Hacker News: massivecali

New comment by massivecali in "A Common Blood Test Can Cost $11 or Almost $1k"

massivecali — Wed, 01 May 2019 05:19:22 +0000

California programs, so yes expanded Medicaid. But as the state that consumes the most in welfare, it seems highly relevant when discussing the needs of the 'poor'.

Programs: California Medi-cal (which covered all of my medications, tests, etc), Denti-cal (all dental work thats not cosmetic), my obama phone, calfresh (for ebt food) and calworks (cash monthly stipend) are the only programs I can speak to.

I'm grateful for what I had to fight to receive during a bad period of my life and hate seeing misrepresentations like this being spread without specific context.

Had I not been able to finally get working again, I would have eventually qualified for free housing, utilities and all the other benefits available from programs that are funded from various sources. I made several friends through the course of going to these offices over a long period of time who were admittedly worse off than me (mentally) but somehow knew all the inside information on how to game the system. (Ex: if you are considered impaired you can get free bus/subway/van service card, which they all knew how to easily acquire). I had to ride my bicycle or walk everywhere to get back and forth from these appointments.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-other-state-comes-close...

New comment by massivecali in "A Common Blood Test Can Cost $11 or Almost $1k"

massivecali — Wed, 01 May 2019 04:16:07 +0000

>Imagine being sick, having no insurance, maybe no job...

Sorry no.

Long term unemployed people in the US qualify for free medical care, celphones and basic dental work. The process is arduous, yes, but it is comprehensive. I had entire recurring blood panels, multiple MRIs, neurological impairment tests , every hospital visit and all of my prescriptions provided for free.

Lumping all levels of poor together is just lies that obfuscates larger issues.

New comment by massivecali in "Google Continues Slump After Ad Revenue Growth Slows"

massivecali — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 03:01:44 +0000

How is the WSJ's credibility any better than a blog? >The Wall Street Journal is the most trusted news source in the country, according to the index, with 57.7% of Americans trusting it. All polls are biased based on how you ask questions. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2018/10/03/the-wall-... I'd say little more than half the poll is about as irrelevant as a blog. Either you trust something because of confirmation bias or you don't. Disregarding blogs as somehow being less credible, holds traditional media to a higher standard which they have chosen to abandon for partisan reporting over the past 10 years. Other random sources for comparison/counterpoints: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/wall-street-journal/ https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/writing/using-sources/principl...

New comment by massivecali in "I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)"

massivecali — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 02:53:26 +0000

I had an art show once.

I walked up to a couple debating what a hand in my painting was holding.

It wasn't holding anything in my creation.

But art, like writing, is subjective.

New comment by massivecali in "WeWork Files for IPO"

massivecali — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 23:20:15 +0000

I would think hotels would be in a better position to expand their business centers and cater to this market.

New comment by massivecali in "The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009)"

massivecali — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 23:12:46 +0000

I was taking the HN preferred side of giving the poster the benefit of the best possible interpretation, which in this case means in the condition of proper pronoun usage, English defaults to male pronouns for the unknown, or sometimes an ambiguous they. I don't read names in the modern age because I have no clue what foreign names are male or female. Nor would I be so bold as to assume.

New comment by massivecali in "The Life of a Cherry Drying Pilot (2009)"

massivecali — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 13:18:33 +0000

It says nothing more than English is a male language. And ambiguous titling defaults to he (or they).

New comment by massivecali in "The bible of doing business with the city of New York"

massivecali — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 01:02:29 +0000

Why doesn't the title match the article?

New comment by massivecali in "Aerobic exercise is an effective treatment for depression"

massivecali — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 17:58:11 +0000

Severe depression leads to isolating behaviors. If you're not so depressed that you are able to leave the house and go somewhere, you're ahead of the game and excercise is just icing on the cake.

New comment by massivecali in "Unseen Clockwork Orange 'Follow-Up' by Anthony Burgess Unearthed"

massivecali — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 04:38:44 +0000

Ratings are imperfect censorship tools that evolve over time. PG-13 was created specifically for Indiana Jones Temple of Doom because there was no rating between PG and R. Content that fits in these boxes is not the same from year to year. Not just with regards to violence or language, but casual topless women that were commonplace in the 70s is no longer PG/PG-13 acceptable.

New comment by massivecali in "Navy SEALs Tried for Months to Report War Crimes and Were Told to “Let It Go”"

massivecali — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 02:37:14 +0000

My understanding is that every US military base, while not American sovereign territory, is still subject to US law. Not a lawyer, so not sure how that shakes out. I'd prefer we stop playing world police, but that is not going to happen.

Why is there no backlash from the international community at large? There are always articles about human trafficking but no UN outrage over stuff like this. Is it because it's boys and not "defenseless" girls?

New comment by massivecali in "Musk, SEC Settle Legal Fight over His Tweets About Tesla"

massivecali — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:17:39 +0000

Nobody in Hollywood is afraid of consequences for baseless accusations of anyone supporting the president as being a Nazi.

New comment by massivecali in "Ask HN: As managers, how do you make sure your distributed team is aligned?"

massivecali — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 22:42:50 +0000

Agreed. That sounds demoralizing and petty.

New comment by massivecali in "California’s high-speed rail project was ‘captured’ by costly consultants"

massivecali — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 21:39:12 +0000

Reminds me of an appropriate quote from Contact with Jodie Foster.

S.R. Hadden: "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"

New comment by massivecali in "Navy SEALs Tried for Months to Report War Crimes and Were Told to “Let It Go”"

massivecali — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 21:34:10 +0000

They were also told to ignore rampant child rape by Afghan allies. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-to...

New comment by massivecali in "A Measles Case Hits Google's Silicon Valley Headquarters"

massivecali — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 01:24:21 +0000

Sorry JIDF. Nothing you link disproves what is happening, or the source of the outbreak.

New comment by massivecali in "Japan is scrambling to reconcile systems with imperial calendar"

massivecali — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 20:06:24 +0000

>The real world is not so perfect. Perfect summation. Curious how this will also impact other consumers of Japanese data.

New comment by massivecali in "Amazon customers will be able to return purchases to any Kohl’s store in July"

massivecali — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 19:14:40 +0000

Because getting customers into a store is half the battle. The offchance they make a purchase, even that overpriced 2 dollar soda, is a win for Kohl's. It is all traffic and business they might not otherwise have.

New comment by massivecali in "Japan is scrambling to reconcile systems with imperial calendar"

massivecali — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 18:59:01 +0000

How do placeholders work in languages where you are forced to assign lengths to variables?

New comment by massivecali in "News outlet Markup ousts editor-in-chief Julia Angwin, prompting resignations"

massivecali — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 18:43:13 +0000

This seems far more honest (removing the reference to investigative journalism) than current publications who claim to be impartial publications, but clearly push blatant cause driven articles.