On August 15, authorities arrested the owners of 20 suspected brothels on the East Coast, where they rounded up 70 possible sex slaves from Korea. Experts and advocacy groups like Free the Slaves contend that slavery and human trafficking is alive and well, according to a recent AP story. The US State Department estimates that…
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Smithsonian photo archive goes Web 2.0-ish
Yesterday, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative released 2,000 rare photos to the public on their website. Okay, 2,000 photographs is not that big a deal. But much more interesting is how they released them. The Smithsonian built into their site several cool ways to search, tag, and group the photos — and share those tags and…
Le Monde, MSNBC on Second Life marketing and “boinking”
Lots of media attention on Second Life in the last days. Le Monde has a knock-out piece on their website profiling various SL residents, with a cool slide show and voice-over. I haven’t had time to listen to all of it, but will post a summary when I do. Meanwhile, MSNBC goes for both the…
Scam Artists – real and virtual
I was just the potential victim of a classic New York scam. I was walking back to my office from a visit to the Mac Store on 59th Street and 5th Avenue at 3pm. On 53rd Street between 6th and 7th avenues, I brush against another pedestrian walking very slowly to my right. I literally…
Convenient simulation of an Inconvenient Truth (redux)
Back in June I blogged about the amazing working ecosystem called Svarga that Laukosargas Svarog had created in Second Life. I concluded that : While global warming might be an inconvenient truth that people don’t want to face, creating more interactive, fun ways for people to learn about how the Earth operates might help convince…
Education in Second Life: it’s about collaboration not frames-per-second
The Boston Phoenix has a well-written article on education in Second Life, entitled "Right-click to Learn." Nice quotes from several prominent SL educators and students including Pathfinder Linden, Rebecca Nesson, Lori Bell, Jeremy Kemp and Sarah "Intellagirl Tully" Robbins. I like how the journalist Kate Cohen focuses on the community interaction aspects of the virtual…
Joss Whedon speech: Why I write strong female characters (video)
Just when I was sure that Joss Whedon could not get cooler, my pal Chivalrous posted a link to a YouTube video of the Buffy and Firefly creator giving a speech for the feminist group Equality Now. As always, Joss alternates between being profound and funny, often within the same sentence. Makes me think there…
Google Flight Sim: Hey, I can see your house from up here!
This is just silly and cool. Clever flash programmer Mark Caswell-Daniels has taken the Google Maps API and added a very simple flight simulator to it he calls Goggles. You can scroll through the listing of major cities to flyover, which is fun if you happen to live there. Or you can do a slight…
The Virtual Lounge : Where all the cool kids log-in
Yesterday I was reading a Clickable Culture blog entry about a pop music-oriented virtual environment called "The Lounge," developed by "adverworld" creators Doppelganger. I decided to go check it out.
Preservation Hall Band brings Bourbon Street to Manhattan
New York is always a great place to hear live jazz, from Julliard student trios in divey bars to full jazz orchestras at Jazz at Lincoln Center. But New Orleans kicks our ass in the jazz department (and blues, and zydeco, etc.). I had the enormous pleasure of seeing the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band…