Paladin Pinion

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Except for some samples in a lab, smallpox has been erradicated. That's due to the vaccine and is one of medicine's finest accomplishments. Measles in the US was erradicated as well due to the vaccine, and the only cases seen in the US are brought in from visitors from other countries. However, measles cases in the United States hit a 15-year high in 2011, with 90 percent of the cases traced to other countries with lower immunization rates. The Wakefield study started the scare, and it was his TV interview that set off the public panic. The lowered vaccination rate in at least the English-speaking countries directly correlates to his hoax. So far you have not provided any credible evidence for your position. Anyone can make a video. I searched for the physician (if that's what he was) in the utube video and got no solid results, so if he is a valid spokesman for this position it isn't commonly recognized. I would like to see some medical journals or papers with statistics, research results, and lab tests that support your position. So far you have provided only assertions and utube. Do you have links to any actual research papers that I can read? ETA: I should do as I say. Here is a link to a research paper that examined 12 different studies on the mercury/autism link: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/114/3/793.short The summary: "Studies do not demonstrate a link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD, and the pharmacokinetics of ethylmercury make such an association less likely. Epidemiologic studies that support a link demonstrated significant design flaws that invalidate their conclusions. Evidence does not support a change in the standard of practice with regard to administration of thimerosal-containing vaccines in areas of the world where they are used." Here is a link to a good number of research articles on the topic: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=thimerosal+autism&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=U0aaT-KgGYeI8QSl-6nhDg&ved=0CBsQgQMwAA These articles are from medical journals and peer-reviewed papers, and almost all could find no connection. The blurb for one paper does suggest support for your position but the research and conclusion are unavailable; it costs money to read so I couldn't see it.

I've read both Microbe Hunters and Cry of the Covenant and they are excellent. Semmelweis in particular was a captivating character, and it is hard to believe that something as fundamental to us as basic hygiene would have been ridiculed. Even after he forced his staff to wash their hands and childbed fever virtually disappeared, they didn't believe the evidence. But anyone who's read this far into this thread is probably used to that.

PeterCanessa Oh wrote: Mr. Original is the one I think of in connection with this hoax, coverage of it having all but disappeared in the UK since he was discredited. I wasn't aware how prevalent it still is in the USA until this thread. I am sorry that you and other families have to suffer even more because of such charlatans. Fortunately we didn't suffer. I never believed the research, and at any rate, my son was already vaccinated when the first reports were issued. I do feel terrible for families who bought into it though. They were victims.

Thanks, I knew I was misunderstanding something. Obviously I haven't used either bulk edit or quick fill.

I was discussing this thread with a doctor I know and he mentioned Andrew Wakefield whom I'd forgotten about. For the whole story, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield Wakefield was the original source of the claim to the mercury/autism connection. All subsequent research was a result of his claims. In a nutshell (and it's a big nutshell so I can't possibly cover it all, the article is fascinating): Wakefield was paid a very large sum to do research by a group intending to sue the vaccine companies. He used an extremely small study group of 12 children, only one of which was later found to have any form of autism. He intentionally invented or misrepresented his research findings in order to help the lawyers with the lawsuit. His findings were later found intentionally fraudulent. He lost his license to practice and was struck from the medical registry in the UK, the most severe consequence they have. When his original blood samples were re-examined by independent researchers, none of results matched those he published. All publishers of his original articles have retracted them and issued statements. After losing his profession in the UK, Wakefield moved to the U.S. where he continued his claims, though he has said publicly that they are "not proved." He does not have a license to practice medicine in the US. Wakefield has been sued, and has counter-sued, numerous times and has lost his case or dropped it each time. He settled out of court in a civil suit for dangerous complications as a result of his research studies. The UK court found some of his methods akin to abuse. Wakefield had invented a "disease" that he claimed was caused by the mercury in vaccines. From Wikipedia: "The Lancet paper was a case series of 12 child patients; it reported a proposed “new syndrome” of enterocolitis and regressive autism and associated this with MMR as an “apparent precipitating event.” But in fact:"Three of nine children reported with regressive autism did not have autism diagnosed at all. Only one child clearly had regressive autism;"Despite the paper claiming that all 12 children were “previously normal,” five had documented pre-existing developmental concerns;"Some children were reported to have experienced first behavioural symptoms within days of MMR, but the records documented these as starting some months after vaccination;"In nine cases, unremarkable colonic histopathology results—noting no or minimal fluctuations in inflammatory cell populations—were changed after a medical school “research review” to “non-specific colitis”;"The parents of eight children were reported as blaming MMR, but 11 families made this allegation at the hospital. The exclusion of three allegations — all giving times to onset of problems in months — helped to create the appearance of a 14 day temporal link;"Patients were recruited through anti-MMR campaigners, and the study was commissioned and funded for planned litigation." Finally, after inventing his new syndrome, Wakefield predicted he "could make more than $43 million a year from diagnostic kits" for the new condition. He had already collected almost a million dollars from undisclosed payments from the lawyers and the government to do the "research". Because of this hoax, the vaccination rates in some parts of London fell from somewhere in the 90th percentile to the 50th. Measles, which had been almost erradicated, resurged. A 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".

Since you're keeping score...I do almost exclusively mod/copy. I allow modification because I hate items I can't adjust, so I won't sell any of my own that aren't mod. Except for my software product, my in-world stuff is small furnishings or land ornaments, and the copyable aspect is a big selling point. Customers can make as many copies as they want, and if they want a polka-dot sunbeam, what do I care. If they wreck the thing they have a backup. The only thing they can't do is transfer it.

Marcus Hancroft wrote: Earlier, you were talking about using "Quick Fill" on your listings. When you use the quick fill option, the "Item Title" is automatically changed to the item you selected to quick fill from and you have to manually change the Item Title back to what it should be. I've never used quick fill. Do you mean, if I want to change my shop location and I use quick fill to do that, all my items will be named the same? That can't be, I'm missing something. I thought it would only change the fields you alter.

Celestiall Nightfire wrote: It can take years for progress to be noticeable for something that you are literally working on daily. Then one day...you see that...wow...your child is doing something that you wondered if they would ever be able to do. My son was nine years old when he first said "mama". I cried. Recently he did his business in the toilet for the first time. He's 25 years old.

How would you explain this data: Thimerosal was first used in vaccines in 1930, yet autism rates did not begin to rise until the 1990s; in fact, it was relatively unknown. In 1999 Thimerosal was removed from vaccines. In 2006 autism rates began to soar, with one of every 166 children diagnosed with it. In a study done this year, the rate had increased again, with one of every 88 children diagnosed with autism.

Medhue Simoni wrote: Again, you missed the twisted logic. You can do whatever you want with yourself or your children. What you don't have the right to do is enforce that on other people. Since we're dealing with widespread public health issues here, we do indeed have that right. In the UK, where this controvery took hold even more strongly than in the US, children are now dying of common, preventable childhood diseases because they now have reduced herd immunity. Those are pointless deaths. We do in fact know exactly what autism is, and it is defined precisely in the diagnostic journals. It is a wide spectrum disorder, originally thought to be several different diseases, but now recognized as a single disorder with varying degrees of profundity. My son is profoundly affected and I'd be very happy if all he had was Aspergers, which is on the high end of the scale. Long before this vaccination business was thought up, the most common cause of autism was well known to be Fragile X Syndrome. Almost 25% of autistic males have this genetic anomaly, as does my son. It is X-linked, passed through the women and affects mostly males, though my female cousin is mildly affected. There are five others in my extended family (or maybe seven; two are clearly delayed but too young to tell for sure) with variously severe autism and retardation and they all are Fragile X. You are incorrect that autism began with vaccinations. It's been identified and diagnosed for at least a hundred years or more, and undoubtedly was around before that, though it was known then under several different diagnoses. Fragile X is a breakage of the X chromosome that causes hundreds or thousands of gene repetitions on one leg of the X. The more repetitions, the worse the autism. It affects the nervous system and brain function, as well as some types of physical appearance. It's been well studied and there are now therapies evolving that sound very promising -- but they won't happen for a while and we must wait. I understand your pain. We tried everything too, every breakthrough sounded like the real deal. If cilantro appears to make your son better then there's no harm, just as some of the drugs we tried appeared to make our son better. But it isn't the cure you're looking for. These children do evolve slowly and what you may attribute to this cure or that thing turns out in the long run to be their natural progression. It was easier on us when we stopped looking for fixes and just accepted who he is. But that takes a long time. In retrospect I wish we hadn't submitted our son to unnecessary restrictions and all the other hogwash that was going to "fix" him. I know you want something to work; you will absolutely WILL it to work. I suppose you need to go through that stage. We did. I am encouraged that science will provide relief eventually with gene therapy. They are making progress; just last week I read an article about some success in adult mice. This was a breakthough because it was thought until now that only the very young would respond well. I am hopeful. When the vaccination debate first began the medical community did take it seriously. There were three major controlled studies to see if the connection existed. Three independent studies could find no significant correlation. It was after that that the medical community dismissed the idea. The Wired article that was cited here is extremely interesting -- I read it when it first was published. It questioned why the autism rate in California was four times higher than in the rest of the U.S. (All children in the US get the same vaccinations so that alone should make you question.) The theory in a nutshell is that the genes that cause autism are highly desirable traits in programmers (ergo, me.) A light dose of those genes gives you some antisocial behavior (think "geek",) balanced with an attention to detail and a dogged perserverance -- necessary to be a good programmer. Wired suggests that people with these traits tended to gravitate to Silicon Valley, where the jobs were. They met, married each other, and their children were on average four times more likely than the rest of the population to be autistic, having received a double dose of those genetic qualities from both parents. The videos you posted are not scientific studies and the author has published no peer-reviewed results. But there are lots of studies correlating genetic disorders, particularly Fragile X Syndrome. There's a test for that now -- you might want to have your son take a blood test. It is one of the most common mutations that is found in every culture, race, and country around the world in about the same proportions (except California apparently.) I hadn't meant to get sucked into this discussion, but when you dismissed genetics so cavalierly I had to correct that. It is frankly just patently wrong. I have the paperwork, the genetic workup, and the medical literature to show it. You might be interested in a subscription to the National Autism Foundation newsletter where they discuss the latest research. They mention Fragile X frequently. And if you do find that your son has Fragile X, you'll definitely want to follow the research the Fragile X Foundation is conducting. I know how you feel, I truly do. The loss is indescribable. Please don't waste time with some of these unsupported theories -- go get your son a blood test so you'll know which avenues to pursue.

Cyneswith Luik wrote: Hi, wondering if I might get some help... On the wiki concerning ANS for DD, it says there are some 3rd parties that offer ANS processing services. I've tried searching for these, but can't seem to find anything... could anybody advise about these? I've been working with the iGlom Redelivery System. It processes the ANS transactions and keeps a complete record of all sales. There are various reporting options. It will optionally email or IM you on each sale. If you have your own server set up for ANS, iGlom will process the sale and add it to its database, and then pass the notification on to your own server for further processing if you want. I use that option. Search for "iGlom" in the market.

iCade wrote: I am always in SL on Ultra Settings, so this isn't an issue caused by using low graphic preferences :3 It could be a difference in graphics cards, and there's a difference between Mac and PC many times too. There are lots of technical reasons that a color can look different on every monitor. On the other hand, I wouldn't purchase from a merchant who substantially altered the appearance of the actual product. Color though, that's extremely variable between computers.

Madeliefste Oh wrote: I have no proof it is like I think it is, it is just my impression. But I think you have this marketing team that thinks out these campaigns, and then when they have decided what it will be for coming month, they contact the collegues from marketplace so they can set the 'tag' on the marketplace and let the residents know about the campaign. So I think someone from the marketplace team did post the message, because (s)he was told to do so. But not because MP team is the responsible team behind these campaigns. That makes the most sense to me, it's how most big businesses are run. There's also very often a conflict between the developers and the marketers about what needs to be done, and in what order.

If you think about it, cloud computing just means "keeping my stuff on a remote computer." Everything we see and do inworld is on their servers; our viewers are just downloaders and interpreters. I'm not sure how much closer they could get.

Ilyra Chardin wrote: The issue was that starting a sentence with the word "Some," triggered an adult listing. "Some"? "Some"??? Must a new kind of street slang I haven't heard of yet, so I looked it up on Google and the first hit is: SOME (So Others Might Eat) www.some.org/ SOME has been serving the homeless and poor in Washington, DC for 40 years. Aha! Eat, get it? It all falls into place now...astounding logic, this.

I tried to join the conspiracy years ago but I couldn't find the group.

I had a similar thing happen in another system (not SL) and the rationale for not telling users the actual error was that if they made a list of banned words known, people could work around it. Also, the list was constantly being modified, so a published list would be out of date immediately. I was not satisfied with the explanation, but it might be what's happening in the market.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: The latter could have caught every production entry at the time the snapshot was taken. Less likely with live testers, but in this case, scanning the appearance of the actual listings manually is the first thing beta testers probably would have gone for. If the problem was happening, it'd be visible in the production sandbox and they probably would have caught it, so yes ... you might be right on that front.. That's where I think it went off the tracks. It didn't show up in the sandbox. Not disagreeing with Paladin here, because in the past they didn't have these particular problems and probably didn't think they needed that level of testing. Sloppy, but there it is. I think the only thing we differ on is our level of forgiveness when guessing at what could have happened It's true. I do tend to be forgiving because I've been caught out myself. All the developers I know are passionate about their work and want to do it well. Those who don't feel that way don't last. So my first reaction isn't that errors were malicious, or even (usually) incompetence, but that they were honest mistakes. Maybe I'm projecting. But I can't get as angry as some do because I know how easily a single typo can hose software and how bad I feel when it happens. I once made a mistake in a client project that was not only embarrassing for its stupidity but affected his customers. I felt awful. This error is much worse than mine was but I'm not in any position to throw stones. An aside, not directed to you Dartagan, but in general: It bothers me is how little consideration the forumites give to the engineers. I don't think I could read these forums if I was working at SL, it would be too disheartening. Someone on another thread tried to say something nice and got completely shot down. It's like it's against the rules to be kind. ETA: My comments in no way resolve LL of responsibility. They need to fix the problem and sort out the finances. No one should lose any money and accounts need to be rectified. And they need to do it fast. It's only the name-calling that I think is wrong.

Josh Susanto wrote: But what would it have hurt to ask people to refrain from using the actual deployment until the beta people had checked it as an actual deployment? What would be the odds that they'd happen to test with this particular subset of damaged data during a random sampling?

Doubtful the numbers themselves had anything to do with it, but rather the bug(s) causing those problems happened around that timeframe, and whatever was causing it was disabled, fixed (marketplace can be tweaked live without going down) or otherwise halted in its tracks. That sounds about right. We still don't know exactly what the problem was, but if we're going to speculate then it does seem to have happened during a particular time frame. I'm not a database guru, but I know there are ways to verify the data as a whole (but I'm not sure with such a large database if verification would really scan every single record; I don't think it does.) So yeah, they should have taken a closer look at the data before messing with it. On the other hand, if they didn't know a segment of the database was damaged then they'd have no real reason to do that if the general verification looked good. There are millions of records in there, so I'm sure they relied on some kind of automated process. Manual inspection would take years. In all likelihood the problem would have been caught by QA, because it was still there to be plainly seen when viewed manually. It obviously wasn't completely global, but it wasn't rare enough to be anything near an edge case that could have only been caught afterwards in production. That's what we don't know, and it would depend on how widespread it was. If the damage showed up a lot then yes, they should have seen it. If it was only in a small segment among millions of transactions, then it would not be so noticeable. Automated tests of a simulated 50k merchants, 50k shoppers and 100k products with tests to check listing integrity would be what you might expect as a part of the process. Even the associated images can be tested automatically. That true, and since many of us haven't had any trouble with listings, at least some of it seems to work. But they still would never have found this particular problem if it really is due to a damaged subset of data. Any simulated data, as well as any generated data from the test grid, would create all new transactions, storefronts and listings. Results would be based on a system that was already fixed. I don't know why cross linking happens. Is it related only to the damaged set of data, or is it a more widespread thing? Ann asked if it is still happening; is it? (Sorry for the bolded quoting, this forum doesn't make partial quoting easy.)

Josh Susanto wrote: >then no amount of QA would have ever found it. Were people with those numbers not on any of the tests? Why not? Of course not. You never test with real production data, it would be a disaster. Tests are intended to find errors, and the full expectation is that errors exist. You never, ever experiment with your real database.

Paladin Pinion wrote: The QA was very poorly done. I'm revising my opinion about this. If it's true that all the problem listings are within a certain numerical range, then no amount of QA would have ever found it. All test items would have received new numbers and would be unaffected. The problem would only appear when the changes went live with the real database.

Worms are full of protein and good for you. One grade-school class I know of had their kids make worm chocolate chip cookies. Seriously though, I've appreciated your voice of reason in these sometimes hysterical threads. There's plenty of things wrong with the DD transition, but I think you've been fair.

Darrius Gothly wrote: But .. I'm NOT gonna pry the lid off THAT can of worms (with a sly glance at Paladin) because it's a never ending issue and I still have bruises from the last time I decided to "discuss" it with someone. (scowls at Pamela .. JUST KIDDING!!) Maybe I should have napped longer? *grin* Heh. I just saw this. I guess you aren't the only one late to the party. I should dig you up some day, as it were, and say hi.