It's been a couple years since I did one of these, and with the uncertain future of the site there is unlikely to be another from me... Might as well do one last one for old times sake.
So, ask me anything!
My previous ones may be found at:
Barney - Final AMA?
Posts
Total:
47
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@Barney
First, what does AMA stand for?
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@Sidewalker
Ask Me Anything
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@Barney
Hi Barney,
1} do have a leaning more or less toward the concept of belief of whether occupied space Universe is infinite { volume size et } or finite?
2} do have leaning more or less twoard the concept or belief of whether our occupied space Universe is eternally existent in various phases. Ex expanding contracting, all EMRadiation then all quark soup then all plasma etc type of feasible existence?
2} do have leaning more or less twoard the concept or belief of whether our occupied space Universe is eternally existent in various phases. Ex expanding contracting, all EMRadiation then all quark soup then all plasma etc type of feasible existence?
3} what trait of humanity gives you the most hope that, the end date for humanity is not going to occur within 100 years?
4} what trait humanity gives you the least hope that, the end date for is coming sooner rather than later in the future?
5} end date for DArt?
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@Barney
What are some songs you like the most?
What is your most memorable experience as a moderator?
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@Barney
I’ve been off for a while, what’s uncertain about the site?
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@ebuc
1} do have a leaning more or less toward the concept of belief of whether occupied space Universe is infinite { volume size et } or finite?
Finite, even while it might as well be infinite.
2} do have leaning more or less twoard the concept or belief of whether our occupied space Universe is eternally existent in various phases. Ex expanding contracting, all EMRadiation then all quark soup then all plasma etc type of feasible existence?
I did not understand all of that, but we can measure the Doppler Effect to determine both that it is expanding, as well as the age. Granted, we can do thought experiments that things might be different elsewhere in the universe, but until we can test it, we are forced to assume the same laws of physics and such.
3} what trait of humanity gives you the most hope that, the end date for humanity is not going to occur within 100 years?
Weirdly, our overall incompetence. Have you watched The Brink? Brilliant Jack Black show about the start of WWIII, and when Pakistan tries to nuke Israel, their facilities are so bad the missile bay doors don't open. While that was fiction, it spoke quite well of trends.
4} what trait humanity gives you the least hope that, the end date for is coming sooner rather than later in the future?
Our gullibility. Did you know that because John McCain wouldn't brown tongue a draft dodger, he was a war criminal who tortured and burned to death hundreds of our soldiers, and took out an aircraft carrier?! The same people who believe that load of rotten orange, loved McCain as little as a year prior, and would have seen right through those lies had they come from a source on the other side...
So yes, we're so damned gullible, we'll be talked into anything by snake oil salesmen.
5} end date for DArt?
I don't know, but after the outage we suffered a couple months ago I do not trust the longevity. It feels like a reprieve, rather than a new life. So, I'm going to operate under the assumption that the domain won't be renewed again and will expire in July 2025. If it keeps going past that, I'll still be around to help as needed.
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@thett3
I’ve been off for a while, what’s uncertain about the site?
Michael, the owner, has withdrawn from the hobby of this site, and in July there was an issue where the domain briefly expired.
If the site gets a new owner, it could continue for a long time. If not, sooner or later it will go away.
What's the best thing you've ever done?
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@Barney
The Brink? Brilliant Jack Black show about the start of WWIII,
Thank Your Barney for your resplies. Interesting, and I certainly want to find this movie. Not ever heard of it and hope it is free on Freevee or other. Thanks Again!
I dont have any extra money. What would it cost to buy Dart?
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@Barney
How do you balance your liberal ideology and your religious beliefs?
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@Best.Korea
What are some songs you like the most?
I listen to a decent number of musicals, including TV musical episodes. Beyond that, I average two concerts per month, so my taste is pretty wide.
For individual songs, Higher by Michael Bublé; Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me by U2; Hurt by Nine Inch Nails.
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@ILikePie5
What is your most memorable experience as a moderator?
Sadly, the repeated problem of having to tell people that I do not pre-approve every post on the site. Not just the general trend of this type of thing, but precisely that thing!
There are some good times with it. Like someone in the mod chat used to put quotes from site drama onto South Park characters (it was only funny because of how well it fit each time).
I'll also say that being a moderator helped me to mature a ton. I was happy to engage in flame wars, not even realizing that even if I was in the right, I was being stupid for being in a flame war with some stranger online... I have not lost my sense of humor or anything, but I am more conservative in the application of it.
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@Barney
And there is the spam. I just reported one.
Spam
..ebuc...
It's man against'Spam',
in virtual land,
we stand,
on freedomsfrontlines,
guarding our portals,
from capitalismssublime,
network of tentacles,
probing for a hit,
thensucking us in,
cloning our identity,
incorporating agreat hive,
incorporating a greater borg,
even while wesleep,
the spam does not rest,
it eats away as a rot on the brain.
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@Barney
and with the uncertain future of the site...
Did I miss something?
Everyone should probably copy some top debates from top debaters, because if this site goes down, you are not going to have access to them anymore. Some debates on this site are too good to be lost forever.
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@badger
What's the best thing you've ever done?
In short:
Saved some lives while I was a medic.
At length:
That takes a little explaining... My mind works differently than other peoples, which lead to things like teaching myself literacy...
When I enlisted as a medic, the training standards that were they way they were because they were always that way... As you can guess, I did not care for the appeal to tradition, and as I learned I designed a significantly better training standard and outargued the instructors even as they smoked me. Since they were not brain dead, my standard was taught to every class thereafter.
Oh, and I tricked a ton of villagers into learning how to clean their drinking water, and I think I convinced them to teach others. Dysentery in one of the top killers of children internationally.
Sadly, I lack access to the datasets needed to quantify how many lives were saved by those efforts.
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@Barney
What's the closest you have been to near death?
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@ebuc
I dont have any extra money. What would it cost to buy Dart?
I don't know. It's a cash drain rather than an asset, so Michael would probably divest for very little if not outright for free; the main thing would just be paying for hosting, domain services, and putting the time in to code and recode it (which most people would be lost at).
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@Owen_T
How do you balance your liberal ideology and your religious beliefs?
Religion comes and goes for me, but when I am at my peak levels of being religious I am still just as progressive.
I don't view there as being a conflict. God doesn't hate women, even while some early members of the church did... Nor does God hate children, unlike forced birthers... The important thing is God, not any douchebag who claims to be representing God.
(some days you can plug in the FSM for God; even on this I don't understand why people force a conflict)
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@Barney
Saved some lives while I was a medic.
About as good an answer as you're gonna get. Well done mate.
Ok worst thing you've ever done?
Ok worst thing you've ever done?
Tricked how btw?
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@Best.Korea
Everyone should probably copy some top debates from top debaters, because if this site goes down, you are not going to have access to them anymore. Some debates on this site are too good to be lost forever.
Wholly agreed. A good place for backups is: https://web.archive.org/save
Additionally, please post any exceptional ones to: https://www.debateart.com/forum/topics/4688-best-debates-by-subject
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@Greyparrot
What's the closest you have been to near death?
I've been through a few things that I'm told should have killed me...
The closest I felt to death was when I was in the hospital for a possible Bacterial Meningitis (turned out to just be a migraine), and they gave me a little too much morphine. Feeling my heart and everything else slowing down from it, was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. And yes, they did give me Narcan... And then more morphine.
The one time I really should have died was our final mission in Iraq. The kid I trained (we got sent some extra medics midway through deployment, and they came straight from school) ended up being where I was supposed to be on a patrol, and was taken out by an IED.
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@Barney
Ironically, I was relatively safe while in the military, only to have 2 near death experiences after: once at a plywood mill and again on a tug on the ocean at night.
I was told as an infant I was also supposed to have died from spinal meningitis, but I have no memory of it.
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@Barney
I don't know. It's a cash drain rather than an asset, so Michael would probably divest for very little if not outright for free; the main thing would just be paying for hosting, domain services, and putting the time in to code and recode it (which most people would be lost at).
Thanks Barney for reply. No money for hosting and no coding skills here, however, I did find movie The Brink, just not free.
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@badger
Tricked how btw?
They didn't like being talked down to, obviously us soldiers were healthy due to miracle American medicine (you cannot convince them we do not have a "cold pill" which lets us operate with all that equipment in the heat), not simply drinking lots of clean water. So I gave the children in that village a tiny subcutaneous injection of saline solution (which I was later told off by a doctor for, because what if they were allergic... Seriously), and told them that the medicine would only work if they followed my instructions on how to clean their drinking water.
Ok worst thing you've ever done?
Every criminal story I've got, had altruistic motives, so really aren't bad...
There's plenty of regrets.
- When I was 18 and escaped, I left my cats behind. As punishment for me for not returning, they were denied basic medicine. I was later informed one of them died from a flea infestation (and yes, they had plenty of flea medicine available; they just weren't given any). I don't know for sure about the other, hopefully just old age.
- Basically everything until I was 18.
- My past treatment of women. I suffered imposter syndrome for a long time, so sabotaged any potential good relationship.
And a bunch of others, but those are the ones which come to mind.
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@ebuc
It seems to be available on AppleTV: https://tv.apple.com/ca/show/the-brink/umc.cmc.49wg7dvftzd9n12r07sliev9q
They have a confusing setup, so I can't be positive.