White Knight 2 revealed

Today Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan unveiled the sleek and sexy White Knight 2: a twin-fuselage, four-engine jet designed to carry a spaceship to launch altitude. Created almost entirely from carbon fiber composite, the gleaming white hull is completely seamless with the words “My other ride is a spaceship” painted by the door.

White Knight Two

Links:

Are you Internet famous?

Wired.com has created the (mostly pointless) “Celebrity Meter” to gauge just how Internet famous you are based on links and Google score.

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I scored a measily 7… whatever that means. Anyway, I guess I’ll have to work harder at becoming Internet famous. Time to release that viral video of me dancing with a hamster with a lightsaber. Or something.

Aerius launches!


Several times a month, estate owners ask me about my old Terra Airship, and whether it can fly itself in a loop around an island. It seems that a lot of landowners want to use blimps or airships for advertising or for tours, but don’t want to spend time piloting them.

At risk of sounding like a Ronco ad, the solution is here. The Terra Aerius flies like a blimp, looks like a blimp, and even tastes like a blimp. OK, I just made that last one up (if you lick the Aerius, I expect it would taste a lot like your computer monitor), but that’s because I’m so excited about this one. Why? Because this is my first lighter-than-air vehicle that isn’t limited in size to SL’s 10 meter maximum. The Aerius is 55 meters long and 20 meters wide. This thing is huge. Not only that, but it has my latest flight script that includes features and detail that I’ve learned from five years making vehicles for Second Life.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Estate owners, you can create your own tours and release the Aerius to fly itself over your islands. The Aerius includes instructions on how to plot a route for the autopilot and has scripted advertisement panels that you can either wear yourself or link to the blimp.

The Aerius is sold with modify permissions, which is rare for vehicles. I want owners to be able to really personalize their blimp. If you have a knack for building or texturing, create your own look and launch it into the SL sky.

Try it today at Abbotts Aerodrome’s east landing pad. That’s on level four of the Aerodrome tower. It’s also available on the web at SL Exchange and and OnRez.

SoL

Any MSTie knows that “SoL” means “Satellite of Love” — the home of Joel and/or Mike and the bots. Now you can find them in BlaksleeWorld, where the Satellite of Love has landed at the feet of gigantic statues of Tom and Crow (if they had feet, that is).

For deep hurting, drop by for several streamed b-movies per day.

Link: Squeebee’s Mystery Science Theatre

Admiring the neighbour’s car

When I dropped in on my Bay City shop today, I was thrilled to see that someone had bought the plot of land next door. The buyer: legendary automobile artist, Ahkenatan Grommet. I couldn’t have hoped to have a better neighbour.

1929 Primout Phaeton by Ahkenatan Grommet

I met Ahkenatan in the Morris sandbox years ago in his first days in SL. Even as a total newbie, he had constructed a gorgeous roadster in exquisite detail. Now, years later, he puts everything he’s learned into what I can only describe as the best classic cars Second Life has ever seen. His in-world company, Primouth Motors, will have a shop next to mine in the “Bay City – Handa” region. Ahkenatan says he can’t begin construction immediately, but I’m sure his storefront will match the classic style that we associate with a Primouth car.

Link: Primouth Motors, Bay City