Hacker News Reader

kindatrueon U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

For the future, you may want to cite this link: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/thirty-two...

It's not about Jeffrey Epstein, but 32 interesting deaths in US prisons. The one about guards burning a man to death with hot water was... unique.

kindatrueon U.S. field hospitals stand down, most without treating any Covid-19 patients

Just wait until you look at defense department contractor rates.

kindatrueon U.S. field hospitals stand down, most without treating any Covid-19 patients

Something the article doesn't do a great job of covering is how overall emergency medical incidents went way down more than expected - which is what some of these field hospitals (and the Navy ships) were for.

The head of a local hospital network has tweeted wondering where all the heart attack and stroke patients went - both in my lightly impacted region and in disaster NYC. Did the rate go down? Or did people just die at home afraid to go to the hospital?

In SF in normal times, over 50% of trauma cases are from car accidents. My completely unscientific theory is that commuting/traffic is way more stressful and physically taxing than people think.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/half-of-injuries-treated-at-...

kindatrueon The average consumer loses over $150 a year renting a router from their ISP

That's one of the downsides of having a fiber connection, like AT&T - they don't allow 3rd party ones.

kindatrueon CDC: Possible ‘community spread’ coronavirus case in Bay Area

Amazon fulfillment centers prove otherwise

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/amazon-workers-pee-bottle/

kindatrueon Sarah Connor, in hiding before the war

Most in America were eliminated after the 9/11 attacks.

The idea was to reduce the number of hiding/storing places for bombs and weapons.

kindatrueon Away’s former CEO is returning as its co-chief

Thank you for this. I was just about to recommend A Small Orange to a friend out of years of habit... but now I'll rethink this.

kindatrueon Is It Time for the US to Drag Jobs Out of Silicon Valley and into the Heartland?

Some long time Silicon Valley residents would be thrilled with this - like the Cupertino planning commissioner who opposes building more housing for Apple employees because those engineers will turn high schoolers into prostitutes.

https://twitter.com/HousingValley/status/1154781703262498816

You can't make this stuff up.

kindatrueon What Did the U.S. Get for $2T in Afghanistan?

Because Intuit wouldn't make money if that happened.

https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

https://priceonomics.com/the-stanford-professor-who-fought-t... (and lost)

kindatrueon Apocalyptic Claims About Climate Change Are Wrong

>We'll just leave our grandkids a super-shitty world.

But just think of GDP as people continually try to patch the super-shitty world!

kindatrueon Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

I'm not sure about Alaska, but if you look at voter turn out demographics in California - it's very skewed by senior citizens.

Who, unsurprisingly, aren't that excited about education or higher taxes.

kindatrueon Cars took over because the legal system helped squeezed out alternatives

There was an article a while back (I can't find) where a US police department joked about the same to save the city money.

There was an article a while back (I can't find) where San Francisco's transit agency (SFMTA) joked about the same to save the city money.

It probably makes sense... a fatality pay out is $2M (using FAA standards). Long term medical care in the US? Easily over that...

kindatrueon An entrepreneur wants to track the residents of a high-crime American community

If you live in the US, I'd suggest you join your local NextDoor.com - especially a suburban one.

You'll quickly learn that people would vote for a totalitarian authoritarian fascist state with constant surveillance and instant death penalties if it meant eliminating the risk of their Amazon package being stolen from their porch, or their car being broken into.

kindatrueon The Pentagon is battling the clock to fix serious, unreported F-35 problems

Local long time residents would set themselves on fire before allowing that to happen. Some residents still championing for a return of the orchards.

kindatrueon As ER Wait Times Grow, More Patients Leave Against Medical Advice

>You have to pay for ambulances?

Not everywhere in America / California. Sometimes it's city by city, city versus county. It's actually quite complicated.

When they do charge, they charge a drop rate, then per mile - much like a taxi. They also try to get the semi-conscious patient on the gurney to sign a whole bunch of forms about liability and payment.

kindatrueon Cancer Complications: Confusing Bills, Maddening Errors And Endless Phone Calls

Interesting trivia - health insurers kind of don't care about these big bills, despite what most people think: https://www.propublica.org/article/why-your-health-insurer-d...

kindatrueon San Francisco has more drug addicts than students enrolled in public high school

>Nearly 900,000 people live here, making it the second densest city in the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...

Uh... it depends on where you draw the line for city.

It could be anywhere between 1 through 21

kindatrueon The Painful Price of Becoming Jackie Chan

I liked Rush Hour, but according to IMDB he's been quoted as saying those are some of his least favorite movies.

kindatrueon Inventory of Homes for Sale Is Rising in Silicon Valley and San Francisco

If you ever want to understand why parts of Silicon Valley has a 16:1 new jobs:new homes ratio, check out this twitter: https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/999364778907914245

The NIMBYism is insane. You have people who own $2M houses ($1.9M of which is capital gains) complaining about gentrification and ruined neighborhood character.

kindatrueon China now the most prolific contributor to physical sciences, engineering, math

>if the U.S. wants to remain "the best"<

If.

The U.S. is fast becoming a retiree/senior citizen voting nation. Their top priority (understandably) is cutting taxes/costs to maximize their (poorly planned) retirements.

Being the best no long matters like it did when the boomers were young.

https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/926282252392083457

kindatrueon Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack

Well, SF does have 70-80 smash and grabs (car windows broken) per day so...

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

There's also people who severely disconnected from reality because they're homeowners/retired.

Like this former Mayor of a Silicon Valley city who opposes building housing because it will never drop prices down to the rent he used to pay... in 1978.

https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/998998249833984000

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

This bumper sticker summarizes SF's character that must be preserved at all costs: https://twitter.com/pt/status/964520632502202368

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

Voters (property owners and landlords) would instantly pressure the city to ban it for being blight.

The resistance to adding more housing is amazingly strong. Can't stop the gravy train!

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

>Who is making money off this scheme?

The outside of SF, the Bay Area is composed of two groups of people: -People who rent -People who vote in every election/attend city council meetings at 7pm/attend city planning meetings at noon on week days

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

"Mahattanization" is used as 4 letter word in local city council meetings and letters to the editor.

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

>Wasn't a BART extension proposed and vetoed by NIMBYs?

It was the 1960's... so I'd probably say "vetoed by Racists"

Despite California's stereotyped liberal/progressive values, the 1960's also saw Prop 14 "allow property owners and landlords to turn away colored people" winning 65% support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_14_(196...

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

It's really hard for people who move to California and don't hang out with retirees (aka voters) to understand/appreciate this mindset. But it's so prevalent.

Classic example: https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/927583483186225152

kindatrueon San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

It's surprising how "Owning a home is the most important investment you can make" collides with "Why isn't housing affordable?"

Here's what parents are telling their kids: https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/999364778907914245