Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Green Fairy. Who knows why this visitor looking like a Lovecraft fan showed up like this. It's been stated that any mortal whom had the misfortune of seeing the face of the Old God would go insane. But there are things in real life that many wonder if someone could easily go insane trying to understand them.

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Philosophy Class: Looking for Spinoza

While school is usually associated with childhood and young adulthood, education doesn't end there. People self-teach in libraries and bookstores all the time. But sometimes an instructor is necessary, and so people go back to college or attend an adult education class. Such classes also exist in Second Life, including Professor Bergson's Philosophy Class. For nine years, Gemma Cleanslate has been attending, and a new semester is about to start. This year, the theme is "Looking for Spinoza." So who was Spinoza and why does the Professor consider him important?

Read Gemma's article in People.

Club Carnage “The Ultimate Phoenix of SL Clubs”

Clubs come and go in Second Life. Many fade away after less than a year. So when a club has lasted more than a decade, somebody is doing something rights. Recently Majikvixen took a look at Club Carnage, which turned ten years old last December. Having gone through three owners and troubled times that would have killed most clubs, the venue has endured and continues to enjoy a good following. Majikvixen had a few words with it's owner Caemlyn Witherspoon about Carnage.

Read Majikvixen's article in SL Clubbin'.

Beach Party at Sunny Beach

Last weekend, the Newser crew took the time to relax with a beach party, and invited it's friends to come by. Taking place in the Sunny Beach sim just west of the Newser office, the party went on for three hours with lots of music and dance from Tantari Kim and Grease Coakes. A number of pictures were taken at the party.

See the pictures in Events.

Events This Week at the Sunweaver and Furry Fashion Clubs

It's another week of events at the Furry Fashion Lounge and the Sunweaver/Angel clubs.

Happy Vixen: Dare to Bare, Comedy, Candy and Chocolate

Club Cutlass: Best in "B". Creepy-Crawly, Labor Day

Furry Fashion Lounge: Crux, Metal, Las vegas, Red/Prog Rock, Rainbow Colors, Steampunk, Birds, Musicals

Read the Schedules in SL Clubbin'.

Edited 9:30 AM SL time

Fundraiser at Veterans Isle Raises Over 120,000 Lindens

 On Sunday August 28, Frets Nirvana held his monthly benefit at Veterans Isle. The event is to raise funds for the veterans charity Homes For Our Troops. The event took place from 5PM SL time to just after 9PM (Midnight EST), and besides himself included singers Zak Claxton, Srv4u Conacher (Da Bluez Preacher) and Hogan Baily.

Come out, support and help us by helping our severely wounded veterans through Homes For Our Troops. To learn more about the Homes For Our Troops visit https://www.hfotusa.org. We have another great lineup of premier talent from the Second Life musician community.

The money was donated into house shaped kiosks on either side of the stage. Frets would throw in some Lindens of his own once certain levels of fundraising were reached, at one point dropping in 10,000 Lindens. Zarah Dawn offered, "Anyone donating 2k message me and I'll make you a custom jewelry set." Dahlea Milena, the hostess for the event, told people she had served in the military for twenty-two years, "I had friends still serving, and children old enough to serve or almost old enough. At least one of my child's school friends is no longer with us because of their service after 9/11."

A total of 121,250  Lindens was raised that night. Although Frets does a few HFOT fundraisers at other venues, the monthly benefit at Veterans Isle is still his best known and usually most successful one.

"Thank you again Frets for helping to organize all this."

Bixyl Shuftan

Fundraiser For Frank at Furry Fashion

Tonight, the Furry Fashion Lounge will be having a special event tonight. At 6PM SL time, there will be a fundraising event to help raise money for Frank to help him get a new pair of hearing aids. DJ Moff will provide the music with BeckyD and Travail hosting. Donating 50 Lindens or more you get an exclusive gift. The theme for the event is "Best in Ears."

"You definitely don't want to miss out on this event! You get to help someone out, listen to awesome music, be around awesome people, join in an awesome fun event, get exclusive gifts! Its gonna be a HUGE EVENT!"

Furry (32, 52, 31)

Gofundme Page For Frank

What do you do if your friend can't afford hearing aids and his insurance company refuses to cover the cost for a pair, calling them "cosmetic?" For Frank, one of the staff at Furry Fashion, this was a real question he had to deal with as one of his hearing aids had stopped working and the other was soon to follow. Fortunately, his real-life boss decided to start a gofundme page for him, one that Furry Fashion began spreading the word about. Deaflegacy went to interview Frank about his problem, and the gofundme page.

Read Deaflegacy's story in People.

Pokemon GO Numbers In Decline

Pokemon GO was the game of the summer. The number of users of the mobile ap augmented reality game skyrocketed since it's release on July 5th to close to 45 million in about two weeks. But that's as far as it's numbers got, and it late July and August was steadily getting smaller. More than 12 million have stopped playing, "Data from Sensor Tower, SurveyMonkey, and Apptopia," stated Luke Kawa in Bloomberg, "show that Pokemon Go's daily active users, downloads, engagement, and time spent on the app per day are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend."

So why the decline? Over the weeks there have been a number of cautionary stories in the news about careless Pokemon players getting into accidents or getting robbed. But the real reasons for the decline appear to be shortcomings in the game itself, not much you can do with critters once they're caught, no quests, no way for players to duel, the gameplay seemed to be centered on capturing "gyms" that were held by monsters that were of a level unrealistic to reach by casual players. There have also apparently been server issues that have been quite irritating to players.

Hamlet Au predicted that eventually the userbase will settle to a dedicated core of about fifteen to five million. Certainly not a bad number for a game, but he felt Pokemon GO's decline would have a negative impact on the augmented gaming market that it had earlier sparked interest in, To succeed in a truly massive way, an AR game needs to be linked with a massive, well-established brand that has a 'fantastic, invisible parallel world' premise well-integrated into its branding."

Kawa suggested that over the long term, the augmented reality market would remain smaller than the one for virtual worlds, citing one analyst, "The Google Trends data is already showing declining interest in augmented reality, whereas interest in virtual reality remains high."


Sources: New World Notes, Bloomberg, Yahoo, PC Mag, Arstechnica 

Bixyl Shuftan

Advertise in the Second Life Newser

Maybe you're starting your small business and want to get the word out. Or maybe you already have a business that's doing okay, but you think you could do better if more people knew about you. Maybe you you're a club owner whom is finding it harder to attract crowds than you thought and you need more people to know about your place and what makes it special. Maybe you're an aspiring DJ whom is looking for top clubs to ask for your services. You need a way to get the word out.

Why not advertise in Second Life's leading newsletter, the Second Life Newspaper. We're a talented team with years of experience with writing about the people, places, and events about the virtual world, and can help get the word about you to the thousands who read our publication. For the price of 1000 Linden dollars, we will do an advertorial article and show what your location and/or business has to offer. We have had numerous satisfied clients over the years, and will be happy to include you among them.

For better value for your money, why not consider a sponsorship? For 15,000 Linden dollars, your name will for three months appear on a banner near the top of the front page where readers will see it when they get their first look at the paper. The banner will link to the webpage or article of your choice. Secondary sponsorships are also available. For a 5,000 Linden dollar fee, the banner will appear near the top of one of the other sections besides the main page, such as "Places," for a three month time period.

While we do occasional advertising for adult-themed vanues, all advertorials must be "workplace safe," and we cannot show nudity or use profane language. Charity events, such as the Relay for Life, are normally written about free of charge.

We look forward to doing business with you, and helping you spread the word about what you have to offer to the exciting wider world of Second Life.

Cartoon of the Day

Rocket humor. It's a blast.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: "Farewell Skull Island"

The Skull Island build at LEA9, which Gemma Cleanslate wrote about earlier, will soon be fading into the mists of the virtual nether. On Tuesday August 30, there's a farewell party planned for one final celebration for the home of the famous movie monster King Kong.

A celebration of Skull Island, featuring Babypea von Phoenix and friends a dance show tribute to King Kong! we say good bye to Kong and Skull island , and hello to Water World .  Followed by the King Kong Ball with music, DJ, and dancing .then Adventure to Skull Island to explore a fantastic sim-wide build that is full of surprises and magical discovery, so much to see and do!  Excellent photo opportunities.This project was made possible in part by a grant from Linden Endowment for the Arts. With builds by Oldlex. 

The event starts at 6PM SL time.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/LEA9/115/112/30

Announcement: This Weekend's Festival at Roma

Saturday, 27th August
10am - Nemoralia Ritual & Fantasy Costume Contest
This month's festivals begin with a ritual for Diana & Trivia (Hecate, to you Greeks) honouring these Goddesses of the wild and the darkness. After the ritual, we'll be having a party with dancing, music, and a costume contest -- the costume theme is Woodland Fantasy Creatures, and the prize is $L1000 for the winner!
Transtiberim (106, 29, 30)

12pm - Nemoralia Treasure Hunt
Diana and Trivia have scattered treasure across ROMA Transtiberim for Their faithful worshippers to find! Come join us in seeking to discover the hidden bounty! Finding yourself in need of a few Linden? Perhaps the Goddesses will provide! Come hunt with us and fill your purses!
Transtiberim (58, 34, 45)

1pm - Vinalia Rustica Gacha Party
The ancient Vinalia Rustica was a celebration of the grape and the fruits of the Earth - and we'll be gathering together to drink and swap/sell all our extra gacha items! Do you have unwanted gachas cluttering your inventory? Here's your chance to get rid of them, and pick up some new swag in the process. We can't guarantee your inventory will be lighter afterward, but at least you'll have new things to treasure!
ROMA Vinovium (93, 114, 24)

************************************************

Sunday, 28th August
10am - Vulcanalia Ritual & Build Contest
Our second day of festivals begins with a ritual to honour Vulcan, the God of the Forge, and asking His blessing on all our crafts. Since He was also the God of Volcanos and fire, we will also have a building contest -- The theme is Metalcraft, and you can create anything which fits within that limit: weapons, silver tea service, jewelry, even artistic works reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower! All contestants will have 1 hour to build, and all are welcome, regardless of building skill-level!
ROMA Vinovium (35, 138, 4020)

12pm -  The Fires in the Night Grand Feast
Our festivals begin to wind down with the Grand Feast in honour of Diana, Trivia, and Vulcan - come dance with us as the flames flare into the night! Live music by FrankLee Anatra -- don't miss it!

ROMA Transtiberim (199, 194, 29)

SL Video: "Little Shop of Horrors Starlite Dancers"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

From Foxie Dinzeo in July 2016, this SL adaptation of "Little Shop of Horrors" doesn't quite end like the movie.

Join The Newser Crew For a Party

After our beach party last month, the Second Life Newser crew received some requests to have another soon. Well, our neighbor Erik Mouse (Erik Mouse (ErikMouse Dawid) of Sunny Beach/Mythica Woods offered us his hangout there, "Surf City," for such an occasion. So we're taking him up on it.

The event will be tomorrow, Saturday August 27, at Noon SL time at Sunny Beach. Don't forget your swimsuits.

Sunny Beach (200/144/22)

Scammer Alert: Unauthorized Full Perm Item Resales Reported on Marketplace

By Bixyl Shuftan

Strawberry Singh recently wrote about an apparent problem on the Second Life Marketplace after being contacted by the maker of full permissions, or Full Perm, items which he sold on Second Life's Marketplace. Unscrupulous individuals are taking such items, and placing copies up for resale on Marketplace, not bothering to get permissions or give any kind of compensation to the content creators. Unless the offending party agrees to take down the items themselves after being contacted, the only recourse for the creators is to file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown request with Linden Lab "over and over until they are taken down, but then they must also DMCA items that are being sold by people who have bought these illegal full perm items and are selling them in their stores thinking they have a legal copy of the item."

Unfortunately, while sometimes this is the end of the ripoff, sometimes it continues, "A DMCA take down usually takes a week to be taken down, but the next day, that account puts it right back on that same Marketplace as a new listing."

Strawberry offered the following suggestions of "some of the things that you should look for and be aware of before making a purchase."


Before purchasing look at the seller’s other listings. If there is a hodgepodge of brand names and the vendors all look different, they are most likely an illegal seller.

Purchase the items from the inworld store of the full perm creator instead of the marketplace, to ensure that you are not purchasing from an illegal seller.

Most of the illegal sellers have blank profiles. Real full perm sellers usually have a full profile filled with links to their websites, mainstores and marketplace stores.

Most Full Perm sellers have started using water marks on the vendor ads which say the name of the avatar that is supposed to be selling it. The illegal sellers are still using those ads, even with the watermark. So it is important to look at the name of the creator on the watermark, and if it isn’t that person selling it, don’t buy it.

Try to find a way to report these items, either to Linden Lab by flagging the listing or to the original creator of the items.


That among her suggestions is not using Marketplace to purchase these items, Hamlet Au, who also wrote about the issue, called this, "Ironic, because a key point of the Marketplace existing at all is it makes online shopping for virtual content much more convenient than having to go rooting around for items in the full 3D client." Hamlet would go on to say Strawberry felt Linden Lab's options for dealing with this problem were limited.

"I honestly don't think they can because for them it would be hard to tell who is a valid seller without someone informing them at first and that's why the DMCA needs to happen." She was quoted as telling Hamlet, "If they went around closing accounts of people they suspect might be doing this without someone claiming it first, then they could potentially close some innocent accounts."

One possible solution, Strawberry suggested, was closing the accounts of those DMCAs had been filed against. But the Lab would need to be careful about unfairly shutting down creators whom are the target of false reports. Doing to would take time and resources (and money)by the Lab. But as Hamlet put it, "doing that would cut into Second Life's steadily shrinking profit margin. Then again, alienating content creators by not giving them a secure market also is also a profit-limiting move."

Among those leaving comments after Hamlet's article, one resident compared the problem to selling real life goods if they were easily duplicated in a fast-operating and extremely cheap to operate 3D printer. The person felt if someone was selling something completely Full Perm, rather than copyable but not transferable or transferable but not copyable, the seller was taking a chance, except perhaps if such items were useful only as parts to make a more detailed good.

Sources: Strawberry Singh, New World Notes, Modem World

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Free Dance Lessons at LEA1

Dances in Real Life offer Free Dance Lessons; Dances in Second Life should too!

The essence of our Dance 101 class is to recreate that same social experience, educational experience, and just plain fun experience.   Our class is self-guided 24x7, but the real fun comes with our Live Instructor classes.

New LIVE INSTRUCTOR Dance Classes have been scheduled at LEA1 for Thursday, September 1, at 7PM SL time, Tuesday Sept. 6 at 2PM SLT, and Monday Sept. 12 SLT.  They will be held at our 1940s themed venue, CP Swing, located in the heart of Swing City - our 1940s themed city within LEA1.

These FREE Dance Classes have a new LIVE class format featuring two songs per dance, and an additional break between songs to allow for costume changes.  We have been delighted to see some of our participants wanting to change costumes along with the instructors, which has added a new dimension to the class experience.   Come learn six of the most popular dances in SL, meet new people, and dance with them!

While you are here, be sure to check out our other exhibits.  Jardines de Baile offers a Dance 101 classroom next to Club Nocturno, recreating a Mexican seaside resort experience.  Gardens Park provides a beautiful setting to practice your dances.  And our Education Center provides an overview of our 2LDance.org mission and vision, and what went into creating our LEA1 venues.

CP SWING 40's-Era Dance Hall, in Swing City - LEA1 (65, 71, 25)
    http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA1/65/71/25
   
   
Clase de Baile, at Club Nocturno (Jardines de Baile)  - LEA1 (84, 221, 22)
    http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA1/84/221/22

Find out more at: http://2LDance.org

April Linden Explains Tuesday's Grid Problems, "We're Sorry About This Outage"

As some of you already know, there were some problems with the Second Life Grid on Tuesday. For a while around Noon and the early afternoon, residents were unable to log in and some were being logged out. At the time, Linden Lab posted an "Unscheduled Maintenance" notice at 11:03 AM stating this, and asking residents to temporarily stop making purchases inworld and buying Lindens.

We are aware that some users are currently being logged out, and all users are currently unable to log in to Second Life. Additionally, please refrain from transacting on the LindeX on in-world as purchases are likely to fail. Some regions are also unavailable at this time, and teleports to other regions may fail currently. We have identified the issue causing this situation and are currently working to resolve it. Please monitor this blog for additional updates.

It was 2:49 PM when they finally gave the all-clear. A few residents I talked to later mentioned the downtime. One would later tell me adjustments she had made at the time while she was going through a number of sets of clothes had been undone, and wondered if what was going on with the Grid had something to do with it.

Several years ago, downtimes happened regularly. With the sometimes self-depreciating humor of the days of Philip Linden, they'd post a picture parodying the monolith and apes scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, "The Grid Is Down While We Bang On Things." Today, downtimes are much less frequent. And this time, April Linden decided to make a statement the following day explaining what happened.

Shortly after 10:30am, the master node of one of the central databases crashed. This is the same type of crash we’ve experienced before, and we handled it in the same way. We shut down a lot of services (including logins) so we could bring services back up in an orderly manner, and then promptly selected a new master and promoted it up the chain. This took roughly an hour, as it usually does.

A few minutes before 11:30am we started the process of restoring all services to the Grid. When we enabled logins, we did it in our usual method - turning on about half of the servers at once. Normally this works out as a throttle pretty well, but in this case, we were well into a very busy part of the day. Demand to login was very high, and the number of Residents trying to log in at once was more than the new master database node could handle.

Around noon we made the call to close off logins again and allow the system to cool off. While we were waiting for things to settle down we did some digging to try to figure out what was unique about this failure, and what we’ll need to do to prevent it next time.

We tried again at roughly 12:30pm, doing a third of the login hosts at a time, but this too was too much. We had to stop on that attempt and shut down all logins again around 1:00pm.

On our third attempt, which started once the system cooled down again, we took it really slowly, and brought up each login host one at a time. This worked, and everything was back to normal around 2:30pm.

My team is trying to figure out why we had to turn the login servers back on much more slowly than in the past. We’re still not sure. It’s a pretty interesting challenge, and solving hard problems is part of the fun of running Second Life.
Voice services also went down around this time, but for a completely unrelated reason. It was just bad luck and timing.

We did have one bright spot! Our status blog handled the load of thousands of Residents checking it all at once much better. We know it wasn’t perfect, but it showed much improvement over the last central database failure, and we’ll keep getting better 

My team takes the stability of Second Life very seriously, and we’re sorry about this outage. We now have a new challenging problem to solve, and we’re on it.

"We're sorry." Not words that we hear from Linden Lab every day. But this time, it's on the record that they spoke them.

Hat Tip: Inara Pey

Bixyl Shuftan

New Furry Fashion Lounge

On Monday August 22, The Furry Fashion Lounge revealed their latest redesign. Unlike the previous one used until Sunday, this one was at ground level. So those who didn't have the LM didn't have to fly up to it. As Furry Fashion does not normally have Monday events, this was a "Come As You Are" with a 6000 Linden prize. A number showed up in Crux avatars, a favorite dress-up avatar for several in the mall and lounge's group.

Amethyst Crystal, the owner of Furry Fashion, was there. Rather than dancing, she was making subtle humorous remarks to the patrons' various puns.

Furry Fashion is at the Furry sim.

Press Release: "Homes For Our Troops" Benefit At Veterans Isle

Frets Nirvana and US Military Veterans Group announces the eighth 2016 benefit for Homes For Our Troops in Second Life! 

Frets Nirvana, the premier guitar artist in the virtual world Second Life and the US Military Veterans Group announce a benefit on August 28, 2016 in Second Life for the Veterans Support Organization for Home For Our Troops . 

Frets Nirvana states:  “HFOT is a privately funded 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization building specially adapted, mortgage-free homes nationwide for the most severely injured Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of these Veterans are multiple amputees, paraplegic, quadriplegic or suffered severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).  These homes restore some of the freedom and independence our Veterans sacrificed defending ours, and enable them to focus on their family, recovery, and rebuilding their lives. Since its inception in 2004, over 90 cents of every dollar spent by Homes for Our Troop has gone to directly support Veterans. ”
Home for Our Troops benefit concerts feature premier Second Life talent monthly at Veteran’s Isle.  The concert on August 28, 2016 is scheduled from 5-9 PM PST.  Featured artists will be Zak Claxton,Frets Nirvana, SRV4U Conacher and Hogan Baily.

ABOUT HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS  - HFOT builds homes as a departure point for Veterans to rebuild their lives, and once again become highly productive members of society. Despite their life-altering injuries, many Veterans have embarked on new careers, completed their college degrees, or started families. Empowered by the freedom a mortgage-free and specially adapted home brings, these Veterans can now focus on their recovery and return to their life’s work of serving others. Many have embraced their roles as motivational speakers, sharing their messages of persevering through tragedy with groups and classrooms around the country; others take to a national platform to promote awareness of veteran suicide, homelessness and PTSD. Their incredible stories are the driving force for the work for HFOT.

To learn more about the Homes For Our Troops visit https://www.hfotusa.org

Cartoon of the Day: Jelly Doll

Taken two years ago at Perri's Xanadu. Lately there's been some talk about "jelly dolls," What newer viewers will see if their avatar complexity is set too low. But this kind of avatar has appeared in Second Life before, sort of. It wasn't a simple outline, and it wasn't so much jelly as gelatin..

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Pokemon Sim of Ravenlock

Pokemon has been around in a number of forms over the past 20 years: video and computer games, cartoons, an animated movie, and recently the handheld ap "augmented reality" game "Pokemon GO" which has became an instant huge hit just weeks ago. As it turns out, there's been a Pokemon sim in Second Life for a number of years: Ravenlock. Second Life Newser recently went there to talk to it's owner Mindy Runo and one of her two other teammates, Ivy Steampunk.

Read more in Design.

Announcement: Volunteers Needed For LUNA FairGrounds for RFL

Our goal is to have a new RFL Fair every 2 to 3 months on the LUNA FairGrounds in SL Harbor La Luna Bay City, and one time a year we will have a Live Music Festival Spanning over all of LUNA

If you have ideas for Fair themes you would like us to have, or if you are interested in becoming an active Member of  the LUNA FairGrounds (for RFL) Team, Nr: 160, Then please send a notecard to LULU (: lulu6kat :) in SL

LUNA Halloween Fair 2016 ( for RFL ) from the 13 October to the 13 November on LUNA FairGrounds ( for RFL ) in SL Harbor La Luna Bay City
Blog info: http://lunafairgrounds.blogspot.dk/2016/08/luna-halloween-fair-2016-for-rfl.html

Events This Week at the Sunweaver and Furry Fashion Clubs

It's another week of events at the Furry Fashion and Sunweaver/Angel clubs.

Happy Vixen: Back to School, Team USA, Dog Days of Summer

Club Cutlass: Best in "A," Black and White Night, At the Circus

Furry Fashion: Career Fair, Gothic, Apocalypse, Alice in Wonderland, Angels and Demons, Disco, Video Games, Disney

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'.

Edited 5PM SL time

A Little Music With DJ Pilot, And Friend

On Thursday August 18, I ran into DJ Pilot. Although known for her "Sunday Riot" at Devon Dream, she DJs at a few other places. Here, she entertained a small crowd.

Among those there was Any1 Gynoid, who wrote for James and Dana's SL Newspaper and the Second Life Newser in it's early days. It was a happy chance encounter.

See more of DJ Pilot at her "Sunday Riot" at Devon Dream (207/31/3992)

Creations for Parkinson's

Becky Shamen's latest journey took her to a spot that has been mentioned a number of times in the Newser, but seldom described in great detail: Creations for Parkinson's. Noted for it's inspiring tale of being originally built by Barbie Alchemi for her real-life mother Fran Seranade to help her with her Parkinson's, the place has over time grown in size from it's original sim and it's purpose, now helping to raise funds for Team Fox: the Parkinson's charity founded by Michael J. Fox. Activities go on there several times a week, once where a blind DJ was playing music for some. But what about the sims themselves, the ground levels and the higher levels up above? Becky Shamen visited, and found them so stunning that before she knew it it was way past Midnight and had to continue her explorations the next day, and the day after that.

Read Becky's article in Places.

Weekend at a Glance

There were a few things going on this weekend. Among them, the "Hot Bay City Nights" car show event at Bay City. Still going on at North Channel (128/128/24) until the 27th, you can see a number of classic cars there.

It was also the first day of the new game at Madpea, "Lost Treasure of the Inca Warrior." "People Embark on an epic expedition, solve puzzles and dodge deadly traps as you navigate your way through the Devil's Cave and crack the vault where precious treasures are waiting to be discovered." To play it, teleport to MadPea (218/60/2224), pay for the gaming HUD, and brave the tunnel.

The weekend was also the last couple days of the "Lovefest," or Lovecraft festival, in Umbra. This wasn't about romance, but an event for fans of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft best known for "The Call of Cthulhu." Taking place on the week of the writer's birthday, it's over now, more info available at the website: https://lovefest.wordpress.com/ . Besides the shopping, there was a passenger ship, and an island with things Man Was Not Meant To Know. Read more about the event later this week.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "What The Heck Is This?! Jelly Dolls In Second Life"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

From Alicia Chenaux on August 13 - "Hi guys! I've seen a lot of people recently asking what "jelly dolls" are in Second Life, so I thought I'd make a very short video just showing one and talking a bit on what they are. I don't know all the things, as we all WELL know, but hopefully this helps just a little!"

Alicia has a blog, "Ch'know," on: https://chknowstyle.wordpress.com/

Hat tip: Hamlet Au 

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Relay Wrap-Up. One of the ladies was sporting a pair of fangs. One wonders how she could have ended up with them.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: This Week At The Seanchai Libraries

** SUNDAY, August 21st  at 1:30 pm - TEA TIME  at Baker Street - our new series continues at Tea Time's summer digs at the University of Washington iSchool in SL.  HIS LAST BOW  concludes with "His Last Bow: A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes"
 UW Avalumni (167, 182, 21)

**MONDAY, August 22nd, at 7 pm -  Alison Weir 's THE LOST TUDOR PRINCESS - Selections with Caledonia Skytower.  NOTE: Book Discussion Wednesday @ 5:30pm slt at the CVL - you do not have to have read the entire book to attend and participate.

**TUESDAY, August 23rd, at 7 pm -  Curtiss Anderson's BLUEBERRY SUMMERS: Growing Up at the Lake concludes with Kayden Oconnell

**WEDNESDAY, August 24th, at 7 pm -- Laurie B. King's A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN ~ Part 1 begins at Seanchai's Baker Street, currently at the University of Washington iSchool in SL.  UW Avalumni (167, 182, 21)

**THURSDAY, August 25th,
   ~ at 7pm - REY'S STORY - from STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS pt 1 with Shandon Loring (In Second Life and Kitely. Check Kitely event announcements for specific grid location)

   ~ at 9pm - SEANCHAI LATE NIGHT.  Sci-Fi with Finn Zeddmore.

** SATURDAY, August 27th

  ~ at 11am: @KITELY  WELCOME TO GATSBY - Seanchai Library is pleased to contribute to Kitely History Month with a selection from F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American Novel.  Join us on the drive of Gatsby's mansion in Seanchai's EXPLORE as Caledonia and Shandon whisk us back to 1922. (grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai)

   ~ at 3pm: More "LOST IN AUSTEN" Again, on LEA 8!
Jane Austen's English Countryside on LEA 8 invites all Austen Lovers at the Riverside Reading Stage as Seanchai Library's Caledonia Skytower presents selections from Miss Austen's "Mansfield Park."
LEA8 (143, 150, 22)

All stories told in open voice. All times SL/PT

"We bring stories of all kinds to life, in VIRTUAL WORLDS."

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bradley%20University/100/209/28

"Like" and "Friend" us on facebook!  https://www.facebook.com/SeanchaiLib

 www.seanchailibrary.com

Announcement: "Faith Filled Furries" Dance at Club Remnants

Sunday at 8PM SL time is the monthly "Faith-Filled Furries" dance at Club Remnants, a club for a Christian group, TRF Ministries, and their friends, "Not your daddies night club. Real people, Real Faith, Real Christians."

As it turns out, one of the members has a birthday this weekend. So they're making it in part a birthday party. There's also a contest for the best Pokemon look. 

Dreamworld Pirate (192, 69, 22)

SL Video: "Chipettes Bad Romance"

(Click here if the video fails to play)

By Nydia Tungsten on August 19, "Here we go, The Chipettes are all grown up and dancing for you to their version of "Bad Romance."

Games in Second Life: Linden Realms and 7Seas

Recently Linden Lab opened a "Gaming Island" to demonstrate how "skill games" are played. Gemma Cleanslate does some gaming in Second Life, but she had little interest in the kind the new Linden area highlights. Her two favorites are Linden Realms and a longtime fishing game in Second Life: 7Seas. She decided to write about them to describe what their attraction is.

Read Gemma's article in Design.

Commentary: Misconceptions About Virtual Worlds

Wesley Regenbogen is back writing for the paper after a leave of absence for a few months. During this time, he was making an effort to start a fundraising effort to collect funds for a real-life charity that was working to research treatments and ultimately a cure for a genetic blood disorder. But ultimately his effort would prove unsuccessful. Wesley felt the main reason for the lack of interest of the charities he contacted was either they couldn't understand the concept of virtual worlds, or they had mistaken ideas about what users of virtual worlds did there. Wesley had a few words to say about this.

Read Wesley's commentary in Extra.

Man Pleads Guilty to Second Life Land Fraud in Real Life Court

While the goings-on in virtual worlds are beyond the understanding of many in real life, the court system found a scam involving thousands of dollars done online clear enough to bring to real life court. In this case, a man plead guilty to swindling a woman in a Second Life real estate deal.

In April 2015, Joshua Bills was arrested and charged with fraud. The crime: a virtual real estate scam, "In the complaint, it stated that a loan agreement was made with Bills for $53,500 for the purposes of expanding his online real estate company. Bills was to use the money to purchase land that he would manage through his company, within the game Second Life, in exchange for a promissory note that would pay $10,000 for the investment within 24 months."

The woman whom was targeted had been renting a home in Second Life from Bills. Then, "He suggested she invest with him to buy more land within the game so he could manage it and make both of them money." But instead of investing the money as promised, the majority of it went to his E-Trade investment account.

Indiana Securities Commissioner Alex Glass commented in a statement, "This was certainly a unique case in that it dealt with online, virtual real estate. However, upon examination of the facts, this case is very similar to a conventional real estate investment scheme. Con artists are always finding new and unique ways to scam trusting individuals out of their hard earned money."

Bills plead guilty in Marion County Indiana court. He was sentenced in late July to three years probation, and ordered to repay the woman he defrauded in full.

Hamlet Au of New World Notes, which also wrote about the case, commented, "this conviction helps establish a legal precedent for future prosecution of other virtual scams."

Sources: Business Weekly, ind.gov 

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Hot Bay City Nights 2016

BAY CITY, SL (18 August 2016) - Celebrating Bay City's mid-century theme as well as its vast network of roadways, the "Hot Bay City Nights" event in Second Life® showcase vehicle makers who create automobiles from the Bay City "theme era," stretching from 1940 to 1965.

The event is held in the the Bay City Fairgrounds, in the North Channel region, from the 20-27th of August to present the best in vintage and retro vehicles. Each designer is hand-picked, and presents great road vehicles for use in Second Life.

Additional events will provide plenty for all to do, including the crowning of 2016s Miss Bay City on the 27th, and a series of virtual car washes for charity. The first of these virtual car washes will be held on Sunday, 21 August at 1:00 p.m. SLT

The event will raise funds for Child's Play Charity, an organization that provides toys and games for children in hospitals around the world. Bay City is a silver-level sponsor of Child's Play.

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab™ and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life™ and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

For more information, contact: Marianne McCann

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/North Channel/128/128/24

Announcement: The Science Circle - “Science in the News: Exciting Things Are Happening!”

By Phil Youngblood

A century ago some noted scientists proclaimed that there was nothing more to discover. How wrong they were! It was not long after that we discovered atoms are made of smaller particles, the universe was enormous and expanding, and there were strange forces and ‘laws’ of physics that were needed to explain the worlds of the very small and very large.

Today we continue to make discoveries that humble us because they show just how little we know about ourselves, our world, and worlds beyond ours. Yet even what little we know is powerful, and applying what we know can make changes on an unprecedented scale, so we must together make decisions that will affect everyone’s future.

We live in exciting times! Come learn about and discuss recent discoveries, what we are doing with what we learn, and the ramifications of our actions, all of which continue to make science such a relevant and fascinating study both today and in the future.

The Science Circle (114/206/30)

The Relay Wrap-Up

It was the end of another successful season for the Relay for Life. 2016 "Once Upon a Cure" had seen many events and millions of Linden dollars raised to help the American Cancer Society. Now it was time to bring the season to an official close with awarding some individuals and teams for their efforts, announcing the theme for next season, and give overall congratulations for a job well done. For one certain reporter, there was a surprise at this year's Wrap-Up.

Read the story in Events.

Eye on the Blog: Linden Lab Announces New Marketplace Search is Active

On Monday August 15, Linden Lab announced that their new Marketplace Search was up and running. The Lab stated that included in the new search was a "learning algorithm" that over time will gradually improve over time as residents use it.

Today we’re happy to announce that the new Marketplace search is live!  In addition to helping you find what you are looking for faster, we’re excited to swap out the ageing infrastructure that was supporting the old search.  Part of the new search is a learning algorithm that will further improve search results with time - the more it’s used, the better it performs.  Also, keep in mind that you can use boolean operators in search (AND, OR, NOT) for more specific searches.  We look forward to a more relevant and robust experience for shoppers and merchants alike.

The Lab had included Marketplace as among the things they were improving in their recent list of improvements and developments.

Users are asked to report any bugs found in the Jira.

The blog entry can be found here.

Cartoon of the Day

Shockwave Yareach at the Space event at Club Cutlass.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Trade Winds

Becky Shamen's explorations took her to a place known for it's recreating the days in the West Indies when pirates sailed the seas: Trade Winds. With twelve sims, there's no shortage of water to sail around in and islands to explore. So what did Becky Find?

Read Becky's article in Places.

Project Sansar to Go Public in January 2017, Ebbe Linden States In Interview

More than two years since it's development was first announced, Ebbe Linden is confident enough about Project Sansar's development that he announced a date for when it will be fully available for the general public: January 2017.

Ebbe gave the date in an interview with Donnie SC Lygonis. He stated a few months ago in testing, Sansar had a high "discomfort rating." But since then, it's improved. Ebbe also repeated that the Lab plans to invite in an additional number of testers, by invitation only, later this August.

So it seems after about two and a half years, people will finally be able to set foot in the virtual world.

For the Podcast with the interview: Click here .

*Addition* Listening to the video, Ebbe Linden described the decision to start work on a new virtual world as their response to Second Life's slowly declining user base. They had been trying to do something about it for a while, and after Ebbe came in they concluded the best thing to do was to work on something entirely new.

Sources: Daniel Voyager, Jo Yardley

Bixyl Shuftan

Events This Week at the Sunweaver and Furry Fashion Clubs

It's another exciting week of events at the Sunweaver clubs and Furry Fashion Lounge.

The Happy Vixen: Wolves, Leather and Latex, Silks

Club Cutlass: Best in "X, Y, and Z," Best in Green,"It's Magical"

Furry Fashion Lounge: The 80's, Prehistoric, Nostagia, Punk, Hawaiian, Kings of the Road, Hybrids, Fandoms

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'.

Transylvania Celebrates Twelfth Anniversary

Friday August 12 was the twelfth anniversary of the Transylvania sim. Parties had been going on all week, but Friday was the big day, or rather the big night. Residents or all sorts came by, vampires, weres, and normal humans in both dark outfits and regular clothes. Hopefully the latter brought plenty of garlic.

There was a birthday cake in the own square, as well as a number of fang emblem balloons for the anniversary, or the "fangsgiving" as someone called it. While there were plenty of vampires, there were no sightings of vampire bats, this time. Not one tried to give this fox reporter a hickey.

Vampire fans have been a part of Second Life for most of it's history. They do have an iffy reputation among some due to the "Bloodlines" game, but the vampires themselves look down on those who abuse it, calling them "leeches." While Transylvania is not the only vamp area, it is the oldest and best known one.

The real Transylvania had no vampires of course, though it is noted for Gothic architecture. It should be noted that Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for the character Count Dracula, was not from Transylvania, but what is now southern Romania. Perhaps Transylvania sounded spookier than Wallachia. But the name of the place has become so linked to vampires, no one is trying to "suck" the fun from fans of the undead.

Bixyl Shuftan

And The Award Goes To ...

Gemma Cleanslate was among those who attended the Relay Wrap-Up yesterday, the last event of the Relay for Life fundraising season. Congratulations were handed out to all, and awards to several noted Relayers. Among the new awards was the "Community Champion" award. Two individuals were given the award. One was Zander Green. The other turned out to be one of the Second Life Newser crew.

Read Gemma's article in People.

Transcript For the Relay Wrap-Up

The article for the Relay Wrap-Up will be available later today. In the meantime, there is the transcript provided by Cuddly Waffle. Here, one can find out the theme of next year (Passport to Hope), the total amount raised, and the winners of several awards.

Read the transcript in Events.

Coming Soon: Pokemon Sim in Second Life

With the "Pokemon Go" game all the rage, one might ask if there's a place in Second Life where one can play something similar. In the sim of Ravenlock there's a Pokemon game which has been going on for quite some time. The sim and game are run by a team headed by Mindy Runo. Mindy had to work this weekend, so the article will have to wait. For now if you want to try out the game, bead to Ravenlock (128, 127, 144).

Bixyl Shuftan