Seen on Drawn! - Crossword Puzzle Comics
Dakota Tebaldi over on SCmkII brought up this nifty tool for anyone missing the glorious aesthetic of the 90s internet. Feast your eyes on the Geocities-izer.
Labels: Ironic Faux Nostalgia, Second Citizen
29 April 2010
Moonlight on the lake
Agnes Varda is brilliant and her films are spell-binding.
Labels: Netflix
Saving Languages
The New York Times has an interesting article about a project to save information about languages that are on their way to oblivion.
"These are not just some of the languages that make New York the most linguistically diverse city in the world. They are part of a remarkable trove of endangered tongues that have taken root in New York — languages born in every corner of the globe and now more commonly heard in various corners of New York than anywhere else. "
Holli is an Icelandic musician who also performs inside SL. Although I haven''t managed to see him I want to; I don't really remember how I met him, but he's very nice. As well as lots of music on his yootoob channel, he has this instructional video he made to teach people how to say the name of the volcano that's spewing ash:
Labels: yootoob
28 April 2010
Don't Mind Me :-D
I just wanted to embed this because I like to watch it every now and then, and it's a drag looking for it.
Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.
Labels: Cojones
A master street performer has no son, and fears his art will die with him as in his tradition no outsider or daughter can be taught the secrets. This film rises above its sentimentality at least a bit, and is interesting to see if you don't expect too much from it.
Labels: Netflix
Lovely underground house
27 April 2010
XXL
Once upon a time there was SL Boutique and SL Exchange, which which everyone called sex change. Then S L Boutique was bought by the Sheep and became OnRez. Sex change turned into X Street SL because of the new Linden stricture that no one could use the Second Life name except maybe it was ok if it was followed (or preceded, presumably) by two words.
Very soon after that LL bought both sites and shuttered OnRez (the better one in my book - I kept away from XSTSL because of its ebil history). XSTSL has gone through a lot of changes of which I have no opinion as I am not involved with it, but it had no funny slang name. I always thought of it as Cross Street SL, but be that as it may, there's nothing funny or interesting about XSTSL. However, I just saw someone refer to it as "XLStreet," which made me laugh, so all is not lost.
=======
M.I.A
Born Free
========
A Punchcard Letter From My Sister
21 April 1972
A thick stacktop card
perfect sense
true communication
alien writing ftw
Calder bag from the Whitney
I was actually looking for something else when I found this. In something like 1990 or so I had a show of my paintings in New York. I aso collected a carrier bag full of fragments of layered, aged posters I tore off light poles, etc. I'm fairly sure I don't have them now, as I lost most of my groovy crapola, however when I saw this Calder bag in the garage I thought, "Aha!" and staggered into the kitchen with it.
When I looked inside I realised it was a bag of letters, but my "Damnation." turned to "!!!" when I saw my sister's punchcard letter. I'd been wanting to find it for some time. It just decided to find me - and only four days past its 38 year anniversary (although perhaps I received it on the 25th, which is the date I found it).
My sister was a total geek then, computers, scifi, Star Trek, super8 movie-making. I dunno what happened to her, as she's not terribly geeky now. Was it timing? She might've passed over computers as it was too early to do much with them unless one had bags of money. Are you out there, D? Did you ever think you'd see this letter again?
UPDATE: D says, "It's amazing how far things have come!!!! I had a few punch cards around but I don't know if they are still here or not. These look like museum pieces. Kids today would have a hard time recognizing that this was programming for a computer. We had to run these things through several times to get the bugs out. If you missed one step or even a word it had to be searched through and fixed. _ D"
26 April 2010
Enjah posted this over on ElleCoyote, so I pinched it ;-D
Labels: yootoob
There was a 6.9 earthquake in Taiwan.
Update (just graphed to 2008):
Soror Nishi @ UWA
25 April 2010
Trona
I enjoyed this slight but visually rich film set in the California desert. Contemplating a life in different surroundings, it's clear that what the protagonist finds empty about his life remains the same: he carries it with him..
Labels: Netflix
I was cleaning out a bit (and actually threw out some things I was working on ouch), and found this footage from 2008, of a Glyph Graves installation that "takes the SL wind and maps it to movement, colour and a set of notes represented in the forms of creatures moving in the air." (Glyph Graves quote)
24 April 2010
Werckmeister Harmonies
Look around - there is evidence of the perfect order of the universe. But wait...
This Hungarian film by Bela Tarr follows a Candide-like man whose faith in his interpretation of natural evidence is shattered.
Labels: Netflix
Took longer to make than you'd think.
Jonathan Coulton meets acapela.tv's Say it with Flowers.
Labels: yootoob
Group Notice From: Zayn Till
Comic Book, Scifi & Horror Illustrator, creator & legend Mr Bernie Wrightson will be appearing at Spaceport Raglan at 4pm SLT today to speak about his Career & the industry! Mr Wrightson has worked on such titles as Swampthing (which he helped to co create) Batman, The Punisher& many many others as well as doing artwork for noted Authors like STephen King. Winner or numerous industry awards , we're honored & thrilled to have him come by & talk about the exciting world that he's been such a part of! :D
(His rl wife is a Tiny, that's why he's there.)
Spectators lined the balcony.
Sci -fi weaponry!
Os and Doc watch.
HotSauce Charisma
CUSTOM
HotSauce Charisma beat Sidney Fredricksson in the final match to win the 2010 Combat Cards Custom Tournament!
Four players won prizes: HotSauce, Sid, Copper, Karenza
Congratulations!
DEMO
Sidney Fredricksson beat Doc Boffin in the final match of the 2010 Combat Cards Demo Tournament!
Four players won prizes: Sid, Doc, Bloodsong, and Tapple
Congratulations!
Karenza and Copper split the 500L weapons award.
==============
I was there from 11:15 to 2:45 when it ended - I'm fried.
Labels: Combat Cards
Beginning of Fishing Season
Labels: Lake
Goodbye, Mr. P.
"I am saddend to say I have decided to shut down Mr. P's. I have removed what little there was left of it's existence. I know even while writing this most people will be reading and thinking "what the hell is Mr. P's?"
I like to think of myself as a pioneer of sorts. Even if not true, let me just think this. At Mr. P's peak in the early stages of Second Life, I became consumed with creativity. I had some great friends along the way that worked with me to design some popular products that profited for years following.
Some where along the way I fell out of love with Second Life. While I have allowed my shop to exist for the last two years with little attention needed, I feel it is time to completely pull the plug. Now I just hope, every once in awhile, someone pulls out one of my gestures or interaction and shares a laugh with someone.
I have cleared my final shop in world. Ironically it is my very first I had on the Mainland."
Goodbye, Beau, and thank you for your animations. Life changes, and people's interests change; I wish you the best.
23 April 2010
I just don't get it.
Me: @epichunts I will never be able to hear your name without issuing a snort-laugh. Changing it soon?
Them: @Osprey It's ok - we laugh at our own name too :) And no plans on changing it anytime soon.
Tournament Time!
Demo and Custom tournaments will be held Saturday, 24 April, at the Space Ferret Dome in Raglan Shire! Anyone is welcome to sign up and fight on the day - tournament boards courtesy of Kat Burger are in place for demo and custon divisions. We have just changed version - we are now 2.2, so every fighter needs to use a 2.2 version Demo or Tiny Demo, or a 2.2 Deck or 2.2 Tiny Deck. If you have a custom deck change the cards like this:
Rez the old deck and the new 2.2 empty deck.
Touch the old deck and approve the transfer.
Take the new 2.2 deck into inventory - now full of cards.
Labels: Combat Cards
Ancient Bands Tshirts: Love Battery
I hate throwing away old band shirts.
Labels: Ancient Bands Tshirts
22 April 2010
Looks promising, don't you think, Candide?
I was just talking last week about white-nose bat fungus decimating the northeat North American bat population, and saying if one cave could go from 300,000 bats to 81 bats in three years, obviously some natural mechanism could possibly do the same sort of thing to human beings.
Duncan Thornton speaks out:
In the Earl Grey community room, Manitoba's highest-profile CCSVI advocate put the kibosh on that tense tug-of-war. "I don't think there's a conspiracy to squelch this,"declared Duncan Thornton, 47, who had a controversial vein-opening treatment at a clinic in Poland while CBC cameras rolled. "(But) it's hard for me to change my mind... (so I think) it's hard for the large mass of the MS establishment to do that too."
Many of the 100 pairs of ears in the Earl Grey room hung on Thornton's words. Minutes after his veins were opened in a $10,000 balloon angioplasty procedure last month, he said, he had warm fingers. Warm toes. And now, more energy than he'd had in almost 25 years. After Thornton finished telling this to the Earl Grey crowd, hands shot up. "Before your treatment, could you stand on that chair the way you're doing?" asked Cathi Sleva, who came to the meeting to support a friend with MS.
"Not without falling over," Thornton said quietly.
Downfall
We knew this was coming but it's still funny - Hitler reacts to the removal of the bazillion Hitler meme videos on YouTube (was that on Hitler's birthday?):
Labels: yootoob
21 April 2010
As seen on SCmkII in a thread by Merovingian:
The System Hates You
We all know (or anyway some do) that the corporations regard the populace as a herd of cows to be milked. They want people just well enough to work, chronically in need of their pharmaceuticals, too weak/ill to protest, stuffed full of jingoism and circuses, uneducated and easily led. It's not new to hear about it, but I'm always glad when it gets an airing.
20 April 2010
Gah.
A federal lawsuit agains Linden Lab.
19 April 2010
On a whim I bought new hair for my real-name alt (money for old rope here as it's about three prims and that might be the default sculpty apple, who knows), who seriously needs a redo as her look is blown together. She hardly ever gets out of the box. I was sort of investigating hairs for 2 minutes as Os wants a new one, but the one I want is no-mod, hellishly arc-ish for no apparent reason, and scripted to hell and back (with a delete button, at least, I think). I might just have to go and build one (I'm not a hair person, so that's not really likely).
Huge Eruptive Prominence
That's our sun ===============:O
Labels: Dept of Divine Moles
18 April 2010
Gnome Air
Lake today
Someone crossed the lake on a jetski then towed a motorboat back whence he came, and all you get are these lousy ripple pictures :-D
That kind of tartan cross-ripple must feel funny to the fish.
Labels: Lake
An amazingly modern-looking man in a 1940 photograph brings cries of, "Time traveller!"
Labels: Introduction to Time Travel
Labels: Combat Cards, yootoob
17 April 2010
I should post that on this day I saw the first osprey of spring (might've been here before I saw it, of course).
16 April 2010
New T!
Labels: Os of the Day
1.38.1 is on its way out bearing:
- Script Memory Reporting enabled for Viewer 2.0 Beta viewers.
- View the script memory used on a parcel from the Script Info button in About Land: General tab. Parcel owners will be able to see per object details.
- View the script memory used by your attachments from the Script Info button in Appearance when modifying your avatar.
- New LSL Features
- SVC-5167[c]: llGetLinkPrimitiveParams(integer link, list params): LlGetLinkPrimitiveParams
- Similar to llGetPrimitiveParams except works for any prim in the link set and with no script delay.
- SVC-5166[c]: llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast(integer link, list params): LlSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast
- Identical to llSetLinkPrimitiveParams except with no script delay.
- SVC-5168[c]: PRIM_TEXT: PRIM_TEXT
- Set and get the floating text of primitives with ll*PrimitiveParams functions.
- SVC-5178[c]: llSetLinkTextureAnim: LlSetLinkTextureAnim
- Similar to llSetTextureAnim except works for any prim in the link set.
- SVC-5169[c]: llLinkParticleSystem(integer link, list params): LlLinkParticleSystem
- Similar to llParticleSystem except works for any prim in the link set.
- SVC-5167[c]: llGetLinkPrimitiveParams(integer link, list params): LlGetLinkPrimitiveParams
One day we'll get the mono fix, but until then there's a lot that can be done. Will people do it? I think we need education. Your average SLer with her 200 prim hair with a script in every prim, 200 prim shoes with a script in every prim, bling, ao, five huds all with multiple functions, scripted cat ears, collar, and god knows what else, just wears what she likes - and a lot of those things can be made much more efficient.
I do take it personally, as we were beaten to unholy hell at a number of live performances, when the show might just as well've not gone on at all. The TD and so on would drop to nothing every so often and even crossing the stage - opening the curtain - changing - anything - was impossible. If it hit at a particularly bad time the act was ruined. When it happened a number of times in a row the show was ruined.
It's hard to function in a small crowd now, harder than it was a couple of years ago. That's due to a few things (including copybot paranoia causing merchants to release no-mod accessories heavily scripted to resize and tint) but I hope the ones we can control from this side get addressed. It used to be a matter of common sense that one tried to be prim-thrifty, and yes, highly detailed things look better, but it comes with a cost.
Ugh, sorry - ranty.
15 April 2010
Victorian lolcat
Today
Lucy had great clouds today.
I had clouds once this week (was that yesterday?) but not as great as hers today.
/me has cloud envy.
Looks like a hand, there, though :-D
Labels: Lake
Twitter Archiving
"Every public tweet, ever, since Twitter’s inception in March 2006,
will be archived digitally at the Library of Congress."
A big pile o' tweets:
"Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day,
with the total numbering in the billions."
14 April 2010
Labels: yootoob
Tiff says: "I told my grandson his Daddy was my baby. He said, "Was everyone a baby before they were grown up?" I said, "Yes". He thought for awhile and said "Then when everyone was a baby there were no families because everyone was a baby."
Lucy says:
"i've seeing this as a kind of inflation on the part of merchants. if the object has more abilities you can charge more for it. i went to find a pair of shoes i'd seen on someone and loved, only to find they cost over 2500 L, were color changeable, made sounds when you walked, had several built in walks to choose, maybe more...i didn't see any way to buy them stripped down, so i left. :-(
a similar thing with expensive eyeglasses, looked good, but several parts change color, and it let's you know who is nearby, and you can click to wear them on your head instead of your nose. so with more add-ons, charge more, sell fewer, make more lindens...and really, with all the new people, do you think they suspect that this is not fine and dandy? i've been in SL almost 4 years and i don't understand all the issues. if you don't wear the hud is there still a problem (if there is a choice?) my guess would be yes, but i don't really know. most of what i read about it, i don't understand anyway."
3 minutes ago
(I had a "Hi SCmkII" postit but it blew off).
Labels: Os of the Day
One of the ok things about 2.0 to me is the rearranging of menu items. When I can't find something I try to actually think about what category makes sense for it, and look there - and that has helped. If you think, "hmmm... uploads... where would they be," or "an inventory window... where would I find that menu item?" it makes sense to look in the inventory menu. The big problem is when either A) there's no indication it's possible, or B) it isn't possible - since with A we just don't look, as we feel cut off, and in scenario B we look and look and look...
2.0 isn't my fave, at all, however it's a spiritual exercise in a way, to try to be flexible and use it. I find it a bit stressful (all that digging), and I feel blind (no hovertips), but if the broken bits get fixed I'll probably use it sometimes just to keep my hand in. Until the broken bits are fixed I'm using it to be a witness (although that is not open-ended).
Meade, on the jira, asks, "Any thoughts on LL reaching out to merchants that are horribly abusing the scripting system with things like resize scripts? I'm sure residents could generate a list of mercants and/or products that are in the 'pure evil' category. A polite note from LL about converting products from one-script-per-prim to the new one-llStuffNoDelay would go over a lot better than lots of notes from angry club owners."
On one hand it would be good, on the other, would those hair/shoe/whatever sellers get their backs up? The way things currently stand to change eventually, it will be market forces (customer: I won't buy your hair because it puts me over the script limit. seller: *changes hair scripting*) over time, with some customers just losing out a bit if a product isn't updated.
It might be better if (since people love conspiracies and being in the know about anything) someone, or group, started a list of high-script products to avoid (also throw no-mod attached invisiprims in there) and whisperingly passed the link around.
Classes in How to Create Resize Scripts, and Consumer's Guide to Understanding Scripts would be great - maybe places like Raglan and Caledon - any community - would be good places to run them. And/or Torley videos, too.
Sizer
Wow - a reply from Brian Apps, who says:
"Hi
A 3.31 beta works on Vista and Win7. You can get it from here:
http://www.brianapps.net/sizer/
I've just been too busy/lazy to officially release it and make the old 3.3
page redirect to the new location.
Indeed who'd have thought Sizer would be useful -- it's almost 13 years
old now and people are still finding new uses for it!"
Another big earthquake, this one ~7 in Qinghai, China.
13 April 2010
W00t!
Lucia said, "My book Inseminating the Elephant was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Alas, it did not win."
Twiddling Our Thumbs
It's looking bleak for the hoped-for mono fix that addresses the tp-in-sim-stall as there's a chain of upgrades necessary to avoid the breaking of content (scripts stop and now since no-mod scripts can't be reset the object is therefore busticated). It'll be months, unfortunately, for that server-side fix, but that doesn't mean we should sit on our hands.
As someone on the jira pointed out: "I noticed a terrific cocktail : Someone wearing G....d ears and U.u P..nS..r shoes is carrying around 1000 scripts ! And best of all, not only these attachements are not modifiable but there is no option for removing the scripts."
This type of thing is just awful, and is not at all unusual, I understand (I'm old-school as far as attachments go, so an ao is just about it). I do remember back at the dawn of time when the multi-gadget came out (then the mystitool followed sometime later), thinking, "but... that's a ton of scripts ===:O" In the back of my mind and until now unspoken (I'm whispering even now) has always been the thought that they are killing SL.
In the real life resources are squandered, putting the things we love at jeopardy; its parallel is the squandering of resources in SL, which is a trivial problem comparatively, yet reveals that human beings go inexorably down the same damaging path. The cost of everything should include its cost within the bigger picture, not just its manufacturing costs + profit. Is it possible to learn anything from this? Yes, but I doubt that we will as human beings are too selfish and we are all about the quick, dirty profit.
When the newly un-mono-fix-ipated 1.38.1 is rolled out it should give us the script information we need to make decent judgements about attachments. It would be nice if some educational classes were devised by LL, or at least a lot of tutorials about the issue to try to catch people's notice. Freebie places should go through their wares. When avatar script limits come in some formerly worn attachments are going to be revealed for the wasteful, unuseable sim killers they always were, but until that day we can check our stats with the 1.38.1 script info and make the changes that will soften the blow. The proposed new lsl function (specifically the one that involves resizing child prims) will help, but I'm not sure when it is likely to appear.
BAY CITY CHANGES PARADE DATE
All ducks take heed!
16 May @ noon
12 April 2010
I was just reading "The Death of Mo Hax," which explains that because he succumbed to temptation he destroyed his family, and while he wishes he could go back to the love of his wife and children he isn't able to.
"I still believe technology is amoral, but the traps of immersion and lures of anonymity combined with even normal marital strain are almost guaranteed to bring even the best spouses down in sorrow."
I know I'm not the only person in SL to have never had the least thought of pretending to be anything other than what I am. I have a need to be known for what I am, and understood at least in part, however dopey I am. Playing games would be counterproductive. Maybe his particular failing didn't involve disguising himself, but taking the statement, I see nothing in the anonymity of the web that appeals to me, and "immersion" counts for nothing if I leave myself outside the portal.
It's Back!
Labels: It Came From the Forum
Business
Hi Osprey !
I left SL - the only kind of VR i was using - mainly because I had no more time to "play" there, after I realized there was no way to expand my business in that environment. It needs a lot of time and effort to obtain very poor (business) results and if I use the same time and effort in RL I can have greater satisfaction.
But I still have some very nice memories of SL and mainly of you, I think you are the most interesting person I met there and like to look at your work every now and then.
Have a good RL and SL , Osprey!
Reply: Yes, SL isn't very useful for business right now except for things like architecture (building scale models you can walk in), and has limited uses for education. It's just such a lot of bother and expense for people to get in at all that it isn't worth it in most cases.
If, in the future, technology makes it easier and places SL within the grasp of every person with an ordinary computer, things could possibly be different. I'm not sure how different, but certainly, if things like cloud computing and fibre optic cables become ubiquitous, the generations who have grown up with cyberspace may choose to interact with businesses in 3d rather than 2d. I can see each person having a virtual body double of their real body, and a virtual double of their real living space, then going to, say, a 3d web Ikea, and trying out a nightstand or bookcase to see if it fits and looks right. If that would be fast and easy it would be useful.
On the other hand governments and businesses are seeking to tame the anarchy of the web and bring it into line with their own goals. In that event there won't be as much of interest - well, I hope people would not find it as interesting. Better we should turn away from computers and grow real seeds in the real world.
Update 15Ap2010: Apparently SL already runs with server-side rendering but only for sequestered business clients (makes sense).
Also: (Disclaimer: I am FOS as I know nothing) It seems to me that instead of either/or there might eventually be integration of cloud computing in regions that the owners would like to have remain static, at the least, and at best a two- or three-tier system where there is an underlying static layer (all land/builds that form the base), then a changeable layer (group rez), and possibly a temporary layer (visitors can rez temporarily). I have no clue if this is possible or even desirable, but it sounds useful to me.
11 April 2010
Acapela.tv - link from Molly Montale
A nutball is running amok through the forums, jira, SCmkII, and god knows where else posting someone's alts' names, links to pictures of some kins, and slurls, and claiming the information came from Skills Hax's CDS viewer ID system.
Labels: Ministry of Hellhathnofury
10 April 2010
The shower is a weeping woman's friend, as her face won't show she's cried.
Molly Montale pointed out Rose Borchovski's work.
Region SLurl: Cariacou
I saw Rose Borchovski's Susa Bubble piece a long time ago when I tagged along with Enjah (I think she'd been teleported by Cali) in a gallery somewhere. That piece is part of this installation, but I like the 3d pieces more, for no good reason. Maybe just because I hadn't seen them before, or because I could add my own sky to them.
Visiting Sarek with Enjah
Jesper had sent me a video of it HERE.
Region SLurl: Sarek Nordic Light
I'd shown the video to a friend who visited, then said he hadn't seen it the same way, and why would that be? I replied that computer capabilities and the settings used would affect how SL looks. It's sad when people don't see it in its glory. A substantial number of people probably walk away for that reason.
The Catholic Church must be using relics as damage control.
Catholic: "I heard some bad things..."
Church: "Quick! Look over there - it's the Shroud of Turin!"
Shocking, the news about the planecrash that killed a large segment of the Polish government. The sheer number is the part that sends my head spinning.
Including:
Wladyslaw Stasiak: chief of the president's chancellery
Aleksander Szczyglo: chief of the National Security Office
Slawomir Skrzypek: National Bank of Poland chairman
Jerzy Szmajdzinski: deputy speaker of the lower house
Andrzej Kremer: Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state
Stanislaw Komorowski: deputy minister of national defence
Przemyslaw Gosiewski: Law and Justice party deputy chair
Franciszek Gagor: military chief
Andrzej Przewoznik: head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites
Tomasz Merta: chief historical conservator
Update: "...families of Katyn massacre victims were also killed..." Oh, that's horrible - the Katyn Forest massacre was when Polish prisoners of war were shot by order of Stalin. Incredible.
Things have a habit of looking as though they are going in a certain direction, then suddenly haring off in another, so aren't really predictable, however that does little to calm my unease. Right now the swirling of powerful controlling forces wielded by both marketplace and government (instigated by marketplace) surrounds the internet, and threaten to change it in ways that are not to the advantage of the billions of ordinary users.
It's amazing how little authorities understand about the internet and tech in general, which makes them easily manipulated by big business even should they not be corrupt enough to be bought and sold. It's downright sinister how some corporations are both mimicing genuine internet mass human behaviour and seeking to control aspects that they don't like.
09 April 2010
Hanging wit mah peeps in Inworldz.
Enj in a holy mood.
I liked this film very much. Yolande Moreau was amazing in the part, and story was absorbing. There aren't many - or maybe any - other films about women artists who were working class. This one takes the facts of the artist's life and makes a work that feels complete and magical, in a way that isn't at all smoothed over or made into a lie.
08 April 2010
The trading card game of dueling warriors is in meatspace, too!
KLee's newest build 20 (15) fixes the UI suppression problem.
With and without UIGood work, KirstenLee!
Stop the presses! Twinity has Segways, now. That sounds snarky but actually that and their new couples animations sound good.
07 April 2010
Ganking
I'm trying to look at aspects of life through the lens of a game.
In PVP games players gank each other, but you don't generally think of a game company itself ganking players. It does happen, I feel, but isn't usual. In any case, when I compare that to real life it makes me think of things like Monsanto and its tactics*, energy and drug companies and their infiltration of the American government in order to redesign guidelines to their own advantage. In effect these big players buy the game company so they can escalate their ganking.
* From Organic Consumers Association:
For instance, "Percy Schmeiser is a farmer from Saskatchewan Canada, whose Canola fields were contaminated with Monsanto's genetically engineered Round-Up Ready Canola by pollen from a nearby farm. Monsanto says it doesn't matter how the contamination took place, and is therefore demanding Schmeiser pay their Technology Fee (the fee farmers must pay to grow Monsanto's genetically engineered products). According to Schmeiser, "I never had anything to do with Monsanto, outside of buying chemicals. I never signed a contract."
And, "Over the past century, global water supplies have been contaminated with the full gamut of Monsanto's chemicals, including PCBs, dioxin and glyophosate (Roundup). So now the company, seeing a profitable market niche, is taking control of the public water resources they polluted, filtering it, and selling it back to the people. In short, Monsanto is making a double profit by polluting the world's scarce freshwater resources, privately taking ownership of that water, filtering it, and selling it back to those who can afford to pay for it."
06 April 2010
7.8 Earthquake Rocks Sumatra
Seem to be a lot, lately.
Mormon Secret Underwear
Originally uploaded by Hawai'i Naturalist
Mormon Secret Underwear
Mormon Underwear... erm... FTW
Yeah, that's it.
The new starter avs have Mormon underwear.
I think underwear would be ok as it would mean less competition with skinmakers, but Mormon underwear?
Don't you think it's strange that we have doors in our skin that lead directly to our brains? I find that odd. If I were able to communicate with an alien and I said, "What's that?" and it said, "This? It's the door to my brain," I would be o.O but we have the same thing.
I wonder why med/tech research doesn't approach things from an angle where they can use that concept.
Inworldz, Reaction, OsGrid
Inworldz
I wanted to go see Inworldz as that's where Elf Clan has lighted, among a few places including SL. It's attractive - very homey and relaxed, and is at an early developmental stage. OnAttach animation doesn't work at the moment, which isn't the end of the world by any means, although it makes ducks a bit tough. I met some of the devs, who are very friendly, and someone ported me 'round to various beauty spots, which was kind of her (thanks, Mouser).
Reaction Grid
I went back to ReactionGrid after looking for ages for my old (a year) login details. I was their 1000th sign-up back in the day. It's very EDU-y and looks very much the same as last year. I didn't see anyone awake.
OsGrid
I spent some time on osgrid (another one I explored ages ago and hadn't been back to), and would've gone back except I had some kind of mind-bending crash on Emerald, and now I can't get in. I wanted to use Emerald as its set up for grid-hopping is easier than Hippo's, but ah, well. Perhaps another day. Osgrid had people in it, but I didn't talk to anyone as technical difficulties made it impossible.
05 April 2010
04 April 2010
Griefery accoutrements at Noyo
Joh alerted me
Teagan swooped in and cleaned up
Labels: Griefer