Mario ( 9 years ago )
/If you didn't notice, this song isn't about you or me.  Someone being uapphny due to the fact that they were propositioned after a public presentation, or being followed by a guy with a monopod camera at ankle height, or being hit on in an elevator (after giving a talk about not doing exactly that) is completely reasonable, and implying that anyone who disagrees must gargle the Pope's balls or something is fucking ridiculous.  As far as I have seen, there was never a halcyon era of post-lecture orgies at other skeptic meet ups (at least since the mid 90s anyway), and the idea that someone might be put off by the suggestion isn't  dogma.     Isn't it odd how anyone who has come out and complained of harassment at these get-togethers   regardless of the context in which it is purported to have happened   get's rolled over by a mechanized division of sweaty neckbeards?  Makes perfect sense.  Really, you people are just a font of reason.  No doubt sites like this will be seen as shining badges of honor for the skeptic movement in years to come.  And you'll still all be attending a sausage fest, regardless of the outcome of this petty internet war.

Elnare ( 9 years ago )
There is more than one side to stories like what has gone on here, and I can't just admit there's  daneil  without looking hard at both sides. I've had experience with folks who claim  daneil  and  cover-up  when people simply don't buy into their version of what happened, and look into both sides. Not saying that's what's going on here, I don't know.Victim blaming? I've never blamed women as the culprit when they're pawed, raped, or murdered. I will blame a woman if someone does something harassing and they don't alert con management and/or hotel security. That's simple responsibility, not only to the event but also to other women to be sure this doesn't happen again. Skipping that and just going home and blogging about it bitterly raises the question of why they didn't report it. Doesn't let the harasser off the hook, but the woman bears some culpability for not handling the situation responsibly. Again, typical of your posts, there's sweeping generalizations here. I can't take it seriously; you call on people to use reason but it's clear your primary motivation is emotion, prejudice, and hatred.

Fadro ( 9 years ago )
OK, I finally tckraed down the story about the swingers and the card; I'm not a regular Skepchick reader so I missed it. Obviously Mr. Rustle is most familiar with it.Yeah, that card was inappropriate. They handed it to her and walked away. It was a bizarre thing to do and highly out of joint. Even if it was a  joke  as the couple claimed later, it was a tasteless one and not particularly funny. It's something that shouldn't have happened, and quite honestly if they did that to me, I'd shout  WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?!??! And I think her blogging about it was rather heated but at the same time, justified. It's inappropriate, she considered herself to be working, was there to do a job and didn't appreciate being viewed as a sex object, etc.It's my sense of proportion there. If she had been in a hotel bar or some other place where these hookups happen, I'd say screaming at them to fuck off is melodramatic. At a conference where you're working well, screaming at them to fuck off is still melodramatic. The best thing to do is talk to those who run the conference.It may be best for Mr. Rustle to stay away from skeptical events, as his reaction to everything seems to either be screaming or pistols at ten paces. No sense of proportion!

Bassm ( 9 years ago )
checc out  Celebritiez Without Makeup OMG the rap   itz funny and it really sfpciey this discussion about celebz and no makeup. Celeb gossiperz would love it. Inspired by LovelyFireflies.?

Linda ( 9 years ago )
A little pmleobratic, if not actually a bit of a black eye for the cause of skepticism, that Greta was less than forthright in admitting her mistake. While I doubt that anyone actually expected her to fall on her sword, one would have thought that, at least, a “mea culpa” was in order.Reminds me of a story from, I think, some Russian author which described a case of someone having been wronged by someone else spreading some gossip that turned out not to be true. The party of the second part, on learning that that was the case, asked what they might do to atone for their error. And the party of the first part asked that that they take a piece of paper up into the belfry of the church, tear it into a hundred pieces and throw them into the wind. And then go and find them all. Doubly pmleobratic in the age of the Internet.Although I’m not quite sure what her “expressed position” (as you put it) really was as it seemed to cover a number of points relating to the existence of some report on the incident, whether or not it included references to harassment, sexual or otherwise, and the uses, or not, of a camera in furtherance of some crime.Really would have helped immensely if there had been a paper trail – some report filled out in triplicate (with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one) with copies provided to each party. Even a photograph. Maybe something to add to the policy manual  

Madiha ( 9 years ago )
Well, sir, you never made it clear you were addressing one palircutar instance with one palircutar set of circumstances, so there was no way for me to know your exact frame of reference. Maybe try making that clear next time?When did I say they had no right to be unhappy? As I pointed out above, yeah, Elyse had a right to vent about the swingers because what they did was inappropriate under those circumstances. I haven't addressed the so-called  underskirt camera  because I don't know all the facts and I need to look at both sides of the issue. I don't get all the sweeping generalizations about  sweating neckbeards,  especially since there's probably just as many generalizations that someone could make about you, that are just as negative. Do you think that's really productive? Or are you just trolling and trying to get people worked up? What will that accomplish?And has been pointed out, isn't it odd that after praising TAM 9 to the rafters as a  safe space  and  good for women, a bunch of people do an about-face? What's your explanation for that?You're no font of reason yourself; your posts overflow with prejudice and emotion. Every time you go on about  sweaty neckbeards  you pound another nail in the coffin of your credibility as a skeptic. Tone down the prejudice and overheated rhetoric and you might actually get somewhere.And quite honestly, the upcoming TAM has a ton of female speakers and I personally know lots of women who are going and are eager to go. So kick and scream all you want that it'll be a sausage fest whine and cry all you want that it will be a sausage fest type it on the internet all you want that it will be a sausage fest. None of that will make it true.Your claims of being able to see the future undermine your skeptic cred, dude.

Japneet ( 9 years ago )
What is the point of carrying on with this idiot drama?  Look, I'm a total ousitder to all of this.  I have occasionally (once a month or so) checked in on JREF since the Bad Astronomer inherited the mantle of JREF Evil Overlord way back when on account of his much-heralded awesomeness.   Lo and behold, this festival of idiocy comes down the pike and upends everything.  JDG sees that XX registration for his conference is dropping, and instead of considering any number of other probable causes (economy, competing cons, children, etc), he jumps all over Watson's nuts out of the blue, on the god-damned internet, in the year 2012, and is honest-to-god surprised when it isn't well received.  THEN, every gormless man-child on the internet comes out of the woodwork to insist that no action can be taken until we have affidavits and video evidence of any harassment before any action can be taken by anyone, at all.Ya know, maybe I'm old fashioned, but what ever happened to meeting a woman, getting to know her, sharing thoughts and dreams, maybe racing go karts or something BEFORE moving on to the sweaty nerd boning?  I don't know what's sadder, that a grotty lot of hopeless forever-alones who can't handle the fact that they aren't good at dealing with women are upset that someone called one of their number out on this shit, or the fact that they are playing victim because the female population of TAM is going to be monotonically decreasing for the foreseeable future.  Now, look, I'm a manly man who enjoys his breakfast steaks and wrestling jaguars as much as the next peddler of unsafe ordnance, but carrying on like this is just asinine.  This so-called  skeptic blog  has done nothing in the month of June BUT obsess over this self-inflicted foot bullet that's turned gangrenous and is now in danger of becoming a terminal case of butt-pain.  Is this really the hill you people want to die on?  Do you all want to be remembered as the virgin kings of nerd hill?  If people like the folks commenting on this blog and the board of JREF can't get their shit together, then all they'l all be celebrating their glorious E-victory together at next year's Amazing Sausage Fest, and they'll have no one to blame but themselves.

Muhammet ( 10 years ago )
Hello DavidLOOOONG and boring pphagraars make most of the readers scary(I agree & I implement the same strategy i.e writing short para's).About long posts   it depends, if you're able to create curiosity till the end, then even 3000+ word articles go viral(I've lots of examples, specially on my blog), simple tip here is write with a knife(cut unnecessary words).I don't know how Abhi convinced you to write this   but I like the way you've crafted this post. Great share!Rahul kuntala recently posted..

Aid ( 10 years ago )
checc out  Celebritiez Without Makeup OMG the rap   itz funny and it really sfeicpy this discussion about celebz and no makeup. Celeb gossiperz would love it. Inspired by LovelyFireflies.?

Sare ( 10 years ago )
Lovely pictures, you caupertd every day life quite well ^^  I agree, why must people in romance movies always be beautiful, it wouldn't hurt us to see normal people falling in love.  You pictures make me want to get over my fears of going out in public and taking pictures of random people/things.  I feel weird taking pictures of people without permission.  These kind of posts are inspiring ^^