SarahKB7 Koskinen

I have predictions for the future links between Newbank and the 35 new regions. On the north border of Newbank (at 124,252,22) is a short asphalt road pointing northwards to nowhere: On my map, you will see that there is currently a void north of Newbank and south of a new region (of the 35) called Shepherds Coronet. I predict that a future new region (with road) will bridge this void. However, there is no asphalt road along the northern edge of Newbank, only a narrow concrete footpath. And the road is blocked by bollards. You'll have to go one region east to Coin Toss to drive vehicles across on an actual wide asphalt road. To the east of Newbank is Coin Toss region, which DOES have asphalt roads pointing northwards, aiming northwards to Rabbits Too in the group of 35. These north border roads are also to be found in all of Newbrooke's other northern regions. They are called Jazz Band, Funky Blues, Okay Pop, Prince Charming.

I've drawn a new map which shows the 35 new regions (when they appear) in relation to Newbank, the other Newbrooke regions and the Chalet Homes: @Nika TalajErr, excuse me, you don't get to name them. I found them first, just as the British FIRST found and claimed the Falkland Islands in 1592, 224 years before Argentina even existed! 😜

@Lloyd Overland@Daniel Voyager Most definitely not an April Fools Day prank. I posted my findings about the 35 new regions after 12pm BST - if you noticed from my previous post. In England, we have always ended April Fools Day pranks before 12 noon and anyone who continues pranking after 12 noon automatically becomes labelled as the April Fool for the remainder of the day. The traditional time limit makes it more exciting (especially for children at school) to sneak in pranks before the 12 noon deadline. This is because all day pranking would become overly tiresome, predictable, less fun, irritating and disruptive to the normal working day, as April Fools Day is only a fun tradition, not a public holiday. April Fools Day Origin In English folklore, April Fools Day is long associated with the village of Gotham (pronounced Goat'um) in Nottinghamshire and an event from the 13th century. The story goes that King John (1166-1216), the same bad king of the Robin Hood legend, intended to travel through Gotham to Nottingham in Nottinghamshire. At that time in England, any road the king travelled on had to be made a public highway, but the people of Gotham did not want a public highway through their village or to be taxed. The villagers feigned imbecility when the royal messengers arrived. Wherever the messengers went, they saw the rustics engaged in some absurd task. Based on this report, King John determined to have his hunting lodge elsewhere, and the wise men boasted, "We ween there are more fools pass through Gotham than remain in it." According to the 1874 edition of Blount's Tenures of Land, King John's messengers "found some of the inhabitants engaged in endeavouring to drown an eel in a pool of water; some were employed in dragging carts upon a large barn, to shade the wood from the sun; others were tumbling their cheeses down a hill, that they might find their way to Nottingham for sale; and some were employed in hedging in a cuckoo which had perched upon an old bush which stood where the present one now stands; in short, they were all employed in some foolish way or other which convinced the king's servants that it was a village of fools, whence arose the old adage, "the wise men of Gotham" or "the fools of Gotham" The phrase "playing the goat" (to play the fool) originates from Gotham (Goat-ham), as the village was founded by goat farmers. Gotham City from the Batman comics was deliberately named by its creators after the "fools of Gotham", in England.

A new group of 35 regions have appeared to the north of the current Newbrooke homes. But I am appalled by one of the new region names.... @Patch LindenPlease immediately rename "Malvinas Vision" to something less distasteful in respect of this year being the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Falklands War.

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne was first published in 1869. The story is set in 1866. It is a fictional Victorian era story written and published in the same Victorian era. Therefore it is Victorian science-fiction, not Steampunk.

Found the original birthplace of Second Life ! ^ 333 Linden Street, Hayes Valley, San Francisco, California. The building, or part of it, now seems to be home to a shop called Optical Underground, which sells glasses/spectacles. 😜 Have a look for yourself in Streetview

Second Life won't really be 19 years old either, it is already over 20 years old. Don't forget that SL existed before 2003, it was then called Linden World. The name was changed to Second Life in 2003 after LW came out of it's private Alpha (2001-2002) and public Beta (2002-2003) testing periods.

Will SSPE2223 get its old Cthulhu name back?

Hehehe 😜

Did you know that the SL Moles are alien moles? True! They originally came from a planet called Talpidae, which is a much larger planet than Earth. There's a model of Talpidae at Bay City - Molesworth.

About those region "screens"; guess whose 20th April 2019 idea that was?! 😜 ^

A new group of 12 regions have been added to the east of the Newbrooke regions. They are named: Jazz Band, Funky Blues, Okay Pop, Prince Charming, Fitz Inn, Picnic Grove, Judge Knott, Bullwinkle, Lavenders Blue, Dot Matrix, Hexadecimal, Shields Brook.

Comment withdrawn due to.... meh! 😜

I also fondly remember the exciting time before and after Bellisseria first opened. Many people with boats and aircraft were excited not only by the mysterious unnamed new continent, but also by the new and very long L shaped sea channel that had appeared in April 2019. Indeed, some of us hoped this vast sailing space would remain empty for our continued enjoyment. 😜 (^ Photo by @Nando Yip , September 2019) People were excited by the idea of finally being able to sail and fly from Jeogeot continent up to Sansara continent for the first time ever too, and vice-versa. This massive L shaped sea channel was two regions wide all the way along and was placed to the north of Jeogeot continent and Pyri Peaks island. However, the L shaped sea channel didn't actually go all the way up to Sansara yet until Bellisseria officially opened. Instead, it dead-ended at its top two Agathy and Whitecap regions, two-thirds of the way up to Sansara and to the south-west of the mysterious new continent, where for weeks many boats and ships waited impatiently for their first look at Bellisseria and also to reach Sansara continent. Because the new continent was unlinked to the others, it was impossible to see without the use of the map, even with draw distance set to maximum. Two new regions called Delby Depths and Sirens Rock were finally added to the northern borders of Agathy and Whitecap regions on 15th April 2019 to link the L shaped sea channel to the new continent. With the link opened, boats and aircraft were free to continue northwards from Agathy and Whitecap. Who was the first person across? Nobody seems to know (or care!). (^ The island of Kuga and my first time in Bellisseria! 😜 ) The first landmass they encountered was a small Bellisserian island named Kuga, with a lighthouse on it, only 2 regions to the north of Whitecap. At that time, Kuga and most of what existed of the early Bellisseria lacked public rezzing parcels, so an hour-long sail up from the north of Jeogeot continent was the only way to get there without teleporting. And to the north of Belisserria a short span of new water regions were also added to Sansara continent's southern 'elements' regions to link it to the northern coast of Bellisseria, which allowed full movement between Sansara and Jeogeot continents for the first time ever. If you missed Bellisseria's 15th April 2019 opening day, you can re-experience it back on page 45.

I have a few idea suggestions for some new LH themes.... Undersea Theme Underwater homes of various man-made and natural geological designs (perhaps sunken ships, submarines, caves, coral, seashells, marine creatures etc... ) placed below the surface of water regions. No roads, no railways but plenty of fish, plants, rocks and eerie oceanic background sound effects. Regions could be placed against mainland continents which do not have a navigable coastline, so that the water at 20 metre sea level in these Undersea Theme regions makes those mainland regions navigable by boat users. Winter Themes Alpine, Nordic, Scandinavian, Himalayan, Tibetan, Japanese, Aspen, Andes style winter homes located in various regional mountain valley regions that are constantly covered in snow and ice. Not everyone wants to live in a temperate, coastal or hot climate. Would be very popular at Christmas times too. Twisty mountain roads and valley bottom village roads and railway lines, ice covered lakes and rivers, cablecars, chairlifts, skiing runs, winter sports, conifer forests. Desert Themes Various world desert themes; Sahara, Gobi, Great Australian, Arabian, Syrian, Kalahari, Patagonian, North American Great Basin. Decorative elements to include sand dunes oasis, camels, tents, sand storms, pyramids, obelisks, vultures, snakes, scarab beetles, reptiles, mummies, crypts, treasures, rocky canyons, mesas, buttes, salt flats, crashed alien spacecraft.... Space Station Theme Massive region-sized space stations (perhaps giant wheel shaped space condos?!) with interconnecting corridors between them "floating" freely in a perpetual black starry sky. Locate them high above 400m altitude in sim regions, with nothing but empty sea beneath them. No need to decorate the region surface with roads, trees etc. Add in space background scenery; some comets, asteroids and occasional mystery UFO background decorations. Regions could be placed against mainland continents which do not have a navigable coastline, so that the water at sea level in these Space Station Theme regions makes those mainland regions navigable by boat users. Alien Planets Themes Based on the surface of various factual and imaginary alien planets, or moons. Very futuristic looking homes, some of alien origin. Have some very weird looking terrain formations and unusual soil, water and sky colours too. Add some weird "Forbidden Planet" style background sound effects. 😜

I had already known and had already mentioned in my previous post.

The British America colonies of the 18th century were denied representation in Britain's Parliament because the British were not in the America's to build new nations there, or to make the America's an extension of Great Britain. The Crown colonised the north and east of the northern American subcontinent (the closest parts to the British Isles) with trading posts in order to exploit and profit from the abundant natural resources found there. The British America colonies were first established in Jamestown, Virginia in May 1607 as a private business venture by the British Crown - a legal business entity with the British monarch as its CEO. These British America colonies were Crown property and managed by the newly formed Virginia Company on behalf of the Crown, the legal entity which "owns" the UK as well as many other non UK Crown colonies and oversea territories. British America was also established as a Crown penal colony which gave deported British criminals a second chance in life without the fear of a hangman's noose back home, or from rotting in an overcrowded prison in Great Britain for the remainder of their lives. The British America colonies were often invaded by other European colonial countries who had their own neighbouring colonies in the Americas like the British had. Britain imposed taxes on the British America colonies as a method for its American colonies to pay for their own local defence, without taking money out the British economy to pay for these, from their perspective, low priority distant overseas problems. The new colonial taxes were rejected by the colonists, who protested "no taxation without representation" to the British Parliament , which fell on deaf ears and was ignored. (Opinion - Just think about it, why should a private business venture in a foreign land get a seat in the British House of Commons? In turn, would you give Apple UK Ltd a seat in the US Congress?! ) This disagreement escalated with a British colonist rebellion against the British Army (a weird overseas British Civil war if you think about it!), with the famous dumping of tea into harbours and then the signing of a joint petition by the thirteen of the British America colonies, more commonly known as "The Declaration of Independence".... (Opinion - You know the rest of the story, but Britain did retain the majority of British America found to the north of those rebellious thirteen colonies. Americans see the so-called "Revolutionary War" as a major victory, while the British see the loss of some of its trading outposts and penal colonies as a minor footnote in their own broader history. ) The War of 1812 began after the newly formed United States ambitiously crossed the northern border into the remaining British America colonies in order to expand its own territory. The US forces looted and burnt the British colonial city of York on 27th April 1813. The British army retaliated and fought the retreating invaders back south to the US. The Royal Navy fleet and British Army, freed from their duties and victory in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and up the Potomac River in August 1814 and opened fire on US towns in the Battle of Bladenburg, 8 miles from Washington DC, as an act of revenge for the US invasion of British America. With the battle won, the road was clear for the British to invade Washington DC. On 24th August 1814, The British Army's East Essex Regiment took Washington DC in the Battle of Washington in which the British Army burnt several public US buildings, including the US Capitol. Treasury and War Office. The British soldiers were under strict orders not to target civilian homes. They then arrived at an evacuated US Presidential Mansion and found the mansion's dining room table had been set for a Presidential dinner for forty diners, all who had fled. The British soldiers took advantage of this free hospitality and dined until their belly's were full. After their free meal, the British then proceeded to burn down the Presidential Mansion. The building was gutted by flames and the exterior facade was left scorched by flames and blackened by soot. The burning of the Presidential Mansion and Washington DC was an act of revenge, for the US had looted and burned the British colonial town of York earlier in April 1813. After the British victory over the US (!) and the signing of a peace treaty in Ghent (now in Belgium) on 30th December 1814, the US Presidential Mansion was repaired and the exterior stonework was given a coat of white paint to hide the black scorch marks and soot damage. The freshly painted Presidential Mansion then became known as "The White House" thereafter. Meanwhile, north of the border, the British colonial city of York, destroyed in 1813 by the US invasion, was rebuilt and had its name changed to Toronto in 1834. By 1867, the remaining British America colonies were merged into one and granted a self-governing Dominion status and had its formal name changed to The Dominion of Canada, or just Canada for short. The Dominion of Canada, self-governing but under British control, fought along with the victorious Allies in two world wars during the twentieth century. In the post WW2 and post-colonial world, Canada became a sovereign country on 1st July 1982 when it was granted full parliamentary independence by the Crown - without a single bullet being fired or from the throwing of tea into harbours! Today, Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. Canada remains a Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliamentary Democracy and still recognises Queen Elizabeth II as its formal Head of State. Canada is also a member of NATO and the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly British Commonwealth of Nations), which now has a membership of 54 nations, some of which were never part of the former British Empire and have joined voluntarily. And as for Scotland, it has had a national "Scottish Parliament" since 12th May 1999, which is not a sovereign entity, as Scotland itself (along with England, Wales and Northern Ireland too) are no longer seperate sovereign countries since the formation of the present UK. The Scottish Parliament is based at Holyrood in Edinburgh and has regional authority like powers and is lower in status and than the overall UK Parliament which is sovereign. Scotland has representation in the UK Parliament with 59 of the 650 UK Parliamentary seats. Most of the 59 seats currently have Members of Parliament who are aligned with the Scottish National Party, or SNP. The UK Parliament granted Scotland a "once in a generation" Independence Referendum on 18th September 2014, in which Scotland voted 55.3% to 44.7% to remain part of the UK. England does not possess an "English Parliament" of its own any longer, as the UK Parliament superceded and replaced it. There are also no English Nationalist political parties in the UK Parliament.

People glorify the past because glorifying the future is a bit harder to do. And glorifying the present just makes you look a bit presumptuous, arrogant and weird.

Decided to try out Newbrooke's road network today (4th March 2022) by wheeled road vehicle (not a boat or hovercraft this time!) and see how expansive it was. I started at the Newbank community centre and drove south, hoping to get down to at least Josie Banks, the landbridge sim between Newbrooke and the Chalet region sims. I managed to drive through the labyrinth of roads down to Josie Banks quite easily after a few wrong turns and dead ends, using a bit of intuition, guesswork and pure luck. So I went on, out of Newbrooke and crossed Josie Banks into the Chalet Homes, then south into and through a river tunnel and up out and across a bridge over into the Stilt Homes regions. I went on westwards through the Stilt Home islands and bridges and finally made it across to a giant humpback bridge that led to the Log Land sim of Beiramar. Log Land has dirt roads and looks way more complicated to navigate, so I ended my roadtrip today at Beiramar. So yes, its definitely possible to drive up into the new Newbrooke theme regions from the surrounding Bellisseria regions. But as Bellisseria is not connected by roads to other mainland continents, that would be an impossible road journey at present. Bellisseria really needs some substantial road and rail bridges (or tunnels) linking it to both Sansara to the North and Satori to the east. And perhaps road links to Jeogeot to the south too. It would give the Bellisserian population somewhere further than their own backyards, gardens and streets to explore. My journey time from Newbank down to Beiramar was approximately 42 minutes, crossing over 60 sims and over a distance of 17 km of roads. 😜

England has not had a sovereign parliament of its own since the year 1707, when the parliaments of England & Wales and Scotland were unified by a political union and then created a single sovereign parliament to form the parliament of Great Britain. A united Ireland was added in 1801 which formed the UK Parliament. The sovereign parliament of the UK is based in London, England, as England is the largest nation of the four and has the largest population and economy. As London is the capital of England, it also doubles as the capital of the UK too.

The UK has never competed in the Olympics as the UK. A team called Great Britain does instead, which allows Northern Ireland citizens to choose to compete for either Team GB or the Republic of Ireland (Eiré). The Great Britain team is intentionally named after the geographic island name of Great Britain, as England, Wales and Scotland all share this same island of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is located on an island named Ireland, which is also shared with Eiré (the Republic of Ireland). The UK was a member of the EU because the sovereign UK Parliament made the application to join it in 1973. We joined as one United Kingdom and left it in 2020 as one United Kingdom after a whole UK referendum. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are allowed to have seperate football teams in FIFA World Cup competitions because they were the first nations in the world to have Football Associations which were formed after 1863, decades before FIFA's formation in 1904. The four UK nations also have a 25% share each (FIFA has the other 50%) in the rules of association football. This UK-FIFA football rules partnership is called IFAB, which controls the RULES of football. FIFA only controls the competitions it holds. England's football association is still officially called "The Football Association" because it was the first national association in the world.

Because the whole UK had a joint EU referendum as the UK is the sovereign state. There were no seperate England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales EU referenda as only the Westminster-based UK Parliament is sovereign.

The UK can't be in that list because the UK isn't actually a country. Instead the UK is a political union of four non-sovereign nations in one overall UK "sovereign state" with a single united UK Parliament.

@Coby Foden& @Maitimo Small land locked lakes are why flying boats and seaplanes are a good investment. They're made and sold in all kinds of different shapes and sizes. Hovercraft and amphibious cars are also a good alternative.

I think the only place I've ever seen a lap counter was at the start/finish line at the vehicle testing sandbox in Brilliant region.