Kaleidoscope – The Monarch Education Project

 

Netera Landar recently stopped by the Kaleidoscope sim to visit something interesting, especially to lovers of nature: The Monarch Education Project.  The place has much information about the Monarch butterfly, which unlike other butterflies migrates from north to south and back again every year, as well as being visually pleasing. One can pick up a freebie pet butterfly as well.

 

Read Netera's article in Places.  

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

 

Saturday March 29

 

    ~*~

 

    At 10 AM PST   

    SC Moon Base Project Immersive Experience

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/sc-immersive/

    Organized by Phil Youngblood

    Moon Base

 

    ~*~

 

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

SL Video: Second Life Destinations - Poland History House

 

 

 (click here if the video does not play)

 

 From Draxtor Despres (And Linden Lab) on Monday April 11, "The Poland History House in Second Life is a historical project created as part of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s Independence celebrations which started in 2018. Creator Dex Euromat shares his Second Life journey and why he started this project.

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday, March 4

 

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    BB: JWST and Astronomy

    By Matt Burr (Beragon Betts)

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/beragons-bistro-3/

    Light House Cafe

 

   The Science Circle (225,230,28)

      

    ~*~

 

    At 9 PM PST   

    Celebrating Women

    By  Jes Stannard

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/celebrating-women/

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

 

    ~*~

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday, March 4

 

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    Project Moon Base

    By Terry Beaubois, March

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/project-moon-base/

    Auditorium

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

      

    ~*~

 

    At 9 PM PST   

    Natural Language Processing

    By Karthik Prathabin,  Jes Stannard

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/natural-language/

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

 

    ~*~

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

Announcement: Panda Jenn Looking For Furry Avatars to Help With Video Collaboration

 

Panda Jenn (PandaJenn0 Resident) is working on a collaboration project in which the aim is to get a number of people to take part in a video, and those with furry Second Life avatars are invited to take part.

 

I want to do a collaborated video with all you furries dancing. (preferably in fursuit, vr chat avatar, SL avatar, etc.) The final cut will be to the song "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston. If you're interested, please DM me.

 

Second Life residents can contact her via a notecard or IM (both might be best). For those interested who don't have a furry avatar, there are free or nearly free avatars, such as the Wingless avatars, available.
 

To check out what videos Jenn has done before, her Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/PandaJenn . 

SLEA Bridge Project And Steve Who

 

Gemma Cleanslate recently went back to the Second Life Endowment of the Arts, the SLEA, and found a couple noteworthy happenings. One was the SLEA Bridge Project, which aims to "shorten that distance between YOU and an immersive arts experience in SL." The other at the SLEA's Street Cafe was a Steve Who. So who is Steve Who? A real-life musician with a following in Second Life.

Read Gemma's story in Design.

Team Firestorm Announces EEP Firestorm Viewer Available In Beta

In April, Linden Lab announced that the Environmental Enhancement Project, or "EEP," was part of the official viewer. But for the most widely used viewer, Firestorm, the skies in sims making use of the feature just looked odd. So that would limit the use of EEP. Team Firestorm has been working on the issue. And while they're not ready to make EEP part of their finished viewers yet, a few days ago they announced they had a beta viewer available that makes use of the feature.

As many of you know, Linden Lab’s Environmental Enhancement Project has been in the works for a long time and reached the grid in 2019. While the official SL viewer has had EEP for a few months, Firestorm has been working to eliminate bugs in our own implementation and streamline/improve the interface. While we don’t feel that EEP is ready for full release—in fact, it has not passed our QA yet—Linden Lab wants all SL users to have access to it, and many of you have been clamoring to use it.

Before you ask, this is NOT a required update. It is a beta viewer and will not count against Firestorm’s 3-available-versions rule. You do NOT have to uninstall your current Firestorm, and in fact we suggest that you keep it. The beta viewer will install alongside your existing Firestorm on a separate channel (on Windows).

Since it's a beta viewer, and not a finished one, there are still bugs in the system, "As an entirely new environmental system, EEP still has bugs to be worked out. You may see strange lighting glitches. Some have experienced reduced FPS." On the other hand, there are some fixes for bugs in the existing finished viewer.

For more information, and to download the EEP beta viewer, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

EOTB: The Environmental Enhancement Project is Online

In the official Second Life blog yesterday, Linden Lab announced that after a few years in development, the Environmental Enhancement Project, or "EEP" for short, was fully ready and part of the Grid and regular viewer.

The big day is here!  The Environmental Enhancement Project has been released grid-wide.  As of today the default viewer download and all regions on the grid fully support EEP!

In short, EEP offers big improvements in how one can modify the sky, water settings, and day cycles in one's sim or parcel. One can create and modify "environmental objects," and even sell them to others. You can have up to four different sky levels with very different appearances. The Sun, Moon, and cloud textures can be replaced with custom ones. One can change the four-hour day/night cycle in Second Life to 24 hours, or even a 168 hours (seven days), and more.



Besides the video about EEP provided by the Lab, one can also check out the Wiki page. Inara Pey would also write a tutorial and a primer.

Sources: Linden blog, Modem World

New Crux Avatars On The Way

Some avatars come and go. Others retain a following. Among the later is the Crux. Despite having been around in Second Life for over a decade, this unusual avatar retains a following among a number of residents. Sovereign Wolf (Angelina Shen), whom is skilled at mesh content making, decided to take it upon herself to update the avatar using mesh and bento. Cyfir heard about her efforts, and interviewed her about her project.

Read Cyfir's interview in Design.

Sneak Peek: Silvia's Secret Project

Silvia Ametza, the woman who's been the designer of the Newser's exhibits for the past few years, has been helping out a friend with another project. It's not quite complete, but Silvia did suggest putting up a hint as to what it is. The project should be finished soon.

The Broken Dreams Project

Second Life is often a place to celebrate. But sometimes it can be a place to mourn as well. The Newser recently found out about a memorial area, The Broken Dreams Project. There are monuments here to young and old whose lives ended too soon. Deaflegacy went to the memorial, and gave a report on the place.

Read Deaflegacy's article in Places.

Breaking News: New Project Elemenoh Sim Region, Second Life Birthday Sims, Appear

Tyche Shepherd's weekly Grid update in the SL Universe forums had some interesting news. Among the 66 new sims on the map were those for the Second Life Birthday. Each with "SLB" and "Build" as parts of their names, there are 21 in all from SLB 1 Build to SLB 21 Build. A few already have water, and roads or other builds on them. As time goes on, there will certainly be more. As of now, the Newser has heard no announcements by the Second Life Birthday organizers, but no doubt there will soon be a call for volunteers, performers, and exhibitors. The sims are closed to all but a few, and are just south of the Paleoquest game areas, which are far to the southwest of most other sims.

There was also a group of 13 sims that Tyche called part of a new project by Linden Lab: Project Elemenoh. Twelve of the sims are labled "Elemenoh 1 Build" to "Elemenoh 12 Build," with a "Elemenoh Dev" seperate and a little to the northwest. Aside from their appearances on the map, which are varried, not much else is known about these sims. There are two groups of 12 sims each nearby, Build LR 1 to Build LR 12 and Staging LR 1 to Staging LR 12, which Tyche didn't mention. Also nearby was a four sim group each with "Snuffle" in it's name and two other sims. It's unclear if they're part of Project Elemenoh, or are part of something else is working on.

The sims, along with the Portal Partk Winter Build just south of them, are south of most sims on the map, with the Black Rose sim some distance to the east being the closest open to all I could find.

Stay tuned for more information on both when it becomes available.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager 

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: The Exciting climax of "Carol Week"

@11AM on LEA 7 - WALD SCHRIDDE. LIVE! at The Dickens Project - Traditional acoustic music, Wald plays an amazing variety of instruments from things with strings to penny whistles.  Come and enjoy an hour of seasonal music with this delightful man of music, live in Dickens Square.


@NOON on LEA 7 - A CHRISTMAS CAROL - The "Big Read" at The Dickens Project - All the words, from beginning to end, performed by a talented chorus of nine storytellers, relay style, in one live presentation.  "Marley was dead..." to "... bless us everyone" in voice and on stream.

The Dickens Project 2017 - LEA7 (118, 148, 21)

Update on Ozimals: New "Fables" Bunnies On The Way

Just as the fans of Ozimal's bunnies were coming to terms with their pets no longer breedable, the following announcement was made, in notecard, in the "For the Love of Oz" group.

Hello from the land of Fables!

The creators of Ozimals, Candy and Malk, would like to share with you our new breedables project, Fables! Fairy dust is flying, behind the scenes, as we work to bring magical life to our first animal--the beloved Bunny!

To keep up with our progress, join our in-world Fables Update group, (secondlife:///app/group/d973573f-9060-3efa-d22a-2efffc2eecec/about ) visit our website www.fablesinsl.com, and join our email list. We're also on Plurk if you'd like to follow us there: https://www.plurk.com/fablesinsl

Our alpha testing group is closed, but we will need more testers in the near future! If you are interested in helping Fables as a beta tester, please send a notecard to Vander Ashland.

We are thrilled to begin a new adventure, and hope all of you will join us as we explore the mysterious world of Fables!

Happily ever after,
Fables Team

There were no updates in the Fables group when I checked. And there was no additional information in the website or Plurk. On some discussion in the "For the Love of Oz" group, Molly Glitter and Vander Ashland confirmed themselves to be Ozimal creators Candy Cerveau and Malkavyn Eldritch respectively. When someone worried that Ozimals' legal troubles might follow, he was told by Molly, " I can tell you that this is a new project from ground up and we own every piece of it. (smile)."

I instant-messaged Molly, and we had a conversation in which she gave me the okay to use. She told me, "Well, we are very excited to work on a new project from ground up, with lots of updates and enhancements to the original, since we were limited as to how much we could improve the old product. We plan to keep the core of what made the bunnies so fun, and use SL's advances over the years to make them even better." When I asked how soon we could see them on the market, she told me, "We're currently in a closed alpha, with a bunny model in testing and a waiting list for beta. That's about all we could comfortably say right now, but we will be updating the community regularly with our progress via the Fables Update group."


I asked her if she could tell me what the differences between Ozimals and Fables bunnies would be. She told me, "Not quite yet, but we'll be putting out some notices with additional information on our updates and upgrades in the next week or two. We like to have a feature well tested and working properly before we talk about it." I asked if there were plans in the future of pets other than bunnies. She answered, "We've always had ideas for other animals, but we've been limited with what we could do within the old framework. For Fables, we are building it from the start with the ability to create other pets, and we do have a couple in mind (smile), but for now, we are focused on the Bunny. (smile)" I asked would there be some kind of discount offered to Ozimal customers. I was told, "As of now, we're still being advised on on our ability to do that, but we'd love to give back to our loyal community who choose to support us with the new venture if we are able to."

I then brought up, carefully, the group member who expressed worry about Ozimal's legal troubles. She answered, "it is completely new code and assets, owned entirely by us. and created from the ground up. There is no claim anyone else can try to make on this new product." But I was told they couldn't comment on Akimeta's statement following the closing of Ozimals, "Unfortunately, we've been advised that any further public comments on that matter beyond what we said when we closed Ozimals could present legal risk to us, so I'm not able to respond to their statement. We want to look forward to new beginnings and the future, and the community asked us to come back, so that's where we want to focus now. (smile)."

"We're very excited to be working on Fables, we are planning to release more info regularly to our group, and are happy to talk about the new project any time. (smile) Thank you for speaking to me."

And so, Ozimal fans have hope that the creators of their pets will soon be out with a new kind of bunny. Under a new name and a code created by them, will they be free of the problems of their predecessors? Time will tell. But for now, the residents in the bunny group are happy to hear the news breedable bunnies will soon be back.

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview added 7:50AM

1920s Berlin Project's Eighth Anniversary Celebrations

History fans in Second Life should be happy to know that the 1920's Berlin Project is celebrating it's eighth anniversary. Jo Yardley, who runs the historical roleplay community, made an announcement on her blog.

I can’t believe that it has been 8 years since that evening in 2009 when I opened my club and had our first little 1920s Berlin themed party in a tiny skybox. I didn’t expect much of it, I had only been in SL for a week when I started building and I had no idea what I was doing. But the theme somehow managed to attract the right crowd and within no time a vibrant community of creative, fun, interesting and exciting people started to grow and populate my simplistic pile of prims.

It is impossible to explain how much the 1920s Berlin project means to me and I am always touched and excited to hear that it also means a lot to so many others.

Starting May 30 and ending June 6, there will be celebratory events daily, mostly in the early to mid afternoon, though a few are in the late morning or late afternoon. Tuesday May 30 was the dance under the Brandenburg Gate, followed by fireworks. Wednesday May 31 has children's events. Thursday June 1 includes the food festival with beer, sausage, beer, cheese, and more beer. Friday June 2 will be a celebratory dinner and live music at the Hotel Adlon. Saturday June 3 has the Miss Berlin Beauty pageant. Sunday June 4 has the opening of a new library and art venue. Monday June 5 has a pool party and a showing of the movie "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1931). Tuesday June 6 is when the normal rules about modern clothing and nonhuman avatars are relaxed (personal note: the only day I can get into the place with my normal look).

There is also a "My Favorite Spot in Berlin" photo contest, with a 2500 Linden prize (second place 1000 Lindens).

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/1920s%20Berlin%20Project/243/224/1929

Source: 1920's Berlin Project  

Veterans Isle Raises 100,000 Lindens in Benefit

On Sunday June 26, Veterans Isle held it's monthly fundraising concert. Frets Nirvana and three other live performers played music for the crowd. The event was to raise money for the "Homes For Our Troops" charity.

Frets Nirvana: We are kicking off this July 4th week with our monthly benefit for Homes For Our Troops.  Come out and support our severely wounded veterans and enjoy a great lineup of performers.

The musicians performed on stage with a flag background with a "Homes Four Our Troops" logo. Blindboink Parham was first, starting things up at 5 PM SL time. TerryLynn Melody started playing at 6 PM.
Frets himself took to the stage at 7PM. Finally at 8PM SL time, ReggieSunset Rookswood rounded things out. The donations were made into two kiosks, one on each side of the stage, which resembled overturned helmets.

The crowd was a little lighter than some events earlier in the year, possibly because this was of the Second Life Birthday events going on at the time. Still, there was quite a bit of fun going on. I was there, while TerryLynn was performing. Her performance was well complemented by those in the audience, one saying of a particularly moving tune, "Make me cry again TerryLynn and I am never speaking to you again."

In the crowd, a neko named Mystery Kitten (Mystery Snowpaw) was livening things up with her antics, "Hehe spent my coffee money myself to buy (Lindens)." *keeps singing* "maybe I care scare my RL sons to give more to shut me up." When someone was going around in a Yoda avatar, "Hehe! Matthis has officially made my 8 yr old ... son's night. He loves Yoda (grin) and loves your singing (TerryLynn), he stole my headset." Eventually though, she had to go, "Well all my lovily fellow military bro and sissies and supported huggles till next time. Great to see everyone again. I must poof, RL, little one needs mommy now."

A total of 100,250 Lindens were raised that night.

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

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: "The 'What Second Life Means to Me' Video Share Project"

Following Linden Lab's announcement that they are ordering third-party Linden exchangers to close by August, Xiola Linden posted on the Linden blog about a "video share project," inviting the residents to take part in a promotion of Second Life for it's anniversary.

We’ve been having a lot of fun with no end in sight to the good times - but you can’t turn 12 without a little pride and reflection. Second Life has been going strong for a dozen wonderful years and there’s a ton of things happening to celebrate. You’ll see more to come here in the Featured News Blog - but we wanted to stop and ask - “What is the meaning of Second Life?” To you - that is! This question may sound daunting - but the truth is, tapping into what makes “SL” so special to us as individuals and communities is a really amazing exercise in retrospection and self-discovery. This is your world - so what does it mean to you? Whether you just got started, have been onboard for the full dozen years, or fall somewhere in between - we’d love to see a glimpse of your story in the “What Second Life Means to Me” video project.

For those without a video program, Xiola suggested Fraps, which has a free version, and Camtastia, which has a trial version, She also stated the videos don't have to be strictly inworld, " because we understand that Second Life impacts our offline lives as well."

Xiola started things off with her own video:



(Click Here if the video fails to play)

Stay tuned for more videos

To see the blog entry in it's entirety, Click Here.

Memorial Day Wounded Warrior Benefit Raises Over 100,000 Lindens

Yesterday on Sunday May 26, Veterans Isle held its Memorial Day Weekend Wounded Warrior Benefit. For four hours, performers entertained the crowd, many dancing to the music. The event was organized in part by musician Frets Nirvana.

It is time for the Wounded Warriors Memorial Weekend benefit. And we have a great lineup! Please join us to celebrate the memorial weekend the way it should be ... helping our vets! Give to those who give us our freedom. And say your prayers for one of our supporting Vets. Pondman Haalan (Alton Rex) had to cancel due to health issues. 

Anek Fuchs started the event out at 5PM SL time. At 6PM, Senjata Witt took to the stage. 7PM was when Frets Nirvana got his guitar and went to the stage himself. Finally at 8PM. Rhia Yuhara and her band, "Rhia's Rawkettes," performed for the crowd for the last hour.

"This is the way to celebrate Memorial Weekend!" Frets told everyone at the event, asking people to invite their friends over. As time went on, the amounts in the two kiosks on either side of the stage slowly got larger. On occasion, Frets would match a donation, "1500 during this song and I have to match it." One jeweler offered a custom set of her wares for any donation of $3000 or greater.

By the end of the event, there was 52,500 Lindens in the left kiosk and 48,850 in the right one, for a total of 101,350 Lindens.

"Thank you everyone for supporting."

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Memorial Day Weekend Wounded Warrior Benefit

Frets Nirvana and US Military Veterans Group announces the fifth of 2014 Wounded Warriors benefits.  The fourth year running.  And this is special because it is Memorial Day Weekend!

Frets Nirvana, the premier songwriting and guitar artist in the virtual world Second Life and the US Military Veterans Group announce the fifth of the monthly series of Wounded Warriors benefits in Second Life for 2014.  This effort is now in it’s fourth year!

Frets Nirvana states:  “As a result of the support of many in Second Life this effort raised over $13000 in 2013 for WWP and prior to that $12000 in 2012.  2014 will be the fourth year that we are maintaining this effort and hopefully with all the great support of the artists and others in Second Life we will once again do well.  What a great thing it is to help the wounded veterans whose sacrifices allow us the freedom to enjoy things like Second Life.”

More than 50,000 troops have been injured in recent conflicts, many of them suffering traumatic brain injuries, amputations, and severe burns.  Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) provides services and programs to ease their burdens and aid in the transition back to civilian life.

Wounded Warriors concerts feature premier Second Life talent monthly at Veteran’s Isle.  The concert on May 25, 2014 is scheduled from 4-9 PM PST.  Featured artists will be PonDman Haalan, Anek Fuchs, Senjata Witt, Frets Nirvana and Rhia Yuharra.



ABOUT WOUNDED WARRIORS  - Wounded Warrior Project began when several individuals took small, inspired actions to help others in need. The resulting objective was to provide tangible support for the severely wounded and help them on the road to healing, both physically and mentally. What had been initially viewed as a small contribution (compared with what the warriors had sacrificed while serving our country) has become WWP's signature program:"WWP backpacks delivered bedside to wounded warriors."  Wounded Warriors program has developed significantly over the last several years to include advocacy, benefits counseling, caregivers retreats, coping/family services, peer mentoring, warriors to work and many other programs for the benefit of United States wounded veterans.

To learn more about the Wounded Warriors Project visit
https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,840/

Veterans Isle (70,216,23)