Month: April 2018

Of Martin Luther King and Hindu temples in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Martin Luther King

April 4th, 2018, marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. To commemorate this, and more particularly his work advancing civil rights through non-violence and civil disobedience, Adams Dubrovna has put together an exhibit entitled Martin Luther King, which is now on display at the Museum of Sacred and Narrative Art.

Across 32 display panels, Adams traces key points in Dr. King’s life, starting with an examination of his education, and concluding with his final public appearance  on April 3rd, 1968 at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), at which he gave his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address.

Martin Luther King

In 1954 Dr. King became pastor of the Dexter Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. In March 1955, Claudette Colvin – a fifteen-year-old black schoolgirl in Montgomery – refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in violation of Jim Crow laws, local laws in the Southern United States that enforced racial segregation. King was on the committee for the Birmingham African-American community that looked into the case – but a decision was made not to pursue it, as it involved a minor.

Then, in December that year, Rosa Parks also refused to give up her seat, and was arrested for “civil disobedience”. The NAACP, working through their local chapter president Edgar Nixon, saw Parks as the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge on the matter of segregation, and she so and Dr. King become central figures in the American civil rights movement, starting with the Montgomery bus boycott.

Martin Luther King

This – together with the bombing of King’s home on January 27th, 1956 (he was preaching at the time) and his own arrest (the first of many) – mark the starting point for the exhibition tracing his civil rights activism.  The panels the trace the key moments in his life and the civil rights movement in chronological order, many of them using Dr. King’s own words. These include the Albany Movement, the Birmingham campaign, the 1963 march on Washington DC,  and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

Also marked is the King’s place on the international stage (through a look at their visit to India in 1959 and his opposition to the Việt Nam war). Many of the panels include Dr. King’s own words, making them particularly poignant, particularly the excerpt of his April 3rd, 1968 address at the Mason Temple. This reads as prophetic in light of the events that followed on April 4th, 1968. Wisely, the exhibition doesn’t unduly dwell on Dr. King’s death at the hand of James Earl Ray, but rather passes on to some of the monuments erected in his memory in the United States.

Ellora Caves Exhibit

On the floor above Martin Luther King is an exhibition of images and plans of the Ellora caves, one of the largest rock-cut monastery-temple cave complexes in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India. It features Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monuments, and artwork, dating from the 600-1000 CE period.

The exhibition focuses on the latter two: Hindu and Jain temples and art, referred to as caves 13–29 and caves 30–34, respectively. It’s something of a mixed media exhibit, featuring photographs, slide shows and information boards / givers. The Hindu caves form the first part of the exhibit located at the top of the steps from the Martin Luther Exhibition. It is centre on a pair of large format photographs of the Kailasa Temple.

Ellora Caves Exhibit

There is a route around this display – commencing with the early Hindu period, then the Kailasa Temple images, complete with floor plans, and on through the Jian caves and art. The information note cards provide a fair amount of information, although the information buttons on the slide shows might be a little confusing – they provide a landmark to the in-world store for the slide show panels rather than information on the images they display.

For those looking for an exhibition or two with a historical lean, Martin Luther King and the Ellora Caves display could be well worth a visit. The former nicely compacts Dr. King’s life into an easily digestible presentation and avoids reading as preaching. The Ellora Caves display offers some excellent images of the caves, art and temple ruins, although it would be nice to have some form of credit offered for them – even if they are from the exhibitor’s own collection – would add a little more depth for those wishing to do further reading.

SLurl Details

Plane sailing in Second Life: the ReneMarine Ask 13

Posted on by Inara Pey
Topping a loop over Holly Kai Park in my ReneMarine Ask 13

Courtesy of someone crashing on a neighbour’s island I recently discovered the ReneMarine Ask 13 sailplane, a newcomer to Second Life (released at the end of March 2018), and built by Rene Underby, creator of ReneMarine yachts. The model brought back fond memories for me of taking sailplane lessons when in my 20s, initially in the physical world Schleicher ASK 13, so it became something of an impulse buy for me.

The Ask 13 costs L$1000. For that, you get the glider, instructions, thermal HUD, and a box of texture scripts with pre-set colours and registrations and a set of texture 1024×1024 textures – one for the airframe, one for the seats and interior and one AO.

Overall, the design is true to early versions of the Schleicher ASK 13, with the single non-retractable wheel and nose skid (later models of the Schleicter were fitting with a small nose wheel). There are a couple of minor glitches around the tail of the airframe, but neither is generally visible unless specifically looking. The supplied scripted colour schemes are provide a degree of choice in look and easily applied – just drop a script into the sailplane either directly when rezzed or via the Build floater Contents tab (recommended), then touch the airframe to apply.

Easing my Ask 13 with initial (and now updated!) colour scheme into position ready for an aerotow, using the built-in “push” animation

Those who want something a little more personal can use the supplied airframe texture to create their own colour scheme / registration. I knocked-up a basic design (which I’ll likely enhance) in about 10 minutes. Just select the individual airframe faces on the model and  apply the texture via the Texture tab in the Build floater (use local textures to test before uploading).

So how does it fly? Well, first a little pre-amble.

The first thing to note about the ReneMarine Ask 13 is that it is designed for Mouselook flying (although 3rd person flying is obviously also possible). There’s no instrument HUD, no over-the-tail hover text; it’s just you and the instruments in front of you. Commands are given via chat (so make sure you have the viewer UI enabled when in Mouselook), and the WASD / arrow keys for up/down pitch and left / right banking. PAGE DOWN deploys the wing spoilers (up to three taps), PAGE UP retracts them. Note you should also have local sounds enabled, as these are part of the ReneMarine flight experience.

The ReneMarine Ask 13 includes a Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” to tow it into the air.

Sailplanes stay aloft via the lift provided from  thermals – columns of rising air, created by the uneven heating of Earth’s surface by solar radiation. SL also has its own thermals, and this is where the thermal HUD supplied with the ReneMarine Ask 13 comes in. Essentially a regional mini-map, it highlights local thermals using a red dot, and shows the position of your glider via a yellow marker and allows you to navigate to, and circle around thermals to gain altitude. Do keep in mind that thermals occur far more frequently over land than open water (where temperatures tend to even-out a lot more).

Once close to a thermal, you’ll also get an audio tone from the vario averager, indicating you have a positive vertical airspeed (that is, you’re gaining altitude). The stronger, faster the beeping, the faster you are gaining altitude. When you have a negative vertical airspeed (i.e. your are descending), the vairo will fall silent. Thus, you can use the instrument and an audio indicator of your ability to remain within the influence of a thermal.

Turning over Isla Pey and admiring the view

When you’re ready to get started, attach the thermal HUD, rez your Ask-13 and jump in. Type “tow” and your aerotow – a vintage Curtiss JN-4 – will appear, and start pulling you down the airstrip – control both the sailplane and the “Jenny” via your movement keys.

When you’re ready to take full control, type “off” for the aerotow and cable to vanish. You’re now free to seek out thermals and glide gently over the countryside – and I do mean gently. The ReneMarine offers one of the smoothest region crossing experiences I’ve ever had in SL. As well as playing navigate-by-thermal (and offering a superb low-speed view of the landscape and islands of SL), the ReneMarine Ask 13 is capable of aerobatics – although some care is needed. You need to watch your airspeed: go too fast, and you’ll hear the wings start to flutter – an indication that they are about to fail, and you should reduce your speed.

Spoilers fully deployed (visible on the wing tops) and coming in at Foliage airstrip

Landing a sailplane takes a little practice. You don’t have engine or a throttle to play with, only the spoilers. Located in the wings, these can be deployed to three positions to disrupt the airflow over the wings, causing a loss of lift. This takes a lot of practice, particularly when knowing when to fully deploy the spoilers – and you will need them fully deployed for landing – but practice makes perfect. Use “sit” to bring the Ask 13 to a stop at the end of your roll-out as there are no brakes.

With flight controls easily interchangeable between front and rear seats (“swap” in chat) and a racing mode, the ReneMarine Ask 13 is a really nicely rounded-out product delivered in a package that can make a nice (if largish) display piece for those with the room. I’ve not tried other SL sailplanes for a direct comparison, but having flown the Schleicher ASK 13 in the physical world, I can say this is quite possibly the closest anyone will get to the “real thing” in SL, and at just L$1,000, it’s more than worth the price. An absolute delight.

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2018 viewer release summaries, week #14

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, April 8th

This summary is generally published on every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.

Official LL Viewers

  • Current Release version 5.1.2.512803, dated February 23rd, promoted March 1st – formerly the Nalewka Maintenance RC – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • No Updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V5-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Family, sci-fi, parody and fantasy in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, April 8th 18:00: The Not-Just-Anybody Family

When Junior Blossom wakes up in the hospital, his last memory is of crouching on the barn roof with cloth wings tied to his arms, and of Maggie and Vern in the yard below, urging him to fly. That had been just before Junior spotted a police car approaching the farm in a cloud of dust.

Meanwhile Pap, the children’s grandfather, sits in disgrace in the city jail. He was arrested for disturbing the peace after his pick-up truck accidentally dumped 2,147 beer and soda cans on Spring Street.

With their mother away on the rodeo circuit, it’s up to Maggie and Vern to find a way to rescue Pap and Junior. How will they solve their family problems?

Join Caledonia Skytower at the Golden Horsehoe for this Magicland Storytime reading of this Betsy Byars classic.

Monday, April 9th 19:00: The Crucible of Time

crucibleGyro Muggins reads the fix-up by John Brunner. First published as two-part story which appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, it’s an ambitious tale of alien intelligence which grew to a series of six linked tales pushed as a single novel in 1983.

Far off in space is an alien race which is so much like us, yet so un-alike. From the birth of their earliest civilisation through to their attainment of star flight as their star system passes through the galaxy, we follow their development through the ages.

Aquatic by nature, this race presents some significant challenges well outside the realms of anything encountered by humanity. But they are also driven by all too familiar hopes, fears, desires, needs, wants, prejudices, impact of religious ideologies, and the quest for knowledge we have experienced in the growth of our own civilisation.

Charting six periods of time, each a thousand years after the previous, the six stories focus on the efforts of a group of individuals in each era as they face one or more challenges, their success in overcoming these challenges inevitably leading them towards a greater understanding of their planet’s plight, and ultimately, the ability to deal with that plight and the survival of their civilisation.

Tuesday, April 10th 19:00: National Lampoon’s Doon

In a distant galaxy, far, far away, a plot is brewing as vast and elaborate as the Empire itself…

Evil powers plot to harvest the wild pools of beer that grow only on the savage, sugar-swept world of Doon, take control of the native pretzel population, and turn the plucky little orb into the lounge-planet of the universe!

And only one man, Pall Agamemnides, heir to a dukedom can stop the galaxy-wide web of conspiracy and intrigue that is being fomented, and bring an end to the threat facing Soon.

Although reliant on a knowledge of both Frank Herbert’s sprawling story of Dune and Herbert’s often heady and flowery prose, Ellis Weiner’s tongue-in-cheek Doon is a masterpiece, offering a perfect parody of Herbert’s novel and brilliantly and accurately mimicking his prose.

Wednesday, April 11th 19:00: Merlin’s Dragon

Long ago, at the dawn of Merlin’s world, a strange little creature named Basil appeared. Part lizard, part bat, his eyes glow with a mysterious light.

When Basil discovers a threat to his world and to Merlin, he begins an epic journey that takes him from the Great Tree of Avalon to the outermost edges of the spirit realm. But his boldest journey will be to face his own deepest fears. And only if he survives can he save Merlin – and find his future.

So reads the cover description for The Dragon of Avalon, part of T.A. Barron’s Merlin Saga series, a trilogy of stories within the series charting Basil’s rise from humble beginnings to the greatest dragon of all time, loyal to Merlin and protector of Avalon.

Join Faerie Maven-Pralou as she delves in Barron’s magical realm.

Thursday, April 12th 19:00: From the Shadows: Halfway to Halloween

With Shandon Loring. Also presented in Kitely (hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29).

 

 

Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.

Fantasy Faire 2018: a call to games masters

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Fantasy Faire

Fantasy Faire 2018 has put out a call to any with experience of being a games master or dungeon master (GM / DM) and running campaigns in any role-playing game system with an emphasis on fantasy, and who would like to tabletop gaming combined with elaborate live-action role-playing/storytelling.

The call reads in part:

New for 2018, Fantasy Faire will be offering prospective GMs the opportunity to host a game session (or two), all while raising funds for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.

GMs can choose from a list of recommended games to host, or they can simply host their own with prior approval from staff. They will have the opportunity to create immersive campaigns that are inspired directly by the Fantasy Faire worlds, or perhaps they can go directly off their imagination ‘on-demand’.

Anyone with the requisite experience, and who would like to be part of Second Life’s biggest annual fantasy event all in aid of Relay for Life and the Kenyatta National Hospital Hope Hostel (see here for more) should read the guidelines document, and then complete the form below (also accessible from the guidelines document). There is also a spreadsheet of current programming which can be perused to see what is being planned.

Please read the guidelines before completing this form

Questions and enquiries should be directed to Nyza Stillwater in-world or by e-mail to nyza.stillwater-at-gmail.com.

Additional Links

Space Sunday: tourism, hotels and space stations

Posted on by Inara Pey
VSS Unity’s engine propels it to sub-orbital velocity in the vehicle’s first powered test flight, April 5th, 2018. Credit: MarsScientifc.com / Trumbull Studios / Virgin Galactic

VSS Unity, the second of Virgin Galactic’s sub-orbital spaceplanes, Has completed its first powered test flight, bringing the company one step closer to it goal of flying tourist into space.

The flight took place on Thursday, April 5th, with the vehicle, crewed by David Mackay  and Mark Stucky, carried from its operational base at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, to an altitude of about 14,200 metres (46,150 ft) before being released. Dropping clear of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier, the single rocket motor, burning a solid propellant mix, was ignited in what the company calls a “partial duration burn” of 30 seconds. Shorter than an engine burn expected during passenger-carrying flights, it was nevertheless sufficient to push VSS Unity to a maximum altitude of 25,686 metres (83,479 ft) and a maximum velocity of mach 1,87.

Partial though it may have been, the engine burn on the flight nevertheless represented the longest time a SpaceShipTwo rocket motor has been fired in the entire development of the vehicle. It pushed VSS Unity to achieve the highest and fastest speed thus far in a powered test flight – the fifth such flight for a SpaceShipTwo vehicle.

VSS Unity touches down at Mojave Air and Space Port, some 10 minutes after being release from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft at the start of its first powered test flight. Credit: Virgin Galactic

Three prior flights had been completed by VSS Unity’s predecessor, the VSS Enterprise.  Unfortunately, during its fourth flight, the Enterprise broke apart seconds into its powered ascent on October 31st, 2014, after co-pilot Michael Alsbury accidentally deployed the vehicle’s “feathering” system. Designed to assist the vehicle during its re-entry into the denser part of Earth’s atmosphere, the feathering system tips up the vehicle’s wing booms, but deployed when under power, the feathering place unsustainable stresses on the vehicle, causing it to break-up, killed Alsbury and seriously injuring pilot Peter Siebold.

As a result of that crash, the Unity incorporates additional safety features designed to prevent any repeat on the Enterprise accident.

The April 5th  test flight is the first in a series of powered flights intended to expand the vehicle’s performance envelope and to prepare for commercial flights carrying tourists and research payloads. Exactly how many of these flights will take place  has not been made clear, simply because the company wants to keep things open-ended and be sure they have the highest confidence in the vehicle before commencing commercial flights.

In addition to the test flight, Virgin used April 5th to announce a non-binding agreement in October with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia whereby the PIF would invest $1 billion into Virgin’s space companies, which also includes Virgin Orbit, the small launch vehicle developer.

During to enter the air-launch business later in 2018, Virgin Orbit will use a converted 747 airliner to carry its LauncherOne rocket to altitude before releasing it so it can carry payloads of up to 500 kg to orbit.  These payloads can either be individual satellites or multiple micro-satellites.

The LauncherOne vehicle and its carrier aircraft. Credit: Virgin Orbit

On April 4th, Virgin Orbit announced plans to offer customers a variety of services including responsive launch / maintenance of large satellite constellations and debris removal activities.

“Satellite constellations” refers to large numbers of satellites being placed in low-Earth orbit to perform a specific task, and which tend to be launched en masse using a single large launch vehicle. The Iridium constellation, for example, comprising over 40 satellites, was placed in orbit by SpaceX launching 10 satellites at a time. However, as the individual satellites reach there end of life – or suffer unexpected failures – they will need replacement units, which in turn require more economical launch systems than big boosters. This is the service Virgin Orbit plans to offer under the “responsive launch / maintenance contract: a means for customers to prepare replacement units and then launch them rapidly and at lower cost than possible through other means.

“Commercial customers say the idea of getting into orbit within days is very appealing for them,” Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit president and chief executive, said. “For the national security world, that has always been a goal. For once, the commercial and government worlds are perfectly well aligned.”

The debris removal aspect of the work is longer term, and would likely see Virgin Orbit collaborating with companies specialising in orbital debris removal. “With thousands of [low-Earth orbit] satellites planned, that is going to happen,” Hart stated. “I’ve recently become a believer that space debris is a problem that needs to be solved and I’m happy to see there are companies rising up to take that on.”

The first LauncherOne carrier aircraft, Cosmic Girl, undergoing tests at Long Beach Airport, California. Credit: Michael Carter

Initially, Virgin Orbit will fly from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, but the company is planning to also operate out of NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, utilising the massive space shuttle runway available there. Longer-term, as air-launched systems become more accepted globally, the company also hopes to offer launch services from any airport capable of handling a 747, and prepared to allow rocket handling and fuelling.

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