Metaverse money laundering, Japanese mobile phone novels, ISFDB goes wiki, anarchist university…

• 1 – The risk community noticed virtual money laundering
  “The premise is of course the (by now) old chestnut in the VW community of buying in-game currency, transacting it a bit, then cashing it out.” This could mean some big shake-ups.
  (tags: law terrorism drugs laundering money institutions financial worlds synthetic metaverse Life Second)
• 2 – Terrestrial Space Elevators, A Neccessary Evil?
  “…we may have to construct a ladder to the future to not only resolve problems around and on Earth, but to insure that all may have the opportunity to fully enjoy the cosmos.” Necessary? Sure. Evil? I think not…
  (tags: futurism waste hazardous pollution logistics colonisation exploration transport orbit elevator space)
• 3 – Big Books Hit Japan’s Tiny Phones
  “The first mobile phone novel was written six years ago … but the trend picked up in the last couple years when high-school girls with no previous publishing experience started posting stories they wrote on community portals…”
  (tags: weird technology writing novel phone mobile fiction books Japan)
• 4 – Android rights
  “An analogy can be drawn with the animal rights movement suggesting that, with enough complexity, androids may lay claim to some moral status even though this may be less than what is required for legal personhood.”
  (tags: progress protest development technology ethics enfranchisement rights robot android futurism)
• 5 – NASA Mars Team Teaches Old Rovers New Tricks To Kick Off Year Four
  “The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars some new capabilities useful both to these missions and future rovers.” Reduce, reuse, recycle.
  (tags: reprogramming reuse capabilities new Opportunity Spirit robots rover exploration Mars NASA)
• 6 – The Internet Speculative Fiction Database goes wiki
  “The ISFDB is open for editing by the general public.” If there was ever the potential to test the community strength of the genre, this could well be the place it happens.
  (tags: literature genre ISFDB editing community wiki database sf scifi fiction science speculative online)
• 7 – Booksfree.com: Netflix For Books
  “For those that have never used Netflix or a similar site, the set up is thus: Pick a list of books you’d like to read, sign up for a rental plan and wait for your first title to arrive.” The death-knell for my industry.
  (tags: booksfree business literature reading library delivery postage rental book netflix)
• 8 – London-on-Sea: the future of a city in decay
  “This map reveals how Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Canary Wharf will be among the areas at risk of flooding according to a new estimate of rising sea levels.” One meter rise, one big mess.
  (tags: map future environment city flooding estuary level sea rise change climate London UK)
• 9 – What is Toronto’s AnarchistU?
  “The Anarchist U is a volunteer-run collective which organizes a variety of courses on arts and sciences… it is open, non-hierarchic and questions the roles of teachers and students.” Interesting social experiment.
  (tags: education Canada Toronto courses university school free anarchist experiment social)
• 10 – [Scott Westerfeld's] Character Names
  “…Uglies takes place 300 years in the future. Names probably won’t be the same as now. So I needed something that’s not a current name, but that doesn’t make your brain fritz when you read it.” via Boing Boing.
  (tags: creativity inspiration names character writing sf scifi fiction science)

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