Canada Post, the shipping and delivery company, will be opening Maple Grove, a city of commerce within SL that will hold many of the RL stores and brands that Canadians know and trust, including Toys'R' Us, Sears, The Shopping Channel, Brookstone, SkyMall, Red Canoe, Everything Olive, and Hudson's Bay Company.

"Today's net savvy consumer values convenience and relevancy in today's market," says Laurene Cihosky, senior vice president for Canada Post's direct marketing division. "Maple Grove is our way of meeting those expectations; a virtual place for friends to meet, shop, and enjoy the culture that Canada has to offer."

On Saturday, November 3rd, Maple Grove will officially launch in Second Life with a six-hour virtual live music festival, from 3 to 9 PM SLT. On the bill will be Grace McDunnough, Montain Gulruth, Juel Resistance, Rosedrop Rust, Shiger Seattle, and Louis Volare. You can get more information about the event here.

(Thanks, Schuyler!)

Iris Ophelia, Fashion Writer, Talented Photographer, and Sweetheart Extraordinaire, was recently interviewed live on in-world interview program Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe. In it, she's as adorable as I know her to be (full disclosure: she's a friend), and converses on a range of subjects including fashion, blogging, and her photography.

Don't mind the voice lag; the interview was done over Skype, with Iris in Canada and Paisley in Australia. It's an all-too-brief glimpse into the mind of someone I wish I could spend more time with. Enjoy!

At 1 PM SLT, Cisco Systems 2 will host the sharing of the first round of dispatches from Ed Viesturs, America's leading high altitude mountaineer, as he speaks of his dogsled expedition across Canada's Baffin Island alongside Will Steger of Global Warming 101 and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Entertainment.

Ed is documenting his journey through podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts). The event is open to all, so if you've ever wondered what it's like to find yourself in the middle of vast tracts of ice and snow, thousands of miles from the nearest internet café, go check this out!

Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, has reprinted their article on SL online. It's a decent overview of SL, citing references to such diverse topics as the BBC Radio 1 event, the American Apparel opening, the Relay For Life, and Canadian griefer Plastic Duck. There are also mini-interviews with resident Anna Mandelbrot; David Fleck of Linden Lab; and Mark Wallace, also known as Walker Spaight of the Second Life Herald.

There are passages that rankle me, most notably the line "Players can purchase cyber genitalia that animate with a fellow avatar's touch, or -- for those into bestiality -- animal parts and costumes, which are exceedingly popular." I haven't covered my thoughts on Furry roleplaying yet, but I'd like to mention that Furry sex is NOT bestiality. Bestiality is sexual relations between a human being and an animal. Furries are humans identifying as animal/human hybrids. The key point here is that at all times there is absolute acknowledgment of a human mind behind the avatar. As Janeane Garofalo says "You can love your pets... just don't love your pets!"

Regardless, this article is another example of the world coming to terms with this new virtual space, and its wide-ranging applications.