Old fashioned word-of-mouth seems to be a popular way residents find out about Second Life®. That's the way Ms. Blaylock was lured into SL by a friend from an online roleplay game. She has been a SL resident for over three years and teaching about roleplay in Edutopia for about six months.
I had no inkling there is more than one vampire system in Second Life®. I've known of Bloodlines since my early days in SL and have even dabbled in the game. If you search "vampires" in SL search, you'll receive quite a list, including RP sims, shops and services. There is a new vampire game system called Netherworld, which has been in business for about six months.
Astronomy Teacher waelfouda Abrahams Reveals his Intellectual Diversity
Written by Se7en Wirsing
What does astronomy have in common with architecture? Plenty, starting with waelfouda Abrahams, who teaches astronomy at Edutopia and is an architect in real life. We met recently near Edutopia to talk about his class and philosophy of teaching. It’s easy to see why his students like him so much. He’s knowledgeable and enthusiastic. His astronomy class is on Mondays at 1 pm SLT at Edutopia.
Mr. Abrahams’ class is formatted into ten lessons, covering star movements, the coordinates of the sky, physics and movements of the sun, the stars, the evolution of the universe and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He makes the explanations simple so that students of any background and age can understand the concepts.
At the age of 17, he developed at interest in astronomy and has been a member of a real life astronomical society since 2007. He was looking for a place to teach and was asked to give lectures at Onislam, a RL/SL venue. He then began making YouTube videos of his classes, so that his students could watch them. His videos are at http://www.youtube.com/user/waelfouda. “Classes are always better because I allow questions anytime during the class and after the class also. And I support discussions because there is a saying that truth doesn't appear except in the discussion of groups,” Mr. Abrahams stated.
Are you teaching or wanting to teach in SL? Perhaps you're looking for a class to join. There is a new group with the mission of helping teachers and students find each other - EduCentral. EduCentral is a group in which educational activities can be advertised freely by group notice.
If you are a teacher, advertise your class in this group! If you are a student, follow this group to get a constant stream of interesting classes all around SL.
To become member of the group, find it in search or use this link: http://world.secondlife.com/group/d0fd3923-b09c-c4ed-2f0f-7a3e2a38813a. Membership is free.
If you would like to teach in SL and haven't found a venue, contact Erik Goff or Kathen Ohtobide.
If you would like to write about news or events related to Second Life, we would like to post it on AFK magazine to share with our readers. For nonprofits, we'll post your article for free. Accepted articles will be paid for at a rate of $0.5L per word. If you would like to feature your business, there will be a small fee. Photos will be accepted with your article. Please contact Se7en Wirsing inworld or by email
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for details. The editor reserves the right to edit or reject any content.
One of the countless things to do in Second Life is a role-playing game, based on the Star Trek TV series. The name is United Federation Starfleet (UFS); the place is http://slurl.com/secondlife/Starfleet%20Sector002/3/245/24. Every fan of the Star Trek TV series should treat themselves to this experience. Let me tell you a little about it.
The best place to start is United Federation Starfleet, Starfleet Sector002. Leaving the transporter pad, you go through the gate to your right, which takes you to Sector001. There you’ll find the UF Starfleet Greeter that sits on the console to your left. Touch it, and you’ll get a selection of things you could receive.
The easiest choice you can make is ‘Get All’, but the only important thing is the ‘Free Item’. This is the United Federation Starfleet Welcome Kit, which is the beginning of the greatest adventure a Trekkie could hope to experience in Second Life.
If you are interested in space exploration you should set aside an afternoon to look around here. One brief visit will not be enough and it is impossible to describe it adequately in just a few words. Spaceport UK is located at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Star%20Beach%20Island/64/192/2.
Inside the spaceport buildings you will find, among other things, lots of information about telescopes and rockets, a picture updated every minute of the sky over Cambridge, England (although I am afraid this did not work for me), a model of the exoplanet Gliese 581c that was discovered in 2007 and some wise words from Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking (yes really!).
People ask me all the time what activities there are to do in Second Life (SL) and I always give the same generic list: exploring, making things to sell, go and socialize at clubs etc. This gets a bit boring after 4 years, so I decided to go on a mission to find what else I can find in SL.
I'd heard about hunts but never really got the time to see what they are all about. So these seemed the only natural place to start on my mission. The first sim I stumbled on was Inverness City (SLurl), modeled on the real Inverness, Scotland. For a sim that houses so much, it should be noted that I experienced very little lag on my wooden internet lines.
In all my 4 years I have never had as much fun as i did on this particular sim. The story of the Loch Ness monster is one, known to many in UK. Countless have tried and failed to prove or disprove the existence of the monster and now that RL hunt has entered SL.
There is a new game in town, a sploder aptly named Xsploder. You'll want to check it out whether you're a player or a business owner. Xsploder was developed by an innovative team led by twelve Gage, a resident of Second Life®.
For the player, Xsploder offers two ways to win, inworld and on xsploder.com. In fact, a player may join Xsploder pots inworld and on the website at the same time and may join multiple pots at once, which means there are more opportunities to win.
To join Xsploder, you can go to xsploder.com or inworld at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GAME%20WORLD/50/220/26. Either way, it's free to join. "Basic members on the website may join up to 5 Xsploder pots at once, but we also offer premiums for members who'd like to join 10 pots and up to unlimited pots at the same time," Mr. Gage explained. Another unique feature is that when a player joins an Xsploder pot inworld and the same pot on the website, the player's chances of winning are doubled, because that player is counted as two players. When the pot explodes, that player may win both inworld and on the website.
At this point in life, we are all very familiar with the concept of time, yet we fail to sustain this concept in Second Life®. Somehow the whole of SL seems to go quicker than your real life.
Take relationships as the first example. There is no set time limit a couple needs to be in a relationship before they get married or move in together, but if your best friend told you she were to marry a guy she had met merely months ago or if she told you her new guy was moving in after the second meeting, you'd have something to say. Yet, here if you are not married or living together after a few months people start to question your seriousness.
It is worth noting that when you do move in with your partner and you disagree with the furnishings, do you spend days trawling round stores looking for something you can both finally agree on only to spend a whole day waiting for delivery, and then another to put it where you like it? No, it takes minutes to nip to a decent mall, a quick minute or two in a build menu and TA-DAR!
Take rules as another example. It can take years for countries to change their laws, yet a sim owner can change the covenant in minutes. Either that, or, you can try to log on one day and be confronted with a box of terms and conditions of use...again!
