Metahood

[C-Mag]

I think Fife was meaning to obliquely ask, "What measurable qualifications make you a meta?"

Start with a Renaissance Myn then add salt.

What Notorious Evil people might you consider Meta's? Ted Bundy, Charles Mansion, Karl Marx?

[Martin Hash]

How many merit badges does it take to be an Eagle Scout? Or is that even the right metric?

Box checkers gonna check dem boxes.

My kids were both Eagle Scouts, and their cousin. How about you?

Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts generally suck in the woods. FACT

R U an Eagle Scout? Do you know my sons & nephew, or any of the Eagles in my troop? Have you hiked the Inca Trail? Sawtooth Mountains? Na Pali Coast? Driven in the "Gambler 500" race? Did you go to West Point or the Air Force Academy? Boy Scouts teaches independence & self-sufficiency. Unless your track record in adventure & exploration is anything like the kids I know, it would be disingenuous to talk.

[Martin Hash]

I think Fife was meaning to obliquely ask, "What measurable qualifications make you a meta?"

Start with a Renaissance Myn then add salt.

What Notorious Evil people might you consider Meta's? Ted Bundy, Charles Mansion, Karl Marx?

Didn't you see Vladimir Putin on my list?

[SuburbanFarmer]

Of course you do, that's why you wrote that.

p.s. I'm just amazed how much this concept gets people's hackles up? No, really, I find it fascinating. I don't know if this crowd is better or worse than out in The Wild but I'll bet you guys are a breeze compared to the envy & resentment of Gen-Pop.

Perhaps it's not envy and resentment, but a general disdain for those demanding acknowledgement.

Degrees are not the measure of success. They're a measure of the money spent on universities.

Dude, I'm looking for Metas, and those are the signs I'm using, right or wrong. Just mentioning them triggers some deep-seated psychological insecurity in you, and others, says a lot.

p.s. I learned that lesson here. Better here than in Gen-Pop. Take that as a kudo.

Use whatever signs you want, homie. But you're not looking for simple degree statistics, are you? You're looking for validation and recognition. It's looking an awful lot like I've touched a nerve, not the other way round.

If you want to quantify what makes a person influential, famous, or remembered, then degrees are the worst possible measuring stick. Just my opinion, I guess. Not because I have a deep insecurity about my own degree count, I can assure you.

[Martin Hash]

You just keep talking? This is a humor thread: I took a bunch of stuff from some internal discussion threads, coalesced it together into a "Martin's Minutes" for general consumption, threatening to no one, but you just can't let it go. Dude, show some self-awareness.

[SuburbanFarmer]

[Montegriffo]

Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts generally suck in the woods. FACT

Need better vetting of your scoutmasters then...

[Martin Hash]

Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts generally suck in the woods. FACT

Need better vetting of your scoutmasters then...

Our scoutmaster was awesome. Still see him today, 20 years later.

[C-Mag]

My kids were both Eagle Scouts, and their cousin. How about you?

Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts generally suck in the woods. FACT

R U an Eagle Scout? Do you know my sons & nephew, or any of the Eagles in my troop? Have you hiked the Inca Trail? Sawtooth Mountains? Na Pali Coast? Driven in the "Gambler 500" race? Did you go to West Point or the Air Force Academy? Boy Scouts teaches independence & self-sufficiency. Unless your track record in adventure & exploration is anything like the kids I know, it would be disingenuous to talk.

It's not an insult Dr Hash. It's just the facts. Boy Scout and Eagle Scout programs are valuable, great programs, I'm really glad we have them. That being said, they are primarily designed and carried out for Suburban Youth to get out in the woods and learn some skills. OUTSTANDING GOALS. But the image of the Eagle Scout doesn't fit reality in the woods.

You being an academic, resumes matter. You've listed a lot of great stuff and challenged my resume as a woodsman so here's a little of it. I grew up in the Rocky Mountain west, hunting, hiking, fishing, trapping, camping. I made all my teenage spending money on pelts, trapping beaver, mink, muskrat, weasels and coyotes. I hiked through the rockies, packed horses in, set camps from single man to dozen man camps. I've stalked, ambushed, and hunted Deer, Elk, Moose, Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Bear, Mountain Lions, Lynx, Bobcats, Wolves and Pine Martins. I've trapped, fished, netted, used set lines, snares, hounds and live traps. And most of that I did many times before I was 20.

I logged, worked as a Sawyer, Hooker and Skidder operator. I learned to rebuild saws, axes and chainsaws. Live for months in the woods with a trip to town 2-3 times a month for groceries. I built and cleared roads, bridges, lookouts and trails in Rocky Mountains, California and the Great Lakes region. I've lived for 4 months in a tent in the Beduoin Desert, spent weeks in the Jungles of Panama, the Highlands of Guatemala, the Mosquito Coast of Honduras working with natives and learning their skills and primitive survival techniques. I've been trained and used emergency first aid in wilderness areas. I've been through the US Air Force SERE school, Survival Evade Resistence Escape. I established a Regimental Winter Survival Training School.

That's some of my outdoor skill resume, what you won't find in my resume that are mandatory for Eagle Scouts are a badge for Global Citizenship with stints with the European Union or world court, Nor did I get etiquette and manners training, or the blessings of speaking to a counselor.

The problem with Scouts is, their reputation is far greater than their experiences in the woods. It's a very valuable program, but camping, hiking and cycling enough to get a badge doesn't make you very skilled in the woods.

[C-Mag]

Start with a Renaissance Myn then add salt.

What Notorious Evil people might you consider Meta's? Ted Bundy, Charles Mansion, Karl Marx?

Didn't you see Vladimir Putin on my list?

Putin doesn't have a body count like the ones I listed does he? That's where I was going................. Something I learned from Carlin