$@”*%!)#

The blinking cursor. It mocks. I write, I post. I curse.

Please give me some ideas, you 10 who read this. Where are the readers? Who shall come unto this my Blog and Know-That-It-Is-Good?

Harrrumph.

Could they not have called it “An Occasional Diiversion”? No it has to be “Second life“. I have been introduced to second life by some remarks on Darren Barfoot’s Blog“I’ve become convinced that it’s something important, and worth paying attention to.”

I was instantly hooked on the idea. Imagine a virtual world populated by hundreds of thousands of Avatars, spending and making real currency, operating real church ministries, stock exchanges, movie theatres (Mr. & Mrs. Smith any one?), casinos and “edutainment centers”. There are awareness campaigns for non-profits and even a Wells Fargo financial planning education island.

I read stories about companies meeting in the virtual land for employee orientations and project meetings. College students meet to do group assignments and thousands meet to dress provocatively and , erm, date…

. And here is a twist, you own the rights to what you create here. That means you can buy and sell items, apply copywright scripts etc.

With all of this free-form usability though, I worry for the future of the platform. So many questions arise as to copywright (movies, avatars shaped like Snoopy), property law, soverignty, currency trading (who operates the securities regulation anyway), criminal law, hacking, and who knows what else.

Certainly some one someone, somewhere will sue. I suppose that for now the jurisdiction is California as Linden Labis is there. Some are talking about decentralising the servers so Mr. Xeboperific can host his own Second Life integrated “real estate” separately, or that the server base in California could me moves to somewhere where the law is not a factor, like, um, Guantanimo Bay, Cuba.

I am in it now, with Bree, and we shall see that this new world holds.

(more…)

Super props for my sister, her husband, son and neighbours for throwing a Canada Day celebration at their home near Brisbane Australia. The Candihoovians were from Manitoba and British Columbia and everyone dressed in their maple leaf best as they partook in a Sausage Sizzle on the BBQ.

Happy Canada Day!

Israel warns: Free Soldier or PM Dies

Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov
July 01, 2006

ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.

The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit.

It came as Israeli military officials readied a second invasion force for a huge offensive into Gaza.

Hamas’s Gaza-based political leaders, including Mr Haniyeh, had already gone into hiding.

But last night’s direct threat to kill Mr Haniyeh, a democratically elected head of state, sharply raised the stakes.

Above From www.theaustralian.news.com.au. Just click the link above to read the whole thing.

Is any one else getting this? There was a fundamental tenant of democratization that I believe was first expounded by Roosevelt after WWI: that democracies do not war on other democracies. It just seemed true. It proved true. Until now. It seems that Israel has decided to rain upon the people of Palestine a righteous fury so mighty that the fear of god will forever be burned into the minds of the children of Canaan.

On Morality

Religious folks argue against relative morality. They say “right is right and wrong is wrong and it says so right here in this book. Here look, right here.” Those who opt out of this game are not bound by bronze age legal custom and are free to see morality on a more holistic basis. They may say “that is not wrong under certain circumstances, we will have to see the whole picture. Hey, don’t hit me with that book!”

Here I am, an atheist, worried about moral relativism. It seems to give religious people the right to kill people. “We have the money, the water, the electricity and the fuel. We have the TV stations and the backing of a superpower. Not to mention we are the chosen people and this land is ours because G-d said so. It says so right here in this book. Here look, right here! It’s RIGHT because we said so! Now shut up and die.”

A task proven easier when you lock a whole people up in camps, make them the scapegoat for all your problems and treat them as subhuman.

Shame on this government and whatever inhumanity is behind the actions of the last decades. Shame on democracies that allow such company to keep the name.