(“We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming…” 😉 If you are looking for my blogposts about the Wuhan coronavirus/2019-nCoV, please click here.)
Art Gate bills itself as “a virtual reality marketplace for collectors to acquire post-war and contemporary art”, and it is a social VR platform for museum and gallery exhibitions, where exhibitors can upload and display both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art. According to their FAQ:
Is it social?
Yes. You can see people from all over the world who are also exploring the collections via their VR headsets if you are in the public lobby.
How much does it cost?
Art Gate VR is free for the audience to download, explore, and use. For exhibitors, please refer to our pricing page.
(“We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming…” 😉 If you are looking for my blogposts about the Wuhan coronavirus/2019-nCoV, please click here.)
Onyx LeShelle, the maker of the extremely popular, nearly ubiquitous Maitreya Lara mesh avatar body for female avatars, has just released an update, version 5.0. Of course, the Second Life vloggers are already all over the news. Here is Naria Panthar’s video:
And here is NovataSecondLife’s video:
The updated HUD includes a materials section which allows you to control the glossiness and the intensity of shininess of the skin, which allows you to match your Maitreya Lara body with the newest features on the Genus line of Bento mesh heads.
There are also now five different feet positions (similar to what Slink has offered for quite some time), including a new kitten heel height and a new, ballet-style, pointed-toe setting that might work better with the various sitting and kneeling animations in your animation override. You can also adjust each foot separately, which you were never able to do before this update!
You can now adjust each foot separately using the new HUD! (screen capture from the NovataSecondLife video above)
It would also appear that you have much finer control over what sections of the body to apply layers to the skin, such as tattoos. In addition, the Bakes on Mesh activation button is now built into the new HUD.
Also, the updated Maitreya HUD now gives you a finer set of alpha sections in the wrist and ankle areas, which might come in handy with certain clothing and shoes!
Obviously, the Maitreya store (SLURL) is absolutely jam-packed right now with avatars trying to get the version 5.0 update, so I would wait a while before trying to get in, until the rush dies down.
UPDATE Feb. 18th, 2020:Strawberry Linden has shared a link to another vlogger who has provided a quick start guide to Maitreya Lara version 5.0, including Bakes on Mesh:
Also, I forgot to mention that, instead of going to the in-world store to get a redelivery of your Maitreya Lara mesh body, you can join the official Maitreya V.I.P. group (which is free), then check the group notices for a remote redelivery HUD that you can use anywhere in Second Life to obtain the latest version of the body.
Just download the attachment from the group notices to your inventory, find the Maitreya Mesh Body Update HUD in your Objects folder and double-click it to load it. It will appear in the upper right-hand corner of your SL viewer as shown here:
Click on it once, and your update is automatically delivered! You can then detach the HUD. You won’t need to use it again, since you can use the redeliver button on your Maitreya Lara 5.0 HUD to get updates after that.
Less than four weeks into the outbreak, fear about how bad this could get is spreading faster than the virus. And with good reason.
While the vast majority of cases and deaths are occurring on mainland China, 2019-nCoV has already made its way to at least a dozen other countries, including the US, Germany, and Canada. People are buying face masks. Markets are on edge. Cities and countries are responding with mass quarantines and travel bans. The whole thing feels a lot like the 2011 pandemic film, Contagion.
An answer to this question requires knowing the answers to two other questions: How easily does the 2019-nCoV spread from person to person, and how deadly is the virus? At the moment, scientists only have informed guesses, which are likely to solidify in the coming weeks and months. But what we know so far is instructive.
I urge you to click over and read the entire article. Between yesterday’s New York Times article and this one, you will be comfortably up-to-speed on 2019-nCoV.
Summary of commonly used interventions against infectious diseases (source)
The authors state:
We note that this list is not exhaustive, and interventions are often used in combination, such as contract tracing and isolation.
The eight tactics used to combat the spread of an infectious disease are:
Vaccines: treatments which create an immune memory of the pathogen, so that the immune system can respond more vigorously when challenged with the actual pathogen (please note that, as I reported yesterday, we are probably not going to have a readily-available vaccine for 2019-nCoV for at least a year)
Antibiotic drugs and antiviral drugs: treatments which interfere with the life cycle of the bacterium or virus within the body of an infected person (for example, there are some reports that antiviral drugs used to treat HIV are being used to treat some patients)
Social distancing: closing schools and businesses, avoiding crowded places, etc.
Case isolation: asking people who already contracted the infectious disease to stay home; using negative-pressure rooms in hospitals, etc. (note the key difference between isolation and quarantine, the next point, which is applied to potentially infectious people)
Quarantine: isolation of individuals who may have already been exposed to the infectious disease, and therefore potentially infectious themselves (this is what China is doing now in many locations)
Barrier precautions: masks, gloves, condoms in the case of sexually-transmitted viruses like HIV, etc.
Contact tracing: tracking down the contacts of infected individuals to treat, isolate, or quarantine them (at the moment, most countries are devoting many resources to this)
Hygiene: hand washing, hand sanitizer, etc.
Dr. Michael Osterholm: “Once it starts to spread, there really is no stopping it”
Dr. Osterholm predicts that this epidemic will likely get a lot worse, given how easily the 2019-nCoV virus seems be transmitted between people. He said in this Fox interview:
It’s acting very much, in terms of transmission, like that of an influenza virus, which means that once it starts to spread, there really is no stopping it, until it decides to stop.
He predicts that hospitals and healthcare systems around the world are going to be overwhelmed with the Wuhan coronavirus in the coming weeks and months, just as those in mainland China are now. Not if, but when.
So, what does all this mean?
Well, referring back to that chart above, we have no vaccine, and we still don’t know how effective existing antiviral treatments will be (although we can expect many scientific research papers to be published as doctors conduct various experiments).
Countries outside China are relying on case isolation and contact tracing to chase down and isolate infected individuals, which may work (although some experts like Dr. Osterholm don’t believe it will be effective enough). Healthcare professionals are using proper hygiene and barrier precautions (personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, eye protection, etc.) to avoid becoming infected with the virus themselves while treating patients. Many civilians are also starting to use barrier protections when out in public.
That only leaves two approaches which we will begin to see more of in the coming weeks and months: social distancing and quarantine. What this means for you, reading this now, is that you need to prepare yourself and your family for the possibility that you will need to stay in your homes for a period of several weeks, avoiding contact with as many other people as possible, as a wave of illness caused by the Wuhan coronavirus sweeps through your community, forcing schools, businesses, and public transportation and public gathering places like movie theatres and shopping malls to close (as we already seen in Wuhan and many other cities in China). The time to prepare for this is NOW.
At least two weeks of food and other supplies (toilet paper, first aid supplies, soap and hand sanitizer, garbage bags, etc.). Hardcore, doomsday preppers would argue that you also need to store enough water for each person to last 2 or 3 weeks, but I think it is unlikely that we are going to lose public utilities in first-world countries, such as electricity, water, and sewer services, during an epidemic/pandemic. If stocking up on water makes you feel less anxious overall, do it.
Refills of all your presecription medications, plus a stock of over-the-counter medicines (talk to your doctor and pharmacist about creating an emergency supply of your prescription medication). You might not be able to get out to your pharmacy because of the imposition of social distancing and quarantines to stop the spread of the virus.
Power sources (flashlights, extra batteries, car chargers and adapters for your mobile devices, a battery-operated or hand-crank radio if the electricity or Internet do go out, which I still think is unlikely).
Other things that you should do:
Sign up for any local alerts from your city, state/province, or federal government (or know where to find the information on the Internet). Find out what plans your employer is making.
If you haven’t yet, get your seasonal flu shot. It can’t hurt, and it will help to figure out whether or not you do have 2019-nCoV if/when you do become sick. Many areas now give out the flu shot for free.
Watch the following video from the World Health Organization on how wash your hands! (Yes, I’m serious. And stock up on soap. This will also help you avoid catching regular colds and influenza.)
Good Sources of Information on 2019-nCoV
Here is my updated list of good, authoritative resources to learn more about the Wuhan coronoavirus (more formally known as 2019-nCoV):
Sources of Fast-Breaking News on 2019-nCoV (WARNING: News You Read Here May Not Be 100% Credible!)
PLEASE READ: In addition to the sources listed in the previous section, there are other places you can check, which might have reports (including translated links to local social media in China) that have not yet made the mainstream news media. Please keep in mind that the situation in China is chaotic, and that some of the information you find in the sources I list below might be gossip, rumours, hoaxes, conspiracy theories, misinformation, or disinformation!
The Intelliwatch Discord server (invite link) is a geopolitical events and crises discussion forum that has three channels devoted to 2019-nCoV/Wuhan coronavirus news, rumours, and speculation.
The Corona Virus (2019-nCoV) Discord server (invite link)
