The Slews - 6/24 Pooky & Hydra from the The Desk

Lights dim….music swells
From the Top of the flying carpet which flew itself into my tiny heart to the bottom of the koi pond where I saw the future reflected in blue eyes, covering the mental Inline skating we make happen on & off the ice 24/7…in ways Bobby ORR couldn’t even imagine…This …IS…The…. Slews……

P: Good evening Second Nation and here now The Slews!

H: Hyvä ilta , ja tähän kas noin

P: Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.

H: “It must be ice,”These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that.” Neither can dandruff.

P: For the second time since April, ESA’s Jules Verne ATV was used to raise the orbit of the International Space Station.

H: A record boost from the 20 minute burn of the Automated Transfer Vehicle’s main engines successfully lifted the altitude of the 300-tonne Station by around 7 km . Talk about a relaunch!

P: Advanced ground penetration radar, originally developed to investigate the soil structure on the Moon and other planets is now used in Canadian mines to spot hidden cracks and weaknesses in mine roofs.

H: Lavas from Hawaiian volcano contain fingerprint of planetary formation Now, a precision analysis of lava samples taken from the crater is giving scientists a new tool for reconstructing planetary origins. A closer examination of iron isotopes tells us more.

P: Higher than expected levels of sodium found in a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite suggest that the dust clouds from which the building blocks of the Earth and neighboring planets formed were much denser than previously supposed

H: Has anyone been Sodium and Iron on the panel?

P: Single person submersibles have been called in to help scientists retrieve samples from a lake in northern British Columbia that may hold vital clues to the history of life on Earth and on other planets.

H: Underwater exploration at heart of outer space. How we explore this Lake will lay the groundwork for how we will explore Mars.”

P: At an international conference, a team of European astronomers announced a remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets.

H: Using the HARPS instrument at the ESO La Silla Observatory, they have found a triple system of super-Earths around the star HD 40307.

P:.. Add to it the Jupiter-like planets already known, and you may well arrive at the conclusion that planets are ubiquitous,” as in everywhere.

H: Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin,

P: The finding suggests that parts of the raw materials to make the first molecules of DNA and RNA may have come from the stars. The analysis shows that the nucleobases contain a heavier form of carbon which could only have been formed in space.

H: Electronic Arts has released the so-called Spore Creature Creator, which allows players to generate infinitely varied 3D critters and interact with them. :It’s a tantalizing, preview of the company’s upcoming God-game Spore.

P: Almost all of the bloggers on the site where this was announced are still waiting for the download - There is A god then there is an EA- Phone home.

H: Japan’s biggest astronomical observatories are teaming up with international community for an unprecedented quest to find out whether there is life in outer space.

P: New computing technologies and the evolution of a “virtual man” to predict the effects of new drugs before they enter clinical trials could transform the fortunes of pharmaceutical research,

H: In May 2008, the average time spent among all social networking websites increased 71 percent compared with May of last year.

P: Although Overall monetization in the online ad industry dropped last month social networking and gaming site pricing began to improve.

H: Cost per thousand increased 66 percent and 51 percent, while sports sites remained level and entertainment, news and tech sites dropped.

P: Almost 100% of the content in IMVU is user-generated. They have collectively created the world’s largest catalog of virtual items. The games industry should understand user generated content before it’s too late.

H: iOpener Media,, got a nice feature from the BBC today about its plans to create a mixed-reality racing game, pitting average users against professional Formula One drivers.

P: iOpener will track real-time differential GPS data from the races and send it to PCs and consoles.

H: “It’s clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing, “You can compete against the best of the best.”

P:TV ASAHI, one of Japan’s major broadcasters, is airing a pilot this Saturday night for a”one hour interactive mobile participation TV show, Artificial Life, letting audience members at home chime in with their own 3D avatars, competing against 100,000 others and answering quiz questions for TV ASAHI-sponsored prizes. Viewer log in!

H; The application that’s getting attention is Loopt. Working with Microsoft Virtual Earth for the display, Loopt lets people use their iPhone as a “social compass.”
A free service using the iPhone’s location services to display your location and your friends’ as pinpoints on a map. But does it know where your secret crush is Pooky?

P: As long as he can find me on the world map, I’m good….This week 50 Golden Brands, which is a send-up of the brands that influenced each of the past 50 years . 1959 was ruled the year of Barbie. ‘85 went to Microsoft, ‘88 to Nike, ‘01 to the iPod, and ‘07 to O2. 2008’s brand has not yet been named. I vote for the 2nd QuestioN!

H : A new survey by consumer research firm Experian has found that PlayStation 3 owners skew the oldest of all three consoles - with appeal at its highest levels to those 44 and older,

P:also tracking low gamer activity in… needlework and antiques shopping?

H: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had purchased 20 SimWelder units and with channel partner VRSim. California Prisons Using Virtual Reality to Train Inmates in Welding Skills. Working on a Virtual chain gang!

P: If you want to create your perfect mate have a look at new World Notes & CyFishy Traveler– you can create your perfect match right here on SL. If you don’t mind dating yourself.

H: Pooky you never do that!

P:The fourth Virtual Worlds Business Panel was hosted at the Nokia sim last friday, and drew quite a choice crowd, exploring many varied experts’ opinions on how to really make it in virtual world business.

H: Linden Lab has announced that it will celebrate Second Life’s 5th Birthday by holding a two-week long Virtual World Fair,

P: The Virtual World Fair, which will take place in several Second Life regions from June 23 to July 7, showcasing our creativity, kicked off with founder and former CEO Philip Rosedale and current CEO Mark Kindom each delivering an opening address.

H: Lotus Development Corporation founder and Linden Lab board member Mitch Kapor will offer closing remarks.

cP: Check out The Garden of NPIRL Delights, a sprawling continent of interactive art installations that could only exist in a metaverse like ours

H: Recent note -ArcelorMittal is hosting a global, mixed-reality shareholder event in Second Life.. Charity Contact a Family is using Second Life to help parents of disabled children stay in touch.

P: French executive recruiting company GBO has opened up a space in Second Life. Blockdot has opened a gaming center in Second Life with Asahi and Fivestar Interactive to reach the Asian market.

H: The 2008 Second Life Surfing Association Season One Champion Awards Party officially marked the end of the year’s first Second Life surfing season with Second Life resident Pova Rustamova being declared the season champion,

P: With ten qualifying SLSA surfing competitions in the year, plus twenty-odd others, surfing is one of the most popular and fastest growing sports in Second Life.

H: Cory Ondrejka left his post of CTO at Linden Lab, many wondered where he’d wind up next. It’s not to a hot, new virtual world,
though. Two weeks ago Ondrejka became Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy, for EMI Music. Yes but do they have surfing?

P: I think he took the Second Award for best executed Job Surf- You Hydra who hosted the now Famous Nokia business panel- beat him by a few curls and that is The Slews!

The Slews - June 12th - Pooky & Hydra report!

From the top of the airship hovering above us to the bottom of the cube rotating on its arc… covering internet madness and scientific gladness in ways to eclectic to set bongo music to….This …is ….the …slews!

P: Good evening Second Nation and here now The Slews!

H: Irass hai mass se kon ban wa oy shee

P: Older than Stonehenge but 3 times as powerful! the Greater Stonehenge Cursus 500 years older than the circle itself.
Has been uncovered! A university of Manchester team has found it. Go Man United!

H: They don’t know what it was used for – but we do know it encloses a pathway which has been made inaccessible.
And that suggests it was either a sanctified area or for some reason cursed.”

P: It is believed that the Cursus was part of complex of monuments, of which Stonehenge was later constructed. And dated some of the cremated human remains from Stonehenge..I’m sorry Hydra, but wouldn’t dating live human remains have made for more fun evening?

H: Researchers in Sweden and Japan report development of a new type of paper that resists breaking when pulled almost as well as cast iron. The new material, called “cellulose nanopaper,” is made of sub-microscopic particles of cellulose and may open the way for expanded use of paper as a construction material.

P: All quiet on the setting sun: Sunspot activity at a standstill - scientists said periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, but this period has gone on longer than usual. “It continues to be dead,” That’s a small concern, a very small concern.” Especially if you are the sunspot program manager.

H: Shuttle Discovery astronauts said goodbye to the International Space Station crew on Tuesday, ending a nine-day mission to deliver a Japanese-made orbital research laboratory.

P: The new Japanese laboratory on the International Space Station has one drawback: It’s so spacious that astronauts floating in the middle of the room can get stranded

H: NASA has nine more flights to complete assembly and resupply of the station by 2010, when the shuttle fleet is due to be retired. The agency also plans a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope in October.

P: Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest computer maker, launched a new generation of PCs on Tuesday that respond to users tapping or stroking the screen, potentially bringing user-friendly computing to the masses.

H: :Apple Inc on Monday unveiled a next-generation iPhone with faster Internet access.

P: It will run on advanced wireless networks and sell for as low as $199 — half the current entry-level price.

H: Curious timing! Of all days, Samsung chose the same day launch its flagship device for 2008, a Windows Mobile-based über-phone. the Omnia

P: Google is not making a Gphone, and top Google execs have gone on record, multiple times in the media in the last week, all saying the same thing. Google is engineering an open source multi-platform.

H: In the same way that Microsoft doesn’t make your PC, Google will not be making your new cell phone. Android is a complete mobile phone software stack . Android will be made available as open source via the Apache v2 license..”

P:Kansas public schools are preparing to teach students and their parents about wind as an energy source through a national initiative from the DOE & Renewable Energy Laboratory. It is pairing wind turbines with schools in six states that are just beginning to harness wind energy..

H: Twenty years from now the United States may be getting 20 percent of its electricity from wind power a report this week stated. While Wind energy only accounts for 1 percent of the USA’s electricity, that is a 45 percent leap from last year. The goal is to lead more students toward careers in engineering with a focus on tackling the looming energy crisis.

P:Tuesday night Rep. Dennis Kucinich presented 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush to the U.S. House of Representatives.

H Kucinich’ will move his impeachment resolution forward to the House Judiciary Committee. The thirty-five articles of impeachment were read painstakingly for several hours and will enter the record

P: While oil and gas will someday run out companies still generate a seemingly inexhaustible supply of data:
.
H: : In an effort to test the results of advertising in its print and online products, Philadelphia Media Holdings created and ran ads on Friday for a fictitious airline The full and partial page ads for Derrie-Air appeared everyehere multiple time in local media outlets

P: early results showed a “clickthrough” rate for the online ads of 1.25 percent, compared with a national clickthrough average of 0.05 percent.”

H: In addition to research, the ads were designed to stimulate conversation about environmental issues and “to put a smile on people’s faces.” But not a happy Meal face on their plates.

P: New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo this week was expected to announced an unprecedented nationwide agreement with Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable that would prohibit subscribers from accessing online bulletin boards and Web sites that distribute child pornography. Other ISPs may join this effort

H: However, The FCC’s Kevin Martin, who permitted bandwidth bidding by companies who could make a “no porn” promise, hit a speed bump. Some say it interferes with free speech and is infeasible

P: Amazon.com, the largest e-commerce site in the country, went down for 90 minutes on Friday afternoon. The site blames the outage on its complex systems.. Ad Age estimates Amazon lost about $1.8 million an hour

H: The outage reportedly sparked outcry and speculation on social chat sites like Twitter. Always the first to know!

P: Steve Ballmer of Microsoft asserted this as a key aspect of Microsoft’s vision: “there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered i electronically “

H: And in other race for inner space news- Google’s CEO predicts that his company will hold up well in a U.S. downturn and claims to believe that Microsoft’s proposed Yahoo buyout is bad for the internet

P: People over age 40 participate heavily in word-of-mouth and value personal recommendations and expert opinions, but they have not embraced social networking or blogs despite being heavy users of other online services

H: For a look at the top 10 networking sites – See, linkedIn growth was above Club Penguin

P: FedEx is proving it can deliver in social networks with a hot new Facebook application. Released less than two weeks ago, the “Launch a Package” application lets users send virtual goods to friends, from little digital trinkets to photos and links.

H: The items arrive in a FedEx box that the recipient opens to reveal the gifts inside. It has 258,000 total installations and more than 15,000 active users.

P: this summer, Disney Family.com plans to roll out a new parent-oriented social network so the whole family can make avatars. The new community will be different from emphasizing individual profiles. “This is about when your family becomes your identity over your self,”

H: Waves to MOM , oh I don’t know Pooky, but this will be designed to help parents meet other families in similar lifestages
Disney is also attributing recent growth to its virtual worlds like Pixie Hollow, which, with almost 6 million unique avatars, all looking like the same 6 fairies

P: Teen-skewed social networking site Bebo, recently acquired by AOL, has commissioned another online drama –. “The Secret World of Sam King,” , aiming to blend fact and fiction in the setting of Universal’s London HQ

H: In common with previous Bebo dramas “KateModern” and “Sofia’s Dairy,” the show is financed by product placement arrangements with teen-centered brands.

P: its online dramas are a big draw for its core audience of teenage girls and have helped differentiate the site from MySpace and Facebook I am writing Days of our Second Life- call my agent!

H: AOL’s Open AIM developer platform might be an “often over-looked ” but with 80 million users and plans to integrate the AOL Instant Messenger platform into bebo, it might not be oer-looked for long

P: in fact, it now has 295,000 developers signed up. AOL has been pushing their chat platform hard this year, last month giving out $100,000 for the best AIM-powered applications, and announced the availability of AIM Money, a new revenue sharing program.

H: Millions of Us announced today the launch of a new company, Virtual Greats, aimed at the virtual goods market with, an eye toward celebrity and pop culture. Virtual Greats announced that it had secured the rights for virtual goods based on Justin Timberlake, Elvis Presley, and the upcoming Incredible Hulk film.

P: The goods will include likenesses, and more based on celebrities and entertainment IP. The goods will be available in 60 virtual worlds and social media platforms. Gaia Online is onboard & but already earns over $1 million/month in its own virtual goods sales.

H: If Millions Of Us had to negotiate with the talent to get the IP, including likenesses, how does a site like Stardoll have “virtual dolls” of hundreds of celebrities

P: Successful MMOGs can see $1-2 in monthly Average Revenue Per User however Second Life is monetizing at 5x higher which is $9.30 per user per month

H: their blog posts are prolific too James Au on New World Notes cites over 250 Sl blogs with more added each second

P: Orange Island and Koinup are proud to announce the ‘Orange Island Photo Week’ Contest. From june 9 – 23 The theme of the contest is “One second of reality”.

H: The aim of the contest is to capture an instant of reality, and have viewers believe the photo was taken in RL.

P: The challenge here is to share with the community what for a second seemed real to you. They hope we will go beyond still-life shots and try to show us emotions are real, no matter where they happen. *sighs*There were emotions at the satruday night space club

H: Also in Sl this week Rocket Sellars hosted a discussion on Asteroids which included the very important – how to avoid getting hit by one. At the odds of 1 to 9,000 only 3 times less than the odds of being killedi n a car accident. This could be important.

P: This week the best Of SL was an award show focusing on the reality of what we see feel & hear here. Named Avtar of the Year waas The great Beyers Sellars tireless Lord of the Metanomics who has brought incredible focus, credibility and professionalism to what the monetizing aspects are of this great adventure and platform.

H: Accepting the award for him was the beautiful Bevan Whitfield who was able to set the perfect note with her gracious warmth and whose help has been indispensable throughout.

P: Khriss Lehman’ Botanical Sim was named best overall Sim, and other awards of note .best scripter was given to francis Chung
and best animation to Easy Babcock.

H: In other award news the Worst Of Sl will soon be opening nominations in categories such as Most Unlikely To Succeed, Avatar Most Likely to be voted off the island and Least important Inworld Launch. What Award would you like to win Pooky

P: I just want to hand them out Hydra, not get one, and that is the Slews!

The Slews with Pooky Amsterdam & Hydra Shaftoe June 5th

From the outerside of the universal spectrum to the tiny core that knows all inside your nucleaic acids,,,,covering the Metaverse in ways we cant speak of on TV…This…is….the….Slews

P: Good evening Second Nation, and here now the Slews

H: Shto te dely-ish vecherome? That is what are you doing tonight in Russian. They are going to be in SecondLife.

P: Google has signed a deal to build a series of research and development offices at a Nasa lab in Silicon Valley.
The search giant will lease over a million square feet of office space at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in Google’s home town of Mountain View, California.

H: The space agency also hopes that the deal will boost its presence in the tech world. & bring new meaning to the :search” for intelligent life in oute rspace.

P: When does HMI become TMI? In a Multi-Year Study With AT&T, Cisco, IBM, LSI, Oracle, and others too large not to mention, research will begin to Examine the Quantity and Quality of the Global Information Industry.

H: “As a partnership between industry and academics there is a need to measure, and understand the implications of dramatic growth in digital information. I mean you cant know everything Pooky Where would you put it?

P: “As the costs per byte of creating, storing, and moving data fall, the actual amount is rising exponentially. We know that overall IT increases productivity and human welfare, but not all information is equally valuable. I need to know what is in my ever expanding inventory, never mind the universe

H: Shorter is better- Employers seeking to decrease interruptions should have workers use instant messaging. research shows this is time saving substitute for other more disruptive phonecalls, e-mail, and face-to-face conversations. Sound bite is everything! Chomps

P: We are what we magnitize! The gene MagA could become a valuable tool for tracking cells’ movement through the body via MRI, MagA comes from magnetotactic bacteria, which can even sense the Earth’s magnetic field & magnetic fields can penetrate tissues more easily than light. MagA also knows when my secret crush has just logged on.

H: Pinpointed Images from inside the body? It can be done with tiny cameras which the patient has to swallow. Where In the past there was no way to control the device as it passed through the body. Now it can be steered and stopped where desired.

P: .Interior cam Scientists from Hamburg, London and Sankt Ingbert have developed the first-ever control system for the camera pill.

H: Flying cam – When The Alaska Space Grant Program and the Arctic Amateur Radio Club formed the Balloon Experiment And Research Program — or B.E.A.R. for short — in December 2007. the aim was to launch a high altitude balloon equipped with two amateur radio signals and more

P: We love bears! Everyone has to be a little bear sometime! WE love electirict too Electricity from the exhaust pipe Researchers are working on a thermoelectric generator that converts the heat from car exhaust fumes into electricity.

H: After seven years of work, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have built a system that relies on the “noise” of jiggling electrons as a basis for measuring temperatures with extreme precision.

P: The system is nearly precise enough now to help update some of the crucial underpinnings of science, including the 54-year-old definition of the Kelvin, Get ready for a whole new ball of melting wax!

H: NASA is using Twitter to communicate with its closest friends on Earth. The Phoenix Mars Lander account on Twitter is twitter.com/marsphoenix, and it started posting to twitter May 7 from interplanetary space.

P: In that short time, it’s accumulated about 15,000 followers, making it the 14th most popular Twitter in the galaxy,. The Phoenix has twittered! ” Looking forward to an exciting day on Mars”
Workout mental Central “Lumosity.com has seen tremendous demand from users and partners alike by leveraging the power of the Web to deliver brain fitness. WiiMental

H: Google’s plan to allow users to access multiple social networks under a single ID hit a snag as Facebook announced it would not let its members sign in using Google’s “Friend Connect” service, owing to privacy concerns.

P:They are Just jealous!

H: Social media kills advertising, because people are more interested in each other [online] and less interested in watching ads.

P; response rates for standard banner ads are now under 1% -social media is the next frontier for major marketers to attack. You have been warned

H: It had to happen someday - “A Harry Potter multi-player online role playing game is going to come out from Warner bros. You can bet your broomstick on it.

P:They are investigating the possibility of creating their own MMORPG, but unfortunately do not have any further details to share Check your crystal ball for future information

H: Strategy Analytics this week released its forecast of virtual world adoptions-

P: I thought you could only adopt someone pretending to be an ickle bwaby on habbo?

H: the study shows that over the next ten years some 22 percent of global broadband users will have registered for one or more virtual worlds resulting in a market approaching one billion people

P; While fewer than 10 percent of virtual world registrants actually become active users; this will increase to 27 percent of users by 2017. Virtual worlds, such as Sulake’s Habbo Hotel, have registered nearly 100 million , and i has 10 million unique monthly visitors, while Second Life has a similar pattern, with 12 million registrants and about one million active users

H: That’s more conservative than other predictions. For example, Gartner predicted that 80% of Internet users will have some involvement in virtual worlds by 2011.

P: Sony’s Home will soon “roll out to the public Throughout the development process, the team has released tidbits of new information, features, and plans for the console-based virtual world, making it seem like the Gmail-style beta could be a long, ongoing (unending?) process of iterating and updating.

H: Engineering & Computer Simulations announced last week that it had been awarded a $3.7 million contract to expand the National Guard Joint Training Directorate’s virtual world for collaboration,the Emergency Management Nexus. this will be attached to our previously reported Office of Homeland Security.

P: An MSU professor of educational psychology and technology wanted to teach the world about Chinese culture . To do so, he created Zon/New Chengo, a virtual world where users can live and learn inn virtual china or go to world of warcraft

H: In NYC it is Internet week! One exciting event is to Learn how to launch your Silicon Alley startup for $198 during a park picnic.
Pooky are you going?

P: Yes I am and will try some cross world marketing & interoperability.

H: What do you mean?

P: Im going to hand out cards telling people to watch the show on slcn.tv

H: Last October, a brain-computer interface from Keio University demoed which allowed users to move about in Second Life using only their minds.

P: The goal was to make it a tool for physically handicapped users to interact with others in the virtual environment. Today the researchers said that a man who could not move his arms and legs was able to control a Second Life avatar via the three electrodes in his brain and then communicate with other users through an attached microphone.

H: The researchers say the system could add motivation to patients who are too depressed to go through rehab and, with other tools like a mentally controlled text message system, enable anyone to go through their daily activities in the virtual world.

P: In the near future, they would be able to stroll through Second Life shopping malls with their brain waves… and click to make a purchase,” I want it just took on a WHOLE new meaning.

H: Research over the last two years at the iAsk Center confirms what recent outside studies are showing: Online users are often more “virtually” honest than they are in real life because of their anonymity and ability to shed their external appearance.

P: what is seen regularly at the iAsk Center shows our avas may be more truthful about their feelings and opinions. This may be due to our responding here not as the person we are in real life but as the person we truly feel we are.

H: Bring it on Generation V as in Virtual! So marketers are twigging that If companies follow a truly persona-centric approach, they can use the highly relevant information the avatar gives.

P: Although the real person may never be known, far more intimate information of the persona’s actions, personality, lifestyle habits and attitudes can be collected and exploited for business goals.”I said you should be warned!

H: Recently seen in Sl are Ideabots- talk to a robot -they can be stationed anywhere in the virtual world and accessed via IM at anytime from any place. Once a user interacts with a Bot, they will be invited to take part in the research study, screened according to the panel’s demographic standards and then walked through the survey.

P: Where as an avatar you will reveal all your REAl innermost feelings- I would- unless I was asked about my secret crush.

H: And Sl newest Sim celebrates adventurous people. More than 500 years ago, Portuguese begun one adventure that took then all over the planet discovering new worlds. Today, exploring is focused on traveling not only in the real world but virtual worlds too.

P: The Portugese Sim debuted in Sl this past weekend indicating the beginning of new adventures and discoveries through SL through islands and regions, some based on reality, others on imagination.

H: But how do they really feel Pooky?

P: I don’t know you will have to send them an IM inworld through an infobot to find out. And that is the Slews.