items? That's new.
[21:41] Gxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxx: it's the new fad to say they never rezzed anything someone could get a name to AR

So, this is something I hadn't heard about before. Confirmed with an EM from another estate, btw--this seems to be the new thing. Not only because they can claim they didn't rez anything out on the sim, but because this makes even sims that disallow rezzing things vulnerable. While most rez-on-movement attachments (things like flower bursts, Mystitool rezzers, or pawprints for the most part) will be defeated in no-rez sims, something about these specific attachments allow them to spew everything from particles to actual prims at random. I'm hoping whatever makes these work is tracked down in the code soon, and fixed.

In the meantime, a friend passed along a tip on a new L$1 outfit at LC's World of Fashion:

(from the fashion album; this outfit is named "Mooz". Yes, really.)

Err...no. Come on now. That is not an outfit. That is rolling out of bed the morning after in the same clothes and being too hungover to change. Seriously? I mean, at this point, why bother wearing jeans?!

But wait, there's more. This is the "Sissy" outfit on the sale wall:

(from the fashion album; this one's called "Sissy", and nope, that's not a fabric tear, that's a deliberate modification.)

This one's going for L$55, and near as I can tell (from staring at it), the waistband was made to wear that way. This is not a case of jeans slipping off one's frame, oh no--this is a pair of jeans that are sitting (somewhat) comfortably around the lower hips, which then...for inexplicable reasons known only to the designer...are cut and hemmed to allow that triangular section of hip and belly to be revealed.

Why would you want these, again?

I think the same shop, but in a different location, is also offering a freebie "mini dress":

(from the fashion album, and the cocktail-length half-dress is revealed.)

I...do not understand. From the notecard sent to me: "If you're on your way to a ball, candle-light-dinner or a romantic evening, you will find your perfect fitting dress." Uh...lady, I think your idea of "perfect fitting" and my idea of perfect-fitting are radically different ideas.

At any rate, these are all L$1 outfits, or free, and there's a lot of other under-L$99 sale offers in both stores, so...yay? If you like clothes designed to fall off your hips, at least.

baptised in the water, you're draining the well

First Nathan Fillion stole Zelda, then he stole Wil Wheaton's wife, Ann, then this happened, and the whole thing ended here.

It's not the first time Wheaton's been a meme, but it's the first one that dragged in guest appearances.

Twilight's been named the worst movie ever, which I think is slightly over the top--I mean, it's bad, don't get me wrong, but there are worse films out there. Like these, for instance. Or these. Or these. Or this list, which contains some even I haven't heard of.

I guess the main point is there's a lot of bad movies out there. Good for Rifftrax; bad for us.

CBS finally gets back to the Star Trek fan community in SL; their response is oddly reasonable. They have no objection to folks making items for their own, personal use; they simply object to those items (created with copyrighted material from Star Trek, by means of logos, insignia, uniforms, and prop items) for sale commercially. While that's a blow to the community--there are folks who make their living on mining IP for tasty financial gain--it's not as large a blow as everyone seemed to expect.

Love Portal? Have the freedom to paint your walls? How about a Portal-themed bedroom? At the very least, that provides a great leap-off point for decorating projects of your own.

[20:05] Axx Sxxxxxx: all the lindens in this chat be big fat faggits.
[20:05] Axx Sxxxxxx: i dont care.
[20:06] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx wonders wtf brought that outburst of rude on
[20:06] Axx Sxxxxxx: wonders wtf is has too do with you
[20:06] Axx Sxxxxxx: fagmatron

I do believe that's one of the strangest insults I've ever heard. What, exactly, is a "fagmatron"? The Urban Dictionary definition doesn't exactly help:

Being a real fag (no homo)

Uh...I don't get it. How can you simultaneously call someone gay but say you're not calling them gay? I don't understand.

Though oddly relevant to that...Viewer controversy? Viewer controversy. And while that's an upsetting turn of events--mainly, because I find it bizarre that Ms. Kirsten would pull something this underhanded--that's not what I want to discuss.

Quoting this bit from the CoolVL forums detailing this event:

I of course tried to contact Kirsten for explanations, but if you visit his BLOG, you will find no email or any way to contact him: I did let a comment on the BLOG entry for S19, but it was never published. I also IMed him in SL (and I know, thanks to a script, that he did connect after I sent him those IMs, so he certainly got them), and again, never got any reply during the past two weeks.

"His"? KirstenLee didn't give the gender away, Henri? But, annoyingly, he didn't stop there. "Tillie" is the first responder to his post:

I am not sure if this is really a post by Kirsten... didn't she announce to no more work on the client? If she came back to work, wouldn't she release some statement like that, not just "this is S19!"? Looks weird, somehow.

Henri responds:

This is his(1) blog, no doubt on that, and the code repository does contain all the other S* releases (that were not Cool VL Viewer clones).

     (1) the person behind the "KistrenLee Cinquetti" avatar is a male.

And my response is...why does this matter?

Seriously, people. Second Life's nearly ten years old. Ten years of gender fluidity, exploration, avatar inspiration, and virtual life. Why is this not simple for people? If they're female in world, they're female. If they're male in world, they're male. If they're neither, keep the pronouns gender-neutral.

If they TELL you otherwise, then you can react otherwise, but seriously--if they don't make a point of it, IN WORLD, then lay the hell off the gender, okay? That's called outing, it's rude, and whether you're the injured party or not, it just makes you sound like a clueless bully.

Notwithstanding the fact that, unless you--the person behind the screen--have an interest in moving in with/sleeping with/partnering with in RL the person behind their screen...it's none of your business in the first place. Be more tolerant, for the love of all gods, or if you can't do that, then shut the hell up. You're not helping anyone by making someone's "real" gender known; all you'll end up doing is hurting them, angering them, or depressing them. Nobody wins with tactics that underhanded.

Finally...SL is celebrating ten years of operation, later this month. To...erm...share? In the festivities? They're offering a bear. But not just any bear--this year, they're offering an avatar-sized rabid animal. Ready to tear out throats in a single swipe, it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's--*gurgle gurgle death*...

Okay, maybe it's not actually scripted to kill people, but...seriously. It just looks hostile.

(from the bizarre album)

Still think I'm kidding? That's just creepy.

raisin' up buildings, breakin' down bones

How cool would it be to make solar energy more accessible and easier to get? Synthetic nanoscientist Jillian Buriak is working on that very issue, making solar energy cells that are lightweight, portable, flexible, and easy to transport. Oh please please please put those on the market soon!

On the disturbing end of technology, Harvard has created the first (non-conscious) cyborg--or, at least, "cyborg flesh". Ergh. Mainly because, while that's cool, in a world where scientists have already created spidergoats and glow-in-the-dark mice, and programmers are trying to train computers to mimic the behavior of serial killers and megalomaniacs, I can easily see this getting out of hand. Technozombies, anyone?

In a similar vein, Google's about to make finding new things harder on the net. How? Well, they're making Google Maps "unique to you", which, I think, is Google vastly missing the point of what we want maps to do. I quote:

To succeed with advertisers, it needs to convince them that its view of us customers is accurate and that it can generate predictions about where we are likely to go (or, for that matter, what we are likely to click). The best way to do that is to actually turn us into highly predictable creatures by artificially limiting our choices. Another way is to nudge us to go to places frequented by other people like us—like our Google Plus friends. In short, Google prefers a world where we consistently go to three restaurants to a world where our choices are impossible to predict.

Me personally, I find this just as disturbing as in-world search for SL, where I get better results by typing in a general search term, and then scrolling to the very bottom of the list and moving up from there. I shouldn't have to do that, but to find new places, that's frequently my only option. Because the same three to five stores will pop up at the top of the list.

Now, Google tells me I'll be stymied in two directions--not only will searching for new places become harder, but, since I'm not on Google+, they won't be able to grab my unique searching algorithm to label me neatly for predictive analysis. Which will also mean they're planning to up their efforts to get me--to get everyone not on Google+ back into it again. Which is another very unfortunate thing.

Morozov makes a similar point in an article published a month previously, on the overuse of predictive algorithms in other businesses, like Netflix (who used their understanding of what people want to watch, when, paired with their user demographics, to introduce House of Cards and Hemlock Grove as original programming series) and Amazon (who has now used its demographic knowledge of what their users buy and how often to develop and market several independent publishing houses for new work). And what that says about us is disturbing as well--rather than use people to understand and adapt to new ways of interacting with the end users, they're simply using predictive software, and giving us more of what we already seem to like. Does that really give us what we want, though?

Or put another way, how do we know what those algorithms are feeding back is accurate information? Let's take the two men behind the Yogscast, for example. Both of them are well over the legal age of majority, and had, in fact, proved that when setting up the channel (because proof of age is required for international accounts much more stringently than domestic ones). Yet they received a termination email stating that, because they were under thirteen, they could not use YouTube.

Apparently the mix-up began when someone mentioned they were underage on Twitter. While that original tweet appears to be long gone, the reaction to it was quick and baffling: one of the Yogscast staffers sent out a nigh-immediate refutation (understandable, because neither of the main two behind Yogscast is underage), while in the same moments, YouTube deleted the BlueXephos account (still the main Yogscast account to date). It took a few days to completely resolve, and during that time, no one apologized, no one said it was a mistake, they'd look into it. It was all automated.

Sixteenth-century automatons, anyone? Well, no, it's more on arms and armor from that time frame, but seriously, some of those would make sixteenth-century automatons very, very easily.

Moving to space, astronomers have discovered cosmic bruises, where other universes have collided with--and injured--our own. Initial research notes four such "bruises" so far, which is fascinating. So far, the data does seem vastly inconclusive, but I'm definitely hoping more will be forthcoming.

Need more freezer space? Don't mind paying for used? Can pass a background check? Then you might be willing to bid on an extra morgue refrigerator that a coroner's office listed on eBay. Yay?

And have some SF and fantasy animated pixel art, from Waneela. While the animation is cool, I'm not so much thinking "ooh, what an innovative use of technology"; it's rather more closely aligned to "I could so cross-stitch one of those panels".

And Mozilla's Firefox is undergoing a major redesign to make it more 'user-accessible'. What does this mean? Simple: it will look and function more like Google Chrome.

I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Finally, disquieting news in the wake of Matt Smith's announcement he was leaving Doctor Who: Chris Eccleston finally comes clean--albeit extraordinarily vaguely--about why he left the show. Somehow, it manages to provide a disturbing grace note to the entire affair.

where under the smiles fair and pretty are teeth so very white

[22:43] PrincessLazyAss left the region.

I have no words.

For another gobsmacked-into-wordlessness concept, try this. Actually, no, I do have one word. And that word is whyyyyyyy.

The Brainpickings blog has tracked down Joss Whedon speaking the commencement address this year for Wesleyan College:

"What I'd like to say to all of you is that you are all going to die...You have, in fact, already begun to die. You look great. Don't get me wrong. And you are youth and beauty. You are at the physical peak. Your bodies have just gotten off the ski slope on the peak of growth, potential, and now comes the black diamond mogul run to the grave. And the weird thing is your body wants to die. On a cellular level, that's what it wants. And that's probably not what you want.

"I'm confronted by a great deal of grand and worthy ambition from this student body. You want to be a politician, a social worker. You want to be an artist. Your body's ambition: Mulch. Your body wants to make some babies and then go in the ground and fertilize things. That's it. And that seems like a bit of a contradiction. It doesn't seem fair. For one thing, we're telling you, 'Go out into the world!' exactly when your body is saying, 'Hey, let's bring it down a notch. Let's take it down.'

"And that's actually what I'd like to talk to you about. The contradiction between your body and your mind, between your mind and itself. I believe these contradictions and these tensions are the greatest gift that we have."

The entire speech is brilliant, but I, like Maria Popova, wanted to preserve this bit. Our aspirations are not ourselves. And that's okay. That makes it challenging. And challenges, as any creative type knows, make us think around our problems, adapt in new ways, and innovate. It's good to remember.

What else was I going to link today....Oh! That thing! That I missed. It was back in Aprille, but thankfully, there's a Tumblr devoted to reminding all of us that there is a Slow Art Day. But also, the first article on that site is of relevance, too--on the difficulty in museum curation now, as opposed to the past.

The reason this is becoming a difficulty is partly generational. Those before the age of massive advertising inculcation and iDevices ruling our lives think in different ways. The Slow Art Day site calls this the vertical/horizontal thinking split, but I don't think they're entirely accurate in that. Vertical thinking, as a term, simply means categorized thinking--logic over intuition, say, or analytical over creative. What they're trying to get across, I think, has less to do with analytical thinking versus imaginative thinking, and more to to with attention span in general.

The (several, now!) generations that were dosed with advertising growing up, that were given access to technology earlier and with greater ease than previous generations, we seem to be--at least, as a loosely defined set of groups--on average more cynical about motivations, more easily bored, and more likely to search for the next thing that goes bang than previous generations. We tend, as a loose class, to be more impatient with the world around us. And while these are not necessarily bad character traits to have, in art appreciation these can become a battleground all too easily. Between the curator and the viewer, that article states, there is now a wider gap than some curators are comfortable perceiving.

"If you go through the galleries in a museum now, more people are taking pictures than are actually looking."
--Sarah Suzuki

I really think that's part of the problem too--it's not just the shift in attention span, it also includes the adaptation to new technology. We see something we like, and most of us don't immediately think, "I'm going to look at this for a long time, and really ponder what it means to me". Instead, we point our iDevice's camera at whatever it is, tap a key and move on. We have, essentially, "saved" the experience, to be experienced later, when we have time.

Only for most of us, that time never comes, simply because there's so many experiences out there we're trying to condense. Add in the stress of employment itself and the struggle to maintain a social life, and we're now easily overwhelmed on top of everything.

I wonder if curation in Second Life suffers this same dilemma. Essentially, looking at art in Second Life means that we are no longer the ones taking the picture; we have, in a sense, become the picture. We are the image. And while many of us likely still do snap a pic and move on, I think some of us take that secondary space to reflect--at least a little--on what we're seeing. Because we exist in the same space as what we're seeing, essentially, in a way that even being in a museum may no longer give us (at least, in that sense of preservational experience).

There's an interesting article on Canada's Globe & Mail site that mentions the vibrative voice technique. The vibrator they're referring to, specifically, is the Siri, which is a pricy bit of sensual tech; how'ver, the reason why it's that one, specifically, is interesting. According to David Ley, the developer of the technique, not only does it relax the vocal cords better than vocal warm-up exercises, but, because that particular toy vibrates between 100 and 120 hertz (which is closely aligned to the vibration in human vocal cords), it enhances and strengthens that singer's vocal power overall.

He's also working on expanding his class series to include training physical therapists, who can then employ the technique on patients recovering from vocal cord damage, or surgery. I'm fascinated by where this concept is going to go from here.