Victorian politics

So far it only goes back to 1885, but eventually the online Sittings By Decade (Hansard) will go back to 1805.

Hansard, the Official Report, is the edited verbatim report of proceedings in both Houses of Parliament. Hansard is not a verbatim account of debates in Parliament. It seeks to eliminate “repetitions, redundancies and obvious errors”.

May salon this evening

I very much regret the late reminder, but tonight, as every third Tuesday, you may find me at home at Ormsby Hall, Little West Sniggery, Caledon Murdann for a literary salon from 5:00 to 7:00 pm SLT. Tonight’s starting point:

Sir Timothy was a fluent speaker, and when there was nothing to be said was possessed of a great plenty of words. And he was gifted with that peculiar power which enables a man to have the last word in every encounter,—a power which we are apt to call repartee, which is in truth the readiness which comes from continual practice. You shall meet two men of whom you shall know the one to be endowed with the brilliancy of true genius, and the other to be possessed of but moderate parts, and shall find the former never able to hold his own against the latter. In a debate, the man of moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius. But this skill of tongue, this glibness of speech is hardly an affair of intellect at all. It is,— as is style to the writer,— not the wares which he has to take to market, but the vehicle in which they may be carried. Of what avail to you is it to have filled granaries with corn if you cannot get your corn to the consumer? Now Sir Timothy was a great vehicle, but he had not in truth much corn to send.

—Anthony Trollope, The Duke’s Children, chapter 26

Dating for dollars

Linden dollars, that is, in contributions to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Second Life. This Sunday I will be privileged to have a date auctioned off.

I had the pleasure of having my portrait done by Mr Jaksoi Pak for the auction vendors:

Curious omission

I’m eager to see the amazing builds in The Garden of NPIRL Delights | Rezzable. But I found a curious omission on the website describing the project. There is a page devoted to intellectual property rights, with specific suggestions for how to treat screen shots/photographs taken in the Garden of NPIRL Delights—but the website does not credit a source for the image of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights used on the website, the original of which is in Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid.

I’ve never understood the arcana of how an owner can control images of a piece of art that is itself in the public domain—and then there’s the twist that in the US, as I understand it, a faithful reproduction of a piece of two-dimensional art does not itself possess the element of originality necessary for copyright, but in the UK it does.

Social norms, privacy, and community

There’s a thought-provoking post about social norms and privacy at Grace McDunnough’s blog, Phasing Grace: Upholding Social Norms

Reflecting upon my early Second Life social experiences and those today I see dramatic changes, especially related to social privacy. For example, part of the subtle but consistent reinforcement from the early community was that the separation between one’s Second Life (SL) and real life (RL) was assumed, and the merger of those two was the decision of each individual to be exposed, discussed, etc. at their discretion and without prompting and if shared, certainly held in the utmost of confidence.

I’ve left a comment with a few of my perceptions as a resident of Caledon, a Quaker and Unitarian Universalist, and a middle-aged avatar (since November 2006, when we had already passed our first million residents).

Orcadia expands

In a very exciting development, this evening Shapinsay and Hoy joined Wyre in the estate of Orcadia. Needless to say, it will be difficult to go to work tomorrow, and the weekend will be filled with terraforming so that the eager new residents can move in. You cannot yet teleport to the new sims, but if you go to Wyre you can cross the sim border.