we won't put our money where your Catholic mouth is

Today I received a message about a very old entry (clear back in 2012), with a very simple request: could I link the mention of mesothelioma to mesothelioma.net as a site? And yes, as evidenced by this entry and the correction on the 2012 entry, I can.

Pursuant to the levels of suspicion writ plain in that 2012 entry, I did read through the site fairly completely. It's not a charity site, it's more a clearinghouse for medical and treatment information, personal stories (like Virgil's, the fellow who wrote me), and links to charities and foundations. It seems pretty above-board, and has already taught me something--I thought the disease was restricted to asbestos miners and contractors, but Virgil worked in the car industry, where apparently asbestos fibers are used. So while it's still rare, there are more means of delivery, which are pretty dire.

In more local news, it seems Mondragon coffee grown in the high fields is not reaching Babbage. Piracy is suspected, but nothing seems to be proven yet. (Though I'd tend to suspect Mr. Callidus Waydelich, the current leader of the new Mondrago, but he swears he's given up his piratical ways.) For me, as a non-Babbage resident, I'm mostly reporting from afar, but if the situation worsens, I will let you know. In the meantime, traveling to Jadida Mondrago seems safe, and it is known that coffee is plentiful there; not sure what's going to happen in Babbage.

Me being me, I'd source out coffee elsewhere, but riot in the streets if the Caledonian catnip brandy supplies drop. But...that's me.

In other, other news...this one's weird.

So, New World Notes covered Kim Kardashian's branding exploits in Second Life, which is strange to begin with. First, it's all to advertise a perfume in SL, and...pardon me, I know the entire grid functions on imagination, but what's the point of perfume in a grid without the sense of smell? Maybe I'm limited. But, that's what she's doing, and she's been uploading images taken in SL to her Instagram feed (said feed largely being "Hi, I'm pretty and I post lots of pictures of me being pretty", with occasion side excursions into "Hi, I'm pretty, buy this thing" and "Hi, I'm pretty, my husband's famous". I'd say that's pretty typical of Instagram, but the few accounts on Instagram I follow feature cats, so what do I know?).

But it gets weirder. Her SL avatar, which looks less like her and more like a digitized Cher, wasn't even developed on SL originally. It's a recreation of an avatar first seen in IMVU, where she's had a much longer relationship pimping out consumer goods. And...maybe I'm wrong, but isn't IMVU somewhat antagonistic to SL in the first place? I know they've been accused of imitating SL's advertising, back when SL decided ripping off Avatar's look was the way to go, so that's sort of copyright infringement cubed on all sides. But to me, it still seems like IMVU's more Tinder and SL's more Tumblr--still the same amount of hookups and drama, but also the ability to explore other things, whereas IMVU still seems "log in, dress up, get shagged". If I'm wrong, please, someone tell me. I've never had an IMVU account, I've just seen videos of things that happen there.