SarahKB7 Koskinen

Ahern, Nova Albion and Linden World Theme Park Ahern sim, which took over Natoma's role as the Welcome Area sim, is still titled as a Welcome Area, although its role has changed and has become one of four sims which form a high capacity chat arena (formerly a voice area) formed around the four corners of Ahern, Dore, Morris and Bonifacio sims. Morris also has two public sandbox areas, just to the north of a tall sim-edge waterfall that falls into a desert canyon sim called Oak Grove. Oak Grove features SL's first ever wild west town, which has been restored to its original condition. To the immediate west of Dore, there are the four sim regions of Nova Albion (Miramare, Barcola, Grignano and Sistiana), a new town which was opened on 24th March 2004. Nova Albion was built over the former location of SL's first ever theme park, "Linden World" (named after SL's predecessor) in two regions called Coney and Luna, which used to occupy the spaces now used by Miramare and Grignano. The Linden World Theme Park officially opened on 13th October 2003 in Coney and Luna. The entrance into the park was via a road bridge across a waterway from the Dore sim region. The entrance route road into the park was decorated with numerous tall towers which once ran along the entire roadway into Ahern, and possibly even further east as far as the old Varney boardwalk. A "Spook House" by Sinatra Cartier was one of many innovative rides and stalls featured in the theme park. The Spook House was advertised widely across the SL grid, with ads placed as far south as Noyo (its still there!), and even one on the back side of The Man statue hill in Natoma (which is also still there!). Sinatra's Spook House is still available in SL to visit today. (I recently found another Spook House advertisement in Da Boom sim too!) Sadly, Linden World theme park didn't last long, popularity waned and its initial two sims were reduced to just one sim by December 2003, causing Luna to be split off, relocated to the south and transformed into a Linden Mall, named Luna Oaks - which still stands today. Eventually, Coney was closed too and deleted from the grid in early 2004, leaving an empty void once again. However, the location of Linden World Theme Park was reused when Nova Albion's four sim regions would be built over it in March 2004. Coney's former location is now taken by Miramare sim. And before it became a mall sim, Luna used to occupy Grignano's current space. If you visit Dore sim, along its road you will find a few mysterious tall towers that nobody seems to know too much about. You can now other people what these towers really are, relics left over from the short-lived 2003 Linden World Theme Park.... ^ Dore region, looking west towards Luna (south of bridge) and Coney (north of bridge) ^ Sinatra Cartier's "Spook House" in Linden World Theme Park

@diamond MarchantThat's a very old trick and nothing new. And it's temporary, works in all viewers and lasts only for a short time before your graphics memory cache updates. Go and try it at the island sim Hanshin (in Jeogeot) and at Cuppa (in Fantasseria) too. They are two sim regions on two different continents, but although they are very close neighbours, they cannot directly view each other, due to their relative positioning diagonally at corners to each other.

@Akane Nacht Torley Linden kept a record of the "closure" of the Noyo Ivory Tower on 17th June 2006: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDbDaP4 The bomb and Lumiere Noir's "Black Spy" avatar are both elements of the classic 1960's MAD Magazine's comic strip, Spy vs Spy, which was also turned into a popular 1984 split-screen two player videogame featuring the two opposing Black Spy and White Spy characters (which two players would control) who each had the goal of laying booby traps in rooms within a building in order to "kill" each other. Spy vs Spy was also turned into a MAD tv animation series in the 1990s.

Cayman was the first and oldest private island sim in SL and its owner also owns the neighbouring island Edge too. As you can see on the world map, they were very early sims which became fully encircled by the expansion of Sansara continent as both islands are now trapped within it! The island owner was also the original owner and a DJ of an early dance club called The Edge, which originated in Da Boom sim, but which later moved out to it's own private island sim - almost certainly to the island sim Edge, which is undoubtably how Edge got its name.

Natoma History Most people are unaware of Natoma's earliest role in SL, it wasn't always a sandbox and didn't have an Ivory Tower until years later, because Natoma was originally created and used as SL's first ever official Welcome Area sim! Way way back in time at the dawn of SL, Natoma sim was originally the landing place where a brand new account holder would first appear, landing in a enclosed wooden fenced corral area on the ground in the middle of Natoma sim. The corral area became nicknamed "the Noob Corral", although Natoma itself had a more formal and official title, the Welcome Area. The more experienced and helpful avatars of the early SL would often sit around on the square perimeter fence of the Noob Corral, hanging out, observing, and volunteering help to the new arrivals. However, according to witnesses (and survivors!), sometimes less friendly avatars would wait there too, teasing, griefing, trolling the new arrivals, which probably made the new arrivals question what the hell they had signed up to! The Noob Corral became quite notorious and infamous for a while too. Located around the Noob Corral were a network of stone tile pathways, leading to information signs, educational displays, artwork and decorative features, such as The Arch d Linden Grande, a 1950's retro-sci-fi style archway found on the central east border side of Natoma. The Arch d Linden Grande is a decorative archway or gateway that was created on 18th October 2002 by Alberto Linden as part of official Second Life sim decoration for Natoma sim for the Beta Test era and Release versions of SL. At the northwest of Natoma, proudly standing on top of a tall grassy hill was also The Man statue, one of only a few relics saved and imported from the old Linden World grid, which still stands there today. The Man statue has never moved from it's hill and is SL's longest continually rezzed object - although not the oldest ever object. It is said that Philip Linden himself terraformed the hill underneath The Man statue, which is certainly why the hill has become known as Philip's Hill. It is also known Natoma is one of Philip's most favourite sims, as he has made many spontaneous visits to Natoma over the years. Natoma also featured official freebie shops, the most well-known being Avatar Central, a large official Linden-backed building close to the Noob Corral where new arrivals could take freebie items left there by more experienced users. These freebie items had to be submitted and examined by the Lindens for approval before being authorised as free items. (There is a near-perfect full size replica/reconstruction of Avatar Central displayed in Aqua sim) Eventually, as Second Life's population grew, free space in the early smaller SL grid was getting tighter and scarcer, with land values across the early grid increasing. Natoma's Welcome Area role was shared with Ahern, a new sim region (created on 26th March 2003) that was created as a secondary Welcome Area further to the west of central Sansara. Thankfully, Natoma was not fully sold off, a few small parcels became protected areas in which reminders and relics of Natoma's history would be kept safe. The Arch d Linden Grande was retained, as a nod to Natoma's original Welcome Area role. The Man statue was retained too, as a continued reminder of Linden World. These two historic artifacts still sit in Natoma today, although the position of the Arch has been moved slightly to the north a little from it's original central sim edge position. Sadly, the rest of the Welcome Area objects, such as the Noob Corral and Avatar Central were removed or deleted. However, copys and replicas of the Welcome Area's objects are known to still exist. Luke Lorentz claimed a parcel in Natoma on 22nd October 2003 and built a home there, a home which still stands there today! Natoma's parcels were (mostly) bought by June 2006 by Lumiere Noir, the owner of The Ivory Tower Library of Primatives, which had been running a small "Natoma Branch" of the Ivory Tower in Natoma since 2004, but primarily from a different sim called Noyo since March 2004. The Ivory Tower originated in Noyo, because at the time, Noyo was one of a few sim regions which contained a Telehub, a LL object which one would use to teleport around the SL grid to specific areas. Lumiere Noir and his colleague Avi Arrow ceremonially demolished the original Ivory Tower in Noyo on 17th June 2006, which spectacularly fell down the Noyo valley side into the river below in hundreds of pieces, witnessed by many onlookers. (See Torley Linden's Flickr record: https://flic.kr/s/aHsiDbDaP4 ). Lumiere and Avi then opened a brand new, larger Ivory Tower in Natoma in June 2006, which still stands today. If you visit the present Ivory Tower in Natoma, you will find a small model of the original Noyo Ivory Tower on display, just inside the Tower's entranceway. A visit down south to Noyo, and you will still see the east valley side location where the original Ivory Tower once stood from March 2004 and eventually fell into Noyo's river on 17th June 2006.

When earthquakes or tremors happen in real life, do long-term SL users who live in such areas hear the "Restart Gong" sound in their minds?! I know I would. 😜

@Lloyd Overland Here's one I made earlier, with recent additions.

@Ceka CianciHeterocera has been connected to Sansara since March 2005, via the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) sim and water channel. 😜

Peeve: People who think a Mini Cooper is the same car as the regular Mini. Or other Mini's such as the longer Mini Clubman.

IBM didn't invent the PC, Commodore did. The Commodore PET 2001 was released in 1977, it was particularly popular in US schools. PET stood for Personal Electronic Transactor, which most people regarded as a "personal computer", which gave IBM the idea to actually name their later computer "PC".

I'd also like to point out that Blofeld and Klebb regions in Satori continent both have fully protected west coastlines and are worthy of being connected to wider sea regions too. This in turn could prompt private parcel owners in regions to their south to cooperate, redesign and rearrange parcels as communal water areas which allow vessels to move between Satori's coastal regions, such as they currently are, using Blofeld and Klebb as an exit/entry point to elsewhere. However, should LL be in a particularly generous mood, they should fill the entire void between Satori and Bellisseria with sea regions instead, which should help reduce the anticipated amount of inter-parcel and inter-region arguing and disputes between Satori's landlocked inhabitants about water travel rights. 😜

The latest group of sixteen regions have appeared on the inworld SL map. They are from top left: SSPCurrent Sea, SSPShell Yeah, SSPTiedown Inlet, SSPSteelhead Shoal, SSPBlack Dog Island, SSPNightwind, SSPBluebottle SSPTwin Coves, SSPSolomon Reef, SSPSriracha, SSPClear Day, SSPSlushy, SSPThunder Quay, SSPManatee Wharf, SSPRhonda Beach, SSPRum Deal,

"we" = a resident who was born in one of those 13 colonies? "we" = a resident who was born in one of the other 37 States that never took part in 1776-1784 and whose State was bought, stolen or ceded from other nations or indigenous peoples? Your actual true Independence Day is 14th January 1784, when the Treaty of Paris (signed on 3rd September 1783), which officially ended the war and granted official nation status to the US, was ratified into law.

Peeve: Citizens of other countries who don't even know their own history! Bzzzz! Wrong year. Try 14th January 1784! Then read up on 24th August 1814. How's that white paint looking 208 years later?! 😜

Socks are shin length, or shorter. Any higher and they're stockings.

I wonder what saucers are called elsewhere? Cup trays? Cup stands? Cup dishes? 😜

Peeve: People who can't tell the difference between a cup, mug, glass, beaker, or pot and call them all "cups".

There's a replica of the James Bond villain Karl Stromberg's secret underwater lair (called Atlantis) hidden in SL. But unlike in the film, it's not underwater. It's inside a huge volcano found in the final level stage sim of the Linden Realms game regions! Try not to steal Magellan's whisky if you find it....

From the official SL Map website... https://maps.secondlife.com/index.php?q=Stromberg Stromberg: "I've been expecting you, Mr Bond!" SSPTiedown Inlet: "Eh? Err, I'm not James Bond and how the hell did you find me?" Stromberg: "By using my Super Secret Pointy-clicky (SSP) SL Map machine!" SSPTiedown Inlet: "Oh okaaaaay.... err, nice to meet you?!" Stromberg: "And I see you've brought fifteen other spies too!" SSPTiedown Inlet: "Are you feeling quite alright, Mr Stromberg?! It can't be easy being stuck out here alone for so very long." Stromberg: "But Mr Bond! I am not alone! *manic laughter* This continent is full of other SPECTRE Agent named sims!" SSPTiedown Inlet: *blinks* 😜

Duplicates of the actual oldest First Prim can be found in the oldest original sixteen sims of SL, the "San Francisco" regions. But I'm not telling you exactly where! These historic prims are actually older than the lucky avatars that own and closely guard them, they're also older than the sims they're found in, and are even older than Second Life itself! Should you actually find one, please keep it a secret. These special prims all have the exact same time and date of creation, 20:46:40 SLT on 25th January 2002. The original First Prim was created before Second Life even existed, as it originated in an earlier Alpha Test incarnation of SL that was called Linden World, which was superceded by the Beta Test version of Second Life on 1st November 2002. Interestingly, the oldest prim has no creator name, as no such creator database existed at the time of the first prim's creation. It's highly likely that the very first prim was created by the man who invented primatives, an Avi Bar-Zeev, a colleague and friend of Philip Rosedale. And if you look around Sansara continent carefully enough, you might also find duplicates of the very first textured object ever created, a replica of a US five cent "Nickel" coin, that was also created in Linden World, not long after the First Prim was.

This particular prim was only the first public prim rezzed in the Nova Albion sims, on 26 March 2004. I know of prims that are well over two years older than that elsewhere.

😲😵🤣

Now that's very interesting, I never realised until now that there are protected boat channels along the coasts of Blofeld and Klebb. I'll have to go looking for more! EDIT: I've just finished looking around all the 19 sims south of Stromberg and have confirmed Blofeld, Klebb and a tiny southwest corner area of Khan are the only sims with protected coastlines.

In an ideal virtual world where south-west Satori had a wider coastline, I would hope to see the respective parcel owners in these numerous regions being a lot more cooperative with each other and organising communal water space areas in each sim, creating harbours and boat channels to allow boats to sail in (and out) from the wider grid.

There is a little mystery surrounding The Man statue. Specifically, it's head! Although the majority of The Man statue was created on 19th July 2002, not all of him was! You may not know, but the head was created several months later on 9th October 2002! Which raises various questions, such as did The Man even originally have a head? There are NO known photos of The Man statue in the Linden World test sims of 2002 to prove it either! But if The Man did have a head back then, was it somehow lost during the statue's transfer from Linden World to Second Life grids? Perhaps the statue's creator forgot to link the original head to the rest of the statue and so created a replacement head for the lost one later on 9th October 2002? That is just my own theory, but it would seem to fit, as Natoma (The Man's home sim) and the other 15 sims opened to Beta Testing on 1st November 2002, only a couple of weeks after the creation of the statues present head.