Support the Open Internet

European Regulators are about to decide whether to give big telecoms corporations the power to influence what we can (and can’t) do online. Europe urgently needs clear net neutrality guidelines to protect our freedoms and rights online. We have until July to help Europe protect the open Internet.

Join the movement, take action now!

http://www.savetheinternet.eu

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Transcript of the video:

Corporations don't control the Internet. Yet.

You can visit Google, or Facebook, but they're not the Internet. Amazingly, these giant corporations exist right alongside smaller independent websites. Like those by Startups and activists, that are working to lessen their power and create something independent that allows more freedom and is less intrusive than the big corporations.

But now, that's changing. The telecom companies we use to access the internet are giving corporate giants like Facebook special treatment.

Sometimes it's a marketing trick. Other times it’s for profit: they sell special treatment to them.

Either way, the result is the same: A terrible new future where old Telecom giants and new Internet giants conspire to remain in control. Forever. A future where videos on corporate sites work. But on small sites, they break. A future where expensive phone calls work. But free calls over the Internet break.

A future where giant corporate sites are subsidized to appear free. But independent sites are so expensive or slow to access, that no one visits them. This future may be coming to Europe.

By August, EU regulators will make their final decision: They will either prohibit special treatment with strong net neutrality rules, or hand the Internet's future to the corporate giants of telecom and tech.

In the United States, Brazil, and India, net neutrality activists and small startups have been winning, with millions of messages to regulators, and protests in the streets.This summer, it's Europe's turn. And it depends on you.

Click here to send your message to European regulators, share this video, and find a protest near you.

The Flat Bock 2016 is Here!

The new and improved "Flat Bock 2016" was released yesterday at Gay Archipelagos Summerfest. This years edition of the "Flat Bock" comes with both a front and a back! It is also slightly larger than SL Bock because, as the production manager and designer Tomais Ashdene said lovingly and with a tad of sarcasm, "Face it Bock, you are larger than life!"

Get your free copy today!

You can all get your own copy to take home with you, to cuddle with, make love to, throw darts at or use for target practise.  Simply visit the Gay Archipelago SummerFest 2016 (SLurl), find my booth, touch the vendor and - Hey Presto! - you will receive your own personal "Flat Bock".

User instructions

The Flat Bock 2016 is laminated for your protection and to prevent staining
Lickable, but not edible

May break or otherwise damage your teeth if chewed on
Rinse in lukewarm water and wipe clean after use or abuse
Not dishwasher safe
Do not place in microwave
Do not place in dryer
May fade severely if put in direct sunlight over extended periods of time

The Yadkin Valley Festival 2013

Free ride to the Yadkin Valley Festival 2013

The Yadkin Valley Festival is the Woodstock or Roskilde festival of SecondLife. Hopefully there will be lots of rain and a muddy camping site to make for wonderful memories in the future. The camping site opened on Thursday, you can borrow or set up your own tent for the weekend.

This is a party lasting all weekend with loads of live artists and other entertainment going on all the time. Events are announced in the SecondLife group Iendis Transistor.

Confirmed live artists are Bara Jonson & Free Balan, Oldwolf Criss, Hazie Moonwall and Lisa Brune. DJ Apollon, DJ Rultan, DJ Ikaros, DJ Kicki and DJ Alf will all have parties Fishing Tournament and other prestigious competitions.

Listen in on the festivalradio at http://64.34.170.177:19150

Among My Countrymen

This evening I went visiting in the Swedish community in SecondLife, the reason for this nowadays rare venture was that Bara Jonson and Free Balan were performing a benefit live gig for Relay For Life at my friend Apollon Allen's bar, which is located on my ex-wife Iendi Laville's sim Yadkin.

The place was packed and I thought I had never seen so many Swedish avatars in the same place for a long time, but someone said that it wasn't much busier than a regular Friday evening.

For a long time after Ars had passed away, I sought refuge among the Swedes, where I felt safe and protected, which I was extremely grateful for and needed badly at the time. They involved me in all sorts of activities to keep me from brooding. They also responded kindly to and took part in some of my crazy projects, most notably the "Nakna avatarer i SL" ("Nude Avatars in SL") blog project. I think I had well over 100 entries where the Swedes dropped their clothing and sent me their wonderful and imaginative nudie-pictures for publication. I still have many friends among them although my visits are not as frequent these days.

I danced with Jasmine most of the evening, which was a pleasure, apart from the obvious fact that we looked great dancing together.

It was a fun evening and I had a very good time seeing and talking with friends I had not been in touch with for some time. People were generous to the cause, which made it even better.

Jasmine Cazalet, I and Apmel Goosson (He is wearing a hat, could he be losing his hair?)

"There was a young man from Nantucket..."

Above, Selma Edman and Iendi Laville show some of their moves.

NE0 Timeless's search is over

Tingeling captured between someones legs

Bara & Free @ Bounce Bar For Relay For Life

The Swedish singer and songwriter Bara Jonson and Free Balan will be performing live tonight at 1PM SLT at the Bounce Bar on the Yadkin sim. The event is a benefit performance for Relay For Life, bring hard cash - and loads of it!

Your teleport to the Bounce Bar

Bara & Free Are Back

Star grooves

Vampi sings along

Yesterday we witnessed the long awaited and longed for return of Bara Jonson and Free Balan to SecondLife.

The two have been on your in first life to Germany and they have therefore not appeared in-world for several months.

I was - of course - at the venue of the "comeback" together with two of the other most adamant Bara-supporters, namely Mrs. Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) and Starlight "Star" Gentil. 

At the venue were also assembled a modest but enthusiastic crowd of other live music lovers. 

Before I could enjoy the show I was forced to derender three huge waterfalls that surrounded the main stage. These were beautiful to look at, but the loud sounds of water falling was a real nuisance at a venue where one comes to listen to live music. Sometimes I just don't understand what certain people are thinking of when they design their venues. (I am now stopping myself from going into a rant about another live music venue that has/had about 1,013 frogs and toads emitting sounds.)

Bara's and Free's voices marry wonderfully and give you warm shivers down the back accompanied by warm and fuzzy feelings. All of us at the show had a great time and enjoyed a good show together. 

Welcome back to SecondLife Bara and Free, now please wait awhile before you both go on prolonged tours in first life again!

Support Bara & Free

(From a press release in the Bara Jonson Fan Gang group)

Bara Jonson and Free Balan are two Swedish live artists in SecondLife. They are now competing in the Swedish top charts in first life, "Svensktoppen Nästa" and need our help and support.

To get through to the national level they need lots of "likes" and you can help by following this link (url)  and then clicking the star just above their picture.

Please tell your friends to do the same! 

The Yadkin Valley Festival

My ex-missus and friend Iendi Laville and my friend Gittrika Mint have joined forces and with the help of a few more friends organized an autumn festival.

The program

FRIDAY (times below are CET until I take the time to change the to SLT)
20:30 Inauguration of the stage next to Bounce Bar
20:30 Rola Hykova on the same stage
22:00 DJ Apollon at the Bounce Bar

SATURDAY
10:00 Melodikrysset (a Swedish radio crossword puzzle program not recommended for International guests) at the campsite. It is of course good to just come and hang out also
11:00 Festival Radio. Rattle and music with Iendi and her guests
13:00 aake Roffo will be in place at the Yadkin Exhibition to show the current exhibition. One of the artists may be in place.
17:00 Festival radio transmits Aake´s fairy tale "The Princess and the Frog". You should expect a discussion after the program. The fairy tale will also be broadcast after the events on Friday and Saturday.
19:00 DJ Betty at La Grenouille
21:00 DJ Ikaros at La Grenouille
22:00 AM Quar at Gitts Club
23:00 DJ Kicki on the deck

SUNDAY
12:00 Bright Oh on stage at La Grenouille
13:00 Discs with coffee at the campsite
15:00 Festival radio broadcast replay of interviews with Rola Hykova and Bara Jonson
19:00 Bara Jonson & Free Balan at Gitt´s Club
20:00 Torben Asp on stage at La Grenouille
21:00 DJ Rultan at "The Mushroom"
23:00 Urban Harvy on stage at La Grenouille
24.00 Talk into the night at the campsite. If you hear someone snoring in separate tents it will be Gitt and Iendi. (Wouldn't it be even more interesting if we could hear the two girls snoring from the same tent, my comment)

Iendi and Gitt welcome you all to have a fun weekend with them!

For updates or changes in programming please check The Yadkin Post

A Wonderful Experience

Tonight was the night when Bara Jonson and Free Balan were going to perform an all-Swedish set at Club OrmDricka (lovingly called OD by many).

As I wanted to be sure to get a place on the homestead sim I arrived very early, already an hour before their gig started. And I am happy that I did! It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Stop Press: Bara & Free @ OrmDricka

By special notice from the lairds Chief Technical Officer Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary), who is also the proprietor of Club OrmDricka, I am proud to inform you that you are all invited to a command performance of Bara Jonson and Free Balan at OrmDricka.

I am sure it is a command performance because Bara owes Vampi a lot of gratitude for her support over the years. For this special occasion only Bara and Free will do an all-Swedish set, which among other things means the premier performance of the Swedish version of Bara´s most famous song "Far and away".

The event takes place at the sim Andromeda Isle (SLurl) tomorrow Thursday April 19, 2012, 12:30 PM. (better get there early as Andromeda Isle is a homestead and only carries 20 avatars).

My Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis will entertain us before and after the main act.

Bara & Free in Concert

Free Balan & Bara Jonson

 Last night I had the exquisite pleasure of catching a gig with my buddy the Swedish singer/songwriter Bara Jonson and his new singing partner Free Balan.

There are only two words that can fully describe what it sounds like when they sing together, pick one of them or use both. The words are heavenly and orgasmic (not the exploding kind but the slow and flowing kind. that rolls over you like waves in the  the sea and make you shudder from head to toe and then back again and leaves your body tingling with pleasure a long while).

Although I was nauseous when I got to the beautiful venue I completely forgot about it as soon as they started singing. And this, ladies and gentleman, was after they had been practicing with their first life band Ma´am all evening since 6.30 pm CET until just before they came inworld for the gig that started at 11 pm CET.

Can you all imagine how I will react to their voices when they are fresh? I will most likely need diapers, a straight jacket and more than "a few good men" to keep me in my seat!

The venue was by no means full, but that was mostly due to the scheduling. At 1 pm SLT on a week night the Euros have gone to bed or are preparing to do so and the Americans are still at work, school or eating lunch. Those of us that where there were thrilled out of our socks although most of us kept our clothes on!

The Wonderful Bara

Yesterday I - for the first time in a long time- had the possibility to catch a set by my dear buddy Bara Jonson, SecondLife (and first life) singer/songwriter extraordinaire. It was bloody awesome!

Bara has a wonderful warm voice that goes straight into my heart and while there plays on all the strings it can find. Those of us who were there, also got to hear a new song by Bara - which was wonderful even if I have forgotten the title - and the splendid news that Bara, his new co-singer Free (whom I haven´t had a chance to listen to yet but have received excellent reports about) and his band now have a manager in first life.

During my post-set talk with Bara we talked about his family, Nickel and Kris (who are still in the U.S.) and Bara mentioned that they were both coming over to Sweden this summer. He also mentioned that Kris was going to be christened during his visit here and then said "As I have often told Nickel, there is only one person whom I can imagine as Kris´s godfather..."

A few years ago I was in a very small part instrumental in seeing to it that Bara got his ass over to the U.S., where he met up with Nickel in real life, shared some vodka with her and corrupted the beautiful innocent woman so badly with his charm and vodka that nine months later she gave birth to their beautiful son Kristoffer.

I was totally blown away and elated by being asked to perform this honor for my friends, even though I did not admit it at the time. Sadly, I had to tell Bara that "Even the Church of Sweden has a few standards and one is that the godparent belongs to the church and has the faith".

Alas, I no longer fulfill those small requirements so I had to decline with a broken heart - after I had quickly and quietly considered rejoining the church again.

Well Jonas and Elizabeth (Bara´s and Nickel´s first life names), even if I cannot be Kris´s godfather I will do my very best to be his guardian angel and/or partner in crime!