SL22B Starts Today

 

 After weeks of preparation, the Second Life Birthday celebrations finally start today. The builds are finished (baring a few last minute minor tweaks), and ready for the public to see them. 

 

The area for the celebration makes up 52 sims, including eight for adult-rated exhibits not shown on this map, being some distance to the east.

 

This includes the SL Newser's exhibit, at southeast SLB Enchant. Built by the talented Silvia Ametza and her team, it shows how time has altered the Pyramids of Giza. 

 

You can head to the Newser build at: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Enchant/213/74/21 

 

The event begins at 11AM SL time when the sims all open. At 12 Noon today is the Opening Ceremony by Patch Linden at the Royal Keep at SLB Mesmerize (245/10/76), followed by numerous music events at the stages, with the resident-built exhibits available at any time from start to finish.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday, June 10

 

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    Mount Grace Priory (in OpenSim)

    By Dr. Jevi Dankowicz

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/in-opensim/

    Mount Grace Piory in OpenSim

 

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/sc-opensim/

      

    ~*~

 

    At 9 PM PST   

    Ancient Egypt

    By Jes Stannard

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/egypt/

    Science Circle Region

 

   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) ═╝

 

 

SL Video: "Anubis Dance"

(Click here if the video does not play)

From Furrex in April 2018

Oasis for Parkinson’s

Creations for Parkinson's, the group in Second Life raising funds to help find treatments for Parkinson's Disease, has a fun event going on. "The Oasis," built high above the Greenmist sim, was built in cooperation with the Miss Globe Universal Charity Foundation. At this place made in the style of Ancient Egypt, one can shop, take part in hunts, explore a maze, and take part in some music and dance. Gemma Cleanslate donned her archeologist's helmet, and went out to explore the place.

Read Gemma's article in Events.

Press Release: Events For Parkinson’s Taking Applications For "The Oasis"

Events For Parkinson’s and Miss Globe Universal Charity Foundation partnered up to bring a exciting new event, The Oasis. The event will kick off on April 1st and end April 21st. It will be a beautiful three week event inspired by Egyptian history. The application for merchants and bloggers will open starting on February 1st, 2019 and close February 24th, 2019.

We plan to provide a beautiful Egyptian themed region for invited brands, bloggers, and guests for an fun shopping experience, music, theater entertainment, twice the hunts and much more during the wonderful time of the Spring season in the era of Ancient Egypt. We also want to raise more awareness for this amazing charity through education for guests. Lending your support to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, we are forever grateful.

For media sponsors contact DjRoseAthena through inworld or Facebook. She is the Head Coordinator for all large events. This event is being hosted through Events For Parkinson’s and Miss Globe Universal Charity Foundation which she is the Founder/Owner. In case she is not online or busy then contact the Co-Coordinator – Nola Hellershanks.

The Merchants

The Blogger Team

Memorial For Flight 804 Victim Nikoli Redmayne

Last Wednesday night, May 18, EgyptAir Flight 804 went missing over the eastern Mediterranean Sea on it's way from Paris to Cairo. With aircraft debris and human remains found in the vicinity of where it vanished, it is clear the airplane crashed into the sea. There were no signs of any survivors. Among those on board was Second Life resident Nikoli Redmayne, one of the leaders of Relay for Life team Spirit of Sherwood Forest. He was reportedly in Second Life for a total of nine years with this and a previous account.

High above the Stheno sim, a memorial was set up in honor of the late Relayer.  It consisted of a tomb in the middle of a field of flowers in s desert, with Egyptian flags, and signs for EgyptAir and Relay team Spirit of Sherwood. At the entrance were two obelesks with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into them, with a memorial wreath next to one, and the other a table with several candles, a book where people could place signatures, and Nikoli's picture.

For those wishing to pay their respects, the memorial is at Bella Pointe, Stheno, (138/126/3550).

Second Life Resident Nikoli Redmayne Among Those In Missing Egyptain Airliner

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last night in the Relay for Life group chat, Julia J. Waugh - Van Drake (Aphroditestarr) announced that one of the leaders of her team, Spirit of Sherwood Forest, had been caught up in a dramatic real life event with a likely tragic ending. "I just got some really bad news. ... One of my RFL team leaders Nikoli (Redmayne) was on Flight 804, the Egypt plane that is missing. ... He is my SL brother too, has been a dear friend for years. I just found out from his partner who is headed over to where the families are meeting up" Julia went on to request prayers from the group, For those of you that pray, can I have your prayers sent?  I am hoping so so bad that the plane is just off course or out of range, and not completely crashed." The Relayers responded with shock surprise, then statements of sympathy, "Praying for him, all the passengers and crew and their families and friends." "I can only hope that one day, we wont have to suffer anymore."

Flight 804 was an EgyptAir Airbus A320 carrying 66 passengers and crew from Paris to Cairo. The plane vanished from radar screens over the eastern Mediterranean, close to halfway between Alexandria the island of Crete. The Greek Defense Minister stated that while the plane had been cruising at 37,000 feet, it made a 90 degree turn to the left and plummeted, making a 360 turn to the right, and lost contact when it was at 10,000 feet. While there were reports of debris near a Greek island, they were later found not to be from the aircraft. While terrorism is suspected, as of the writing of this article, what happened to the plane or the status of those on board is unknown. Nikoli Redmayne was one of about thirty Egyptian passengers. The Airbus A320 has a capacity of about 150, and is described as having "an amazing safety record."

Talking with Julia, she had more to say about Nikoli Redmayne (NikoliOasis), "He has been doing (the) Relay with me for seven years now. Our biggest hope is that the planes are just out of reach and not crashed. My heart begs it to be that way. I just can't imagine the worst right now." She told me that he had originally came to Second Life nine years ago under a different avatar, "He got that av a few months back because his old one got hacked. But he has always gone by Nikoli."

Julia went on, "He was born and raised Egyptian. ... As a child he had a cancerous tumor that was removed after one round of chemo and has been cancer free since. ... He married his partner that was from the US, so (he) lived here in the states for the last couple of years. He went back to Egypt this past January because of deaths in his family. ... Seven years ago I pulled him into my team with two other friends of mine who have passed recently from cancer. He never wanted to be a captain or a co-captain, so he was just our 'Team Leader.' He was in charge of keeping his eyes open for different events for out team to sign up for. This group is a family, and he was definitely the fire that got all of us moving. We lost our two most inspirational members in the last twelve months to cancer, so he decided to take over the role this year and keep everyone moving in their honor."

The news had only recently reached the Spirit of Sherwood team, "I spoke to his husband who is absolutely hysterical, and it was put to me to let our family and team know. Once that was done we agreed that it should be asked in the RFL group for prayers."

Details are still coming in on what happened to the airliner, but it is appearing that this man who survived cancer and has spend years helping to fight it may have met his end to a different enemy.

Update: Shortly after this article was written, aircraft debris, including seats, luggage, and human remains, were found in the sea in the eastern part of the search area.

Sources: BBC, Reuters 

Bixyl Shuftan

DaVinci Gardens

Gemma Cleanslate recently took a return trip to a place she loved exploring in the past, but hadn't been in a while: DaVinci Gardens. Created by Felixx Shepherd, the sim is an explorer's delight, with numerous themes. Gemma took a look around, and described a little about what she found.

Read Gemma's article in Places.

Luskwood Goes Egyptian

I'd heard something about Luskwood changing it's look a couple weeks ago. But it was only earlier this week that I got a good look at the place since the change. For the majority of it's history, Luskwood's social area was more or less a simple wood base with some railing and a few basic decorations. It has changed some over the years with the addition of more seats, a chess game, etc. But months ago came a bigger change when grass was laid down, and some Japanese style structures were set up. Well, it seems the Luskies decided on a new look.

 Dropping by the place, it had taken on an Ancient Egyptian look, with the store area set up to look like the ruins of a structure, with hieroglyphs and carvings, jackal statues, scaffolding, pillars and obelisks, palms trees in spots to resemble oasis, and lots and lots of sand.

The shop is still running as before. A friend came by to request an update to her avatar, and she got it.

And the social platform is still as active as ever. This place in Luskwood remains one of the few spots on the grid you can always find someone, even at odd hours.

Luskwood is one of the oldest social areas in Second Life still active, due to celebrate it's tenth anniversary on September 10. It's also the oldest, and still one of the major, furred avatar companies.  Unlike some mainly furred places, Lusk has always maintained and enforced a PG atmosphere.

For Lusk's entry on the Second Life Wiki: Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

The Egypt Sim: Getting Away From the Crisis

In recent days, Egypt's been making headlines as demonstrations against the Islamist-dominated government resulted in the military stepping in on the side of the protestors. It was over two years ago that similar protests ousted the strongman then whom had held onto power for many years. In Second Life then, the protests and celebrations were mirrored at the Egypt sim. So with recent events, what is the Egypt sim like now?

Read more in Extra.

SL9B Birthday Hunt Trailer

"In addition to all the fabulous installations at the community birthday celebration, there will be a birthday treasure hunt as well! Watch and learn how to find your free prizes!"

Read more in the article here: http://sl9b.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/the-egyptian-hunt-clue-one/

A Look at Egypt, One Year Later

It was one year ago this month that the "Arab Spring" took Egypt by storm, with demonstrations against the Mubarak regime that had ruled for many years. They were reflected in Second Life at the Egypt (All Arab) sim, with people making demonstrations of their own, both Arab and not, calling for democracy. And when they won, there was celebration in the streets of the sim.


Fast forward a little more than a year later, the layout of the sim has changed a bit, a river dividing the place, but the general theme of a hangout for Egyptains & friends with games and clubs, plus an ancient Egypt theme in places to attract tourists, remains the same. I arrived at an hour when most of the Egyptians were asleep, but did run into a couple whom were happy to have visitors dropping in, especially someone spreading word about the place.

Unfortunetly, the hopes from the Arab Spring uprising have not come to pass for Egypt in real life. The country remains under the control of the military, and the opposition has come to be dominated by Islamist parties calling for law based on their interpretation of Sharia, women to be restricted to more traditional roles, and an end to the treaty with Israel, which would technically bring the country to a state of war. And more recently another troubling development: the regime has been going after Americans, charging them with "anti-government activities."

Bixyl Shuftan

Egypt Sim: Protests Turn to Celebration at News of Egyptian Leader’s Stepping Down

Events in the country of Egypt have taken some dramatic turns this week in real life. In Second Life, these events were reflected at the Egypt sim as people protested strongman Mubarak's refusal to resign one day, and the next were celebrating his departure.

Read the article in Events.

Egypt Sim: The Loyalists Appear

As the turmoil goes on in Egypt in real-life, there have been some more developments at the Egypt sim. Stopping by Thursday, the place was much more quiet than it had been the previous day, with fewer avatars and much less chatter. There were also a number of signs that were supportive of Egyptian leader Mubarak, as well as a few avatars wearing tags supporting him. There was also one sign with a picture of a blindfold over the Statue of Liberty "The Big Lie."

People continued to drop by and express there support for Egypt, one woman telling me she had a good friend from the country, "I love Egypt, and all my friends from Egypt." There was much less debate on the protests, someone telling me a number of people had been banned from the sim. I saw Ammroty Aedipo the sim, owner, but he appeared to be away from his keyboard. Seeing him log off, I sent him a notecard, but it went unanswered. I saw him the following day, but he was busy chatting with someone.

Dropping by briefly on Friday, the crowd was a little larger and the chatter a little more active, but the talk was often on subjects other than Egypt, such as US President Obama's domestic policies. One resident did express curiosity about some people apparently changing sides on the issue of Mubarak.

Back in real-life Egypt, Thursday saw much fighting as pro-government groups attacked anti-government protesters. Reporters found themselves under attack too, subject to rock throwing and beatings, and authorities began ordering journalists confined to their motels. Some observers feared this was a sign of loyalist forces about to do something really bad. But Friday's largest demonstrations have apparently gone peacefully, pictures showing some from opposing sides shaking hands and dancing.

What happens next in Egypt is anyone's guess, but no doubt the Egypt sim will continue to be a place of activity and debate for as long as the situation goes on.

Bixyl Shuftan

Demonstrating at the Egypt Sim

With Egypt's protests so much in the news, the spotlight has been put on the Egypt sim in Second Life. Run by an Egyptian group, when I first came here there were just a handful of residents, discussing recent events. Over the next couple days, more residents dropped in to voice their opinions.

Read the article in Events.

Current Events Reaching Second Life

In the news recently, political demonstrations in Egypt have been filling the headlines. So yours truly headed to the Egypt sim where Egyptians, other Arab residents, and others, have been demonstrating and/or discussing what's been going on. I didn't have enough time to finish the article yet, so stay tuned.

"Walk like an Egyptian"

Bixyl Shuftan

Youtube: The Kansas To Cairo Project Part #3

I found this on Second Life's Facebook page. An example of students from two societies getting together through Second Life. In the course of the Youtube, the foriegn group travels to the United States. With recent inconveniences for airplane travelers, such as the full body scanners and the body searches, such get-togethers will probably be less likely to happen in the future. So in a way, virtual worlds have become more important for communication.