Thursday, April 23, 2009
Aaaaaaww... sniff, give me a hanky
"The Internet has an amazing capacity to allow people to self-sort—to find and engage with like-minded others. That will have impacts for courtship and dating that go beyond anything we've ever seen."
That’s not me that said it, but Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein in an article in Newsweek. (Actually, I’ve said it before but no one was listening).
While there rest of the media world is doing a bit of a collective public circle jerk about Lindens decision to add a new “Adult” category to its previous PG and Mature, Newsweek has gone off to examine love in the virtual world. And not this usual type of reporting.
Instead, Newsweek seems to come to the conclusion that love in a virtual world isn’t all that bad. “(…) getting to know someone gradually, with patience and attention, seems a whole lot healthier than a drunken proposition in a bar.” It is, especially if the boyfriend’s just coming back from the toilet. Not that I’m speaking out of any previous experience.
Anyway, it’s nice to see that some magazines do report on the brighter sides of SL and its opportunities. If you do need a feel good moment when you’re considering that you spend too much time online, just give the article a read.
I'm shocked!
And yes, even after a few years wandering around SL and discovering Goths, Furries, BSDM places, Escort Islands and that Sunday morning Bible hour.
I’m shocked because Taser is suing SL as Bloomberg reports here: “Taser, the world’s biggest maker of stun guns, claims San Francisco-based Linden Research Inc. is damaging the company’s reputation and hurting its sales by allowing virtual weapons to be sold online under the Taser brand name, according to a 102- page complaint filed April 17 in federal court in Phoenix.”
Damaging the company’s reputation? Wouldn’t that be a bit like Heckler and Koch suing some amok shooter? What reputation?
Hurting its sales? Because people who buy a Taser in SL decide they don’t want one in real life? If that were the case a lot of people on SL wouldn’t be having sex in real life. Errr…. well, that may be the case, but anyway!
The Taser complaint goes on to wine ““All of the defendants that sell virtual weaponry like plaintiff’s real ones, under the mark Taser for use in the Second Life programs and grids, also sell adult-only explicit images and scenes”. They also sell drugs, the complaint adds. I don’t know, but maybe you’ll tell me, dear reader.
Does Taser just possible advertise in “Girls and Guns” and “Boobs ‘n’ Bang” or whatever those magazines are called? Sounds like Taser is just sounding shocked to drum up a bit of advertising. Well, it got them mentioned here at least.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Let me through, I'm a doctor, lol :)
I’m worried. Not unduly because I don’t plan to have to use the services of the NHS (that’s the British national health service for those of you who might live elsewhere), but maybe some time I will – and I just read this in the Times of India (my favourite source of Indian news beyond hearing about them chat up my girlfriend at Sweethearts): „A British medical institute has given e-learning a whole new dimension. Med students at Imperial College London navigate a full-service hospital where they see patients, order X-rays, consult with colleagues and make diagnoses. But none of it is real.“
The “full-service” hospital, something which I believe might not be available in England for that matter, is of course in SL. And there the doctors in spe can cut, slice and examine to their hearts delight. Sounds a bit like other places in SL I’ve visited, but anyway. „If students forget to wash their hands before visiting a patient, their investigation is halted,“ the article reports. Which makes me really happy that I don’t have to use the NHS – these are in fact medical students in their third year.
I haven’t, of course, visited the hospital in World – having that male thing about those places that no number of nurses in latex uniforms can cure – but I do wonder if the creators have gone all out and provided for real patients as well. You could just sit them down for seven hours in the waiting room. And no, it wouldn’t be camping. It would be unrealistic to pay patients to wait.
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