Sloog, you may remember, is a HUD that lets you tag places and people and search for them both inworld and via the web. MERLOT is a tool for indexing, and a database of, online learning and educational materials. SaLamander is a system to tie them together, led by Wainbrave Bernal, aka Jonathon Richter of the University of Oregon, in partnership with Sloog.org and yours truly.

What does it all mean? Well, anyone is welcome to go and pick up a Salamander HUD from the Centre for Advanced Technology in Education and when you find somewhere educational in SL, click the button, follow the instructions and register the site. The UOregon people will sift feeds and transfer them over to the wiki, and we will gradually acquire a register of folksonomy tags for education in SL.

When you live in San Francisco, every day is Halloween. I've had this holiday sneak up on me so fast my head spins like Linda Blair's. So it was with some pleased surprise that I found the house shown above, and wanted to share it with you all 'cause you're just so swell. Believe me, this shot does not do it justice. I won't link without permission, though, so if the owner is reading this, drop us a comment!

With that said, October 31st is coming, and I know some of you are planning parties in SL to celebrate it. Some of you are even decorating especially for the holiday. Let's see what you got!

If you have a build you'd like to receive some attention, send me your SLurl and I'll come get some shots and post them here. I believe there are many great things in SL that most people never get to see, and that's a damned shame. So this is my contribution to builder culture; send me your stuff!

[UPDATE: Turns out this is the infamous Bates Motel; how could I not recognize it? It was built by Furiae Blackthorne, and many thanks indeed!)

When a woman named Thursday finds out she is going to be reincarnated as Tuesday, her attempt to cheat the cycle of reincarnation unleashes a terrible beauty that leaves the other days of the week in turmoil.

Thursday's Fictions, a 52 minute surreal dance fantasy film with Edwardian Gothic stylings, has won three awards, has been a finalist for four more (and the book for the Kenneth Slessor Prize), and is tonight a finalist for "Best Experimental" at the 2007 Enhance TV ATOM Awards, taking place in the Plaza Ballroom, Regent Theatre, Collins St in Melbourne, Australia.

Thursday's Fictions is not only available on DVD (USA, Australia/NZ, UK/Europe/Asia) - you can experience some of the magic in Second Life as well, as constructed by The Project Factory's Gary Hazlitt. There is also a trailer to whet your appetite for the experience, though it may not be suitable for work, including artistically contextualised partial nudity.

The still image you see above doesn't do the place justice. Turn the sound on, and walk through the place. Experience it first-hand and in motion.

Mashup Islander, or Christopher Dodds in real life, unveils connections between literature and real-time 3D art through his virtual moiré sculptures. His exhibit opened recently among a sea of enthusiastic visitors who immediately began exploring the interactive pieces. You may experience the work yourself on Info Island until November 15th, 2007.

Many thanks to Daruma Picnic, Elizabeth Rookwood, and Rookie Voyager for showing me around!

Who knew you could learn so much from hanging out in a virtual fishbowl? Artist Strawberry Holiday takes guests on a trip into the world of a 3D recreation of one of her real-life paintings through her exhibition at Kush City. Update: You can watch a machinima of it on Vlad Bjornson's Shiny Life site.

Besides being an interesting point of view to explore, the fishbowl installation also advocates acceptance for plus-size women in Second Life and beyond. On a canvas of blue water and a miniature midnight city, the artist's aquatic world is filled with plump mermaid sculptures, caught in the middle of their cheerful play. Although some residents present at the opening considered this work a combination between Van Gogh and Robbie Dingo, what captured me was the lovely way in which Holiday expressed her message. The style was fresh and lively, a definite must-see.

If you like the artist's work at Kush City, you can also see her work at The Second Louvre Museum or at her own Winged Gallery.

Thanks to Tayzia Abattoir for the heads-up!

The last few days of posts have been on the heavy side, so here's a little something to lighten the mood. I first learned of gorcaking when I was viewing Roberta Beauchamp's flickr page. She'd taken a freebie cupcake that you wear on your hand and modified it to fit on her entire body. After that, she ventured into the land of Gor and was promptly caged.

The sheer hilarity of a caged cupcake inspired me to go on my own adventures. As you can see in the picture gallery, my journey took me to the Welcome Area, Help Island, Eros, a strip club, and on a drive. I was even lit on fire at Burning Life! I ended up having quite a bit of fun with it, using phrases like "Back up off my cupcake!", and "Why you all up in my frosting?" To start gorcaking, you can pick up your freebie cupcake here.

A Virtual Museum Tries out the Real World

The International Spaceflight Museum (ISM), a non-profit, volunteer-run educational facility in the virtual realm of Second Life, takes its exhibit sponsorship auctions to eBay to attract the attention of more real-world bidders. The sponsorships for full-scale models of two lunar vehicles are up for auction -- the "Apollo Lunar Module" (built by Lora Chadbourne) and the unflown Russian "Lunniy Korabl" (built by Helori Pascal). The auctions will run from October 1 to October 21, and sponsorships will begin on November 1, 2007 and end on January 31, 2008. Winning sponsors will have their names prominently displayed on the exhibit's display signage. They may also elect to have a logo displayed for an additional fee.

Kat Lemieux (SL name, Katherine W. Prawl in real life) is co-founder of the museum and CEO of the nonprofit ISM Corporation. She said, "The exhibit sponsorship auctions allow us to give individuals as well as organizations the opportunity to support the museum, and get some recognition for their contributions at the same time. We are very interested in seeing whether eBay auctions are a viable approach, since this might permit us to reach a much larger donor pool than only holding silent auctions within Second Life."

"I'm curious to see how this sponsorship auction turns out," Troy McLuhan (Troy McConaghy in real life), Vice President of the ISM, added. "Like many things we've done at the museum, it's an experiment."

The museum is the principal activity of the ISM Corporation, a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Kansas, USA. The ISM hopes to raise enough money to cover the monthly usage fees owed to Linden Labs for the maintenance of virtual land, and contribute to the corporation's operating costs.

Although I'm sure there are already muslims in SL, there hasn't been that I'm aware of, a purely Islamic sim before. Now we have a microcontinent of 2 sims officially opening at 12:30 today in Al Andalus Alhambra and it's neighbour Al Andalus Generallife.

Now, I have to say I'm a huge fan of Islamic art and architecture, so a quick sneak preview, purely in the interests of reporting of course, was inevitable. There are a few places where there is building work still going on, but it looks pretty spectacular already.

This build, perhaps unusually, is also reported on Virtually Blind and Your 2nd Place. As you might guess, this isn't because of the build directly, but the Al-Andalus Caliphate is going to run as a private government (shades of the Confederation of Democratic Sims for example), but run under Sharia Law.

Interestingly, when you arrive there is no explanation of what this means - and as it is a mature sim is it alright for me to turn up naked? - but it will be interesting to see how this develops. There is a blog available if you'd like to follow them too.

You may not have heard about HealthInfo Island. It is, as you might guess, an island dedicated to providing health information, regarding health, wellness, communities, support and the like. On Sunday they will officially be opening their Accessibility Center between 4pm and 6pm (9th September).

The Accessibility Center provides continuing education and awareness about disabilities to the residents of and visitors to SL. The information available at the Center includes material about specific types of disabilities, accessibility in electronic games and virtual worlds, as well as assistive technology in the real world.

Displays at the Accessibility Center currently focus on mobility, vision, hearing and learning impairments. In-world resources for people with disabilities are also highlighted. Several sitting areas provide a pleasing place to sit for frank discussions on disabilities.

Speaking as someone with a hearing disability, and who works with people with learning difficulties and disabilities (the language used in the UK is a little different to the US), I spent a very happy hour looking around. Even if you aren't directly affected, it is well worth a look.

Educational? Sure. Environmental? You bet. But the best thing about WWF's Conservation Island is that it's so darned cute!

Teleporting to the island drops you right at the foot of a waterfall, overlooking a valley full of creatures both hidden and in plain sight. When I arrived, someone was there asking if I'd seen an elephant. She said there was supposed to be one, but she couldn't find it yet. Instead, I stopped to look at the ice cream truck being run by Mr. Tangee, an orang-utan. See? Cute. There is a lot of good information to be had by interacting with the residents of Conservation Island, and it's worth your time to go check it out. I'm going back to find that elephant.

(Via www.panda.org)

Resident Juria Yoshikawa created a YouTube group for all machinima that tries to capture or document art in Second Life. If you are an artist or have ever filmed pieces that deal with your favorite artwork, please consider joining the group. Much like the various Flickr art groups, this is an excellent opportunity to see what is out there, be inspired, and eventually promote your own work.

Juria also had a interesting art installation that recently closed, Blink. You can see videos of it here, it looks fascinating and surreal.

Thanks to the Second Arts blog for the tip!

Straylight sim is not just a forest full of magical flowers and beautifully modeled sculptie trees. This land is, above all, a fresh new approach to developing interesting lighting and a fantasy-like immersive environment. The creator, Kriss Lehmann, is planning further developments and has opened a flickr group for those who love the experience he designed.

The content here has a great level of detail, from the ground textures, to the trees, waterfalls and scripted creatures/plants. My favorite feature is the plethora of stray light rays everywhere. They explain the name chosen for the sim and add warmth to the atmosphere. Definitely put this build on your "to explore" list!

I caught up with resident LUCA Rosmer as he was polishing the last details of his new sim - Motorcity - dedicated to the best of car manufacturers and car-related stores. Created by the EM Cars team (Zak Beltran, Fire914 Flaman, LUCA Rosmer) and frageurs Hock of MH Motors, the island features top notch content and car designs, all in a low lag environment.

The sim isn't fully launched yet, although it is public. Those interested in owning a piece of the Vegas-looking city can obtain a rental space here by paying the rental fee to boxes on the sims or by contacting LUCA directly. There is also an opportunity to sign up for residential space in their swanky hotel, the only one on the island.

What do you call the kind of art that cannot be captured in photographs and even machinima falls short somehow? It can only be unique and visionary.



I have only words of praise for DanCoyote Antonelli's sim-wide installation on Arts and Letters opening today at 6 pm SLT. Second Life is full of beautiful and interesting art exhibits, but DanCoyote (DC Spensley in real life) has taken his insights into the virtual space to a ground-breaking level.

Continue reading on for a sneak peak before the opening and some tips for a better experience!

Patch Lamington, in collaboration with The Photography Studio of Grignano and AngryBeth Shortbread, has put together an amazing little comic/cartoon studio and a machinima demonstrating its capabilities.

You can go try it yourself, the setup is at the top of the photography gallery. After you play around a bit, you can submit your work by entering the contest being run by Osprey Therian. A full set of rules (they are pretty relaxed) and some details on how to send in your work can be found on the Second Life Art News blog.