Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Trópico Verde and Conservation Strategy Fund have begun a study of the impacts of the proposed road through the Peten. They have concluded so far that it will result in the destruction of 60% of the forest cover in the Rio Azul National Park within 15 years.
PrensaLibre.com - Temen desastre por carretera
Via Mildly Diverting weblog:
Carnegie Mellon Near-Regular Texture Database
Met Spin Martin/Eric Rice by chance last night. Here's info by way of his blog on music in the metaverse.
Talib Kweli & Ben Folds at Eric Rice
42minus71 v1.0: Waitin' for the DJ: Talib Kweli's Second Life
From their news operation in Second Life, Reuters reports on a congressional committee looking into online economies.
“Right now we’re at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind of public policy questions virtual economies raise — taxes, barter exchanges, property and wealth,” said Dan Miller, senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee. “You could argue that to a certain degree the law has fallen (behind) because you can have a virtual asset and virtual capital gains, but there’s no mechanism by which you’re taxed on this stuff,” he said.
Reuters/Second Life » US Congress launches probe into virtual economies
This free program allows you to design, render and export RAW files for use as height field maps. For Second Life of course, though I haven't confirmed the settings needed.
And a tutorial that is a little sketchy but describes going from Photoshop to Terragen.
Ashundar Terragen Community - Raw Tutorial
Anticipating a lot of air travel this year, I was intrigued to see a link to this outfit.
Buy a Flight TerraPass | Fight global warming, promote renewable energy
Dan Rhett sent along this link, to an excellent article on the causes of the Maya collapse. Thanks Dan!
American Scientist Online - Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization
A violent turn in the ongoing struggle to remove the governor, Ulises Ruiz.
Asesinan a maestro oaxaqueño; complot para justificar desalojo, denuncia APPO
A year ago, Hurricane Stan brought devastation to the highlands of Guatemala. In a week, Doctor Irene Quieju, from Santiago Atitlan, will stop in New York at the Girls Club to tell us about the rebuilding of the Hospitalito, destroyed by a mudslide in a torrent of mud.
BBC NEWS | Americas | Painful legacy of Guatemala storm
Thanks to Ron for this one. Now we need to hook it up to SL.
Virtual Canoe stops short of simulating a soaking - SlashGear
A bitter victory for the Sierra del Lacandon biosphere reserve. Can Guatemala find a way to protect its people and its resources, from poverty and narcotrafficking?
PrensaLibre.com - Desalojan a invasores de Sierra del Lacandón
U.S. to Cut Guatemala's Debt for Not Cutting Trees - NY Times
The community which wounded two people by gunfire and took park guards hostage in June is facing eviction by the army, park officials and police. A plan to accomplish this on Sept.22 was cancelled at the last moment by the chief of police, but it is now expected to happen in the next few days. This is part of a stepped up effort to take back the Sierra del Lacandon park from armed invaders and narcotraffickers.
Started my own underwater cavern this weekend, and now I have to check these out.
Angry's Tripping the Metaverse: A Cave System is like the Internet....
This is the most complete newspaper report yet on the problems of narcotrafficking and large illegal settlements in the Sierra del Lacandon Park, on the banks of the Usumacinta River in Guatemala.