BigShinyThing

As part of the London Games Festival, there’s an attempt on the world group Cosplay record on Saturday 25 October. If you’re that way inclined, then read on for full details (care of Sara at Cake):

Attention all gaming fans! To mark the launch of the UK’s biggest gaming extravaganza, the London Games Festival, a world record attempt to have the largest gathering of people dressed up as video game characters is occurring on 25 October at the London ExCel centre!

Hosted on the opening day of the London MCM Expo, this is the ultimate chance to prove your gaming credentials and show the world how much of a fan you really are! With the current record a measly 80 people, get out and buff your World of Warcraft armor, equip those Lara Croft dual pistols and brush that Guitar Hero mullet wig and get on down to the ExCel to strut your stuff and become a part of gaming history.

Date: 25 October 2008
Time: 12:30
Location: On the stairs, outside the entrance of the ExCel Centre

MCM Expo, ExCeL London,
One Western Gateway,
Royal Victoria Dock, London. E16 1XL

Key Guidelines:

1. All participants must be wearing costumes representing characters from video games
2. Characters from other media such as films, television, books and comics are acceptable; however these must have featured in video games before any subsequent appearances in other media. For example:
   
   
   • Sonic the Hedgehog first appeared in a video game in 1991, prior to subsequent television and comic book appearances; therefore Sonic qualifies for the attempt
   • Batman first featured as a comic book character in 1939, prior to his first appearance as a video game character in 1986; therefore Batman does not qualify.

We’re not involved in the organisation of this — contact Mark at the LFG if you have questions.

[Photo from Clow Wizard Eriol's photostream on Flickr]

XDR-TB — extreme (or ‘extensively’) drug-resistant tuberculosis — may well be the next pandemic. Preventable but untreatable, the disease preys on some of the world’s most vulnerable people. A recent survey suggests that amongst HIV-positive patients in Africa, it has a close to 100% mortality rate, and kills in weeks.

Sadly, the emergence of XDR-TB is a product of human error. TB can usually be treated with a course of four standard anti-TB drugs. If these drugs are misused or mismanaged, multidrug-resistant TB (MDRTB) can develop. MDRTB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have more side-effects. XDR-TB can then develop when these second-line drugs are also misused or mismanaged and therefore also become ineffective.

This is Bad News. It is also important news, as the existence of — and need for action on — XDR-TB has been under-reported in the West.

That’s about to change. And you can help.

With the support of the good people at the TED conference, acclaimed photojournalist James Nachtwey has spent the last year traveling the world, documenting the plight of those suffering from XDR-TB.

The images will be unveiled in London on the fly tower of the National Theatre 7-11pm on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th October. A gallery called The Emergency Room will open between October 7th and 22nd, just off Brick Lane. There you can view the photographs, together with an installation which will track their diffusion around the world. A group of researchers from think tank Demos, together with a coalition of artists and designers, will be working in the gallery, exploring new techniques for the distribution of news photography in the digital age.

This is an important project. If you are a blogger or journalist, or can offer any creative, financial or logistic support, we urge you to contact the Emergency Room and have a chat. For our part, BST is providing the team with monitoring and analysis of the project’s influence on online discussion around XDR-TB. Darrell was also asked by Demos/TED to contribute some thoughts on the future of photojournalism to the project blog.

Just a reminder that BST’s Anne-Fay is featured in King Adz’s upcoming book, published by Thames and Hudson. The launch party is at Cargo on October 9. Come down and say hello.

[BST-exclusive image by Adz]