y-c-o-m-b

For the last decade, I've requested my pharmacies to not give me any drugs manufactured in India if possible. I've had issues with many of those brands, Aurobindo being the very first one that gave me problems; which I ended up reporting to the FDA and they got in trouble for quality issues shortly after (I doubt it was from my lone report, but I wonder if that helped).

The problem now is almost every generic drug is made in India and I'm having a near impossible time avoiding them. As you can see, they are no longer being properly investigated. What's worse is the pharmacies are also contributing to the problem by not cycling out their stock of older medication. This was evident when I reported one of pharmacies for medication that basically disintegrated into my hands. After they were contacted by state inspectors (I got a follow-up email saying as much), the pills were of noticeably higher quality even though it was the same manufacturer.

I honestly suspect a good majority of Americans are using prescription drugs that are either somewhat ineffective or come with side effects that otherwise wouldn't be there with proper inspection. One common thing you'll read online is that "all generic drugs should have the same quality and active ingredient", but clearly that is not accurate when factories are either failing inspection or no longer being inspected at all despite numerous previous failings.

You can't get approved for surgery without PT in many cases anyway, so by default, most people will have to undergo PT regardless. In a lot of cases, you still can't get surgery; insurance will request pain management via injections and stuff before approving surgery. In my case, I had to go through 6 weeks of PT, then insurance asked me to do another 6 weeks after the first 6 failed to produce benefits. PT accelerated my decline because they didn't understand the mechanics in my case, so it's not always beneficial either. Also some of those conservative treatments (injections) are still being denied by insurance. My dad recently went to get another series of injections and was denied because they didn't think it would be medically beneficial despite the fact that he improved significantly from the first set and it lasted over 6 months.

> If you've ever known someone dealing with chronic pain, it can easily make you decide that you're better off dead than continuing to live

I'll confirm it for you right now. For me it's not just the back, it's areas along the entire spine. I've had spinal cord compression on my thoracic spine since late 2017 and nobody will touch it. My lumbar spine has many herniations and "schmorl's nodes" (where it's chipping away at the actual vertebrae) in addition to clamping my nerve roots shut. I had emergency surgery in my neck in early 2018. Prior to the thoracic spine injury, I was in the best shape of my life; very muscular and healthy with a 6-pack like you see in Luigi's pictures.

It's been an absolute miserable experience for the last 8 years. Being gaslighted by doctors before and after my surgery didn't help. Insurance tried to deny my emergency surgery at first despite the fact I lost all sensation from the neck down almost overnight. When you're dealing with trauma and the system works against you, very dark thoughts start to form. I'm not going to say I condone what Luigi did, but if you think people go through these events and don't think those thoughts on many occasions, you're so very wrong. There's a HUGE range of emotions that comes with it all. Suicide was definitely one of them for a long time as well. I have a wife and kids though and do not wish to burden them further by adding to the list of problems. They're the only things that's kept me going strong this whole time.

This and the fact that the initial WHO research team was closely regulated in their activities by the Chinese government, with the WHO later being denied access to data and further analysis. China has delayed and denied independent analysis. They burned trust when it was most important to the investigation. They are not to be trusted.

I don't know what the chances of a catastrophic viral outbreak being located next to a BSL-4 lab is, but it must be absolutely astronomical considering China has only 2 such labs in a country that spans 3.6 million square miles.

EDIT: Correction, looks like there's 4 (now?) BSL-4 facilities: https://www.globalbiolabs.org/map

My point still stands

I've been in tech for almost 20 years now. I've worked in all sorts of industries, small companies, start-ups, big companies, you name it and I've been there. I'm currently in FAANG. I've been tech lead, in management, and even offered c-level positions in the past. There has not been a single time in my entire career where such a thing was even remotely true. Having been the interviewer before on many occasions, if I heard a candidate speak this way, I would absolutely not hire them regardless of how well they performed otherwise. This reeks of "I can't work well with others, so it's my way or the highway". It's very toxic and I question if you're trolling at this point.

> One reason I left Facebook early on was that I didn’t like getting tagged in photos the next morning after everyone would get home from parties. Too bad for me, as long as you have a friend who don’t value your privacy, there is nothing you can do about it.

I hated this too, but there was an option to disable it. I know because I used it for that very reason. I don't know if they removed it; I left Facebook probably around a decade ago and it was there when I left.

Dang has already addressed this:

> It's common, if not inevitable, for people who feel strongly about $topic to conclude that the system (or the community, or the mods, etc.) are biased against their side (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). One is far more likely to notice whatever data points that one dislikes because they go against one's view and overweight those relative to others (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). This is probably the single most reliable phenomenon on this site. Keep in mind that the people with the opposite view to yours are just as convinced that there's bias, but they're sure that it's against their side and in favor of yours.

As an "outside observer" to the insanity in this thread, I think your post and others like it only solidify Dang's point on this. In your eyes there will never be an opposing viewpoint to yours that you don't consider "anti-Israel". It'll always seem as such to you regardless of any rational explanation.

Edit: this also goes for the poster that is indiscriminately going around throwing "zionist" labels against anyone that opposes their views. Which once again, solidifies Dang's point. Both you and they will always proclaim "bias!"

I have yet to see a convincing motivation for doing something like that. There's more money to be made in denying climate change it seems, so what's the driving factor then?

Amazon had their fair share of livestream failures and for notably less viewers. I don't think they deserve a spot on that list. I briefly worked in streaming media for sports and while it's not a novel problem, there are so many moving parts and points of failure that it can easily all go badly.

> Other changes include scaling back its air shuttle service between California and other Western states

Makes sense...

> as well as raising the eligibility requirement for its employee sabbatical program from four to seven years.

Ah, there it is. Classic Intel; run into problems so we'll double-down on our already toxic work environment and obliterating morale.

That alone should demonstrate how they have no real strategy for getting out of this mess. They're grasping at anything to keep those shares afloat.

We are getting somewhat closer with "Right-to-try" laws: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-try_law

Jake Seliger (RIP) wrote about his frustrations with it also:

https://jakeseliger.com/2023/07/22/i-am-dying-of-squamous-ce...

https://jakeseliger.com/2023/08/02/if-youre-involved-in-drug...

> In addition to changes in preferences, some recipients describe new aversions after receiving a donor heart. For example, a 5-year-old boy received the heart of a 3-year-old boy but was not informed about his donor’s age or cause of death. Despite this lack of information, he provided a vivid description of his donor after the surgery: “He’s just a little kid. He’s a little brother like about half my age. He got hurt bad when he fell down. He likes Power Rangers a lot I think, just like I used to. I don’t like them anymore though” (p. 70, [8]). Subsequently it was reported that his donor had died after falling from an apartment window while trying to reach a Power Ranger toy that had fallen onto the window ledge. After receiving his new heart, the recipient refused to touch or play with Power Rangers

This is the most fascinating thing I've read in a long time. Thanks for the link

Things that most people care about:

- Will I still have a job in 6 months? If I lose my job, can I get by?

- Can I continue to afford groceries, rent, utilities at the current pace of inflation?

- If I have a major health problem, will I be ok?

During an election, you can either harness the fear voters have around these issues and turn them into hateful energy against the other side (Trump tactic) or you can calm people's nerves by acknowledging the problems and providing a path to deal with them (Obama tactic). Obama was able to confidently appeal to voters on these issues and he brought them to the fore-front throughout his campaign. Obama was charismatic as well, so when he talked about these issues, you got the sense that he could competently provide that protection. He was reassuring.

I voted for Kamala, but I didn't want to. She possessed none of those positive qualities. She didn't instill confidence. Her voice and demeanor made her sound annoyed. Her fake smile made me cringe. I wanted an authentic candidate that could make me feel safe. She was not it.

Lastly, those primary issues were shrouded by gender politics. I would like transgender people to feel safe and have access to resources they need. I would like women to have access to abortion when it's necessary. These are not things to run a campaign off of though. EVERYONE feels the pain of a bad economy; that should've been the primary focus all along and we needed a STRONG candidate to really drive a strategy for addressing it. I just don't think Kamala was able to make any headway in that respect and I think that's why she ultimately lost.

Donald Trump had 74 million votes in 2020. As of right now, he's nearly at 72 million. To me that says he hasn't necessarily gained new followers. That's a good sign. It seems the Dems have lost millions however. That's a very bad sign. It's pretty clear then that Kamala did not represent what voters really cared about during this election cycle.

On a somewhat related note: has anyone here tried the bio-hacking "nano silver flouride" with good results? https://fourthievesvinegar.org/tooth-seal/

I found this from another HN post a while back, but I've been too scared to try it

I've been using TVs as my monitor for probably 10 years now. I've been on my current Vizio 50" 4k TV since before covid. I think I bought it for $280? I do everything from programming, watching or up-scaling videos, and playing FPS games on it. My only issue has been vsync related tearing in certain games like God of War for PC even though I have vysnc settings on, but other than that, no problems. I do well in fast-paced Fortnite games, so latency hasn't been an issue either. I'm near-sighted and hate wearing glasses, so having the larger fonts has been a blessing also.

I'm in Oregon - in the Portland metro area - and a cardiologist appointment for me was about 3 months, neurologist about 4 months, and sleep lab 3 months. My PCP is usually a 1-3 weeks wait, but sometimes I get lucky and he's available in like 2 days.

I've wondered about the networked vehicle communication for a while. It doesn't even need to be FSD. I might be slightly wrong on this, but I would guess most cars going back at least a decade can have their software/firmware modified to do this if the manufacturers so choose. I imagine it would improve the reliability and reaction-times of FSD considerably.

> it makes the most random lane changing decisions and changes it’s mind in the middle of that maneuver.

This happened to me during my first month of trialing FSD last year and was a big contributing factor for me not subscribing. I did NOT appreciate the mess the vehicle made in this type of situation. If I saw another driver doing the same, I'd seriously question if they were intoxicated.

Yuck. They carry raccoon roundworm aka baylisascaris procyonis. Read the bio-terrorism notes here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baylisascaris_procyonis#Bioter...

> this parasite's eggs are easy to acquire, able to live for years, extremely resistant to many disinfectants, and cause serious infections in humans with poor treatment options

We have about 4-5 raccoons that visit my yard once a week or so (more in the summer). They like to defecate at the base of our trees. I usually boil a large pot of water and pour it over the poops to kill off any of the parasite eggs.

"Helpful" is relative. I had to get off of Adderall due to bad side effects like hair loss on my scalp/body, and increase in prostate/urinary infections (turns out stimulants have a link to this - Vyvanse also caused the same side effects for me, it's how we found out).

Wow, now that's an interesting one! You described the feeling perfectly though, it's exactly like that. I wonder what would happen if you took an SSRI...

If you're not responding well to SSRI/SNRI drugs, you could give bupropion (Welbutrin) a try. Just ask for a small dose at first. You may even be able to take them together with Pristiq. It's worth a discussion with your care provider.

> I learned later that Cymbalta had a black box warning for suicidal ideation

Most of the drugs that alter neurotransmitters (ADHD and depression meds, some seizure meds) will have a warning for suicidal ideation that may occur at some point of the treatment (usually early on). It's a balancing act between the treatment and the "illness" and has to be taken with caution.

Almost every doctor or psychiatrist I've seen or my family members have seen usually start off too strong and in many cases will advise cutting cold turkey. I always ignore it and taper on slowly over for about a month and if I need to get off the meds, I taper off slowly over 1-2 months. I was on Zoloft for 10 years and I was able to successfully got off the drug with minimal side effects that way. Although there was definitely a short period of brain zaps near the end, it wasn't as bad as the usual kind I'd get if I forgot to take the meds for a couple of days.

EDIT: If you use the taper off method, make sure to understand the half-life/how long it stays in your system.

> it seems to be that #2 is the worst option.

I completely agree. I'd rather have manual wipers than automatic ones that perform poorly. It's a major safety issue here in the PacNW where the volume and intensity of precipitation varies greatly.

Sorry, I must be missing something, what's the problem here? I don't see OP citing ChatGPT, just that they were explaining their own belief system to GPT-4 and it responded by "simplifying" OP's beliefs into "orchestrated objective reduction". This is exactly the type of usage I would expect from an LLM; OP didn't use it to inform their decision, but to further examine the belief from another perspective or broaden their questioning around it.

FSD?! They can't even fix the damn windshield wipers!

The car ahead of me decides to clean their windshield and 3 droplets get on my windshield? Tesla: WIPER LUDICROUS SPEED ENGAGED!

I just drove next to a semi and got blasted with a tsunami of water in a rain-storm? Tesla: ...

I only support this if the minor is determined to have obtained the weapon from a parent that was negligent in preventing access to that weapon. E.g. when a parent fails to lock the weapons in a safe or purchases weapons for the child. I do not support this in instances where the minor unknowingly gets access to weapons behind the parent's back (illegally through telegram for example or through their friends).

As someone with a troubled teen and a witness to numerous other parents dealing with troubled teens, it's virtually impossible to prevent them from doing whatever they want these days unless you literally lock them up 24/7. Even then they will weaponize reporting you to CPS with lies about abuse. Many of these kids are growing up in perfectly decent homes and taught well by their parents, but they get influenced by their peers to cause trouble.

There is no shortage of "yes men" overachievers in FAANG that are fully capable of replacing another person. I have at least one on my team. They will happily take on multiple projects, more responsibility, and work over-time without fuss. Even then, it doesn't really matter much as Amazon and others are also banking heavily on generative AI to replace workers (no matter how unachievable this is currently). Andy Jassy will continue to make many millions of dollars regardless of what he does here. It's not going to matter to him if he loses a hundred top notch engineers because the products have already been built and they can always pull a Twitter and just keep things afloat as-is with plenty of people willing to come into the office 5 days a week. They simply don't give a shit.

In 2013, Marissa Mayer banned remote work at Yahoo and this cascaded to other big tech companies (like Intel, where I was at the time). RTO is not new unfortunately, it's been going on for decades.

Unemployment rate doesn't give you the full story. It's always been a suspect metric in my opinion, kind of like how people use Kelly Blue Book values for cars. It's not a good reflection of the real world complexities. I'm not unemployed, but I'm also stuck in my current position because of the 100 applications I may have applied for, I get a response from 1 and I may not even make it to the interview phase. Pre-2020 that would've been 1 in 10 applications. Unemployment rate doesn't capture that. It doesn't capture stress levels due to lack of mobility between employers, nor people that have given up, nor part time workers, etc