(1) Bad science in sf I’m used to. On the other hand, this expose of Monty Python by medievalist Kathleen E. Kennedy is shocking! Her post for The Mary Sue, “Coconuts in Medieval England Weren’t as Rare as Monty Python and the Holy Grail Made You Think”, claims England was practically awash in coconuts – had he existed, King Arthur would have had no problem acquiring one.
(2) As a fan, when I see something like “15 Facts You Didn’t Know About the Original ‘Ghostbusters’”, I start jonesing to tell the headline writer that the original Ghost Busters was the working title of a Bowery Boys movie. But carry on….
Imagine Eddie Murphy and his fellow paranormal firefighters battling a motorcycle-riding skeleton and a giant lizard monster from their gas-station base in a futuristic New Jersey. Who you gonna call? Ghost Smashers!
By the time it became an instant classic upon its release in 1984, Ghostbusters had morphed through radically different iterations, featuring bonkers plot points and unrecognizable creatures. Those mind-blowing details are chronicled by Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History, author Daniel Wallace’s revelatory, self-explanatory new book due out this week, just in time for Halloween.
(3) I stopped to watch Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters music video while researching the previous item. That 1980s video did some nice things with neon lights. But it can’t hold a candle *coff* to the Halloween Light Show set to his vocals in this YouTube video — four singing pumpkin faces, tombstones, hand carved pumpkins, strobes, floods, two Matrix boards and thousands of lights.
(4) At this hour it may be hard to find anyone who hasn’t already read John Scalzi’s Whatever post titled “Here’s the Egregious, Mealy-Mouthed Clump of Bullshit That is the 2015 World Fantasy Convention Harassment Policy”.
I am not a lawyer, but I expect that ReedPOP, the company that runs [New York Comic Con] (among many other conventions around the US) has maybe a few lawyers on its staff. If NYCC is utterly and absolutely unafraid to promulgate a harassment policy even though there is a legal statute defining what harassment means in the state of New York, I expect it might have been possible for World Fantasy to have done likewise, if they chose to do so.
And I recommend reading Jesi Pershing’s comment on the post. (I’m unable to link to specific comments on Whatever, despite both it and File 770 running on WordPress….)
(5) Trae Dorn’s story at Nerd & Tie, “World Fantasy Convention writes the worst harasssment policy ever” doesn’t live up to the hyperbole of the headline, but it reflects the prevailing mood of the internet.
(6) Jim C. Hines weighed in with “Trying to Fix WFC’s Harassment Policy Problem”.
Can this actually be fixed?
Well, no. Not completely. You’ve pissed off a lot of people, and you’ve got nine days before the start of the convention. You can’t fix it. But you can work to make it better. Here are my suggestions, for what they’re worth.
A compelling observation was quoted from Natalie Luhrs’ post —
Keep in mind that, as Natalie Luhrs pointed out, “three of the last five World Fantasy Conventions had harassment incidents that were publicized: 2010, 2011, and 2013.” This doesn’t include incidents that weren’t publicized.
However, it should be noted that other recent WFC’s have had genuine anti-harassment policies – the 2015 committee is an aberration in that respect.
(7) The headline for Arthur Chu’s post captures just what I think was really controlling SXSW’s decision to have these panels at all – “This Is Not a Game: How SXSW Turned GamerGate Abuse Into a Spectator Sport”. Chu also is very informative about the history about the anti-harassment panel proposal.
- Any “both sides” narrative is nonsense. Whatever harassment and abuse there was cannot have been at all symmetrical.
SXSW acknowledges this when they tell Randi Harper in an email they’ve “received numerous threats of violence regarding this panel (Level Up)” and a “civil and respectful environment seems unlikely.” You can see with your own eyes the degree of incivility and disrespect likely to occur at her panel by looking at the comment thread GamerGate left on PanelPicker. This started up in August and has only had time to fester since then.
By contrast, I don’t think anyone “anti-GamerGate” I’ve spoken to other than my fellow panelists was even aware a GamerGate panel was in the cards until it was announced last week. Feel free to search my own history on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. to see if you can find any mention of it.
(8) Chris Kluwe went straight for the jugular.
What you did, what you’re doing, is providing the blueprint for harassers and hatemongers as to how they win. From this point forward, any fringe group of spiteful lunatics can point to this moment and say, “We will silence the voices of anyone we dislike at SXSW, any view we disagree with, because we know the mewling slugs in charge have not the backbone to stop us. All we need to do is confront them with our vileness, and they will fold.”
And the worst part?
YOU are solely the ones responsible for this.
YOU decided that it was appropriate to give a group of harassers a platform to continue their wretched campaign of ignorance. No one forced you to bypass the application process, to slide this selection of charlatans and liars along back alley channels into the conference. (And by the way, it is beyond ironic that a group ostensibly about ‘ethics in journalism’ required such an unethical route.)
YOU chose to ignore the warnings of the women targeted, to dismiss their voices as unworthy of respect or consideration, and then had the gall to act shocked that a ‘movement’ known for its corrosive toxicity slimed its oh-so-predictable foulness in your direction after you invited them in.
(9) Today In History:
October 27, 1938 – Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre of the Air broadcasts its adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Joe Bloch comments —
People have debated for decades just why the country was so willing to be fooled by the broadcast, and the question of whether or not Welles had an inkling of what would happen was never answered. It is certain that he denied it at a later Congressional hearing, but in subsequent interviews he answered the question rather coyly, implying that he might have known what could happen.
(10) Stop snickering about aliens, d’ye hear me? Astrophysics profession Adam Frank, co-founder of the 13.7 blog, says “Maybe It’s Time To Stop Snickering About Aliens”.
Boyajian and her co-authors considered a wide range of possibilities to explain the strange dips in the light coming from KIC 8462852. Nothing they dreamed up provided a really, really good explanation. And in the absence of that really, really good explanation, at least a few others have been thinking: “Aliens!” As Ross reports, Jason Wright of Penn State is already working on a paper suggesting we might be seeing a signature of extraterrestrial construction, a “swarm of mega-structures,” on a planetary system scale.
Now, at this point, I could start telling you about Dyson spheres and Kardashev Type II civilizations that engage in solar-system-spanning building projects (or even Vogon Constructor Fleets).
But I won’t.
That’s because the point today is not what KIC 8462852, in particular, might be telling us. The odds are high that a natural explanation will be found for the star’s flickering that has nothing to do with aliens.
Why take that stance? Well, aliens are always the last hypothesis you should consider. Occam’s razor tells scientists to always go for the simplest explanation for a new phenomenon. But even as we keep Mr. Occam’s razor in mind, there is something fundamentally new happening right now that all of us, including scientists, must begin considering.
Kepler and the many exoplanet-hunting missions coming next (JWST, PLATO, etc.) represent an entirely new way of watching the sky.
Telescope time has always been expensive — and there’s a lot of sky. In the past, astronomers didn’t have the technical capacity to continuously watch zillions of stars for long periods of time. The suns we astronomers did come back to again and again tended to be remarkable in one way or another (they flared or blew up periodically). But the exoplanet revolution means we’re developing capacities to stare deep into the light produced by hundreds of thousands of boring, ordinary stars. And these are exactly the kind of stars where life might form on orbiting planets.
(11) Tom Knighton says it’s only a “Supergirl Kinda-Review” but he covers a lot of ground as he fills in readers about last night’s series debut.
First, the casting was interesting, and I mean that in a good way. Kara (aka Supergirl for those who don’t know) is, like her cousin, raised by human parents. Her parents were played by…*drum roll please* Dean Caine of Lois and Clark and Helen Slater, the original live-action Supergirl. Honestly, it make my inner geek giddy right there.
(12) All the other old-timers showed up in the latest Star Wars trailer. Where was Mark Hamill? The director has an answer — “J.J. Abrams addresses Luke’s absence from Star Wars trailers”
When asked what’s going with Luke’s lack of appearance in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailers, director J.J. Abrams stated it’s part of the plan.
“These are good questions to be asking. I can’t wait for you to find out the answer,” he said. The fact Luke is being kept away from the promotional materials is “no accident,” he continued.
It actually goes a bit deeper than that. There was a leaked image of Luke Skywalker wearing what seemed to be standard Jedi robes that made the rounds, but Disney went to work pulling as many copies of the image from the internet as possible, including Twitter embeds.
(13) Gail Z. Martin suggests “Five Reasons Why Authors Do Blog Tours (And Maybe You Should, Too)” at Magical Words.
What’s a blog tour and why should you consider doing one?
A blog tour provides the opportunity for an author to be featured in guest posts on a number of other blogs, thus gaining visibility to the readers on all those sites. Likewise, an author who has a blog can do a tour on his/her own site by featuring a number of other authors on the site in a given period of time.
Two crucial elements separate a ‘blog tour’ from merely being a guest for the day on someone else’s blog. First, a blog tour generally involves guesting on multiple blogs or hosting multiple guests on your blog. And secondly, the activity occurs within a pre-defined (and advance-promoted) time period—perhaps a week or a month. In fact, blog tours work best when the bloggers and the guests promote the upcoming post—much like when a celebrity promotes being interviewed on TV. The author gets visibility, and perhaps new readers. The blogger gets traffic and well as visibility—and perhaps some of those visitors will come back time and again.
(14) Harlan Ellison is among the contributors to Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds, to be published November 1.
The stories explore such issues as the Holocaust and its long-term effects on subsequent generations, anti-Semitism in the mid- and late-20th-century United States, and the dark side of the Diaspora (e.g., the decline of revolutionary fervor, the passing of generations, the Golden Ghetto, etc.).
(15) And rather like Harlan Ellison, Wil Wheaton thinks the writer should get paid. His post “you can’t pay your rent with the ‘unique platform and reach our site provides’” tells why he told HuffPo to take a hike.
(16) Here’s somebody you don’t see at fan-run conventions every day… but he’ll be at Gallifrey One in 2016:
Sir John Hurt, who brought the ‘missing link’ in the Doctor’s past — the War Doctor, from the 50th anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor” — to life, will be headlining the 2016 Gallifrey One convention, in an appearance sponsored by Showmasters Events.
(17) Remember that how that old statue of Lenin in a Ukraine town was rededicated to Darth Vader the other day? Well, sounds like old Darth is up to no good – just check out this story: “Chewbacca Arrested During Ukraine Elections”
The Wookiee is handcuffed and detained after supporting Darth Vader’s bid to be elected as Mayor of Odessa.
Yes, my friends, there’s trouble in unpronounceable city!
[Thanks to Steven H Silver, Martin Morse Wooster, Francis Hamit, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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@Iphinome:
To quote The Goon Show’s Major Bloodnok:
It was the least I could do. A quantity I specialize in.
There was a working paternoster at Leeds Uni in the 80s – I loved riding in it
This kind of thing is why sf/f superfan Avedon Carol so often contrasts p-r/n favorably with Hollywood.
Don’t forget to vote in round 1 region 2 of the live-action television bracket!
Glad https://www.gofundme.com/fundsforrochita is back up, and thanks Red Wombat for the story.
*salute* Glad to support a good cause! It’s a very silly story, but hopefully people will enjoy it.
I remember seeing the Ghostbusters with gorilla cartoon, too, in addition to the cartoon based on the movies. I enjoyed both. Plus, the Ghostbusters with gorilla had a couple of regular female characters who actually did stuff (I remember a woman from the future and a red-haied reporter), while the Real Ghostbusters only had Janine who did very little apart from pining after Egon.
There was a paternoster in Birmingham (not Alabama) University library in the 80s. Scared the crap out of me. They make an ominous noise, of machinery about ready to devour the unwary.
No, just keep doing whatever you were doing before.
My issue isn’t going to come up very often. The commenter is looking for eyeballs for his blog (which, in fact, I have linked to before). I thought it was crude to do that by summoning people to see “breaking news” I’d already posted a story about.
In most cases what people are doing here is capsulizing the story or opinion and leaving a link, and they’re usually ahead of me on finding the story, too.
I initially read that as John Carter’s Ghosts of Mars and was very confused about the existence of a John Carter movie other than the 2012 one.
Regarding paternosters, the Bremen tax office, a stunning Art Deco office building dating from 1928, still has three functional paternosters, among the last of their kind in the city. I rode one of them years ago, when I had an errand there, since the building sadly isn’t open to the public. Supposedly riding the paternoster through the basement or attic is safe, but I couldn’t bring myself to try it for myself and got off on the top floor and took the impressive staircase down.
LAXth. See you all on the flipside.
Wikipedia has a list of surviving functional paternosters in Europe. Alas, it’s only in German, since that’s where the majority of surviving paternosters seems to be:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Paternosteraufzügen
I’m fifth poster, now don’t you be hatin’
All you other fifth posters are just imitatin’
Now won’t the real fifth poster please stand up
please stand up
please stand up?
@LunarG,
That’s fine; the primary party already conceded on that point in a detailed March 18, 2013 blog post.
PyCon technically had a formal Code of Conduct, about a full page long that included a preamble setting general tone and intent, a short form, and then a much more detailed long form; it included prohibition against harassment, along with a large number of specific acts.
There were three problems between the three individuals involved; we can call them the jokers 1 and 2 and a tweeter. The first was the jokes by the jokers; two different forms of jokes were made: the forking repo jokes and the dongle jokes. And the second two were two individual tweets that were made: the first public to the twitter verse excluding Pycon, and a second specifically intended to act as formal notification.
PyCon acted on the jokes; the jokers denied that the forking repo jokes were sexual innuendo and everyone was satisfied on that point. The “I’d fork his repo” joke was by a man about a man, neither of which was interested in sex with the other; it truly and accurately was intended in the technical sense: it was a compliment by the man about he quality of the other’s code. The dongle joke was absolutely sexual innuendo, intended to joke about the size of a man’s penis using technical lingo. It was a true violation of the PyCon code of conduct which specifically cautioned against making sexist jokes. The offenders admitted and acknowledged that point, apologized, and everyone was satisfied.
The second problem was the first tweet, which itself violated the code of conduct, which specifically prohibits stalking and the taking of harassing photography; that was the purpose of taking the photo and posting to Twitter. Of any actions by any of the three people, this is arguably the closest to meeting a definition harassment.
The third problem was PyCon’s own doing. It was not clear that it desired private notification of problems; there was no violation in the second tweet; it just showed a hole in the existing code which wás immediately fixed. Had the tweeter only made the second tweet formally acting as the PyCon notice, they likely could have found safe harbor in an “I was following the procedure” defense. The first tweet rendered that defense impossible.
Both people were fired, because they both acted unprofessionally while at a company event for which they were expected to act professionally. Tweeter goes into great detail in the day later blog post as to why the tweets were made; it was a larger axe to grind than jokers 1 and 2 jokes on dongles.
That’s what I mean when I say Donglegate did not involve harassment, to the extent of the current discussion on con codes of conduct / harassment policy.
Neither joker 1 or 2 harassed tweeter but they did make a sexist joke indirectly overheard by tweeter that was in violation of the Code of Conduct. Tweeter took a harassing photo of jokers 1 and 2 for the purpose of shaming them through social media; this was the first tweet not the second one to PyCon.
PyCon for its part was very much in the right in taking prompt action on the offending joke, as well as taking immediate action to clarify their notification should be made privately, being fully cognizant of the shitstorm that had exploded around the events.
Only a sociopath would be happy at the resulting downstream outcomes that occurred as a result of the first tweet that was made in response to “Look at the size of his dongle, yuck yuck yuck.”
Silly But True
1) Daylighting superheroes
urkertype on October 27, 2015 at 11:51 pm said:
,
Beg to disagree, politely. GOTHAM, while a grim, gritty, explicitly and often gruesomely violent and bloody show, intersperses some daylight action and bright daylight colors, particuarly shots of the city from a distance. yeah, it averages out to just shy of fuligin, but it does cleanse the palate periodically. Unlike ARROW, at least up thru when I gave up on it (more for attitude and brooding) a year ago. GOTHAM is amazingly well done. BI’m always on the edge of “the heck with it” due to grim uberviolence enough to make even a Cimmerian blush. But so much is so compellingly well done that I keep returning.
2) THE FLASH. Lots of bright colors, eg the police station, and in general. And stuff during the day. Far better than I had hoped ,although still too “metahuman of the week”ish, the same way that LOIS & CLARK and SMALLVILLE had fallen into. But as a DC fanboy (I read marvel and indies, but grew up as DC’s Silver Age kicked off, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Ray Palmer, Justice League, etc.) I’ll watch and enjoy the parts I enjoy.
Haven’t see the SUPERGIRL premiere yet, due to [time and space].
The Other John Carter Movie.
Yeah, there was one. One SciFi channel, a year or three before Disney’s. I ended up watching the whole thing (two parts) largely for the same reason I watched the entire videotape of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four movie (purchased at some WorldCon) for the simple reason that I didn’t want to have to ever wonder whether I’d missed some good bit and have to rewatch (or fast forward). There were a few good bits in this JC, but not enough for me to recommend anybody else share my pain…
Silly But True: Neither joker 1 or 2 harassed tweeter but they did make a sexist joke
The problem is that this is a form of harassment.
TV Tourney Updates!
Round 1, Spinward region results!
Round 1, Trailing Region matches! Voting is open.
I saw the first episode of supergirl when it leaked on the intertubes back in I-think-June, and it suffered from hitting the internet the same week Johanson did this SNL Black Widow skit. (youtube)
Like, REALLY suffered. Badly. To the point where I just can’t bring myself to give SuperGirl another look. The handwaving away of the ‘SuperGirl’ moniker was bad enough, but coming from that particular incarnation of Cat Grant? She’s so very much a ‘woman’ and not a ‘girl’, and Kara’s failure to even stand behind her point for fifteen seconds just shows a huge lack of backbone, which I don’t like in my superheroes. Even coming on the heels of the moral mishegas that was the Flash season 1 finale (You’re making an active choice to do this, you’re not reacting to anything, take your time and do the math out fully, THERE IS NO TICKING CLOCK HERE, WHY ARE YOU TRUSTING THE VILLAIN, GAH) SG still felt horridly forced, even before taking into account all the fridge logic stuff Bloodstone75 pointed out.
@Daniel Dern
Do you mean the John Carter Movie with Antonio Sabato Jr and Traci Lords? My favorite moment is when the military tells John Carter they have backed him up on a 16 Gb flash drive.
But otherwise, yes. Cannot recommend. Let your (and my) sacrifice of time not be in vain and others hear our pleas!
bloodstone75, LordMelvin:
I think a lot of Kara’s behavior in the Supergirl pilot can be explained by realizing that her personality was formed as a 12-year-old Kryptonian girl without super powers. This is very different from Clark who’s had his powers for as long as he can remember. If Kara sees someone trapped in a burning building, her instinct to help would say “call 911” (or the Kryptonian equivalent), not “run in and save them” or “blow out the fire with her super breath”. And with her closest family members either not encouraging (cousin) or, worse, actively discouraging (sister) using her powers, it’s not surprising that, for the most part, she ends up treating her powers as more theoretical than real.
From that perspective, her sister’s plane crash is the shock that forces Kara to challenge her assumptions. Here’s an emergency that, as far as she can tell, only she has a chance of fixing (calling 911 would be useless and her cousin is too far away), involving someone she cares deeply about. So she has to try. And once it works, it doesn’t take that long for her to recognize and embrace the possibilities she hadn’t seen before.
Okay, now I’m really in a quandary. Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was published in 2014, so I figured it was out as far as being a Hugo nominee.
But I just found out that it was the result of a Kickstarter with 53 backers. That is an extremely limited distribution. It was only published in March this year through Hodder & Stoughton. To me, that says this book is eligible for next year’s nominations. What are the groupmind’s thoughts on this?
As a side point, my interpretation of the pilot is that Kara’s super hearing and x-ray vision are things she has to consciously engage – they’re not “always on”. So she uses them for the day-to-day things where they’re obviously helpful, but until she decides she’s going to be a hero, it simply wouldn’t occur to her to walk around listening for people she could save.
@JJ…
“The problem is that this is a form of harassment.”
Not according to PyCon.
In the following statement: “Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate for PyCon.”
Do you think “sexist, racist or exclusionary jokes” are construed as a form of the preceding “harassment” or construed as a group of separate items joined with “harassment” as things “not appropriate for PyCon?”
Can one construe the taking of a photo at the con by con participant of con participants for uploading to Twitter for purpose of twit shaming as “harassing photography?”
Silly But True
JJ: The problem is that this is a form of harassment.
Silly But True: Not according to PyCon.
And that’s the other part of the problem — that PyCon doesn’t recognize that it’s harassment.
@JJ,
That’s certainly one possibility. There are others.
Silly But True
Thankfully, the only episode that sticks hard in my brain–I seriously can’t remember the plots of any others–is the one where the guys get trapped in the ghost trap or the ghost world or something, and Janine has to go rescue them. Which she does, successfully and with snark.
In fact, that episode, where Janine goes “Ha! Superstition. No 13th floor–” and then stops the elevator between floors 12 and 14 and exits onto an unmarked 13th floor … I did not know until watching that episode that in fact tall buildings (in the US at least) do often skip the number 13 when numbering their floors.
The only other thing I remember very strongly is that for several seasons Venkman is voiced by the same voice actor who voices Garfield in the cartoon. I adored that voice actor.
Mike Glker:
Me neither! Gone now.
@Silly But True: I can’t see that publicly shaming someone on Twitter is anything other than harassment. That shit fucking destroys lives, dude. People are crazy idiots.
@ JJ
re: The Long Way pub
If the only people who received the book in 2014 were the 53 backers, I don’t think it can be called ‘published’. For whatever my opinion’s worth :^}
ETA: Chambers is on my longlist for the Campbell and her only other publication, that I know of, was in 2014.
I did not know until watching that episode that in fact tall buildings (in the US at least) do often skip the number 13 when numbering their floors.
The one I worked in didn’t – it was in our part of the building. If there had been a 13, we’d have noticed.
@JJ
This 2014 KS update says “As of right now, the ebook’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords” so that’s a general 2014 release I’m afraid. She’s still good for a Campbell nom though.
Coincidentally, I started it last night and I’m currently enjoying very much.
Mark: This 2014 KS update says “As of right now, the ebook’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords” so that’s a general 2014 release I’m afraid.
Yes, but that’s an extremely limited self-published release. If she only sold a couple hundred copies of the self-pubbed version, theoretically she would be eligible under the H&S edition put out in March this year (as compared to the 35,000 copies of The Martian which sold in 2011).
I’ve sent her a question asking how many of the self-pubbed physical and e-books were sold. Let’s see if she responds.
I thought eligibility was date of publishing/copyright regardless of quantity sold for the purpose of Hugo’s? Assuming no-one asked for an extension ruling.
The Campbell is the one that has the extra qualifying market aspect.
This thing that when people write The Campbell, I can only think of it as The Campbell. And that – as everyone knows – is Bruce Campbell.
— Uncyclopedia
@JJ
Ah right, are you thinking of 3.4.3?
More generally, it is a bit harsh that a fully professional UK publication allows a second bite of the cherry on US publication, while limited self pubbing to Amazon etc counts as US publication. I don’t think there’s an easy fix though.
@Mark There is an easy fix. Treat UK books as foreign language publications. The usual eligibility. Then, the extra year comes when, and only when, they do a full translation from English into American. 🙂
Ah! So eligibility would date not from the 1997 publication of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in the UK but from the 1998 publication of the Americanized for us hicks who don’t know nuthin’ “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in the US.
@junego
Oooh, she qualifies? Niiice, did need some help on filling out that list of candidates
They are very slow. To be honest after the fourth of fifth time I was a lot less terrified. Plus, they were the only way to the food, and whoever has seen me knows that is not a trifling consideration for me.
@ snowcrash
re: Campbell
Becky Chambers qualifies afaict. I have 4 candidates penciled in on my list, but one is Andy Weir and I don’t know if he qualifies. Who do you have? My other 2 are:
Graydon Saunders, The March North & A Succession of Bad Days
Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filligree Street
This is a preliminary list, subject to change given new info, further reading &/or occasional whims. 😉
Anna Feruglio Dal Dan: They are very slow. To be honest after the fourth of fifth time I was a lot less terrified.
I think escalators go too fast . . .
Plus, they were the only way to the food, and whoever has seen me knows that is not a trifling consideration for me.
Now, that is a motive for hopping on one of those death traps that I understand. Still think I’d feel like a sandwich in an automat, riding one, though.
@junego
Right now I only have Weir. There’s been a lot of people talking about Watchmaker… here, but never really sussed if it was positive or otherwise. I’ll move it up the ranks on Mount F770
Oneiros:” I can’t see that publicly shaming someone on Twitter is anything other than harassment. That shit fucking destroys lives, dude. People are crazy idiots.”
Yeah.
This brings up an interesting cross-section of various peoples’ opinions. A question to those weighing in on PyCon: JJ, LunarG, even Aaron for that matter. What’s your opinion on the photo harassment aspect of Donglegate? Do you even view it as harassment? A non-harassing violation of the code of conduct? Do you view PyCon as feckless and unreliable in its application of its code for not addressing this one?
Two have said that a dongle joke is harassment. Do you see it being harassment for one congoer while physically at a con to take photos of other congoers for purpose of posting online to shame them?
Silly But True
@SbT
I assume you see it as harassment then? Do you also believe that people should be insulated from the consequences of their actions, particulalry when those actions are stupid/ racist/ arseholish? Is there a way that you see this being implemented without seeming to be censorship-ish?
In all seriousness, I think that you’re reaching for simplicity in a complex situation, and trying to establish one size fits all rules where such rules would be an unmitigated disaster. It’s why a proper Code of Conduct – professional, con-going , etc – establish investigative rules as well as have an element of discretion. Mind you, you always have to defend your exercise of discretion one way or another, but them’s the breaks.
Is the discussion about Pycon really all that useful for determining the value of and most appropriate form for harassment policies? None of the actions taken by any of the relevant parties are what one might call a typical harassment situation. A useful case study for outliers, perhaps, but not as a primary source..?
@snowcrash
The discussion about Watchmaker has been mostly positive, but not exclusively so.
FILE 770 LIVE-ACTION TV TOURNAMENT AND BRACKETS
Rimward Region – Round One
1. IN EVERY GENERATION THERE IS A CHOSEN ONE. COED OR STORAGE FACILITY, DEPENDING.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1)
Warehouse 13 (16)
2. LEAVING INFAMOUS NAMES BEHIND
Angel (8)
Greatest American Hero (9)
3. AN EXPERT IS ANYONE FROM OUT OF TOWN
Twin Peaks (5)
Due South (12)
4. EMPTY PLACES
Sapphire and Steel (4)
Survivors (13)
5. ROOMMATE TROUBLES
Red Dwarf (3)
Being Human (14)
6. YESTERDAY’S PEOPLE VS. TOMORROW’S PEOPLE
Addams Family (6)
Tomorrow People [late 70s] (11)
7. ISLANDS IN THE BRACKETS
Lost (7)
Stargate Atlantis (10)
8. TRAVELERS
Doctor Who [New] (2)
Carnivale (15)
Rimward Region – Round One
1. IN EVERY GENERATION THERE IS A CHOSEN ONE. COED OR STORAGE FACILITY, DEPENDING.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1)
Warehouse 13 (16)
Sorry, but Myka & Pete are trumped by Willow & Xander every time.
2. LEAVING INFAMOUS NAMES BEHIND
Angel (8)
Greatest American Hero (9)
The B5 school of series structure is followed to great effect by Angel.
3. AN EXPERT IS ANYONE FROM OUT OF TOWN
Twin Peaks (5)
Due South (12)
I nearly abstained on this one, but then remembered Badalamenti’s theme tune.
4. EMPTY PLACES
Sapphire and Steel (4)
Survivors (13)
When you have no budget, you make the stories better.
5. ROOMMATE TROUBLES
Red Dwarf (3)
Being Human (14)
Abstain as I like both of them too much.
6. YESTERDAY’S PEOPLE VS. TOMORROW’S PEOPLE
Addams Family (6)
Tomorrow People [late 70s] (11)
The problem with this one is that I grew up with John, Steve, TIM et al.
7. ISLANDS IN THE BRACKETS
Lost (7)
Stargate Atlantis (10)
Lost just nabs this one, ironically because it had a better finalé.
8. TRAVELERS
Doctor Who [New] (2)
Carnivale (15)
The thing about Doctor Who is that if you don’t like it one week, you can come along the next week and it will be completely different. And the amazing thing is that this applies to whole seasons of the show as well.
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Greatest American Hero
3. Due South
5. Red Dwarf
6. Addams Family
7. Stargate Atlantis
8. Carnivale
1. IN EVERY GENERATION THERE IS A CHOSEN ONE. COED OR STORAGE FACILITY, DEPENDING.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1)
2. LEAVING INFAMOUS NAMES BEHIND
Angel (8)
glerch. Um. That was unexpectedly hard.
3. AN EXPERT IS ANYONE FROM OUT OF TOWN
Due South (12)
4. EMPTY PLACES
Sapphire and Steel (4)
6. YESTERDAY’S PEOPLE VS. TOMORROW’S PEOPLE
Addams Family (6)
8. TRAVELERS
Doctor Who [New] (2)
I suppose it’s too late to turn in my spreadsheet.