This is an advertisement for a popular store in Second Life called The Secret Store.  I've loved all their clothing for awhile now. Unfortunately, my VR inventory is exploding and I have a serious moratorium against buying anything new.

As I've noted at New World Notes, this is the Second Life I see when I'm in world.  Its a place of sophisticated VR art and items and motivated people doing what they love.  Unfortunately that isn't the SL most people see when the read about it in the local news or on TV.  They still see SL being a backwards place with lousy graphics and sleazy people.

And if they do by chance see anything like this, the world is set up that getting started is hard to conquer.

Quote of the Day

Suzan Mazur: David Orban, founder and director of Singularity's Institute for Artificial Intelligence Europe, told me at a robotics conference in Bergamo a few months ago that people who don't embrace robotics in the future will not be able to survive. Do you agree?

Jaron Lanier: First of all, I think it's the stupidest institute ever. It's purely about this religious fantasy of superiority. The whole basis of it is repulsive. Yet the people there are great friends of mine. I admire them. We have fun together. And I tell them all this to their faces. I've also given talks at Singularity about how ridiculous I think it is. Here's the problem. They say people won't be able to survive if we don't have robotics. Well, how is that different from saying, "Oh, if we don't like the way people are, we'll kill them." What is the difference, ultimately? There's a way in which the new sort of vaguely Asperger-like digital technocrat is absolutely lacking in any self-awareness of ethics or morality. It astounds me, again and again. They're my friends, and we like each other, but I do think it's astonishing.

 Huffingtonpost Interview

I'm so glad that someone who is big in Tech circles is finally taking a stand against the fascist, body/tech purity elitism that is Singularity.  I hate that it has its odious claws in the tech we use and influences its development.  Talk about a concept not being user friendly, it actually hates its users.