SarahKB7 Koskinen

@Patch LindenCould LL please reintroduce the Chat Parrot and the Beachball tuition to the new Welcome Island? I think new residents are missing out on experiencing these classic nostalgia items found in earlier orientation regions. Philip Linden MADE that beachball! Everyone knows that parrot kissing and beachball levitation are essential skills in SL. (!) 😜 EDIT: Oh and the TORCH too, they make excellent if slightly dangerous facelights!

Was curious about the concept of "states" because I'm from a place that doesn't have any, other than the overall Sovereign State itself. So I was surprised to learn that of all the planet's 197-ish countries, only 14 of them have "states" within them. They are: Australia Austria Brazil Germany India Malaysia Mexico Micronesia Myanmar New Zealand Nigeria Palau South Sudan United States

This is Newbank. And no, contrary to speculation, its neither a prison or a Star Trek themed fight arena. But it could be... 😜 (^ Newbank) To my surprise, I instantly recognised the buildings in Newbank as it contains a copy, or more accurately, an adaptation of the current SL Welcome/Tutorial/Orientation Centre for new residents called Welcome Island. By coincidence, I had visited Welcome Island Public when it opened inworld during 2021. Sadly, the public one appears to have vanished now. EDIT: It was never called "Welcome Island Public" which is why I couldn't find it again.The public version of Welcome Island is actually called Welcome Back Island and is open for visits! (Thanks to Quartz Mole for the correction) (^ Welcome Back Island - Photo by Daniel Voyager) Much of the tutorial and orientation related stuff that was in the Welcome Island build has been removed for this version found in Newbank and now seems to serve as Newbrooke's community centre, with the addition of seating areas and food and beverage bars in place of where there were once tuition boards and freebies. However, one little criticism, Newbank still has the exact same Landing Point coordinates that Welcome Island has in its land settings, which forces avatars to arrive in a cramped little area almost inside the counter of a Juice Bar in Newbank. These same coordinates are instead a wider open Landing Point area at Welcome Island. Looking around at Newbank's areas confirms that the same street furniture, such as the fences, seats and fountains which had been seen in the Linden Reveal sneak peek version of Newbrooke did indeed have their origins from the Welcome Island sim region. Then again, perhaps it was the other way around and Welcome Island was built from things designed for Newbrooke? The blue sphere you can see pictured in the photo above is actually a representation of SL's map on a globe. This globe was also a part of Welcome Island too. The globe might also be treated as official confirmation from LL that the SL grid is indeed round and not flat as many conspiracy "Flat Gridder" theorists have theorised about with their theories(!). But as everyone really knows, SL is obviously round, because you can see the curvature of the SL grid from high altitudes. (!) To recognise the familiar SL map and its continents on this globe at Newbank, you'll need to tilt your head (or the screen) over to one side, as this globe is tilted over and "rolls" on its equator, just like the planet Uranus.... OMG! SL is on planet URANUS!!! 😜

The mysterious region of Newbank at the top of Newbrook, once speculated to be a Linden Homes prison, or a Star Trek themed fight arena, is instead a copy/adaptation of the current SL Resident Welcome Center/Orientation/Tuition thingamajig called Welcome Island, which in Newbank has been adapted into a Newbrooke community centre. 😜

Can confirm the water height in Newbrooke is at the standard 20m altitude, although theres not much there or room enough to sail around in it. A water link from the Chalet Homes to Newbrooke is theoretically possible from its Phloom region. The nearest watery region in Newbrooke to it is at Muddy Run, but is located on its southern border, not its east. A bit of water channel digging across the unfilled voids between them could theoretically link these waterways together.

A wild Josie Banks suddenly appears...! 😜

Some people like to edit themselves to a specific height. Or lack any interest in an NBA career....

I find that using Singularity Viewer is the most reliable way to edit or determine an accurate bodyshape height measurement. And surprisingly for a V1 based viewer, Singularity has the fastest Frames Per Second timings and seems faster than other viewers. Do not waste money or inventory space by buying scripted height detectors, they simply do not work properly and have always given incorrect height readings. I have personally experimented and evaluated a wide variety of popular viewers and have found that Singularity Viewer is still the ONLY viewer which displays a bodyshape height (in Appearances) that is 100% completely accurate when directly compared in relation to the standardised never changing ruler, the humble prim. Be sure NOT to wear any shoebases while editing bodyshapes as this extra shoebase height is added in and displayed in Appearances while editing. This extra height can be up to 5 centimetres (almost 2 inches) of additional height when a shoebase has been set up to its maximum height. You should edit your avatar height using the height meter displayed on the LEFT side of the Appearances menu in Singularity Viewer. The RIGHT side one displayed (concerning shoebases) should be ignored. After you have finished editing and saving your bodyshape and height, rez out a simple cube prim onto a flat solid surface and stretch this prim up to the exact same avatar height value in order to test your edited bodyshape. Then rez out a second prim on top of the first and stretch out the second prim horizontally (so to make an T or inverted L) , so that you may physically walk your avatar "through and under" beneath the horizontal prim to test your height. If you have edited your bodyshape and the prims correctly, you should be able to walk underneath the second prim you rezzed with little or no physical resistance. Make sure you are NOT wearing a shoebase (yet) while determining that your bodyshape height is correct. When you feel happy with your height, save your completed shape in Singularity then revert back to your preferred or favourite viewer. Once you have relogged, go back into Appearances and then re-examine how the displayed avatar height measurement APPEARS to have miraculously slightly increased a few centimetres (or inches). The bodyshape actually remains unaltered from the height saved from using Singularity Viewer. But from my experience, I've found that other viewer's DISPLAYED height adds on a few centimetres in height than what it was originally in Singularity Viewer. 😜

Russia is one country spread across two continents which are divided by the Ural Mountains. The US is also spread over two continents, because Hawaii is geographically in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean continent of Oceania. Oceania is subdivided into four regions; Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Hawaii also sits on a different geological tectonic plate (the Pacific plate) than the rest of the US, which sits on the North American tectonic plate.

Wrong. 23% of Russia (and most of its population) is on the European continent and has an area of 1.5 million mi²., The other 77% of Russia, divided by the Ural mountains, is in Asia. European Russia is larger than any of the US states. In fact, European Russia is larger than the 6 largest US states combined ! (Alaska, Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona = 1.47 million mi²).

@Rolig LoonRussia, Canada and China are all larger (in area size) than the United States and all have national sales taxes. Using country size as an excuse to not have a national sales tax is just a poor excuse. @Drake1 Nightfire Please do not confuse Europe the continent with the European Union (EU), they are very different things. Despite having a flag and an anthem, the EU isn't a country, its only a political and economic organisation with 27 member countries within it. There are a total of 44 countries in the continent of Europe, with 27 of those in the EU and 17 not in the EU. As for population, there are a total of 750 million people in the continent of Europe, with 447 million of those living in EU countries and 303 million not. The US has a total population of 332 million. The area size of the total European continent is 3.931 million mi², with the EU taking 1.634 million mi² of that. The US area size s 3.79 million mi².

No company employee in England files their own taxes, its the duty of the company or employer to do so on behalf of the employee and pays that tax directly to our national tax collector (HMRC). Its a system we started in 1944. All the tax deductions are listed in the employees monthly pay cheque. It is possible here for an employee to work their entire lives and never need to fill in a single tax form or document. For self-employed people, they must calculate and complete their own taxes.

After a bit of reading up on it, what a ridiculously inconvenient and overcomplicated tax system the US has! I thought you were supposed to be the United States? You're more like a Loosely Aligned Federation of States... (LAFS!) Why can't you just have one single all encompassing nationwide Federal VAT sales tax level that ALL US citizens have to pay, without all the individual states, counties and cities being allowed to set their own local taxation levels? From all this hypothetical nationwide Federal VAT sales tax, your government could then allocate the necessary funding to all the individual states, counties or cities that actually need it? I was also surprised to learn that the US doesn't even have PAYE (Pay As You Earn) income tax for employees! PAYE is a system where all companies and employers automatically deduct all necessary national taxations and deductions from an employees monthly salary - without the employee ever needing to fill in or complete a tax return document.

Here in England, the displayed (real world) store price already includes the VAT as default, so there's no extra charge to pay at the point of transaction. All store reciepts have a VAT registration number printed on them, so the customer may claim back the VAT from HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs) should they need to for business tax reasons. I like our VAT system. We all pay in and we all get something back in return, such as our free access to doctors and hospitals with no medical bills. Ever.

Does this mean that displayed store prices will not actually be the same price Americans have to actually pay at the vendor?! 😜

SSPVCR = Super Secret Project Video Cassette Recorder. 😜

Undoubtably, that structure in Newbank is Newbrooke's public fighting arena....

At what altitude is the surface water at in those ponds and lakes? Standard 20m or not? And what will fill the separation void between Newbrooke and Chalet homes? Another water channel, hills, plains or left as a void?

Please don't change Gundyloo's name to Armitage Shanks.... 😜

One of the new regions (1084,1006) has had its name changed from Charade to Newbank.

Gardyloo is an archaic English warning shout given by a home occupant before they threw "dirty water" (chamber pot contents) out from an upstairs window down into the open street below. It comes from "regardez l'eau", or "look out for water!" Gardy = From the Anglo-Norman-French regardez = to look out, to watch out. Loo = from the Anglo-Norman-French l'eau = water Toilets are still commonly called loos in the UK today! Could the 22 homes in Gardyloo be provided with chamber pots please?! 😜

Ooh, nicely found! Yes, I see 49 too. But they're north-west of the Chalet's. So they're nowhere near Satori's west coastline. Grr. 😜 The two most northern are called Charade and Coin Toss. These two are placed up on the same latitude as Satori's Yeeowler region, but are 17/18 sims west of it, with the Chalets stuck in between.

😜

Hello all I thought I would share a photo of a very unique occasion in SL history.... This is a very historic and famous corner of Da Boom region, the oldest sim region and centrepoint of the Second Life grid. Today at precisely 8:46:40pm SLT, I created a brand new prim on top of the Oldest Known Prim - which was originally created at 8:46:40pm SLT on 25th January 2002. The 2 prims are exactly 20 years of age apart. I will call my newer prim the +20 Prim ! Top prim: +20 Prim. Lower prim: Oldest Known Prim. Location: Da Boom (0,0 corner). Date: 25th January 2022