Free Republic

Luke Rosiak is a reporter for the Daily Wire and he’s about to have a book published about K-12 schools. It’s titled “Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education.” Today the Daily Wire published an excerpt from the book about the director of ethnic studies for Seattle public schools, a woman named Tracy Castro-Gill. Originally Tracy Hammond, her husband asked her for a divorce and Hammond decided to leave him and her young daughter behind in California so she could marry a convicted child molester in Seattle, a man she’d met playing the video game...

Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm. Their stories—and the world they’ve built—illuminate the promise and limitations of online life. Gidge Uriza lives in an elegant wooden house with large glass windows overlooking a glittering creek, fringed by weeping willows and meadows twinkling with fireflies. She keeps buying new swimming pools because she keeps falling in love with different ones. The current specimen is a teal lozenge with a waterfall cascading from its archway of stones. Gidge spends her...

Me in the Gibson trolley at Gibson Island. Me at the landing point Me playing with a guitar i got.

Me dancing at the shelter,it was crowded today. At a weapons testing sandbox testing out a machinegun i bought. At Anthroxtacy dancing.

pics of second life. Me infront of the SL-Republican HQ me by the Conservative radio show Two of my avatars A pic of me at a old Openspace sim. my other avatar that i'm going to wear when i'm security at Burning Life.

Later this year, parent company Linden Lab will create a standalone "continent" for adult content, and members who don't purchase private "land" will be asked to migrate there if they wish to partake in adult-related activities. Second Life is an 18+ environment already, but stricter age verification policies will be put in place. You'll need a "verified" account, either through credit card information or through Linden Labs' filtering system, to get into the adult "continent." Members will be asked to start flagging content as adults-only as part of a new content rating system, which will start to roll out in...

FBI Experimenting In Second Life The FBI is making a push to explore the social side of the Web, recruiting for new members and distributing its most wanted lists across social networks, virtual worlds, and the iPhone. In what the FBI calls a "pilot test," the agency is distributing virtual billboards and kiosks across Second Life that connect users to lists of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives, job boards, a crime complaint center, and more wanted posters.

When you look at real-life media reports about Second Life, you often hear about sex or finance scandals. Yet, you see very little about the actual productive uses of virtual worlds. For instance, the Relay For Life campaign for cancer gathered more than 55 millions of Linden dollars in donations last year. Between sex and money stories, you don't hear about that. Why? Mostly because the traditional media tend to be biased towards bad news. When SL became an interesting phenomenon for them to cover a couple of years ago, they were telling readers and viewers how it was a...

SL In-World Transactions to be Taxed As a result of the worsening financial condition of the world’s largest economy, a new tax is set to take effect April 1st, 2009. The little known details of this new tax, now included in the high profile U.S. Stimulus Package, will be applied to all web-based commerce conducted through servers housed in the U.S. This reporter has now confirmed that, because in-world currency is transferable and convertible, SL is among several simulations whose in-world transactions will be affected. President Obama’s $879 billion dollar stimulus plan, recently passed by both houses of the U.S....

I've received a number of inquiries lately about jihadi use of virtual worlds (e.g. SecondLife) for the purpose of training or planning terrorist attacks. I haven't seen any sign of this, and frankly we should be so luckily that they would engage in that kind of activity on the public Internet. I *have* seen signs of jihadi use of virtual spaces for training, just not online.

A British couple have divorced after the husband was caught having a "virtual affair" with a female character in an online role-playing game. David Pollard and Amy Taylor met in an online chat room in 2003 and married after discovering a shared love of the Internet game "Second Life." In the game, players create characters known as avatars, which then interact with others in a virtual world. To his wife's horror, Pollard's interaction included virtual infidelity with a female character playing the role of a prostitute.

CLAYMONT, Del. (CBS 3) ― A woman wanted in the bizarrely complicated attempted kidnapping of her former virtual boyfriend has been apprehended after a multi-state search. New Castle County Police said 33-year-old Kimberly Jernigan of North Carolina was apparently distraught after her online relationship with a 52-year-old man from Claymont, Delaware came to an end. The pair apparently met online in "Second Life." A virtual relationship began between the victim, whose character was a Lion, and Jerrigan, whose online persona was said to be a virtual woman.

TROY, N.Y. - Edd Hifeng barely merits a second glance in "Second Life." A steel-gray robot with lanky limbs and linebacker shoulders, he looks like a typical avatar in the popular virtual world. But Edd is different. His actions are animated not by a person at a keyboard but by a computer. Edd is a creation of artificial intelligence, or AI, by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who endowed him with a limited ability to converse and reason. It turns out "Second Life" is more than a place where pixelated avatars chat, interact and fly about. It's also a frontier...

So, I'm doing some exploring among the virtual world, Second Life, when I come upon a replica of the White House. I go in for a closer look, and find this: On top of the White house is hillary, sitting on a xerox machine, xeroxing her "bum". A close up of Hillary, McCain and Obama on the billboard: On the ground in front of the WH, is this hopscotch game: Also on the grounds is this boxing ring with hillary's image on it, smoking a cigarette, and sporting a black eye: And portraits of Castro and Hillary: And Obama and...

Checking out some expensive rental property. These virtual houses rent out for 800-1600 virtual dollars a week. Yes, some of them already have tenants. One of whom was home, so I didnt bother her: These houses arent just walls with roofs, they go into great detail on the inside with all sorts of furniture, decorations, etc. Note the big screen tv on the first floor of this place: And the couches on both floors, and the aquarium on the second floor: Note the bedroom and Eat In kitchen in the same house: Here is the biggest house in the area,...

Going dancing and nightclubbing With an online virtual girlfriend: Next, Visiting the Republican Headquarters for a second time, just to get a picture of myself sitting at the main desk Then visiting an amusement park. I played the Whack A Mole game, but didnt win The photo booth where I had my photos taken And what with my love for Fire Engines, I decided to visit a Fire Department. This one is in the City of Bodhisnea. I noticed that the Pumper was gone. So I was kind of disappointed. After looking around the fire house, I walked down the...

I joined the virtual world known as "Second Life", and took a visit to the RNC headquarters, among many other places. Here is my tour: A shot of me in my tuxedo. The bulletin board/sign in front of RNC headquarters The memorial in front of RNC headquarters A close up shot of the memorial The front of RNC Headquartes. I had to float up to get it, the entire front, from this angle. Another pic of the exterior front of RNC Headquarters An obnoxious 26 year old Scond Life "reporter" who got in my way and blew his cigarette smoke...

Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?Alexandra Alter on the toll one man's virtual marriage is taking on his real one and what researchers are discovering about the surprising power of synthetic identity. By ALEXANDRA ALTER August 10, 2007; Page W1 On a scorching July afternoon, as the temperature creeps toward 118 degrees in a quiet suburb east of Phoenix, Ric Hoogestraat sits at his computer with the blinds drawn, smoking a cigarette. While his wife, Sue, watches television in the living room, Mr. Hoogestraat chats online with what appears on the screen to be a tall, slim redhead.

Avatar 'Lauranne' attends Bible study in Second Life where Christians try to keep it real - - - I sat on a plump blue sofa and looked around. Those in the ladies' Bible study seemed lovely, and the environment was welcoming But I joined the group with trepidation. I didn't know anyone. I felt a stranger in a strange land. Would this gathering be, well, freaky? Why would I think that? I was visiting a "room" in a cyber church. It wasn't exactly me sitting on a couch but my avatar, a computer-generated image I named Lauranne. The others in...