I am a part of that power that eternally wills good and eternally works evil.
Barney - AMA
Posts
Total:
64
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@Barney
Well, I am younger than Trump, but only by a few months.
Very good responses so far.
- How old were you when you enlisted? Deployed to Iraq? How many tours?
- Why did you enlist? Do you regret it? Do you regret leaving?
- What was the sexual assault incident in the military? Male on male? Commanding officer? In what context?
- Now and with the benefit of hindsight, what are your thoughts on American military activities in Iraq?
- Preferred side arm (for actual use, not just based on looks)? (I would go for a P226, just based on functionality).
- Do you read fiction? If so, what? Have you read the Dune series? If so, what did you think about it?
Unrelatedly, had two events in my life not occurred, enlisting right after high school was my plan. After I got my SAT scores, a USMC recruiter hounded me to enlist. He made a compelling pitch. At that point in my life, I was pretty sure career military was something I could be very happy doing. I am old enough now that most of my friends who enlisted at or around the time I graduated from high school have since done their time, some of them multiple tours and then left for civilian life. Some have been able to handle it better than others.
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@Barney
Hey Barn, do you believe, that, we humans exist as part of ;
1?} the one verse { Universe } of occupied space --even if so called many-worlds--- i.e. a finite set of occupied space events, when considering a finite time frame, say, within 60 seconds, ergo, an integral a finite, wholistic unit, of pushes, pulls, orbits, toques, inside-outs and etc type set of limitations, or
2?} an infinite set of occupied space events, that, being infinite would mean that, there is no whole-listic integrity, within a finite period of time ---again, say 60 seconds---.
..." 3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness "....
This not to say, there are not indiviual quanta, but rather, that, they all { finite set } are entangled in one way or combinations of each other --ex gravity, charge, dark energy etc---- as unitary set.
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@coal
Various Military (response to #33):
- How old were you when you enlisted? Deployed to Iraq? How many tours?
I was 20 (turned 21 in basic).
Technically only one deployment, but it was a case of punishing my unit for doing a good job. We were supposed to be there only 3 months on a high intensity deployment, and that kept getting extended because we were too valuable. With increasing burnout, our casualties sky rocketed, and then the Troop Surge happened so we had to stay even longer.
- Why did you enlist? Do you regret it? Do you regret leaving?
In college, there was a lot of anti-war stuff from my teachers, including an American death toll on one of the classroom doors. So signing up as a medic to do something to stem that, matched my proactive ethical stance. That said, there's never just one reason why someone enlists. Life was at a low point for a number of reasons. So really, a great SJW reason to enlist, and the lack of reasons to not.
I don't regret it, as much as I wish I had done many parts of it differently (for starters, the air force apparently treats their people like human beings).
I miss my actual job in it, but actually getting to do anything related to my job was a rarity in the 82nd. Given that I got in a lot of trouble for declining the "lawful order" of planting dirty needles in a public park right by a playground, I was done with the military anyways.
- What was the sexual assault incident in the military? Male on male? Commanding officer? In what context?
Male on male. There was a fellow soldier who started obsessing with me, and treated my refusal to watch gay porn with him as some kind of challenge. I can't remember all of the escalation, but it reached a peak one night in Iraq when he tried to force himself on me while I was asleep in my cot. Suffice to say, I woke up swinging my fists. For this, he received no punishment.
After deployment when he was about to be promoted, he literally grabbed my ass in formation in front of everyone, at which I rejected him yet again. So he swore in front of everyone that he was going to use his new rank to get revenge for that. This being the 82nd airborne, there was not even a delay on his promotion.
That got a little heavy. I'll reply to the rest later.
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@Barney
Given that I got in a lot of trouble for declining the "lawful order" of planting dirty needles in a public park right by a playground, I was done with the military anyways.
Can you explain what this was about?
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@Swagnarok
Lawful Orders (response to #36):
Given that I got in a lot of trouble for declining the "lawful order" of planting dirty needles in a public park right by a playground, I was done with the military anyways.Can you explain what this was about?
To this day it still makes no sense to me. I can guess at this or that, but I think it boils down to how some people get their kicks.
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@Barney
Technically only one deployment, but it was a case of punishing my unit for doing a good job. We were supposed to be there only 3 months on a high intensity deployment, and that kept getting extended because we were too valuable. With increasing burnout, our casualties sky rocketed, and then the Troop Surge happened so we had to stay even longer.
If I recall correctly, that would have been around 2008-2009. I don't envy that situation. I also didn't realize you and I are about the same age.
With increasing burnout, our casualties sky rocketed, and then the Troop Surge happened so we had to stay even longer.
Years later, I wound up teaching an ex-Army guy who did a couple of tours in Afghanistan while he got his bachelor's degree on the GI Bill. He shared similar experiences. The multiple tours, often back to back, was reckless and irresponsible. It's not like those risks were unknown. They were widely known, and yet proceeded anyway.
Now it seems like there's the opposite problem, along with a general deterioration of military competencies and leadership.
Male on male. There was a fellow soldier who started obsessing with me, and treated my refusal to watch gay porn with him as some kind of challenge. I can't remember all of the escalation, but it reached a peak one night in Iraq when he tried to force himself on me while I was asleep in my cot. Suffice to say, I woke up swinging my fists. For this, he received no punishment.
Reminds me of experiences I had in athletics when I was in high school. Sometimes it's hard to tell the line between "boys will be boys" type egregiousness or the beginnings of something worse.
Do you know what ever became of of him? Is he now a high ranking officer? Seems like today's military would be ok with that.
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@Barney
Eh, am not an experienced member of society to ask any deep questions, so I am gonna ask, what kind of food(or styles of food) do you enjoy the most?
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@coal
Various Military (response to #38):
Technically only one deployment, but it was a case of punishing my unit for doing a good job. We were supposed to be there only 3 months on a high intensity deployment, and that kept getting extended because we were too valuable. With increasing burnout, our casualties sky rocketed, and then the Troop Surge happened so we had to stay even longer.If I recall correctly, that would have been around 2008-2009. I don't envy that situation. I also didn't realize you and I are about the same age.
Correct. I was in Iraq 2006-2008, and left the army in 2009. I'm in my late thirties.
With increasing burnout, our casualties sky rocketed, and then the Troop Surge happened so we had to stay even longer.Years later, I wound up teaching an ex-Army guy who did a couple of tours in Afghanistan while he got his bachelor's degree on the GI Bill. He shared similar experiences. The multiple tours, often back to back, was reckless and irresponsible. It's not like those risks were unknown. They were widely known, and yet proceeded anyway.Now it seems like there's the opposite problem, along with a general deterioration of military competencies and leadership.
I don't know much about the current state of our military, but I imagine the systemic problems have continued to ruin it.
Speaking of "It's not like those risks were unknown. They were widely known, and yet proceeded anyway."
This hits even before deployments. Such as the 82nd Airborne Division's physical fitness program, which designed in direct violation of army regulations to injure soldiers and thus harm their physical fitness. The irony of that is not lost on me.
Male on male. There was a fellow soldier who started obsessing with me, and treated my refusal to watch gay porn with him as some kind of challenge. I can't remember all of the escalation, but it reached a peak one night in Iraq when he tried to force himself on me while I was asleep in my cot. Suffice to say, I woke up swinging my fists. For this, he received no punishment.Reminds me of experiences I had in athletics when I was in high school. Sometimes it's hard to tell the line between "boys will be boys" type egregiousness or the beginnings of something worse.Do you know what ever became of of him? Is he now a high ranking officer? Seems like today's military would be ok with that.
I don't know what became of him. I will say he exemplifies two core problems of how organizations get diseased:
- When people like that get rank, they'll use it to unfairly promote others of their ilk (and of course help their buddies avoid punishment). This becomes a self-reinforcing cycle, which makes it harder for good candidates to get to the top, and undermines any efforts at improvement they might try to implement in the rare cases where they make it.
- It's gone too far, so we can't investigate now, because all the earlier misdeeds we allowed would come to light... This type of thing, is part of why the army claims LaVena Johnson shot herself in the head, then poured acid on herself to destroy the evidence, and left bloody footprints leading away (true story).
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@Intelligence_06
Food (response to #39):
what kind of food(or styles of food) do you enjoy the most?
My favorite food is Pesto Pizza.
A close second had been lasagna, but I no longer eat that after some heartbreak.
My favorite dessert is tiramisu, as much as I haven't had it for a couple years. I will say that I make it better than any restaurant I've tried.
Related to food, I should hit a loss of 20 pounds this week on my current diet.
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@coal
Various Military (2nd response to #33):
- Now and with the benefit of hindsight, what are your thoughts on American military activities in Iraq?
Our involvement is too inconsistent, and is has made more enemies than friends over there.
Further, we were lied to about why the war was necessary. Granted, Saddam had weapons in excess of various treaties; but clearly nothing to the scale that our president implied.
Further, we were lied to about why the war was necessary. Granted, Saddam had weapons in excess of various treaties; but clearly nothing to the scale that our president implied.
I think we should instead use much of the military budget to directly better our country, before trying to selectively fix the rest of the world.
- Preferred side arm (for actual use, not just based on looks)? (I would go for a P226, just based on functionality).
I sadly was not allowed to carry one. I had to use an M4, which is not garbage, but is very much suboptimal. For main weapons, I'm a fan of the FN Scar.
Speaking of pistols, I'm no expert. I do suggest revolvers as the standard for non-military use (reliable even if you don't practice and maintain it). That said, the P226 does look like an impressive weapon (I'd rather bring it into battle than the M4).
- Do you read fiction? If so, what? Have you read the Dune series? If so, what did you think about it?
I do read a lot of fiction.
I only recently got through the first Dune book, and am undecided if I'll continue into the others.
The villain was such a lazy generic design, which did not age well. Good villains need motives, and certainly shouldn't be ordering their best subordinates to kill each other at a whim.
Otherwise I enjoyed the book, particularly the take on seeing the future and the goals the main character set with it.
FYI, the first wave of the new Discworld recordings came out today. I already endorsed Small Gods, but Andy Serkis makes it an 11.
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@Barney
Why were you not allowed to carry a handgun? That's bizarre.
I've never fired an FN Scar, but they look neat in video games.
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@Barney
> When people like that get rank, they'll use it to unfairly promote others of their ilk (and of course help their buddies avoid punishment).
I agree. Hope that isn't pervasive as I think it is in the military, but I've been hearing very bad things for a long time now. The same thing is true of companies, law firms and other public organizations. There is no surer way to kill an organization.
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@Barney
Barney, do you believe our occupied space { fields, quanta etc } Universe extends infinitely spatially, or,
that, our occupied space Universe, is of finite volume of space? To be clear, I know you dont know, as no one does. just looking what your gut-mind instincts tell you at this moment, full well knowing that yesterday and tommorrow your belief may flip and flop { oscillate }.
Finite ex O similar or expressed as ( ) or as /\ or as [ ] etc type informal symbolic expressions of a finite spatial limit
..macro and micro...
Infinite ex ∞ ......................................................................................∞ where oo is the looping symbol for no finite spatial limit
..macro and micro....
The last mod-type person doing a AMA thread, never answered my query posed to them.
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@ebuc
Sorry for the late reply...
Hey Barn, do you believe, that, we humans exist as part of ;1?} the one verse { Universe } of occupied space --even if so called many-worlds--- i.e. a finite set of occupied space events, when considering a finite time frame, say, within 60 seconds, ergo, an integral a finite, wholistic unit, of pushes, pulls, orbits, toques, inside-outs and etc type set of limitations, or2?} an infinite set of occupied space events, that, being infinite would mean that, there is no whole-listic integrity, within a finite period of time ---again, say 60 seconds---...." 3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness "....This not to say, there are not indiviual quanta, but rather, that, they all { finite set } are entangled in one way or combinations of each other --ex gravity, charge, dark energy etc---- as unitary set.
I would have say choice 1. There are a finite set of events, even if said number is incalculable from the inside, making it appear like choice 2.
As an example: Designing a character in any video game, adding one more fixed cosmetic item raised the exponent coefficient to the available number of appearance combinations by 1 (I may be misusing these terms; it's been a little while since I reviewed this theorem); if it can be moved around on the avatar, then 1 for each potential location. This results in trillions of potential appearances a player may choose from; and yet, the designers can fairly easily calculate it. Further, while the player has selected a certain shade of flamingo pink eyeshadow, this doesn't affect anything within the game that a display outside the game contains a value to represent that (and if multiplayer, the colors will be simplified on everyone else's display; meaning it might only be a few hundred thousand potential appearances anyone else will see).
...
Barney, do you believe our occupied space { fields, quanta etc } Universe extends infinitely spatially, or,that, our occupied space Universe, is of finite volume of space? To be clear, I know you dont know, as no one does. just looking what your gut-mind instincts tell you at this moment, full well knowing that yesterday and tommorrow your belief may flip and flop { oscillate }.Finite ex O similar or expressed as ( ) or as /\ or as [ ] etc type informal symbolic expressions of a finite spatial limit..macro and micro...
I believe it is limitless, even while the amount of space that the universe will ever expand to occupy will reach some limit prior to the heat death of the universe.
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@Barney
Until this thread and certain other aspects of what you do here, you could have had the excuse you usually go by; IRL too busy and the stress isn't worth it.
Drop the facade and give the real truth, why did you back out of arena 1v1 debating for so long until that one with Novice?
You are skilled as fuck and know it. You have the activity level that could lead to at least semi-regular debating.
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@RationalMadman
Debating Retirement (response to #47):
As with most decisions anyone makes, there are usually many contributing factors...
Time and stress are the core reasons which come to mind. I was working ~60 hour weeks for quite awhile, in a very stressful environment. I do have more time on my hands right now, as I am between jobs.
And debating while enjoyable to me, is also stressful for a host of reasons. I do put way too much time even into near truisms, and re-read my own work after posting it looking for typos (not that I can do anything once they're posted). And yes, adding to the stress is the worry that I'll be defeated due to low voter turnout (back on DDO, due to vote bombers, I was never comfortable until I had a lead greater than 7 points). Granted, I consider myself to have lost a debate when BladeofTruth voted against me (sure, I can say I was technically correct, but the thrust of my arguments offered inferior logic). Also early on here, there were debates I accepted fully expecting to lose (but still opted to make my opponents fight for their victories).
One of my weaknesses is that I am susceptible to being baited. Pie's ravings and then him proving he's not just a forum troll by agreeing to debate one of his three core complaints, of course set me in the mood for a formal debate. Novice had repeatedly insulted me, and refused to quantify his complaints, and then dared me at the right time (and yes, I put way way way more time into that one than planned).
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@Barney
I think I can relate to your approach. Not to debating actually but let's say real-life something like cooking a tough meal when I'm just so fucking tired, taking out the trash on a day I feel really sad or lazy etc.
I think, forgive me if I'm wrong, that your baseline situation is that debating itself doesn't fill you with joy, it's just a task that you do and that when you are less happy and more on edge, you experience increased anguish during it.
If debating really is a chore for you, why are you on the website? You barely even engage in forum debating, clearly you lack the passion for debating that should almost be a prerequisite for signing up here.
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@Barney
I would have say choice 1. There are a finite set of events, even if said number is incalculable from the inside, making it appear like choice 2.
Regarding finite occupied space Universe. Correct answer.
I believe it is limitless, even while the amount of space that the universe will ever expand to occupy will reach some limit prior to the heat death of the universe.
Regarding truly non-occupied space that embraces finite occupied space Universe. Again , correct answer.
Barney, thank you for taking the time to answer to best of you abilities.
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@RationalMadman
Why Stay? (response to #49):
I hope that the joy outweighs the stress, even while it's not pure joy all the time.
One part of it that while arguably not true debating (it's me, I argue that), challenging the spread of disinformation from Nazi Apologists and their ilk has many delightful moments.
When someone tries to say Hitler wasn't racist because he didn't do anything wrong (actual debate), it's quite fun to take apart (even if easy), and leaves us with the comedy gold of "Mr. Hitler" as if the literal Adolf Hitler was a Mr. Rogers type figure.
...
A related matter is moderation. I stepped down from being the lead moderator, due to that being almost purely a chore. The welfare of the community via banning the flood of spambots as they sign up is worth it to me, I still tackle that, but trying to evaluate every forum post that gets reported etc. was joyless.
Aside from those spambots, I help a bit, but mostly things which require deeper analysis and such are outside my scope. I still check in on reports for things which need fast action, or obviously merit no action (so as to thin the problem, to decrease burnout in others).
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@Barney
How do you think a fly lands on the ceiling?
A last sec twist or a loop
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@Deb-8-a-bull
Flies:
Not sure. I would hazard a guess that they use different methods, and fail a lot. Further, with the countless species in question, even if any one of them routinely used a single method, it would be hard to generalize that across all flies.
That send, I'm no fly expert.
Did you travel a lot in your earlier years? If so, what were your most favorite vacation spots?
14 days later
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@MarkWebberFan
Travel:
Sorry for the delay, the notification got buried and lost.
I've traveled a moderate amount (at least driven through most states, and been to a few other countries), but I expect to be traveling more in the years to come now that I can afford it.
14 days later
You once bitched on Facebook about a coworker doing something the hard way. He explained that's how he was taught and you mocked him on the internet for it.
Why do you think it's appropriate to advise a new coworker to be insubordinate to his boss by doing things the way you would prefer? Even if those ways are better, why would you expect him to put his job at risk for your or even his own immediate benefit?
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@PREZ-HILTON
Facebook:
My Facebook indeed contains a single thread with limited audience for me to vent (or bitch if you prefer) about the misdeeds of a past co-worker.
There is nothing within it which I did not raise to HR. The company (which shall remain nameless) considers almost all if it (plus a lot of far worse things which did not fit the comedy theme) completely acceptable.
First example from that thread:
Luddite at my work freaked out, because after she had opened a spreadsheet file I generated, she noticed that there were hyphens in the file name...Apparently those hyphens made the file absolutely impossible for Excel to open...Said file was indeed open in Excel...When confronted with the evidence that the file was already open in Excel, she raised her voice and proclaimed that she learned it from someone else, so therefore it's a FACT that the file cannot be opened!
As for the direct questions
Why do you think it's appropriate to advise a new coworker to be insubordinate to his boss by doing things the way you would prefer?
This is directly asking about using Ctrl+F instead of printing lengthy spreadsheets to go over it by hand... This was one issue which the parent corporation sided with me on. I got the company best practices upgraded to my standard.
Even if those ways are better, why would you expect him to put his job at risk for your or even his own immediate benefit?
I get no direct benefit from someone else not having to work through every weekend. Further, even if the company wanted to fire people for being too good at their job, they were way too short staffed to ever let anyone go.
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@Barney
This is directly asking about using Ctrl+F instead of printing lengthy spreadsheets to go over it by hand... This was one issue which the parent corporation sided with me on. I got the company best practices upgraded to my standard.
What if her boss legit told her to do it the stupid way instead of using control F though?
Personally I think even if it is perceived as malicious compliance, you should never really deviate from the boss's plan
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@PREZ-HILTON
What if her boss legit told her to do it the stupid way instead of using control F though?
Sure, if the real boss gave me the direct order to waste a ton of time and intentionally create errors in the data... I would do it. This being me, I'd probably automate the error creation and track them, but I would follow the technical order (this being an order which is not going to directly harm anyone).
Similarly, when I was doing a warehouse job, I corrected a problem of >30% of inventory locations being filled with dark inventory (non-inventoried goods). When I was ordered to just throw them out instead of adding them back into the computer inventory record, I followed said order.
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@Barney
I had a boss tell me to commit insurance fraud after a hurricane hit. The only time i dont follow orders is when I am the one giving them