With North Korea and Iran building nuclear arsenals and the threat of Soviet-era warheads finding their way to  Islamic terrorists--a la this season of 24--it was only a matter of time until a nuke went off. But who’d have guess it would explode inside an online world?

Last week, an organization known as the Second Life Liberation Army, the “in-world military wing of a national liberation movement,“ set off an atomic bomb outside the American Apparel shop in Second Life, a game-free virtual world that claims two million cyber-citizens. A few hours later another nuke exploded at a Reebok store. Though the bombing campaign was their flashiest attack yet, the SLLA has been spearheading an insurrection for months now as part of their campaign for self-rule within the 3D "metaverse" created by San Francisco hi-tech firm--or, as the SLLA dubs them, “authoritarian government”--Linden Lab.
 
Six months ago, SLLA fighters gunned down player avatars outside the same American Apparel shop and just last month, guerrillas "stormed the stage" at the World Economic Forum's live session inside Second Life demanding avatar suffrage. The cyber-insurgency has come as SL endures what Foreign Policy magazine's blog dubs a “rapid corporate colonization” with about 5% of the world occupied by companies like Nissan, Toyota, Adidas, Cisco and Starwood Hotels, who launched their new Aloft chain in SL and hired Ben Folds to perform at the ribbon-cutting. Reuters has already established an in-world news bureau and Sweden’s even building a virtual embassy.

Of course, not all these attacks are politically-motivated--when the reality show Big Brother decided to stage a season in SL, the newbie contestants were quickly caged and set on fire. The anonymous “griefer” told a reporter from Second Life Herald she did it because, “hey I could ruin this and It might make the newspaper or TV. So that’s what set me off, lol.”

Then there was the hilarious “flying dildo attack” where a mob lobbed hundreds of pink digital dicks at SL real estate mogul and world’s first virtual millionaire Anshe Chung during an in-world interview with CNET.

A more serious confrontation occurred in January when French fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National organization set up an in-world headquarters. Protesters arrived and, according to blogger Wagner James Au, it erupted into “a virtual conflagration of mini-guns, cursing Frenchmen, and exploding pigs.”

As SL’s population continues to boom, these tensions between old-timers, newbies, political groups and corporate interests will only intensify. To which those of us who spend most of our time in meatspace can only reply: “Get a first life!”