Nature in Virtual Worlds Update

Depictions of "Nature" in Second Life

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A busy couple of months. I joined a panel on "Science in Virtual Worlds" at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference in Copenhagen, October 16, where I talked about my research on sites for environmental education in Second Life.

A week later, I delivered a paper on "Representations of 'Nature' in SL" at the Reading and Writing Virtual Worlds conference at the National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries, University of Bangor, Wales.

Last Thursday, I delivered a short version of that paper as part of the "Virtual FSU: Learning and Research in Second Life" mini-conference I coordinated at Florida State. (Many thanks to Ken Lim for the plug!)

And this Thursday I am off to San Diego to stage a poster-session version of the enviro-ed material at the National Communication Association convention.

True, true.

Letterman's Top Ten Questions People Want to Ask John McCain

Priceless.

Wanda Sykes sums it up

Bruce

This is just a sample of some of the lighter works he shared with me. I will post more. He also had a website at http://brucehallstudio.com/.

A great loss to all of us. I miss you, Barce.

Colossal Water Spiders

600 miles across, ephemeral as a butterfly or galloping ebola, mindless and cruel, sine qua non of our humid subtropics, species scatterer, coast clearer, bringer of floods.

How did the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Caloosa know you? All we have are records of their Taino neighbors, who called them juracán, tools of the wind-deity Guataubá, assistant of the storm-goddess Guabancex.

In Tallahassee the winds have been blowing from the north for two days as Fay drenched the Atlantic coast. When the cyclone comes, find it by facing the wind and turning right.

We need the rain here.

Life is but a Dream

This is something I don't do nearly often enough: dip a paddle in an eelgrass-filled spring run.

Or in this case a sho-nuff oar, two of which can scut little Wasabi Maru, my wee Larson (1957 "Game Warden" model) around like a water beetle when I want silent propulsion over the luxury of an outboard.

Sunday afternoon Nancy and I took the boat out for the first time in well over a year and it (and we, rusty dockhands) performed well among the weeds and weekend warriors of the mighty Wakulla* River.

I could watch the undulations of these broad green-brown ribbons forever.

Ah but the poor river (and headspring) is so obviously over-nitrated that it's sometimes hard to take. Gorgeous, yes, but not what it was. And to what meaningful end?

Meanwhile, dip the oars and lean back into them, listening to their creak and splash and the keening of fishing ospreys from the cypress along the banks, and let your thoughts follow the schools of mullet as they circle past the lumbering dirigibles of scarified manatees. There is only this.

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*Despite the common "mysterious waters" tourist-trade translation of this word, the only thing mysterious is its original meaning. It is a Creek mispronunciation of a Spanish word, Guacara, which was likely itself a corrupted Timucuan word. In fact, the Spanish mission of San Juan de Guacara, well to the east, may be the origin of another Florida river's name: Suwanee.