This is disturbing

Kathy Sierra, who is one of the authors of the Head First series has canceled her speaking engagements and withdrawn from blogging because of death and sexual abuse threats being posted to her blog and other blogs. Many of us have experienced that online discussions get out of hand and thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard would be put more diplomatically — or go unmentioned — face to face. In psychology this is known as the “online disinhibition effect,” which describes the many ways people behave with less restraint in cyberspace.
What has happened to Kathy is different from flaming where the writer often regrets his or her comments after they have been posted. The people threatening Kathy have been many, and they've used a network of blogs to make their threats.
I hope the community will offer their support for Kathy. Through her well-written books, Kathy has introduced many developers to good design practices. We need people like Kathy to become better developers. Therefore I encourage you to visit her blog at http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/as_i_type_this_.html and express you support and dissociate yourself for unacceptable threats towards your fellow IT-professionals.