People are dying in Darfur and neighboring Chad, and the genocide emergency is becoming serious. Who better to come give us a talk about it than Damien's nanny herself? Hah, we're kidding. While Mia Farrow played freaky Mrs. Baylock in "The Omen", she's nonetheless a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in real life. So, in her second (life), she's going to be holding a discussion on the issue in Darfur.

Yes, Mia Farrow is scheduled for a talk in Second Life on Tuesday, January 9, 11 A.M. SL time (2 P.M. Eastern). She's to discuss and answer questions about the situation in Darfur, open to both the press and the public in the virtual world created by Linden Lab. The event will take place in The Infinite Mind virtual broadcast center and will be simultaneously broadcasted in two other SL locations: Camp Darfur and Global Kids on the teen grid.

Other speakers at the event include John Heffernan (Director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee Conscience), Ron Haviv (photojournalist), Ronan Farrow (Genocide Intervention Network representative), and Bill Lichtenstein (president of Lichtenstein Creative Media).

As far as social commentaries go, isn't it ironic how an actress playing the anti-Christ's nanny is now giving peace talks and conferences? QJ blogger Max even jokingly commented that maybe Damien was responsible for Darfur. Well, as for me, I definitely don't mind peace talks from Mia Farrow. Besides. She voiced the Unicorn/Amalthea in P. S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn". That's enough reason for me to love her.

In the virtual world of Second Life, different users are actually divided into grids. Developer Linden Lab was wise enough to do this because it provides protection for the younger users. With all the attacks happening inside the game, we definitely wouldn't want our teens smeared with goo, right?

Anyway, initial reactions to the Teen Grid were somewhat not favorable as cynics argued that attackers can always pose as teenagers themselves. As much as they have a point, it is amazing to know that the Teen Grid has taken a culture of its own, and is alive and vibrant. Just a couple of days ago, the community development team came up with a list of things to expect from the said grid.

Included in that list is the Global Kids island that teaches teen residents regarding world and social issues. True enough, Global Kids just published their first comic book about their first virtual summer camp that happened in the summer of 2006. The actual comics is 12 pages long and was created using photos from the program along with excerpts from the public chat logs.

Click on the Read link below to download or purchase the said comic book.

Claudia Linden from the Community Development team of Second Life has offered a glimpse of what to expect from the Teen Grid next year, and also opened the new category "education" on the Linden Lab blog. As an answer to numerous requests from educational organizations, Linden Lab has set up a Second Life Educators List that would come in handy for members in sharing info and work on improving their teaching methods.

Some projects are open to everyone, though some are exclusive to their students and staff. A number of educational projects have been started in connection with Campus: Teen Second Life, including:

• EdBoost - adults teach students programming and scripting content of the island
• Global Kids Island - teaches teen residents regarding world and social issues
• Eye4You Alliance - a teen library opening in January
• Pacific Rim Exchange - an exclusive program which connects students in Modesto, CA to their counterparts in Kyoto, Japan
• Suffern Middle School - virtual counterpart of the real life one in New York

Catch more info on this in the months to come.

It is sometimes hard to talk about Second Life. Just as the name of this MMO implies, it's a virtual representation of our real lives. Anyway, as much as there are a lot of things going on, we have a way to squeeze all of these: go directly to the heart of SL - Linden Lab's real life office and an interview with Vice President Joe Miller.

First of all, Linden Lab is using two server farms (one in San Francisco and the other in Dallas) to maintain SL's operation. All in all, there are a total of 4,100 computers working day and night to accommodate 60,000 users on the average. According to Miller, they didn't quite expect this kind of success. He then likened Linden Lab to a surfer:

We feel like we're surfing a very large tidal wave of popularity and we're staying out ahead of that crashing wave and surfing it successfully right now. There are some bottlenecks in the system. We're actively working to remove those bottlenecks so that we can distribute the load that is perhaps causing some performance reduction at peak time.

More than the usual technical problems, Second Life is faced with questions concerning economics and social dilemma's like prostitution. Prior to all these, Linden Lab has provided certain measures to make sure that users, especially the young ones, feel safe inside the virtual community.

Within the SL's walls, there are these so-called Teen Grids and Adult Grids. Needless to explain, the teen grid was put up for the younger users to shield them from the adult-dominated environment. According to Miller, the said grid is also being used to tackle delicate issues. He commented:

They were interested in helping other students learn about it so they could protect kids around the world who are being taken advantage of. It's a way to share what it's like for kids who are held captive in the sex trade. They built this maze as a project on global sex trafficking.

Currently, Second Life is home to over one million residents. The company had previously predicted that the population of the virtual world would explode to five million by the end of next year.