The issue isn't just that the research data was dubiously obtained, it's that the manner in which it was obtained renders it useless for any meaningful research. Wakefield selected his own small group of test subjects, which in itself allows for conscious or unwitting partiality.
In addition, there's the fact that no subsequent study conducted under properly controlled conditions has ever shown a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
There has been a rise in autism diagnoses, but that's due to a number of factors including people such as teachers becoming more aware of the condition, and the growing understanding of autism as a nuanced condition which exhibits a spectrum of symptoms. This means that people are being diagnosed who might not have been previously. The anti-vaccine loonies see this and confuse correlation with causation.
The entire vaccine conspiracy lobby make some ridiculous claims, either misrepresenting information or blatantly making shit up as they go along. Unfortunately there are people out there who would rather make decisions about their children's medical care on the basis on Jenny McCarthy's opinion than that of someone who has the first fucking clue what they're talking about, and we're seeing preventable deaths of children as a result.
Keep in mind that bringing people to your event and ensuring that they get their money's worth are two different things and need to be addressed as such.
As far as attracting an audience goes, first of all, have something that will attract them. Do this before you really start advertising your event. I see countless ads from everything from comic cons to live music festivals where someone has had a cool idea and started advertising it before booking any bands/speakers/talent. At this point, all you're saying is "Hey, I've booked a hall somewhere! Come and hang out with me!"
So how does one put together a product which will attract a crowd? In short, know your crowd.
What are they interested in? What do they want to know more about? Who are the respected figures in their field? Do they have a broad range of interests or a more specialised area of expertise? Can you perhaps appeal to a wider market and still attract that specialist niche? Answer these questions and book your attractions accordingly. Asking your audience directly is a good (but not foolproof) way of getting this information.
Then, of course, there are the issues of scale and budget. How much are you willing to spend on the event? What is the capacity of your venue? Realistically, what are people willing to pay to attend and how many attendees can you reasonably expect? How many bodies through the door do you need to break even?
Now that you've got something which will hopefully draw a crowd, think about advertising. The web/social networking are inexpensive ways to reach people, but they're also heavily saturated. The amount of crap people have to wade through to get through content leads them to be ad blind, and many people will be using ad blockers anyway, so that's really not the best way to grab their attention. Instead, the best way to bring people to your site is to give them something worth coming for. This could consist of white papers, tutorials, interesting articles on subjects relevant to your audience or well written profiles of speakers. If they Google for a topic and your site comes up, and they find something informative/useful, they're going to be more inclined to attend your event and think that they'll get something of value out of it.
Other means of promoting your event could be direct communication - mail out info packs to companies or individuals you think would be interested in your event - displaying promotional materials at similar events (in my experience many event organisers are willing to do this on a reciprocal basis for the right to poster/flyer your event), advertising in magazines relevant to the field. Be wary of advertising too widely. Linux Übersysadmin Monthly will probably pull a hardcore Linux crowd. Linux Noob Magazine might get you a few interested parties. PC User is much more of a scattergun approach (replace magazine titles/subjects as required.)
Also be aware that many media outlets will be willing to come and go on advertising costs, especially if you provide them with a booth and access to your panels, etc.
OK, so you've brought your crowd out and you're getting all set for the big show. Now you just need to deliver on your promise of the best conference ever!
Make sure everything runs as close to schedule as possible. Some delays might be inevitable, but you can really help yourself out by making sure you have early access to the venue to set up. You might need several days to prepare the venue depending on the scale and nature of your event.
Hire competent people to whom you can delegate responsibilities. Hire decent equipment. You don't need to blow your budget on sound, lights, bells and whistles, but make sure that the gear you have can be relied upon to work consistently over the course of your event.
Make finding information as painless as possible. Produce a programme with a simple schedule of events. If anything changes, announce it on your web site, over the PA system, at the start of othe
I made a preliminary start on something along those lines - a minimalistic set of rules for skirmish scale games. I intended to use it for modern-ish scenarios, WWII onward, and had no races or classes, just standard troops, elite troops and a small handful of artillery and vehicle units (mortar, heavy machine gun, anti-tank gun, armoured car, tank).
The objective was fast play with no need to continuously reference rulebooks or cheat sheets.
Gave up on it due to the lack of people to playtest with.
Games Workshop have every right to go after this kind of flagrant IP violation. After all, the company spent countless hours and huge amounts of money inventing orcs, elves, vampires, zombies and dwarves. They should be able to benefit from their creative efforts without some "fan" treating it as if it were in the public domain!
Games writing is certainly a new field in the grand scheme of things. Can there really be enough established work of sufficient quality that you can point to it in a textbook?
I mean, how many games are full of one dimensional characters, predictable plots and cookie cutter settings? I remember hearing Bioshock lauded as an excellent example of originality and quality in writing and conceptualisation, but having been thoroughly disappointed with it, I'd much rather play something with a minimal plot and more focus on gameplay.
...if you have what would be termed an "unconventional" appearance by more narrow minded employers, consider the kind of companies which are more likely to hire you.
I have long hair, facial hair and tattoos. I recently took a temp contract with a publishing company. They didn't have a "dress code" as such and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. A few weeks later they asked if I'd run the department. Plenty of businesses operate under similar conditions, and unlike places which mandate a particular look, they tend not to treat employees like shit.
Will you alienate some employers by not having a short back and sides and a clean shave? Yes. Are they worth working for? Not in my opinion.
Also, about the muscles degenerating in a (far) lower gravity situation, as long as it's not zero G, couldn't they wear weights (i.e., like weighted vests, pants, whatever) to offset the lower gravity? We do that now, on Earth, for resistance training. It would seem like they would just need to add more weight - again, so long as it's not zero gravity.
Sign me up! Just don't expect me to do anything useful or significant, I'll be too busy posting on bodybuilding.com about my 300kg bench press!
The cost of licensing IPs has gone up? Then stop relying on licensed IPs and start making compelling games that people want to play.
Every year there's a new Tiger Woods/NFL/WWE game, virtually identical to the last offering with a few player updates and token changes to the control system. Sorry, but I prefer actual depth over the latest and greatest graphics and accurate sports team rosters.
A lot of developers could take influence from the greatest pro wrestling game series ever devised. Concentrate on making a fun game and make it customisable enough that the player can change it to accurately represent a given league/company/tv show/movie/comic book (delete as required).
Just because a suspect is held in a police station, it doesn't mean that they've actually done anything wrong. I'm sure the majority would agree that there's a necessity to hold suspects in custody in some circumstances, but until they're proven to have committed the offense of which they are accused, don't they deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and consideration?
I'd think that the Road Rash franchise would be crying out for a mission based driving title. However I know that it'd just come off as another sub-standard GTA clone, and Road Rash 2010, Road Rash 2011, Road Rash 2012 etc. would make insignificant changes to the gameplay in an attempt to dupe us out of more money on a regular basis.
If the "traditional" media believes this to be a good thing then they're hammering another nail into their own coffin. The fact of the matter is that good journalism takes time. Sure, speed is one element of news reporting, but it trails accuracy and clarity in terms of importance.
Much of the "traditional" media also seems to be mistakenly pursuing "balance" as some ultimate goal. This consists of finding two sides to any issue, despite the fact that it may be far more nuanced than this, and giving both of them equal time and credence, whether or not they deserve it. This is all slotted into a sixty second package which tells viewers almost nothing, then repeated ad nauseum until interest in the story completely dies, or something more important happens, like a celebrity farting.
From a purely personal standpoint, I tend to fall victim to police "stop and search" powers on a fairly regular basis. The British Transport Police in particular are bad for this. If you've never been stopped and searched I can assure you that it's time consuming, humiliating and very invasive. They go through your pockets, the contents of your wallet, your shoes, they even ask me to take my shirt off to note down details of my tattoos.
In an ideal world, the cops would all be paragons of virtue and integrity who wanted nothing more than to protect the public, however, as in all walks of life, you do get a few assholes. These assholes, however, have a uniform and authority.
Interesting suggestion. I'll certainly look into it. I've always suspected that the whole provision of public services vs. individual liberty thing was something of a false dichotomy.
Slashdot Mirror
The issue isn't just that the research data was dubiously obtained, it's that the manner in which it was obtained renders it useless for any meaningful research. Wakefield selected his own small group of test subjects, which in itself allows for conscious or unwitting partiality.
In addition, there's the fact that no subsequent study conducted under properly controlled conditions has ever shown a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
There has been a rise in autism diagnoses, but that's due to a number of factors including people such as teachers becoming more aware of the condition, and the growing understanding of autism as a nuanced condition which exhibits a spectrum of symptoms. This means that people are being diagnosed who might not have been previously. The anti-vaccine loonies see this and confuse correlation with causation.
The entire vaccine conspiracy lobby make some ridiculous claims, either misrepresenting information or blatantly making shit up as they go along. Unfortunately there are people out there who would rather make decisions about their children's medical care on the basis on Jenny McCarthy's opinion than that of someone who has the first fucking clue what they're talking about, and we're seeing preventable deaths of children as a result.
Researchers Pooh-Pooh Algae-Based Biofuel
Well that should help with production!
Keep in mind that bringing people to your event and ensuring that they get their money's worth are two different things and need to be addressed as such.
As far as attracting an audience goes, first of all, have something that will attract them. Do this before you really start advertising your event. I see countless ads from everything from comic cons to live music festivals where someone has had a cool idea and started advertising it before booking any bands/speakers/talent. At this point, all you're saying is "Hey, I've booked a hall somewhere! Come and hang out with me!"
So how does one put together a product which will attract a crowd? In short, know your crowd.
What are they interested in? What do they want to know more about? Who are the respected figures in their field? Do they have a broad range of interests or a more specialised area of expertise? Can you perhaps appeal to a wider market and still attract that specialist niche? Answer these questions and book your attractions accordingly. Asking your audience directly is a good (but not foolproof) way of getting this information.
Then, of course, there are the issues of scale and budget. How much are you willing to spend on the event? What is the capacity of your venue? Realistically, what are people willing to pay to attend and how many attendees can you reasonably expect? How many bodies through the door do you need to break even?
Now that you've got something which will hopefully draw a crowd, think about advertising. The web/social networking are inexpensive ways to reach people, but they're also heavily saturated. The amount of crap people have to wade through to get through content leads them to be ad blind, and many people will be using ad blockers anyway, so that's really not the best way to grab their attention. Instead, the best way to bring people to your site is to give them something worth coming for. This could consist of white papers, tutorials, interesting articles on subjects relevant to your audience or well written profiles of speakers. If they Google for a topic and your site comes up, and they find something informative/useful, they're going to be more inclined to attend your event and think that they'll get something of value out of it.
Other means of promoting your event could be direct communication - mail out info packs to companies or individuals you think would be interested in your event - displaying promotional materials at similar events (in my experience many event organisers are willing to do this on a reciprocal basis for the right to poster/flyer your event), advertising in magazines relevant to the field. Be wary of advertising too widely. Linux Übersysadmin Monthly will probably pull a hardcore Linux crowd. Linux Noob Magazine might get you a few interested parties. PC User is much more of a scattergun approach (replace magazine titles/subjects as required.)
Also be aware that many media outlets will be willing to come and go on advertising costs, especially if you provide them with a booth and access to your panels, etc.
OK, so you've brought your crowd out and you're getting all set for the big show. Now you just need to deliver on your promise of the best conference ever!
Make sure everything runs as close to schedule as possible. Some delays might be inevitable, but you can really help yourself out by making sure you have early access to the venue to set up. You might need several days to prepare the venue depending on the scale and nature of your event.
Hire competent people to whom you can delegate responsibilities. Hire decent equipment. You don't need to blow your budget on sound, lights, bells and whistles, but make sure that the gear you have can be relied upon to work consistently over the course of your event.
Make finding information as painless as possible. Produce a programme with a simple schedule of events. If anything changes, announce it on your web site, over the PA system, at the start of othe
I made a preliminary start on something along those lines - a minimalistic set of rules for skirmish scale games. I intended to use it for modern-ish scenarios, WWII onward, and had no races or classes, just standard troops, elite troops and a small handful of artillery and vehicle units (mortar, heavy machine gun, anti-tank gun, armoured car, tank).
The objective was fast play with no need to continuously reference rulebooks or cheat sheets.
Gave up on it due to the lack of people to playtest with.
Games Workshop have every right to go after this kind of flagrant IP violation. After all, the company spent countless hours and huge amounts of money inventing orcs, elves, vampires, zombies and dwarves. They should be able to benefit from their creative efforts without some "fan" treating it as if it were in the public domain!
Games writing is certainly a new field in the grand scheme of things. Can there really be enough established work of sufficient quality that you can point to it in a textbook?
I mean, how many games are full of one dimensional characters, predictable plots and cookie cutter settings? I remember hearing Bioshock lauded as an excellent example of originality and quality in writing and conceptualisation, but having been thoroughly disappointed with it, I'd much rather play something with a minimal plot and more focus on gameplay.
Probably on a SNES emulator.
rm filename
...if you have what would be termed an "unconventional" appearance by more narrow minded employers, consider the kind of companies which are more likely to hire you.
I have long hair, facial hair and tattoos. I recently took a temp contract with a publishing company. They didn't have a "dress code" as such and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. A few weeks later they asked if I'd run the department. Plenty of businesses operate under similar conditions, and unlike places which mandate a particular look, they tend not to treat employees like shit.
Will you alienate some employers by not having a short back and sides and a clean shave? Yes.
Are they worth working for? Not in my opinion.
Why do they need to be so litigious? Why can't they just zap critical web sites out of existence with their super high level thetan powers?
A massive Linux/BSD/other free OS install party!
Also, about the muscles degenerating in a (far) lower gravity situation, as long as it's not zero G, couldn't they wear weights (i.e., like weighted vests, pants, whatever) to offset the lower gravity? We do that now, on Earth, for resistance training. It would seem like they would just need to add more weight - again, so long as it's not zero gravity.
Sign me up! Just don't expect me to do anything useful or significant, I'll be too busy posting on bodybuilding.com about my 300kg bench press!
The cost of licensing IPs has gone up? Then stop relying on licensed IPs and start making compelling games that people want to play.
Every year there's a new Tiger Woods/NFL/WWE game, virtually identical to the last offering with a few player updates and token changes to the control system. Sorry, but I prefer actual depth over the latest and greatest graphics and accurate sports team rosters.
A lot of developers could take influence from the greatest pro wrestling game series ever devised. Concentrate on making a fun game and make it customisable enough that the player can change it to accurately represent a given league/company/tv show/movie/comic book (delete as required).
Just because a suspect is held in a police station, it doesn't mean that they've actually done anything wrong. I'm sure the majority would agree that there's a necessity to hold suspects in custody in some circumstances, but until they're proven to have committed the offense of which they are accused, don't they deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and consideration?
I'd think that the Road Rash franchise would be crying out for a mission based driving title. However I know that it'd just come off as another sub-standard GTA clone, and Road Rash 2010, Road Rash 2011, Road Rash 2012 etc. would make insignificant changes to the gameplay in an attempt to dupe us out of more money on a regular basis.
If aliens had abducted our teachers we'd have jumped for joy.
If the "traditional" media believes this to be a good thing then they're hammering another nail into their own coffin. The fact of the matter is that good journalism takes time. Sure, speed is one element of news reporting, but it trails accuracy and clarity in terms of importance.
Much of the "traditional" media also seems to be mistakenly pursuing "balance" as some ultimate goal. This consists of finding two sides to any issue, despite the fact that it may be far more nuanced than this, and giving both of them equal time and credence, whether or not they deserve it. This is all slotted into a sixty second package which tells viewers almost nothing, then repeated ad nauseum until interest in the story completely dies, or something more important happens, like a celebrity farting.
In an ideal world, the cops would all be paragons of virtue and integrity who wanted nothing more than to protect the public, however, as in all walks of life, you do get a few assholes. These assholes, however, have a uniform and authority.
Interesting suggestion. I'll certainly look into it. I've always suspected that the whole provision of public services vs. individual liberty thing was something of a false dichotomy.
I speak French reasonably well and recently started a Japanese course. I'm willing to give learning any language my best efforts.