The End For The Science Circle

 

 For years, The Science Circle has been offering discussions on various science subjects. But it appears that has come to an end. Instead of information including the subject of the next lecture, the website, https://www.sciencecircle.org/, had a goodbye message. 

 

After seventeen wonderful years of lectures, discussions, field trips, and friendships, Stichting The Science Circle is closing its doors.

We are incredibly grateful to every speaker, visitor, partner, and supporter who made this international community possible. Together we explored everything from quantum physics to climate change, from astronomy to archaeology — always with curiosity, rigor, and joy.

Although the foundation ends here, the passion for science continues. A number of us will keep meeting and organizing activities in Second Life.
You are more than welcome to join us there for lectures, debates, and new adventures.

Thank you for being part of this unique journey.
– The Science Circle team

 The Newser has reported on Science Circle events for years. It is sad to see them go.

 

For All Seasons, Hilly Haalan Knows What You Love

 

Thanks to Netera Landar, the long-neglected Fashion section of the Newser is getting a story. She dropped by Hilly Haalan, a store with a wide selection of womens' wear. So just what did she find?

 

Read Netara's article in Fashion. 

Christmas Shop And Hop Starts Today

 

 For those of you who love Christmas shopping, or looking for a good buy and the occasional freebie, good news. The Holiday Shop and Hop, organized by Linden Lab, starts today.

 

The 2025 Holiday Shop & Hop is ... here with 360 participating Creators across 18 shopping regions, bringing you loads of festive fun! Every store will have at least a 20% discount on all items and a free (non-group) gift for shoppers or a gift certificate valued at L$300 or above! 

 

The fun starts today, Friday December 5, at 9AM SL time,  and as the announcement says, there's a lot of territory to cover, 360 stores across 18 sims. Each item will be on sale at least twenty percent, and at least one free gift or a gift certificate worth at least 300 Linden dollars. 

 

To get to the Shop and Hop, check its section in the Destination Guide for the list of sims, teleport to one of the stores from the list on the bottom three-fifths of the Holiday Events blog page, or just jump right in at Gleaming (128/128/54). 

 

For those shopping after Christmas, the event goes on to Sunday January 4 2026.  

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Press Release: December 7 HFOT Benefit

 

Frets Nirvana, longtime supporter and contact for Homes For Our Troops in Second Life in conjunction with the US Military Veterans Group, announces the December 2025 Homes for Our Troops benefit in Second Life.   The benefit will be held on December 7, Pearl Harbor day from 10-2 PM SLT Veteran's Isle Military center.

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 have suffered severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).  Since its inception in 2004, nearly 90 cents of every dollar spent by Homes for Our Troop has gone to directly support Veterans. DURING THAT TIME HFOT HAS BUILT 425 SPECIALLY ADAPTED HOMES NATIONWIDE FOR EXTREMELY INJURED VETERANS.” 


This HFOT benefit concert will feature the following DJ’s and artists from 5 PM- 8 PM on October 5:

DJ Zack 10 PM
Quartz 11 PM
Paul Kindhartdman 12 PM
Ed Lowell, Mr. Multiwriter and Wizard Sideshow triple stream 1 PM

Sponsored by Frets Nirvana and the U.S. Military Veteran’s Group of Second Life.  To learn more about Homes for Our Troops visit https://www.hfotusa.org

 

EOTB: "Joy To The Grid"

 

Linden Lab's latest blog post is about various Christmas and winter events and activities. 

 

Happy December, Residents! The holidays are here, and we’ve packed the season with festive fun for everyone. From epic shopping sprees to snowball battles, there’s no shortage of ways to celebrate in Second Life this winter. Here’s a peek at what’s coming your way:  

 

The themes range from the Christmas Shop and Hop which opens tomorrow (check for more information tomorrow morning), new last names, Premium account gifts, "Santa Patch" at the Christmas Expo, the Linden Snowball Fight, and more. 

 

We'll have more info about some of these later. For now, you can check out the Linden blog (here). 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Press Release: Bay City's Annual Tree Lighting And Fundraising Concert

 

BAY CITY, SL (2 December 2025) -  Celebrate the holidays once again as the Bay City Alliance hosts its annual Tree Lighting event on the 7th of December, 2025, from 1-4 pm SLT, at the Bay City Fairgrounds, in North Channel ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/North%20Channel/128/128/24/ ). 

DJ GoSpeed of KONA Stream will start off the event, followed by crowd favorites  AleyKat (Aleylia Resident) and Maximillion Kleene. In addition to the music, the event will also feature ice-skating, dancing, and refreshments.

As part of the event, a silent auction supporting Child's Play Charity (www.childsplaycharity.org) will be held. Bay City has supported Child’s Play through the holidays for many years, and is very happy to continue this partnership.

Dozens of items will be available including one-of-a-kind art, vehicles from top Second Life creators, home furnishings, gift cards, and much more.

Additional Second Life® designers and artists who wish to participate by providing fun, interesting, unique, or other transferrable items (or a no-copy object that the auction winner can give to you to redeem their prize, if the item(s) have to be no transfer) may contact ThomasHooker Resident to participate.

Auction will end at the conclusion of the event. All proceeds from the silent auction and from donation bins at the venue will go to Child's Play Charity. Child's Play is a 501c3 non profit organization offers online communities such as ours an opportunity to help seriously ill children around the globe during their hospital stays with the purchase of games and gaming equipment. 

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 group for Residents of Bay City.

For more information, please contact Marianne McCann.

 

Announcement: Annual Chateau Trikassi Holiday Ball

 

Please join us to welcome in the Holiday Season at the annual Chateau Trikassi Holiday Ball!

Saturday, December 6th

1pm slt

Music by SWORD

Special Guests: The Raglan Shire Tiny Carolers

Formal Attire

All Welcome!
 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wooburn/175/128/43

 

Cartoon of the Day: Grin and Bear It

 

 From Club Furbidden. Panda avatars, for some reason, are uncommon on Second Life. They certainly stand out. The girls are cute. But there could be, other reasons. 

 

By Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Bits of SL Life And Times

 

As I wrote earlier, yours truly can be very busy in real life sometimes. So sometimes there's very little time to write. And so things I would like to put my pen down to get postponed, sometimes again and again. So here's a few things that I couldn't find the time to write down earlier, such as cool Halloween looks, an alt experience, and a wrestling match.

 

Read, and see, the tales and pictures in People.

 

Scenes From The Christmas Expo: Dragon Landing

 

 Taken at the Christmas Expo. With some supporters of the American Cancer Society (The Expo technically isn't a Relay event) having large avatars, it can make for something of a situation on the dance floor. So there was a special platform for the dragons at the main stage.

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Events This Week at the Sunweaver and Montecito Bay Clubs, Furry Fashion, Urban Furry, and Club Scorn

 

 

Here's what's going on at the Sunweaver, Montecito Bay, Furry Fashion, Urban Furry, and Scorn clubs.

Club Cutlass: Punk Rock, Dementia Royale (Dr. Demento, Winter Arrives

Happy Vixen: DJ Arooo, DJ Charlee, DJ Scratch, DJ Malit, TBA, DJ Khyra

Club Zero Gravity: DJ Rose - 

 

Bouncing Bunny Beach Club:  DJ Rose - 

Xanadu: DJ Jesse 

Club Squeaks: DJ Squeaks

 

Montecito Bay:  CAYA, After Dark

Club Scorn: Th 8-12, Sat 2-12

 

Furry Fashion: TBA

 

Urban Furry :  DJ Juana, DJ Charlee, DJ Whiskey, DJ Vantox

 

Read the schedules in SL Clubbin'

 

 

Getting Ready For "Santa's Smile" Event

 

While the Christmas Expo is going on, the "Feed A Smile" charity is getting ready for another event: "Santa's Smile." It will be taking place on Saturday December 6 and Sunday December 7

 

Over two festive days, 28 live performers will give concerts to raise funds for the Live and Learn in Kenya children from the slums of Nakuru — giving them a Christmas gift and a festive meal during the holidays.

 

The Santa’s Smile Event runs through the entire month of December, with live concerts all across the event sim and an art exhibition inside a replica of the original Santa’s Home at the Polar Circle near Rovaniemi, Lapland (Finland). It’s a full Winter Wonderland sim — beautiful, magical, and full of heart.

 

For those interested in joining up, there should be a few spaces remaining among the 24 spots for vendors. They are free, but 100% of the sales go to the charity. Contact Tom Sparkle if you're interested in getting one. 

 

"Huts and the event area will stay open until the first week of January 2026!" 

 

Feed A Smile supports  Live and Learn in Kenya NGO, which is currently helping "over 570 children receive education, food, and care." Besides food, schooling and medical care is also provided. 

 

For more information on the charity, contact Brique Topaz,  Maria Binder, Kip Yellowjacket.

 

Website (EN/DE): www.llk-selb.de

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FeedaSmile/

YouTube – Drax Files #16: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha6gxbTw6iQ

Event Calendar: http://goo.gl/dZXFng 

 

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Transistor/161/207/4001

 

Thanksgiving at Antiquity

 

 Some places on Thanksgiving weekend were less active. Not so the Antiquity community of which Prince Jacon and Duke Levi invited everyone to drop over his palace for thanksgiving, both locals and friends of the community. It took place on Saturday November 29 at Noon SL time. 

 

 Crown Prince Jacon and Grand Duke Levi  are pleased to invite you to join them a for Thanksgiving dinner. This gathering is a time to share gratitude, enjoy a festive meal, and celebrate the bonds of community. Your presence will make the occasion all the more meaningful as we come together in fellowship and tradition.

The event was well attended, and while the community standard was 19th century fashion, other outfits were acceptable. Besides the humans and a furry or two, there were a number of tinies and a taur.  

 

There was much chatter about goings on, how various people were doing, real-life dinners, a few comments about tiny and human-sized foxes by the tinies, and other things.  

 

And everybody kept their hands off the cake until later into the dinner. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Announcement: The DIckens Project

 

THE DICKENS PROJECT; featuring "A Christmas Carol"

Produced by Seanchai Library

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Dickens%20Project/129/128/1401

 

The Dickens Project opens to the SL public December 4th, celebrating the work of British author Charles Dickens, and featuring his classic novella "A Christmas Carol". 

Walk in the steps of Ebenezer Scrooge on his Christmas journey to redemption.

Events and activities at the 2025 The Dickens Project include:

      ~ Interactive Experience-Based Map to aid in your exploration
     
     ~ Audio HUD (so you can listen to your favorite ghost: past, present, or yet to come
    ~ Plenty of Performances and Presentations by performing  groups and artists of all kinds
     
     ~ Open Art Show, featuring the work of SL Visual artists
     
     ~ "Scrooge's Story" group dance adventure presented by **CATALYST**
     
     ~ Themed Dance Parties presented by eClipse Club & Resort
     
     ~ Fezziwig's Ball presented by Flygearz
     
     ~ Story presentations from the works of Charles Dickens, including a Story Tour (Full Text) of "A Christmas Carol."
         
     ~ Information on the author at The Dickens Library
     
     ~ Plenty of photo ops and things to explore (clickie!)
     
     ~ and more (really . . . we mean that)


All venue tips from events will be donated to Reading is Fundamental.
More information available soon at https://irelandslstory.blogspot.com/