Second Norway In Trouble, Economic Effects of Coronavirus Blamed

Sad news. It appears the Second Norway area, the easternmost part of the Blake Sea could be closed soon. The Newser was tipped by a user on Facebook, Karasu Ravinbyrd Tori, whom stated she received the following notice in one of her groups.

I am sorry to inform that due to year of deficit and the current corona crisis, job loss and failing krone exchange rate, Ey Ren are no longer able to keep the ship afloat. LL has closed his account. Ey has contacted LL and the other owners of Blake Sea in hopes of reaching an agreement for further existence of SN and SCE. Make sure that you pick up your no copy objects. I don't know the timeframe when the region goes offline. Unfortunately, I have no more information at this time.

Checking the Second Norway group, there was a similar notice:

Hello everyone, as you might have heard the SN estate is closing. This is mainly due to the current financial situation you see all around now a days. The owner is in contact with LL and other estate owner around to see if there is a possibility to keep some regions down in SCE, We do not have an exact time frame when things will go down yet. We will give out more information as we learn it.

I would like to thank everyone who has rented and enjoyed the estate, we have had a blast hosting

As it turns out, the value of Norway's currency has gone down quite a bit in the past few months. According to Wikipedia, "as of October 2019 is worth about 9 NOK. During the corona crisis 2020, the NOK fell heavily, making one USD cost 12.00 NOK on 19 March 2020."

Second Norway is located at the east end of the Blake Sea area, consisting of a little more than forty sims.

Tori wondered that it might not belong before there would soon be more estates closing, "My advice is... DO NOT pay your tier more than a week or two ahead at a time so as to cut your potential losses if they tank on you." With the shutdowns around the world due to the Coronavirus, with people out of work and businesses closed, this very well could start to happen in places in which the owner was already in trouble or didn't plan ahead.

Bixyl Shuftan

JB Raccoon Needs A Hand

JB Raccoon, the co-owner of KXVN Radio, has run into some financial difficulties. The reason: some paperwork snafus that have thrown a monkey wrench into his Social Security income.

"I am STILL trying to sort everything out however after I pay my rent that leaves me with $30 to pay my other expenses including my medication refills which the reality is, I just can't make it. So here I am calling for help, hoping to raise the funds so I can cover my expenses while I fight to get this sorted."

JB has set up a Gofundme page for donations. His goal is $1000 USD. 

"Thank you in advance to all that help, my words would never be able to describe how appreciative I will be."

Addition: For some reason, Gofundme took the page down. Those who already sent cash will have it refunded. JB is also accepting help via Paypal : paypal.me/jbraccoon .

This and That

Quite a bit has been going on in and around Second Life. While some things I've been able to get to, others have been on the back burner.

Various happenings at the Relay for Life, including a look at the Realy Hard Cafe, Matt Carlton's DJ performance, Saffia Widdershins' "Show and Tell," a "Roll an Cure" D and D game by "We Are Dragons," and more.

The Return of the Virtual Black History Museum, Featured in History in Second Life.

The man behind the Black Dragon third-party viewer is in financial trouble, and needs support to keep the viewer updates going. Otherwise he'll have to stop further work on it as he searches for full time work in real life.

There's been more than a little discussion about Sansar and speculations for reasons on why it failed, in both New World Notes and Ryan Scultz (second link).

Hopefully I can write on one of these soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Gofundme For Illya Leonov (Morgan Freepony)

Illya Leonov, or Morgan Freepony, is well loved for his voice work narrating My Little Pony fanfictions for the pony community and for the library. Of course he also does other voice work such as the audiobooks "Selkies' Skins: Castle and Well" and "Pearls of Sea and Stone: Book of Seals." You can listen to him on his Youtube, his Soundcloud, and usually on Thursdays at 6 PM Pacific/Second Life time in the Trotsdale Library and over his stream.

Right now he needs help handling his medical bills stemming from his fight with cancer. Even if you can't help out financially with a few bits you CAN pass word around about his Gofundme. When a pony like Illya decides it is time to actually start one then that tells us he truly does need help.

Illya's GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/surgery-is-magic

Illya's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmZW2ThMRGG1nLWVxIqgEg

Illya's SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/illya-leonov

~Amehana Arashi/Ishtari
Curator of the Trotsdale Library, Astral Sector Alpha Library, Ibexian Library, and member of the Intersim Library Network

Update on Becky Nosferatu's Sister: Success

It was almost a month ago in which Becky Nosferatu's real-life sister was admitted to the hospital for an aneurysm in the brain. Becky didn't have the money to make what could be the last trip to see her, so she called out for help for people to donate a little cash. People in both Second Life and real life responded, and she had enough to make the trip over. Over the weekend, she offered the following statement.

So for those who are in the know, my sister was hospitalized due to a mild stroke that caused an Aneurysm. She's been hospitalized for a month now, due to them not able to get her levels stable enough to have a surgery to REMOVE said Aneurysm.

Long story short; on Tuesday the 11th, she was strong enough to get the surgery and lived through it. I asked for donations, scrambled up any money I could from RL and Online Friends so Monica and I could go see her. She's doing fantastically well, far better than any of the doctors could have imagined and by next week, she will be out of the ICU and being sent to a rehab hospital to get her legs back (She was in a medical coma that had her paralyzed from the neck down for a whole month, mind you) and to heal her tracheostomy wound.

I was only gone for a week, but I can't thank any of you enough that has donated money and linden dollars. That whole week was me preparing to see her, which I did yesterday. They told us that we had to put on like... these weird gowns that where really scratchy and rubber gloves. I left my cane in the doorway so it didn't bring in any bacteria.

 It was painful, for both of us. She, like me, wasn't expecting at all what would happen. She was laying on the bed, on her back. Her hair was wild and there where so many tubes and wires going everywhere all around her. She had her hands wrapped up because of the tube from her tracheostomy, you know, so she didn't rip it out. And she was writhing on the bed. I think she was still really to delirious to understand what was going on, but when I entered, she stopped moving around.
She saw me walk into the room, didn't realize it was me (cause I keep my hair so short now,) and went wide-eyed when she saw me. I took her hand, and smiled and said "hi, sis." She immediately started crying. She mouthed the words... something along the lines of "Why are you here?" Or "Why did you come here?" or something to that effect. I just leaned over and told her "Because I love you." There wasn't anything more needed to be said. We both just started crying and I wiped her tears away with a napkin. I told her that I was so proud of her for getting this far, and that after all that's happened, for her to never stop fighting. She was still... uh... pretty sedated; kept looking around the room and I noticed she focused on Monica a lot. So I looked back at her and she started crying again. I caught the words "She's so pretty" or "She's very pretty," but I couldn't be to sure. I told her I wouldn't be there long, that I flew all the way to just see her and she told me "You shouldn't see me like this." I told her that I would see her no matter what, cause I loved her. Then we both REALLY started crying. By the end of it, I just rubbed her arm and said "You stay strong, you hear? Prove to the world us FAMILYSURNAME are the strongest there is." And I told her bye.

The rest of that day was... hellish. I couldn't sleep, I had allergies and nightmares. Dad and I both where super irritable and our road rage was even worse than normal. But I'm glad I saw her. It made it very real in my head what she went through. What her son and husband went through. And the rest of our family.

This was far more than I intended to write, but, I'm glad she's recovering. And I hope that she gets to go home soon to her 3 year old son and her husband. And I honestly couldn't have seen her, or the family I haven't seen in over 10 years. I feel she'll only get better now, as the stent they put in her did exactly what what they expected. She can only get better from here. She will never be, 100%, but she is still my sister and my family are nothing but super fiery ***holes that don't know when to quit.

Again. I thank you guys far more than what you could ever know.
Becky Nosferatu

Montecito Bay Invites People to Donate to Becky Nosferatu's Fundraiser

Yesterday, Becky Nosferatu of Montecito Bay called out for help in getting enough money to travel to see her critically ill sister in a hospital in another state. Later that evening, her community announced at their events this week, people could donate money to her at the club events.

for those here that have not heard. Becky's sister is in the ICU right now, with an Aneurysm and Pneumonia, brought on by a stroke. Long story short, she needs to get to Denver and either help her recover... or prepare for her funeral. There's more to it, here: https://tinyurl.com/y9tywfmv but also, she is going to have a fundraiser the rest of this week. Each fundraiser she is going to offer avatars or the MP Inventory per donation, as a thank you. So join us at MB all this week for that, please. Or you can just straight donate. Thank you.

Becky would also announce she would be offering goods to those who donated to her via Paypal.

anyone who donates to my Paypal for this fundraiser, has Tiered options for anything from MP: Under 5 a single av or mod of your choice. 5-10 dollars gets you an av and mod of your choice. Over 15 gets you the MP Inventory. Over 30: Whatever the hell you want from what I've got.

The fundraiser lasts until the end of the week.

Becky Nosferatu Needs Help

One of Montecito Bay's noted women, Becky Nosferatu, received some bad news on Tuesday Night: her sister was in the hospital.

... a few days ago, my sister was admitted to the hospital complaining about a headache. It was so bad she was in tears. I didn’t know anything about this until 3 to midnight on Tuesday, my younger sister called. Immediately I knew something was wrong; Sam doesn’t call me. Ever. We text.

They were concerned she was suffering from a stroke. Then they found it was an aneurysm in the brain, one that was bleeding, and her condition was getting worse, eventually becoming critical and in a coma, needing to be hooked up to a machine to breathe.

.. when I found out my sister had been admitted, due to a mild stroke, I panicked. After that? She was found to have an aneurysm. At the time they tested it, it wasn’t bleeding. A few more tests later, it was bleeding.And every day she’s just gotten worse and worse. Today, I found out she’s in critical condition.She’s in a medical coma, she can’t breathe on her own, it’s completely by a machine. She’s paralyzed by the neck down and is getting no oxygen naturally to her blood.

The doctors are planning a surgery to try and fix the aneurysm. While the oxygen level has began to slowly rise, she's come down with pneumonia. Becky has decided she needs to get to where her sister is, Denver, to be with her in what may be her last moments. But she needs some help paying the way.

I need to get to Denver. I’m going to wait until after Wednesday to hear what they’re going to do. If they do the surgery, I’m going to fly out there. But I need some help paying for it. Any donation is seriously helpful. You can send me anything to MagicanProductions@gmail.com.

Thanks in advance, even if all you do is pray for her life. Wish us luck.

Becky's sister has a three-year old son, whom has had some kidney trouble,  "born with kidneys that where to small and he ended up having several surgeries as a new born."

More information can be found on Becky''s Tumblr post, and the Montecito Bay Discord chat group. Those with Paypal accounts can send her money here: https://www.paypal.me/BekNos

Bixyl Shuftan

Virtual Cash Makes Real-Life News with Bitcoin Crash

By Bixyl Shuftan


Last month, the US Department of the Treasury issued "guidelines" aimed at virtual currencies. While the Linden dollar will be affected by the Government's interest, another virtual currency with a larger distribution and volume was also targeted: the bitcoin.

Wikipedia defines the Bitcoin, abbreviated to BTC sometimes, as "an online commodity that is based on an open-source, peer-to-peer encryption protocol … creation and transfer is accomplished on an Internet-based network and is not managed by any central authority." Bitcoins are created through "miners" that automatically add new amounts by "adding codes to a decentralized log, which is updated and archived periodically." They're transferred electronically, either via computer, or through handheld devices like smartphones.

Computer geeks are sometimes drawn to it due to it's online nature. But as banks are not necessary in the exchange, and it is not created by governments, some people are attracted to it due to the lack of involvement by larger institutions. It's also gotten some skeptics because of the lack of involvement by larger institutions, and concerns that drug traffickers and other criminals use it as an easy way to sell illegal goods.

Bitcoin went through what some are calling a "bubble" recently when it's value jumped from about $90 in late March to a high of $260 on the morning of Wednesday April 10th. Then the value crashed, plummeting to around $130 in six hours. It regained some of it's lost value the following day, rising to $160. As of the writing of this article, bitcoincharts.com listed the value as $99.00.


The crash was linked to an unknown bitcoin owner who up and gave away $13,000 in bitcoins via the Reddit social website. But there have been other problems. There have been attempts by hackers to break into computers and make it mine bitcoins for the hijacker. News of this did cause a drop in the value of Bitcoins on April 4, but the price surge continued again. There was also an account hacking in which $12,800 worth of Bitcoin was stolen.


The crash has caused some to feel Bitcoins, or any other unregulated currency, is just too risky. But others are still trading them. Even as all this was going on, people in the US Treasury Department had already taken notice. In March, the Department of Treasury's FinCEN issued it's guidelines, defining Bitcoin as a "de-centralized virtual currency" with "no central repository and no single administrator, and … persons may obtain by their own computing or manufacturing effort." Like Linden Labs, Bitcoin miners in the United States will have to file anti-money laundering reports with the Treasury Department, in addition to registering with them. There is a "blurred definition" however between users of Bitcoin and "administrators." Could a miner be considered just a user as long as the Bitcoins created weren't traded for US dollars or other real-life money?

Already having caught the interest of the US Government, with the news of hacking attacks and the market volatility, bitcoin is highly likely to face additional scrutiny from both American and European authorities. It's laissez-faire days of being free from big business and government may soon be coming to a close.

For information on what a bitcion cost, check this April 14th article at techcrunch.com.

Second image from salon.com

Sources: Wikipeda, BBC News, CNN, verge.com, Modern Payment Systems

Bixyl Shuftan