With Hurricane Mathew in the news, I thought about a sim that was aimed at teaching residents about the weather: NOAA Island, sometimes called Weather Island, at the Meteora sim. But taking a look, I found that the location was not on the map. A search revealed it wasn't just located, but nowhere on the map. Nor was it on the Destinations Guide.
NOAA Island has apparently vanished, probably some time ago. Checking the Youtube about it, the place was still around three years ago at least, though some exhibits were no longer working, possibly due to Linden Lab software updates.
NOAA Island had been set up by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration US government agency in 2007 during the heyday of Second Life as a way to help educate people about the weather. The place was part of the collection of sims known as the "Sci-Lands." Second Life Newspaper, and then Second Life Newser reported about the place in March 2008 and August 2011. At the later date, the sim had some neighbors such as NOAA Island 2 and Second Earth, a gigantic interactive globe. There was much to see in the sim, such as a tidal wave simulation, which had been the target of humor at least once, an interactive weather map, and a hurricane hunter airplane ride.
The sim was the scene of some activity in April 2012 in which people from the US Government were likely involved, along with the Raytheon corporation, with some project, but there is no information about any involvement since.
Most of us would agree the US Government would have better use for it's money than a sim (though could probably recall it being used for things much less useful), but it's still sad to see the place go.
A hurricane is threatening the East Coast, causing storms this weekend and making landfall about Monday. This may mean power outages that could last for hours or days, depending on the severity of the winds, and the priorities of the repair crews should there be a lot of damage to the power grid. As a few SL Newser reporters are in it's path, including the editor, there is the possibility the SL Newser will stop updating, aside from what was uploaded ahead of time, for a short time.
Check out weather.com, or other sources of information on the latest. For a look at weather in Second Life, check out NOAA Virtual Weather (2011 article).
Just as when the East Coast in the United States is looking forward to Halloween comes a scare from Mother Nature. Usually hurricanes don't come this way after Labor Day, so it was a surprise when Hurricane Sandy began heading this way. To make matters worse, it's expected to merge with a cold front system. This collision of a tropical storm and the cold front has been described as a "perfect storm." Coming so close to Halloween, it was dubbed "The Frankenstorm" by some.
High winds and flooding are expected, and exactly where the worst will be is not clear due to the unpredictable nature of hurricanes. Power could potentially be out for days in places. A few SL Newser writers, including the Editor, are in it's path. So there is the potential of updates being down for a few days.
Check out weather.com, or other sources of information on the latest.
For a look at weather in Second Life, check out NOAA Virtual Weather (2011 article).
Although not as many real life businesses have an inworld presence as a few years ago, some continue to do some work in Second Life. One I hadn't heard of doing so was Raytheon, at least until I stumbled across a Youtube by accident.
The video describes Raytheon helping out NOAA bring a number of science teachers inworld "together in one dynamic learning space" at a "NOAA Virtual Workshop of Climate Change" to discuss the latest climate news to share with classrooms, suggesting there were some Raytheon workers also inworld in-avatar.
It wasn't mentioned when the event took place, but the video was uploaded on March 7, a week before the VWBPE(Virtual World Best Practices in Education) conference, so that can be ruled out.
Taking a look at NOAA Island at Meteora, there were no signs of the buildings in the video. So where this was taken remains unknown.
The youtube can be found at : http://youtu.be/vuR2xeIcnFM . Although one can get copies of the link, the option to embed it on a webpage is gone.
*UPDATE* It's possible that the recording was done in the Energy Island sim, which while around when visited in August, has somehow since vanished, along with most of NOAA Island's other immediate neighbors. I say possible as that sim was closed to public access despite that it seemed to be set up for Education purposes.
With Hurricane Irene in the news recently, I decided to take another look at a place I first reported on a few years ago, NOAA island. Set up in the Meteora sim, the sim is set up to educate residents about weather and ocean science, in ways that are often entertaining.
