Amina Sopwith

I've been seeing people predicting it online since Hubbard made the cut to compete. If you've been following the story and people's thoughts on it since then, I'm surprised that you haven't. Still, even if the possibility never crossed anyone's mind until the day itself, does that make it any more or less likely to be true? Is it even actually the point? Indeed.

Yes, internets, which you and I are using right now to communicate with each other, on a forum dedicated to a virtual world that also uses internets. But like I said, whether it was a fix or not, Hubbard's presence there even after using blockers demonstrates the advantage. Would a 43 year old, recently injured female athlete have qualified to compete?

There had been a long running prediction that Hubbard would deliberately "throw it" on the day to "prove" that there was no athletic advantage. Whether it was intentional or not, the fact that Hubbard was there at all - aged 43 and after serious injury, having never been international level when competing as a fit young man - is proof of the advantage, even after a course of androgen blockers.

But look, utterly everything SINGS.

Gachas are crap. Haha! ADIOS!

I don't know how relevant this is, but a few months ago I got the Face App and took some selfies to play with. The "pretty me up" effect whitened my (already relatively fair) skin to alabaster. The "make me gain weight" and "make me a man" effects darkened my skin, in fact they made me Indian. I deleted the app because it made me so uneasy. I don't think it was intentionally designed to be racist but something about the data it goes on gives very disquieting results.

You actually want people to sign up for this as a condition of entering SL? To be done if they have a dispute with anyone? The Lindens have to act as mediators in every relationship and RP dispute? How would you even enforce it, or these "rulings"? And for what? So you can have your pound of flesh when someone disappears on you?

"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first." Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson

"I am not left handed!"

Your SL experiences, as profound as they are for you, are not this historically significant.

So you want it in the TOS (and therefore involving the Lindens) that all residents who have disputes must submit to being moderated by someone who "understands ancient wisdom about how human beings interrelate"? And these mods also have to be neutral, completely uninvolved, and "official"? What does that even mean? How can this spec be fulfilled by anyone other than a Linden? To come in and settle role-playing and relationship disputes? Why don't you train up a few people in the ancient wisdom about human beings interrelate and ask them to be on standby to come in and resolve disputes among your community in which they are otherwise uninvolved? And as before...let us know how it goes.

You wrote (among a lot of other stuff): I don't see how this completely uninvolved official mediator could be anyone other than a Linden. Who were you thinking of? If you want to start a community in which everyone has to supply RL contact details and agree to being contacted that way if they ever decide to stop logging in so that an official mediator can tell them if they were morally justified or not, then by all means start one up. Let us know how you get on.

You want the Lindens to get involved when someone decides to stop logging in without notice? And make an official statement on who was right?

What safeguards do you want? Did you not realise that people on the Internet can disappear whenever they like?

Because, for whatever reason, the people who actually participate in that culture don't generally want it that way. If they did overall, enough people would disapprove of it as to make it socially unacceptable or at least dubious. But a significant number of people (most?) don't want a culture that makes that a faux pas, and so it isn't one. If you're going to engage in a community that exists with blindfolds all round and the ability to vanish without consequence, don't be surprised if it attracts people to whom those defining features are desirable.

I'm rubbish at anything athletic, so I don't enjoy playing sports. But I enjoy watching world class athletes doing things I can only dream of doing, and the excitement if I want a particular person or team to win.

This is pretty cool. ETA: Oops, they forgot Gor. Here is the Counter Earth's magnificent personification.

Try fencing. If you were expecting something like Zorro or The Princess Bride, you're in for such a disappointment!

I like the diving, the rhythmic gymnastics, synchronised swimming and archery. I don't know when exactly, but certainly it isn't new this time. Several women badminton players got disqualified in 2012 for losing on purpose to try to manipulate the final rounds. (Does that count as match fixing, if it isn't gambling related?)

Are you in Australia?

Yes, it's brilliant.

A man goes out with a lion on a lead. A policeman sees him, can't believe his eyes and tells him, "Take that lion to the zoo!" The next day, the man and his lion are out and about again. The policeman sees him and says, "I thought I told you to take that lion to the zoo!" "I did," the man replies. "Today I'm taking him to the cinema."

I hear you get a free voice morpher and could go all Yoda on people.

Bring Peter Crouch back in just for the dance off and we would win every time! Oh, what I wouldn't give to see the Lions doing the Single Ladies routine.