Al goes to NOAA

At last, the long-awaited NOAA island has been opened up to ramblers. It's another Aimee Weber build, with its almost trademark combo of great textures and ideas, with some relatively ropey UI. Al reckons the best way to get an idea of it is to look at the map first:
There are several interactive exhibits, including a working realtime weather-map of the USA (not much use to Al - he's in SL), virtual globe, glacier & tsunami, a research sub ride, a meteorological balloon ride and a hurricane flight. Most are accompanied by a voiceover - maybe they all are, but if so, some didn't work as well as others. It was strangely quiet - so Al's not sure it's really been officially opened yet. Al expected more jostling! Oh... and a freebie? Very nice I'm sure, Al. He nolonger needs his magic SLURLball since the latest Viewer update, but here's the SLURL for NOAA.

Snap-happy Al took a load of piccies - but he's only going to load 1 more for now... he's in there somewhere, flying thru the eye of a hurricane.


What's that Al? One more? Oh... OK then:


Al's RL master writes: Much as I admire the aims of NOAA in this, and the work of Ms Weber, it really doesn't quite work for me. It all feels a bit too contrived, and the anims - good for SL as they are - are nonetheless clunky compared to 2D documentary footage or, indeed, CGI animation. Good effort - but it left me a bit cold - or maybe that's what comes of sitting on a glacier.