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tkdguy

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16 hours ago, archer said:

 

I've regretted not trying to get on with the CIA after graduating college. They let the campus know they were interested in our graduates but didn't bother sending a recruiter to campus. To interview, you had to scrape up the money yourself for the trip to Virginia.

 

Might I ask what made you lose interest?

 

Frankly, I applied to them out of something approaching desperation.  As I was finishing grad school in 1986, two things happened in a couple of months that made employment prospects for new astronomy PhDs look grim: the passage of the Gramm-Rudman Act (the first of the horizontal federal funding cuts, and because it was the first no one knew what it would do to various postdoc programs, etc.) and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which clearly was going to set things back a while.  When NOAO scrapped its postdoc program that year I figured the jig was up, so I started looking outside science.  I blundered across a poster saying the CIA would be interviewing the following week, and my thought pattern was, "What do astronomers do?  We deduce unobvious things from remote sensing data.  I think I can make a case that that's a relevant skillset for the CIA."  Had the interview on campus, got flown to Virginia for the 2nd interview.  At every step I told them I really preferred to stay in science if I could, but that seemed unlikely in the moment and I really couldn't afford to wait around for employment.

 

I did get a job offer in science, a postdoc funded through a source that hadn't been cut, and I took it.  (What got me that job is an amusing little story unto itself.)  The CIA called me not quite two weeks later and made me the offer pending security clearance (which was not going to be a problem), and I told them I got the science job and I had to withdraw my interest in the agency.  It was a near thing; I don't know what I would have done had the offers come in the other order.

 

FWIW, the job would have been a desk job in Virginia trying to figure out what other countries' satellites were doing and capable of doing.  Not a bad job, all things considered, though in the interview there at CIA HQ it shook me that the stereotype of intelligence types as being humorless drones seemed to be true, and I'm not at all sure I would have lasted long in an environment like that.

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1 hour ago, Cancer said:

 

FWIW, the job would have been a desk job in Virginia trying to figure out what other countries' satellites were doing and capable of doing.  Not a bad job, all things considered, though in the interview there at CIA HQ it shook me that the stereotype of intelligence types as being humorless drones seemed to be true, and I'm not at all sure I would have lasted long in an environment like that.

 

From my experience working in government contracting, the stereotype is true.  Though I believe it has to do with the environment of stifling bureaucracy-for-its-own-sake, which forces workers to conform and weeds out anyone who can't.

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1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Not really a political story, so I thought it would fit better here; but I for one never recognized this issue before, yet the global implications are massive.

 

Russian war worsens fertilizer crunch, risking food supplies

 

The global implications of that war are far reaching and devastating.  It will cause worldwide food and oil shortages, inflation, and debt defaults.  Which is why I don't understand the hesitancy on the part of some Western powers for stronger action.  Fights like this need to be ended.  Violently.  With overwhelming force.  Half-sanctions and man-portable weapons are not going to cut it.

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Some people need to be caged for their own good...

 

Clippers at T'wolves, in the Twin Cities.  Close, aggressive, somewhat choppy first half.  The Clippers are about to shoot some free throws when the game's stopped;  there's some disruption going on at the other end of the court.

 

Turns out...some woman is gluing her wrist to the floor.

 

Yeah, everyone's having that reaction.

 

Security has to forcibly remove her.  No word on why;  even *if* they find out before the game's over, this is one of those incidents best blown off by TV, which the sideline reporter suggested.  The game wasn't delayed for a particularly long period, at least.

 

Well, OK, caging might be a bit much.  Leash, tho.  And whatever a good psych eval might suggest.

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24 minutes ago, Cancer said:

Better gluing than nailing, I suppose.  Still ... :nonp:

 

Getting a hammer and nails through the entrance might be a bit more difficult than some glue...

 

BIZARRE day around the play-in games.  The other incident wasn't funny in the slightest...the subway station shooting in Brooklyn was only a couple blocks away from where the Nets were practicing.  They could hear the responders' sirens.  29 hurt but THANKFULLY!!!!! no life-threatening injuries, according to CNN.  They have someone they're calling a "person of interest" who has some strong connections to the incident.  Security at the Nets game was enhanced...at the game and in the area.

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2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Some people need to be caged for their own good...

 

Clippers at T'wolves, in the Twin Cities.  Close, aggressive, somewhat choppy first half.  The Clippers are about to shoot some free throws when the game's stopped;  there's some disruption going on at the other end of the court.

 

Turns out...some woman is gluing her wrist to the floor.

 

Yeah, everyone's having that reaction.

 

Security has to forcibly remove her.  No word on why;  even *if* they find out before the game's over, this is one of those incidents best blown off by TV, which the sideline reporter suggested.  The game wasn't delayed for a particularly long period, at least.

 

Well, OK, caging might be a bit much.  Leash, tho.  And whatever a good psych eval might suggest.

I was asked a Quora question on what it would mean if some random person ran onto the court in the decisive moments of a playoff game. I wasn't the only one that was asked. I am not deeply knowledgeable about arena security, but in the NBA this is surely the security department's worst nightmare scenario. A situation like the one postulated threatens everyone in the arena. As for the woman gluing her wrist to the floor, that can only make sense in a psychiatric context. 

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The suspect in the Brooklyn subway station attack has been captured, and charged with (among other things) committing a terrorist attack on a mass transit system.  He used smoke grenades first, THEN started shooting.  My understanding is there were only about 10 people hit by the bullets...but 20 total injuries.  People quite understandably freaked out.  So...yeah, that's a terrorist act pretty much by definition.  

 

From the sound of it, the legal case is rather solid.  The charges will be...extensive, to say the least.  Toss in a terrorism charge, and, well, he might get a first crack at parole somewhere around 2100.  Apparently he's also got an extensive history of violent, hateful polemics on antisocial media;  that can't be brought up during trial, I don't think, but it can be brought up at the sentencing hearing.

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On 4/12/2022 at 3:37 PM, Old Man said:

 

The global implications of that war are far reaching and devastating.  It will cause worldwide food and oil shortages, inflation, and debt defaults.  Which is why I don't understand the hesitancy on the part of some Western powers for stronger action.  Fights like this need to be ended.  Violently.  With overwhelming force.  Half-sanctions and man-portable weapons are not going to cut it.

 

One word: nukes.

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3 hours ago, unclevlad said:

The suspect in the Brooklyn subway station attack has been captured, and charged with (among other things) committing a terrorist attack on a mass transit system.  He used smoke grenades first, THEN started shooting.  My understanding is there were only about 10 people hit by the bullets...but 20 total injuries.  People quite understandably freaked out.  So...yeah, that's a terrorist act pretty much by definition.  

 

From the sound of it, the legal case is rather solid.  The charges will be...extensive, to say the least.  Toss in a terrorism charge, and, well, he might get a first crack at parole somewhere around 2100.  Apparently he's also got an extensive history of violent, hateful polemics on antisocial media;  that can't be brought up during trial, I don't think, but it can be brought up at the sentencing hearing.

https://www.cracked.com/article_33450_new-york-citizens-like-zack-did-what-the-nypd-couldnt.html

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People will usually support installing cameras to help secure public places like that.

 

The problem arises when it comes time to pay for maintenance.

 

The radio problem doesn't surprise me.  The Army actually found similar kinds of issues;  the tech may be fine, but the human element is frequently an issue.  Sometimes it's simply remembering to make a shift in frequency, as was mentioned;  information overload can be another, or simply being on the wrong channel, and adding to the confusion rather than reducing it.  

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