Answering my own question: a female blogger on the mailing list started it by bringing up rape statistics to back up the argument that scantily clad and/or sexualized women or images of women shouldn't be shown at the conferences. Ted sort of went off the deep end on the stats angle, like finding out what the actual statistics are or should be was _all_ that was worth talking about. Totally derailing, asshat behavior AFAIK.