Virtual Law?

This one is a serious, if not actually hard hat, post that even serious, political type guy, bloggers ought to be able to comment on without embarrassment. Go on boys you know you want to.

Scientific American published an article about Second life in their July issue. Well, to be entirely honest it was not just about SL, it touched on World of Warcraft also.

It was suggesting that maybe real life laws ought to be applied to Second life and similar virtual worlds.

They mentioned an instance where a Chinese guy loaned a virtual sword to someone's avie who promptly sold it for $800. The guy tried to report it in Real Life to the police but they felt unable to deal with it. So he killed the guy instead. In RL that is.

They (Scientific American) quote “If somebody is going to die, and somebody else is going to spend the rest of his life in jail for a virtual crime, then we better take it seriously,”

Excuse me! No way is RL murder a virtual crime. People can even get murdered because other (frankly nutty) people think they looked at them funny. Crazy is crazy. That is a real life crime.

I don't know World of Warcraft but I wonder if the lending of a sword would not be outside the rules of the game. Maybe if it was, a RL contact he needed to have it written down and witnessed/notarised with penalties, surety. Maybe he could have sued the guy then? Or kept the surety.

I guess he must have had some serious gullibility, anger management issues and maybe rationality issues also. The place to have done the killing should have been the virtual world. “Kill” the thief there and take his goods where it is part of the game.

Now it seems to me that a “crime” in, say SL, is not necessarily a crime at all unless it is against the rules. If there are laws in SL or any other virtual world then don't they need to be in-world laws? Not imposed by national courts?

For a start what nation's laws would it be? Where the servers were? Where the players were? And if the players are in several different countries what then?

All this talk of laws is quite relevant just now, as your intrepid feisty reporter, can reveal. The virtual space trading "world" (universe?) Eve has a real crisis just now.

One of the biggest banks in that virtual world just had a run on it. That was caused by one of it's financial controllers embezzling 200 billion Kredits (the in-world currency), converting them into RL £3,115.00 and running for the outback (he is Australian).

The theft happened in June. Eve is based in Iceland.

I figure you do need rules. And for rules read laws. And there should be sanctions against those that break them. You don't need many of them. But there are financial transactions within worlds such as SL and you need some sort of regulation/security.

I do think that RL courts and legislators should keep their hands off/out of the virtual worlds. If laws/rules are needed they should be in-world, and dare I say it as few and as simple as possible.

The Age of Dreaming

It's quite a while since I've done a book review. Not because I haven't read any books lately, but nothing has stood out as worth mentioning. Until this one: The Age of Dreaming.

Nina Revoyr is a new author to me, although this is her third novel. I picked up the book in the Library, perusing the dust jacket and thinking that sounds interesting. What I did not expect was a book which impressed me so much with the writing that it made the story almost secondary. Well not quite.

Jun Nakayama was an unlikely superstar in the early years of the silent film industry in Hollywood. Unlikely and quite remarkable, in that he was Japanese but filming in the western world with all that entailed. Abruptly he retired in 1922, at the peak of his career and the book finds him in 1964, an elderly man living a very quiet dignified life.

Nick Bellinger, a young writer, seeks him out for an interview, supposedly for an article on the early film industry. However he has written a screen play which he hopes to have made and with Nakayama in mind for the part. Jun's interaction with the young writer brings back a flood of memories of his glory days and the book goes back and forth between the two eras, as Jun recounts the stories of those days and introduces us to the cast of characters with whom he worked. Besides the director who made him a star and who was murdered at that time, Ashley Bennett Tyler, Jun also tells us of the three women, actresses, who dominated his life at the time.

He embarks on the task of seeking out people from his past life, trying to come to terms with those long ago times and events and this leads to some interesting revelations which I shall leave unspoken.

Besides being beautifully written, I found the story of the early days of the silent film industry to be quite fascinating. I think Jun is beautifully portrayed by the author and on the whole I think it a remarkably good book. Here the book has been summed up so much better than I could.

The Age of Dreaming explores the history of Los Angeles, the heady beginnings of the movie industry, and the interplay of race and celebrity. It is part historical novel, part mystery, and part story of unfulfilled love, all told through the voice of a forgotten star who must gradually come to terms with his past.

As one of the best books I have read in the last few years I can highly recommend it.

Saturday Photo Hunt ---- Pink

PhotoHunt

PINK

This is the second time tnchick has set pink as the theme for Saturday Photo Hunt. Last time I had no hesitation in what I wanted to post. My daughter and I called the occasion the Princess Birthday Party and I was sure that I could not top that one. But this photo of an Astilbe in my front garden is quite pink, in its full glory last week when I took this.


There were bees buzzing around it but I was in a hurry and did not have time to take one of those great insect macro photos that everyone seems to capture. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Along with Hostas, Astilbes are my very favourite plants which you could tell if you came to see my garden.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE

AND HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO THOSE CELEBRATING IT

There's a man in my bed! Eeeak!

Well it has been a week or so since I last posted. I have been pretty busy, both in Second Life and Real Life. In fact RL has been getting in the way of my visiting SL and blogging. Sigh!

Oh check out my new pic. What do you think?

This post is about Second life and something that creeped me out a bit...

I recently moved to a temporary place (and am now moving again asap, to somewhere with better security).

JMB had popped by to visit with me. I showed her some of my SL art that I had hung on my walls (I like to make things homely)..

Anyway, I had to go do some stuff in RL but JMB stayed to look over my work, here is one of them “Surfer Girl”.

While she was doing that some strange guy just appeared!

On my bed! Definitely uninvited!

I am not sure what I would have done if I had been home. Either run, flipped out and/or attacked him I guess.

I have been hanging out in some rough places lately and at the time I had knives strapped to my arms in quick release holsters, so if I had remembered.... he might have been sorry.

Well it wasn't me but JMB, she confronted him armed with nothing but her indignation (and possibly an umbrella) and saw him off. Yaaay JMB! Apparently he was randomly hopping in on people.

Not a handsomely raffish, masterful but gentlemanly, art thief then... Sigh.

One of the dangers of a world with teleportation and the odd d@#k head I guess.

Citizenship --- in this case, US Citizenship

In 1980 my daughter left Canada for the United States of America. She already had a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in 17th Century French Literature from UBC at the tender age of 23, but finally she was ready to leave home to pursue her doctoral studies. From the list of universities which had accepted her into their graduate program she finally chose Stanford University in California.

During her time at Stanford she met an Italian graduate student and when they had both finished, after six long years, they married and settled in the USA, firstly still on student visas and then work visas but eventually they obtained the coveted "green card" as it is commonly known, or Lawful Permanent Residency.

Finally, after 19 years in her case and 20 years in his, her very pragmatic husband thought that it was time for them to become citizens of the USA, so that they could eventually enjoy some of the benefits for which they were paying large amounts of tax but which were available only to citizens. I think my daughter saw the wisdom of this and so the process was started.

After many months and final interviews the process was completed, save for one thing, taking the Oath of Allegiance for Naturalized Citizens. At this point, I started to receive frantic telephone calls from her. She did not care for the wording of the oath at all. Not one little bit. Now this child of mine at that point held two citizenships, Canadian and Australian, with passports of both countries. The Americans were aware of that and said she could continue to hold those citizenships.

It seems the USA is a little schizophrenic on the topic of dual citizenship. It used to be the case that US citizens could not hold dual citizenship, except in certain specific cases. However, most of the laws forbidding dual citizenship were struck down by the US Supreme Court in two cases: a 1967 decision, Afroyim v. Rusk, as well as a second ruling in 1980, Vance v. Terrazas.

On the other hand, if an American takes up citizenship in another country, then the US will consider that person to no longer be a citizen. Incidentally, the same is not necessarily true the other way around. If a person of another country becomes a US citizen then, depending upon the laws of the home country, that country may still consider her/him to be a citizen.

However the official US State Department policy on dual citizenship today is that the United States does not favor it as a matter of policy because of various problems they feel it may cause, but the existence of dual citizenship is recognized. But for all intents and purposes dual citizenship is accepted totally now in the USA.

So what was the problem for my daughter? Why was she freaking out about taking the Oath? Well just take a look at the wording.

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

That is pretty strong language indicating that you are certainly renouncing any citizenship you hold when you take the oath, wouldn't you say? She had been frantically looking online to make absolutely sure that she was not giving up her Canadian or her Australian citizenship by swearing this oath. I suggested that the oath was simply anachronistic in light of the fact that dual citizenship for US citizens has been in effect for quite a few years, and that it had not been changed to keep up with these changes. It does seem strange that changes have not been made to it.

Well she did take the oath and she has applied for a US passport and so in the tradition of our immigrant family, another one has officially changed citizenship. But I think, like me, she will retain the strong attachment to the land of her birth. She will always be a Canadian. As I asked in the linked post, where will my granddaughter end up, she of the three citizenships, American, Canadian and Italian. Will she continue our immigrant experience by living elsewhere? Time will tell.

Saturday Photo Hunt --- Flags

PhotoHunt


FLAGS

Once again I was scratching my head about this one. It seems I don't take photos of flags. But then I suddenly thought of the perfect idea for this theme, although I'm afraid I had to scan in these very old photos (taken in 1984) and they could do with some "editorial" help if only I was good at that.

These photos were taken in Siena at the running of the Palio di Siena which I wrote about so long ago. It is a horse race between the various contrade (zones) of Siena, taking place twice each year since the 1600s and the prize is the Palio, a banner which hangs in the clubrooms of the winner.

Click and you will get a very big view! I forgot to reduce it in size before uploading.

Before the race there is a parade with everyone in period costume, and many carry the flags of their contrada. We have a close friend from Siena and he belongs to the Istrice contrada, or Hedgehog contrada and this is their flag above.


Well this is not exactly a flag but it is flag like and it is the banner which was made for the Palio we attended in 1984.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE

The Belted Galloways --- An Update

Tuesday is usually a golf day for the Old Scientist but today his partners were not available, so I suggested we go to Steveston for walk on the dyke, followed by lunch on the Steveston wharf.

Along the way we saw my favourite Belted Galloways, enjoying the fresh grass which grows in the tidal marshland adjacent to the dyke road so, as usual, I took a few photos. Yes again. Please endulge me.

There always seem to be birds around these cows, today no different

The Belted Galloways of Steve's farm spend the summer grazing in a paddock fenced off from the rest of the marsh. For the first time I saw a box by the fence which contained pamphlets with information and inviting you to place your orders for frozen beef from these lovely cows. Luckily I am not a farmer else they would all die of old age.

Because it is quite wet in this spot they are rather muddy on their undersides and legs

According to the handout, these cows are pastured on grass during the summer and are fed local hay and ranch alfalfa during the winter, with their diet supplemented by barley mash from the beer brewing process of a nearby brewery. Because of their thick coat of outer hair, these animals have reduced outer body fat and lean tender meat. They are all raised from birth by the Steve family and receive no growth hormones or antibiotics.

This one with the itch was especially muddy

A young one was right by the fence

I counted 21 animals in the field today, at different stages of development. I'm afraid that they have all been sold this year but you can place your order for 2010. A side of beef, approximately 160 lbs, will cost you $800, cut, wrapped and frozen. No I am not a vegetarian and I eat beef, but these animals feel special to me so I won't be placing my order any time soon.


Not all the animals were in the soggy field nearest the river. Some were still in the drier fields on the land side of the dyke, where the herd spends the winter. Click to enlarge the photos to see them more clearly.