Private dick digs Second Life

Reuters reports (below) that a private detective, Steve Rambam, claims to have tracked down his client’s childhood abuser in Second Life.

Rambam found “the accused” catting around in the guise of a dominatrix.

Rambam often says that “privacy is dead.”

Rambam, a/k/a Steve Rombom, has a colorful history, too.

He also has at least one peculiar enemy, who says he is revealing Rambam’s own secrets.

Reuters/Second Life » Avatars beware: Private investigators scouring Second Life
Rambam’s client told him this story: Twenty years ago as a child, he had been molested by one of his grade school teachers, a trauma he never fully recovered from. “The client believes/d that pedophiles don’t ‘retire’ — I absolutely agree — and he wanted to prevent the target from molesting anyone else,” Rambam said in an email. “We were retained to investigate, gather evidence, and if evidence was found then convince the target to retire from teaching.”

So Rambam started looking into his target — now an assistant principal — and discovered the man was a Second Life user. Pallorium investigators logged into Second Life and tracked down the man’s avatar, only to discover his Second Life identity was a leather-clad dominatrix.

Hard finding a home in Second Life

At least, it is hard finding a home where you feel free.

I thought Second Life New England (SLNE) might offer more freedoms for individuals than the real-world original.

I was wrong.

Yard signs are pulled-up, guns are banned. The uses of waterways are restricted. The oceans in this simulated world are off-limits.

In SLNE, my landlady’s husband is a cop. I hope he didn’t see the machine gun behind the living room couch.

Reams of bylaws, a high cost of land ownership, and taxes that never end (called “tiers” in SL).

Still, they come.

Cheerleader tryouts bumping hard news?

UniversalHub blogger Brett knocks the Globe’s coverage of a local firefighter’s bust for weed possession, and says newsworthy images, such as mugshots, are taking a backseat to prettier pictures at Boston.com.

I’m not sure the stakes at so high on this particular story (the pot one), but I plan to share Brett’s observations with my journalism students on the other side of spring break.

Like Brett, I’ve been marveling (in a purely detached, analytical way) at the sexed-up photo galleries at Boston.com, from the cheerleader tryouts, below, to party shots like this.

Pats hold cheerleader auditions – Boston.com
Alanna Hicks, of Weymouth, stretched her arms and legs along with the other 300 aspirants. Judges will pare the field to 75 for a final tryout.
Essdras M Suarez / Globe Staff

Mars: home to one brave nudist


Is this a thick-skinned, sunbathing Martian?
Nerds poring over each pixel taken by the NASA Mars Explorer Spirit recently struck paydirt: Some of them see an alien chilling out along an outcropping, perhaps lost in its alien thoughts.

But here’s the best part: Dude, it’s a she, and she’s naked.

Life on Mars? Amazing photos from Nasa probe reveal image of mystery figure on Red Planet
A few of the UK papers covered this mars rover picture today of what looks like a small statue, pasted the story from the Daily Mail below.

Interesting but not conclusive for me barring a peek at the close- up NASA maybe has hidden away somewhere.

What I found more curious was this ‘V’ cut rock located in the vicinity of the red circle, no straight lines in nature?

Also: A correspondent to Jeff Rense also notes the presence of an unusual object nearby (see image, below), which looks like the cap to my backyard fire pit.

Having Sex without Gravity


Time for a quickie? Space shuttle astronauts in 1996 explored sexual positions in Zero-G.

Astronauts are experimenting with sexual positions in space, this report (link and excerpt, below) suggests.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk
US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.
Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.
“The issue of sex in space is a serious one,” he says. “The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity.”
He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere.
four positions were found possible without “mechanical assistance”
six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag

Having Sex without Gravity


Time for a quickie? Space shuttle astronauts in 1996 explored sexual positions in Zero-G.

Astronauts are experimenting with sexual positions in space, this report (link and excerpt, below) suggests.

– Mark Baard

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk
US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.
Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.
“The issue of sex in space is a serious one,” he says. “The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity.”
He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere.
…four positions were found possible without “mechanical assistance”…
…six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag…