tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:51722Tablesaw!It's the saw of the table!Tablesaw Tablesawsen2009-08-13T09:20:08Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-13:51722:416441Failsplosion!2009-08-13T09:20:08Z2009-08-13T09:20:08Ztiredpublic2When I left work yesterday, the Internet seemed rather calm. I was away for a few hours because <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://ojouchan.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://ojouchan.livejournal.com/'><b>ojouchan</b></a></span> and I went to hear <a href="http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tickets/performance_detail.cfm?id=3945">Mozart at the Hollywood Bowl</a> using my firm's box seats. And when I came back, there was crazy.<br /><br />A whole bunch of racefail from various SF fandom cons popped up, as <a href="http://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/1027502.html">linkishly summarized</a> by <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/'><b>coffeeandink</b></a></span>. I haven't even had a chance to look at the WriterCon issues, because I've been reconstruct my blown mind after the <a href="http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/75688.html">mindblowingly</a> <a href="http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/75921.html">idiotic</a> statements made by <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/'><b>arhyalon</b></a></span>. I expect that <span style='white-space: nowrap; text-decoration: line-through;'><a href='https://linkspam.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png' alt='[community profile] ' width='16' height='16' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://linkspam.dreamwidth.org/'><b>linkspam</b></a></span> will be kicking into gear over it too.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/">Penny Arcade</a> also took a dive into the "<a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/8/10/">seduction community</a>." Tycho offers some choice quotes like:<blockquote>I'm fairly certain the purpose of this course is to make you a better <em>predator</em> of women. Check out their offers of "in-field training," as though you were going to hunt antelopes from a jeep in the Goddamned Savannah.</blockquote>Gabe, on the other hand, apparently "decided to play devil's advocate" without doing a whole lot of research intot he topic, which was a bad idea. He finishes up saying<blockquote>I'm a little worried that guys reading the site might take our discussion here as some sort of endorsement and I want to make sure that isn't the case. While some of their advice is probably fine I think the majority of it is really sleazy. <em>Again, I can't blame guys for seeking out help.</em> All joking aside though, I just want to make it clear that I don't think the seduction community is the place to go.</blockquote>Emphasis mine, because although Tycho doesn't mention what started him down the rabbit hole, it may have been the recent massacre by <a href="http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/08/07/this-project-was-going-to-drag-on/">George</a> <a href="http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/these_crimes_dont_happen_in_a_vacuum/">Sodini</a> a deeply misogynistic man who regularly participated in "pick-up artist" seminars before taking two guns to a gym and then opening fire, killing three women and injuring nine before using the last bullet for himself.<br /><br />Alas, a Blog has a collection of <a href="http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/08/06/mens-rights-activists-anti-feminists-and-other-misogynists-comment-on-george-sodini/">responses from "men's-rights activists, anti-feminists and other misogynists."</a> (<strong>The original post includes a trigger warning for the quotes</strong>, and they are not for the faint of heart.) And these apologies for Soldini represent an extreme of Gabe's empathy. It's part of the reason, I try to divorce considering "intent" when it comes to things like this, because a person can ascribe a good intention or a <em>seemingly</em> reasonable justification to even the most heinous acts.<br /><br />It's got me thinking about the nature of what "intention" is at all. Last year, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://adamcadre.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://adamcadre.livejournal.com/'><b>adamcadre</b></a></span> wrote about <a href="http://adamcadre.ac/calendar/12696.html">a psychological study investigating how we determine waht is intentional.</a> I wrote a comment thinking about <a href="http://adamcadre.livejournal.com/114250.html?thread=291146#t291146">how intention intersects interactive fiction</a>. In response, Adam wrote <a href="http://adamcadre.ac/temp/lion.z5">The Nemean Lion</a> (Z-machine file, requires an IF interpreter to play), and I've been thinking about the last scene in this respect.<br /><br /><hr width="50%"><br />Meanwhile, there's also conflict in the world of logic-puzzles, where puzzle plagiarism has reared its ugly head, with Conceptis Puzzles, purveyor of soulless, computer-generated, mass-produced logic puzzles, appropriated the concept and presentation of <a href="http://www.strimko.com/">Strimko</a> for their "new" feature <a href="http://www.conceptispuzzles.com/index.aspx?uri=info/news/315">Chain Sudoku</a>. <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://motris.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://motris.livejournal.com/'><b>motris</b></a></span> and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://onigame.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://onigame.livejournal.com/'><b>onigame</b></a></span> (constructors of the eagerly anticipated and soon-to-be-released <cite>Mutant Sudoku</cite>, a book of hand-crafted, soulful logic puzzles) have <a href="http://motris.livejournal.com/77618.html">weighed</a> <a href="http://onigame.livejournal.com/">in</a>.<br /><br />Yes, even Sudokuland is full of the fail. I'm going to bed.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=tablesaw&ditemid=416441" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments