Fallout, Facebook, and the Evils of Social Media

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Rocktoy, Sep 6, 2011.

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  1. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Administrative note: I don't mind if you guys call each other names (as long as it's within the context of furthering the discussion), but I'd rather you didn't state opinions on the nature of any member's posting conduct. Trolling and any other unsavory behavior is a matter for the staff to deal with, not the membership. If you genuinely feel that someone is trolling, you should notify the staff (via the 'report this post' function), and we'll make a determination.
     
  2. emo_ome

    emo_ome Butcher Of Hommlet

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    Hmm, excuse me guys. But what is a troll? Can someone enlighten me.
     
  3. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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  4. emo_ome

    emo_ome Butcher Of Hommlet

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    I get it now... in the wiki, I saw that there are lot of ways to mistook someone else as a troll.
     
  5. kio11

    kio11 Established Member

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  6. Hugh Manetee

    Hugh Manetee Established Member

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    Yep feel the love guys
     
  7. Rocktoy

    Rocktoy Established Member

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    True. In this I must recognize my mistake. Major Thorne chose his path and we who follow must respect his choice. Even as it pains me to say so. Nevertheless his also our hero, he earned his stripes in our military and also in the SS. I only truly realized this after hearing the Swedish band Sabaton playing their song "Soldier of three armies" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLK1YM3OKYM . The bloody Swedes sing of this? The nation whose military flag is a white cross on a white background? Great maker. Yet it is so. They made also a great song about Simo Häyhä, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1fZHoHkoRo the greatest sniper ever, there may have been better shots since but then again, Häyhä never used a scope, only iron sights.
    Why do I return to this old thread, well becaused I wanted to correct my earlier mistake as an act of corporal, as I no longer stand as a grunt, great maker only knows why.
     
  8. Rocktoy

    Rocktoy Established Member

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    Btw. What is a "distinguished flying cross"? The other medals I do recognize.
     
  9. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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  10. Rocktoy

    Rocktoy Established Member

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    Thank you.

    That article was very interesting and the most professional/academic reference I have seen on this forum. I thought that I would never ever have to read such an academic research paper again since my university days are done. :)

    Nevertheless the article is about WW2 but Major Thorne was granted
    his medal in the Vietnam era. Are the qualification for the medal not changed since? Yet, the thing that bothers me most is that if I understood it correctly, this is a medal of the air force? Aren´t the green berets part of the infantry? Or are they considered to be a part of the air force since they are airborne? In Finnish force the airborne wear crimson berets and are considered as infantry thus also awarded as such. Or did I misunderstood the article entirely and the " Distinguished Flying Cross" can be granted to anyone on active duty regardless of branch of service? :confused:

    Btw. I am slightly disappointed that you ignored my recent promotion. It was my first and most likely the last.
     
  11. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    The Special Forces are more known for the green beret they wear, but the unit is actually called Special Forces.
    The Special Forces is a unit in the Army, they are not considered infantry, they are actually considered a special force for dealing with special situations and have access to a great deal of technology and equipment.
    At one time in the past an elite soldier was the only soldier to wear a beret, red, black or green and it was an easy way to distinguish an elite from a regular in garrison. Now the DoD has decided that all infantry will wear a black beret and some of us, (myself included) find this to be a slap in the face because we had to persevere through quite a great deal of arduous training to earn our berets.

    Oh, and the flying cross, (both versions) has not changed since WWII.
     
  12. Rocktoy

    Rocktoy Established Member

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    That clarifies it. Yet again something lost in translation. Back here infantry = army = anything that does not serve on board on something. All the jääkäri (panzerjäger, guardsjäger etc.) are infantry/army as are the artillery, paratroopers and even the engineers. Only the flyboys, flight control and the tech support are airforce and same goes with the navy boys. Actually only operative troops that are not "on board" something and are not of the army are the navy divers (seals?)

    The "special forces" concept also confuses me, what makes them special? We all have some special training on some branch (mine was urban warfare, light machinegun PKM/KVKK, and recently guerilla, civilian authority support during crisis and antipersonnel mines/traps) and we have access to the special equipment required to the branch and we have also the basic training to use the most common equipment of other branches.

    At one time Finnish elite soldiers here were identified by that they were wearing German helmets, first imperial later wehrmachtian (http://www.wiking.fi/fin/kuvasivut/asepuvutjapaahineet/m40kypara.htm.) Lesser troops wore the suikka (http://www.dragoonmilitaria.com/viewphoto.php?shoph=51278&phqu=5) or the cap (http://www.dragoonmilitaria.com/viewphoto.php?shoph=51382&phqu=5). I do not know when or why they introduced the berets but those are part of the uniform nowadays, at least to those who are worthy. I do not know what kind of ordeals you had to face in order to earn you right to wear a beret but similar tradition is still in use in Finland. Conscripts must pass rigorous tests within the first eight weeks (the boot camp) of their training in order to earn the right to wear a beret, otherwise they have to stick with a cap. Paratroopers get their crimson, panzerjäger their black with the insignia of a knights helmet, guardsjäger (like I) their green with the lion insignia, marines green with the eagle and so on. Shame if the US. decides to flatten the one thing that let the troops to identify themselves with earned pride. Me no comprendo.
     
  13. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    When an American soldier earns the Special Forces insignia and is assigned to an SF Group, he has proven himself to be far superior to other elite troops in physical fitness, intelligence and bravery. He also must prove his ability to go beyond his own limits, (you actually drown and are brought back) to overcome the fear of death.

    100 candidates go to "Soft T" and usually 5 or 6 actually make it. I will say the majority of the "candidates " come from Ranger Battalians.
     
  14. Scryler

    Scryler Night's Wordsmith

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    Pardon me, I'm late on this discussion and am too tired and blurry eyed to read it all, so no doubt someone has already stated what I'm going to say.

    I was reading an article by a reporter who attempted to become truly anonymous with a false ID, proxy server, an email program that no longer exists that touted privacy and it was incredibly hard. Everything is cross referenced ad infinitum. They know what you will like and even tailor the news articles you receive based on your compiled profile. That include your financial state, class, race, gender etc etc. They also tailor ads and even worse can easily manipulate you by controlling what you see on the net. If you are politically right wing, well you're gonna see more right wing stuff and so forth and so on. I've been wondering why people are so polarized on issues. Now I know why.

    It's scary. Manipulate and move. Divide and conquer.
     
  15. tomthefighter

    tomthefighter Errr......

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    Using Firefox with the "NoScript" and "Ghostry" plugins will help cut back on this somewhat.

    I believe Opera can also use Ghostery.

    Make sure your browser deletes all of its temp files and cookies when its closed.

    Don't surf the Internet / read e-mail while logged in with a user account that has admin rights.

    Use a dedicated PC for any on-line banking ( Keep it updated & don't use it for anything else ).

    Google has gotten more "sales" oriented in their search results over the last couple of years ( getting harder to use it as a technical resource ) etc. And I agree with you in that I'm seeing more and more of this "Targeted" advertisement garbage. Sometimes I get a laugh out of it and other times its just plain irritating.

    Knowing that its happening is the first step in avoiding the manipulation ( at least I can honestly say the only thing I'm planning to divide and conquer is the ham I smoked a couple days ago :)
     
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