The SL15B Shopping Event feature 80 Second Life creators and merchants (SLurls below)
Following the opening of the SL15B Community Celebration on Sunday, June 17th See my preview for notes and SLurls), Linden Lab has announced further festivities and events as part of the overall celebrations. Some of these can be found on the SL15B regions, others are located elsewhere across the grid.
Schedule of Performers – all times are SLT and the schedule may be subject to last-minute changes.
At the time of writing, the performers line-up was as follows. All times are SLT, and not this schedule is subject to last-minute changes.
The SL15B Shopping Event
Occupying a total of four regions, the SL15B brings back the familiar shopping mall of recently Linden shopping events, now decorated with a crystal motif in keeping with the SL15B theme.
The 4-region mall brings together 80 of Second Life’s creators, each of whom is offering a free gift to celebrate SL15B as well as deals on some of their most popular items. In addition, many are also participating in a special sale on the Marketplace.
Check the list of participating merchants for names and use the SLurls below to jump to the event.
To mark the fifteen years Second Life has been open to the public, the Lab is running a weekly Gift Grab for the next 15 weeks.
Each week, one crystal-themed gift will be made available in-world, and a clue relating to its location will be published on the Second Life blog, and via their social media feeds. All you have to do is find and collect each gift – which will remain available for one week only, before the next gift is made available somewhere else on the grid. People can collect as many of the gifts as they want – however, the final Birthday Gift will only be available to those who have collected all 14 of the previous gifts.
Don’t forget you can visit the Tapestry of Time at SL15B, a special exhibition by Linden Lab and the Moles recalling some of the history of Second Life year-by-year, of 2003 to the present day.
Revisit the history of Second Life at The Tapestry of Time, by Linden Lab and the Moles
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates for the week ending Sunday, June 17th
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.
Note that test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version 5.1.5.515811, dated May 31, promoted June 1 – formerly the Love Me Render Release Candidate – No change.
The spread of the 2018 dust storm as seen by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter between May 31st and June 10th. The black gaps in the images indicate parts of the planet’s surface not captured in the individual images making up this time-lapse view. Note the position of the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. Credit: NASA / MSSS
Dust storms on Mars are not unusual event; they occur in both hemispheres with the changing of the seasons, and can even grow to encompass the entire planet.
Just such world-girdling dust storm occurred in 1971, and was caught by the cameras on NASA’s Mariner 9 space vehicle when it arrived in the vicinity of Mars in November of that year. The images Mariner 9 returned from Mar as it entered orbit (becoming in the process the first man-made object to orbit another planet) show the entire surface of Mars totally obscured by a blanket of dust that reached high up into the atmosphere. It took some two months for the storms to abate – although scientists were treated to Mars gradually revealing itself to Mariner 9’s camera as the dust slowly settled, starting with the high peaks of Olympus Mons and the Tharsis Ridge volcanoes, which rise up to 25 kilometres above the mean surface level of Mars.
In 2001, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reveal just how all-encompassing these more massive storms on Mars can be, when it took two images of Mars just three months apart. In one, surface features are clearly visible; in the second, Mars appears to be devoid of any detail.
These two images, captured 3 months apart by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2001, shoe how all-encompassing the more extreme dust storms on Mars can be. Note that in both images, south is at the top . Credit: NASA / The Hubble Heritage Team
Now, another dust storm is engulfing a huge swathe of Mars. It grew quickly in the opening week and a half of June, While it has not – as yet – engulfed the entire planet, it is raising massive mounts of dust high into the Martian atmosphere, marking it as the “thickest” dust storm witnessed on Mars.
Of to two rovers currently operating on Mars, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is particularly impacted by storms of this nature as it is solar-powered. Such is the volume of dust lifted into the Martian atmosphere when these more extreme storms occur that they can severely limit Oppy’s ability to gather sunlight to charge its batteries.
This is not the first such dust storm Oppy has encountered; in 2007, a large-scale storm resulted in a severe degradation in the amount of sunlight reaching the Martian surface where the rover was operating. At that time, we were treated to some remarkable images of just how all-pervasive the dust can become when lifted into the tenuous Martian atmosphere.
This series of images show the onset of a severe dust storm, as seen by NASA’s Opportunity rover in 2007. On the left, Sol 1205, is “normal” daylight conditions. The remain shots show the reduction in daylight between Sol 1220 and Sol 12035. Credit: NASA / Cornell University
Even so the current storm is perhaps the most severe Oppy has had to face. So much so that even though the decision was quickly made to suspend all science gathering operations as it explores Endeavour Crater, and so reduce its power output, the rover has since switched itself into a further “safe” mode of power conservation.
This kind of more massive storm is particularly prone to occurring when summer comes to one of the hemispheres (in this case, the southern hemisphere). At this time, the increased sunlight warming the atmosphere causes an increase in wind activity, which results in more dust being lifted into the atmosphere. For so reason, this dust causes the winds to persist – and even increase, lifting more dust, and a feedback loop is created, turning the process into a self-driving storm that can take weeks or months to die down.
A couple of interesting points with these dust storms is that firstly, and for those familiar with the Matt Damon vehicle The Martian, the winds are nowhere near as violent as portrayed by that film. While wind speeds during these storms can reach speeds of 96-160 km/h (60-100 mph), the Martian atmosphere is so tenuous, the overall effect of such wind speeds is akin to a stiff breeze here on Earth. The second point is that while they do reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of Mars, the dust is an effective insulator, both reducing the amount of heat being radiated away from Mars whilst simultaneously absorbing solar radiation, both of which serve to raise ambient surface temperatures.
This latter point is in part good news for Oppy, as it helps reduce the rover’s power outlay in keeping itself and its instruments warm. However, given that such intense storms can last for periods of several weeks to months at a time, there is genuine concerns as to how well Opportunity might survive if this storm is particularly drawn out, leaving the MER team on Earth reasonably confident the rover will be able to survive the storm without its systems becoming too cold to be restarted.
By June 10th, the storm had grown to a size where it was starting to make itself felt in Gale Crater, where NASA is operating the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, although the effects haven’t been as great as around Endeavour Crater, which Opportunity has been exploring. When it comes to dust storms, Curiosity has a significant advantage over Opportunity in that it is nuclear powered and is thus its power systems aren’t affected by any loss of sunlight.
The dust storm reaches Gale crater: on the left, a true colour image from Curiosity’s Mastcam taken of the east-north-east rim of Gale Crater taken on June 7th, 2018 (Sol 2074). On the right, the same view seen three days later, on June 10th, 2018 (Sol 2077). Credit: NASA / MSSS
By the time the dust storm reach Gale Crater, it was blanketing to 35 million square kilometres (14 million sq miles) of the Martian surface – or roughly one-quarter of the entire planet, and it was still growing. As well as bing observed by the two surface rovers, it is also being watched from space by the combined network of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Odyssey and MAVEN space vehicles, as well as Europe’s Mars Express mission and India’s Mars Observer Mission.
Observing and probing this kind of storm is seen as vital on a number of counts. In the first place, the precise mechanism that causes the feedback loop of wind and dust mentioned above isn’t really understood, so seeing storms like the develop and abate can help scientists to fill-in the blanks. In addition, and as NASA’s Mars Programme Office chief scientist Rich Zurek explains:
Studying their physics is critical to understanding the ancient and modern Martian climate. Each observation of these large storms brings us closer to being able to model these events, and maybe, someday, being able to forecast them. That would be like forecasting El Niño events on Earth, or the severity of upcoming hurricane seasons.
This latter point is particularly important in terms of planning for future missions – including any human mission to Mars. Being able to predict the rises and potential scope of these storms could go a long way to ensuring human safety on Mars. However, for the duration of this storm, all eyes are on little Opportunity, caught in the midst of it, with the hope that the rover will come through the storm able to resume its record-breaking 14+ years of operations on Mars.
The first part of the celebrations for Second Life’s 15th anniversary opened on Sunday, June 17th, when the SL15B Community Celebration regions opened to the public.
Events within the 24 regions will run from Sunday, June 17th through until Sunday, June 24th, with the Big Day, marking the original opening of Second Life to the public at large, far back in June 2003, taking place on Saturday, June 23rd. After the main celebrations, the regions will remain open for visitors from Monday, June 25th through Sunday, July 1st, although there will be no formal events during this period.
As befitting a 15th anniversary, the theme for this year’s community celebration is crystal, so expect to see a good few builds within the regions reflecting this – and possible watches and timepieces as well, given these are often gifts associated with 15th anniversaries.
Throughout the week of festivities, there will be much going on: music, dancing and performances at the various stages found within the regions; talks and presentations within the auditorium – including the now-familiar Meet the Lindens events, of which more anon, and some of the exhibits built be SL residents and found within the regions may also play host to events of their own.
The festivities bring together the use mix of resident-build exhibitions and SLB infrastructure builds – with the latter this year being provided by Mikati Slade – Cake Stage; Walton F. Wainwright (Faust Steamer) -Serpent Stage; Anthony (ADudeNamed Anthony) – Auditorium; Ancient Mole – Crystal Rotunda Stage and Welcome Area: and City Builder (Lim Pikajuna) – Stage North.
As well as these, there are special features, such as the Tapestry of Time, tracing Second Life’s History from 2003 to the present; people can also pay a visit to the original Cornfield – the Sin Bin of early Second Life, and tour Bear Island, which makes a return to SLB celebrations for all lovers of Linden Bears. Plus the ever-popular SLB Big Hunt and the pod tours and very much a part of the festivities.
This year, Meet the Lindens will talk place between Monday and Friday, at 14:00 SLT at the SL15B Auditorium. The participating Lindens this year include:
Xiola Linden – Monday, June 18th.
Patch Linden and Kiera Linden – Tuesday, June 19th.
Ebbe Linden – Wednesday, June 20th.
Grumpity Linden and Oz Linden – Thursday, June 21st.
Brett Linden – Friday June 21st.
Patch, Grumpity, Brett and Xiola – all taking part in this year’s Meet the Lindens at SL15B. Credit: Linden Lab
Where To Find Information
The best place to find information on all that is going on at SL15B is the SL15B Community Celebration website. Daily schedules will be posted there, together with news and updates. IN addition, you can view the daily schedules for the major stages and the auditorium via the following links:
Zion National Park – click any image for full size
Update: Zion National Park has closed. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.
Zion National Park is an ambitious, two-region stretch of parkland designed by Judge Firecaster. It offers a look and feel of some of the great national parks of north America – most notably Yosemite, given the reproduction of the Mariposa Grove – and presents a lot to see and explore.
A visit starts on the north side of one of the two regions making up the park. This features a park lodge and a camping ground (parcels available for rent), looking to the north over open water and a distant range of mountains. A dirt track runs between the lodge and camp site, pointing west towards a narrow cleft between high shoulders of rock, and east to run almost parallel to the water’s edge and between the massive trunks of huge Sequoia-like conifers.
Zion National Park
Which route you take is entirely up to you – but if you have a wearable horse, you might want to add that and take to riding while exploring (a riding horse rezzing system would be a nice addition to the park). The route west will take you through the rocky cleft to where another body of water await, overlooked on both sides by a rugged landscape that, to the south, climbs towards distant green peaks.
Here the track swings by a small lodge were visitors can take a log ride around the lake – just wait for a boat to automatically rez ready to depart as one returns and de-rezzes. The ride will take you east along the lake, under the tall trestles of a cliff-top bridge spanning the water, and back around to the west before returning you to the little lodge. Or, if you prefer, you can follow the track to where it climbs up into the hills, switching back on itself as it does so, to arrive at a high café abuts the steeper slopes of the (off-sim) mountains).
Zion National Park
If you opt to go east from the landing point, the track will take you by twist and turn, passing the single permanent private residence to be found here, to where it again climbs up into the rocks and hills of the park. This leads the way past cliff-edge seating areas overlooking waterfalls, paths to hidden tunnels, and a climb up to a peak where a hang glider can be rezzed and you can take to the air to appreciate the park from overhead.
The high paths rise and fall, twist and turn, cross canyons and water by way of bridges, descend to the edge of bubbling streams and pass through mine-like tunnels to link up with one another, allowing visitors to fully circumnavigate the park, often just a few short steps from where the regions end and the off-sim mountains begin – a relatively seamless join that gives Zion Park a huge amount of additional depth, vastly increasing its national park like feel.
Zion National Park
Wild life is to be found here in abundance – the trees are rich in bird song, bears grumble and roam,raccoons raid litter bins and get up to other mischief, wolves bask in the sunlight and elk graze or drink cautiously from the banks of streams. Going by the chap out on the waters of the lake and the cormorants on the shoreline, fish are in abundance in the waters here as well. There could perhaps be a few more places to sit and enjoy more of the many views to be found within the regions, but this is a minor point; as noted, if you do have a wearable horse to ride, this is a place where you can put it to good use and appreciate the views.
All-in all, Zion Park is a rich environment which demonstrates just how much can be done when working with Homestead regions. The default Windlight settings perhaps don’t do the landscaping full justice – I’d certainly recommend playing around with any you have installed on your viewer to find something more suitable and warm. When exploring, keep an eye out for the information boards, and the way down to the subterranean lake. The former are a worthwhile read for those unfamiliar with American national park heritage, and the latter takes a little finding – but a visit cannot be said to be complete until you do 😉 .
Zion National Park
Should you enjoy your visit to Zion National Park, please consider a donation at the lodge alongside the landing point to help ensure the regions remain for future visitors to enjoy – and for additional visits of your own as the mood takes you!
SLurl Details
Zion National Park (Fhloston and Zion, both rated: Moderate)
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, June 17th
13:30: Tea-Time at Baker Street
Caledonia Skytower, Kayden OConnell and Corwyn Allen return with a Seanchai favourite: Tea-time at Baker Street. This time they are going right back to the roots of the legend, and the case which first introduced the world to Doctor John Watson and the renowned Consulting Detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
A Study in Scarlet was written in 1886 as a full-length novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published the following year. It is actually one of only four novel-length stories Conan Doyle penned about Holmes and Watson in the original canon (the remaining 56 tales of their adventures are all short stories). As it was the first time the two had appeared in print, part of the story was used to establish each of them, and how they met.
It is 1887, and Doctor John Watson, invalided out of the British Army after being wounded in the Battle of Maiwand during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880), has returned to London where he is seeking accommodation. After bumping into an old friend, Watson finds himself being taken to St. Bart’s Hospital, where he is introduced to a stranger carrying out a laboratory experiment. On shaking Watson’s hand, Sherlock Holmes immediately perceives that he has recently returned from Afghanistan, and thus Watson first experiences Holmes’ remarkable deductive abilities – although quite how Holmes came to his conclusion remains a mystery. After a short conversation, he agrees to join Holmes in moving into a flat (apartment) at 221B Baker Street, where they’ll split the rent.
In the story, it is actually several weeks before Watson learns of Holmes’ rather unusual chosen profession. When told, he remains initially dubious until Holmes gives a practical demonstration of his powers of observation and deduction, using a messenger from Scotland Yard as his subject. The messenger has come with a request for Holmes’ assistance; Holmes is at first reluctant to heed the call, but Watson urges him otherwise. So it is that they set out on their first adventure together, one involving poison, a double murder in London and a bitter tale of love, loss and revenge from America.
18:00 Magicland Storytime – Mrs Piggle-Wiggle
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives in an upside-down house and smells like cookies. She was even married to a pirate once. Most of all, she knows everything about children. She can cure them of any ailment. Patsy hates baths. Hubert never puts anything away. Allen eats v-e-r-y slowly. Mrs Piggle-Wiggle has a treatment for all of them.
The incomparable Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves children good or bad and never scolds but has positive cures for Answer-Backers, Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders, and other boys and girls with strange habits.
Phssthpok the Pak had been travelling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years previously.
Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days — Brennan figured to meet that ship first…
He was never seen again. At least not by those alive at the time.
Join Gyro Muggins as he reads Larry Niven’s engaging tale of humanity’s past – and future.
Tuesday, June 19th: Walt Longmire
Join Kayden OConnell as he reads more from Craig Johnson’s tales of Sheriff Walt Longmire.
Wednesday, June 20th 19:00: Written in the Sand
Images and Thoughts from the Seashore with Ktadhn Vesusino.
Thursday, June 21st: The Invisible Man
Oh! – disillusionment again. I thought my troubles were over. Practically I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose, everything – save to give away my secret. So I thought. Whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold me. I could take my money where I found it. I decided to treat myself to a sumptuous feast, and then put up at a good hotel, and accumulate a new outfit of property. I felt amazingly confident, – it’s not particularly pleasant to recall that I was an ass.
– Griffin, the Invisible Man
Join Shandon Loring as he delves into the classic tale by H.G. Wells of Griffin, a man already consumed by a desire to have power and fame, who finds a way to make himself invisible to the rest of the world – but not the way to become visible again.
The results do not go in his favour, heightening his bitterness and encouraging him to think only in terms of wreaking havoc as his bitterness grows deeper and his desire to revel in the absolute lack of conscience, to commit crime and instil terror, grows to the point of fanaticism… 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.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 