Surveybot - a Virtual Robot Avatar

By Fresh Catteneo

Her name is Sava Basevi, born on 6/6/2007, and her profile says:

I am a survey bot, created by Mario Sonic. To make me ask you survey questions, say "SURVEY" to me. If I annoy you, say "BE QUIET" to me and I will stop talking to you. If you want me to talk to you again, say "TALK TO ME"For more info, IM Mario Sonic, or mail mario@menti.net

I met her at an office at Mario's Island and was convinced at first that she was a regular avatar. She was well dressed, courteous and looked at me with big blue eyes, shining behind long black eyelashes that blinked once every few seconds.

This would be the equivalent of a robot in the Real World, I guess. It's a robotic avatar, fully independent and automatic. The only thing it is programmed to do at the moment is ask you survey questions, and offer you coffee (but you have to help yourself). At the end of the survey, she payed me $L1. But I only answered two questions and didn't really complete the survey...

I then went to check out more SL survey systems and landed at Hippiepay who promise:

**FREE LINDENS** For Doing Surveys! Hippiepay. Fast Linden!
Earn 50-3000 Linden for each survey completed with Hippiepay

I was prompted to click on one of these "casino machines" and be linked to a website where I was supposed to fill in surveys and earn hundreds of Lindens. I did land at a website but from then on all I got was a bunch of broken links.

My mother always says: "There is only one thing you can get for free in this world - a good spanking"

A Mother - Daughter - European Union Collaboration

By Fresh Catteneo
What do young SL entrepreneur Irah Anatine, her mother Catalina Streeter and European Parliament Deputy Paulo Casaca have in common ? This is what I tried to find out upon my arrival to Avalon Isle's Babel, a beautifully designed compound of squeaky clean marble buildings. I was greeted by mother and daughter Catalina and Irah who first of all pampered me with a warm cup of Cappuccino before giving me a thorough tour of the premises.

I was mostly impressed by this Hi Tech conference hall which can accommodate up to 100 people, free of charge, including providing security and technical services. Local security are well trained and experienced in handling spammers or abusive avatars. Free speech is endorsed here, except racism, Irah says.

The compound also includes facilities such as a library, a university, a school, a cinema, a business center, a Cafe Babel, offices for rent, an art gallery and many more.

So how does Paulo Casaca fit into all this ? Irah says she came to SL to promote dialogue among citizens and several associations and institutions she believes in. All her work is sponsored by the European Parliament Deputy Paulo Casaca, Catalina Streeter and Ras Hye. You'll find her learning with them in Athmosphere, at Avalon Island.

European Parliament Deputy Paulo Casaca offers a new angle on the Iranian Nuclear Crisis. He calls the International community to adopt a different approach towards the the Iranian Mujahedeen - an organization the regime in Tehran considers as its enemy number one, along side America and Israel.. He says it is a legitimate resistance movement that merits the support of the free world. He believes the Mujahedeen constitute the world's best chance to counter the growing Iranian threat. More..

Sr. Paulo Casaca (born on 2 July 1957, Lisbon) is a Portuguese politician and Member of the European Parliament for Portugal's Socialist Party (Partido Socialista); part of the Party of European Socialists. He is a regular contributor to the regional and national press on economic and political subjects and author of many books and shorter publications. More...

Flying Windmills - a Reality in Second Life

An important advantage Second Life has is to enable scientists to present the world with models of their newest inventions at a minimum investment. Sky WindPower, a San Diego, California–based start-up calls our attention to a new kind of machine at the PopSci Future Lounge. It's not a helicopter, nor an exotic kite, but a Flying Electric Generator (FEG) designed to generate up to 20 Megawatts. The company says only 4 million dollars and a permit from the Federal Aviation Administration is needed for realizing the dream. More...

Regular windmills are noisy, cause television interferences and are considered not pretty by many people. The flying windmills are expected to solve these disadvantages and generate 5 times more electricity, since they will be harnessing the strong winds of the Jet stream, 11 kilometers above the surface of the earth.

The FEG is fixed to a 3 inch-thick tether that will serve both for anchoring it to the ground and shuttling the electricity. It will lift off the ground using electricity from the ground station to turn it's propellers (like a helicopter). Once off the ground it will hover with the aid of the natural Jet stream. Experiments have already begun. See video here.

Scientists have also started experimenting with floating windmills on the ocean, where winds are stronger and the potential for voltage production is thus bigger.