foxnews.com/tech/microsoft-teams-up-with-the-va-to-help-wounded-warriors
As part of a new pilot program, 22 VA facilities around the country will be receiving a gift from Microsoft: X-Box Adaptive Controllers, which are specially designed for gamers with mental or physical disabilities. "We owe so much to the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, and as a company, we are committed to supporting them," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a press statement. "Our X-Box Adaptive Controller was designed to make gaming more accessible to millions of people worldwide, and we're partnering with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to bring the device to Veterans with limited mobility."
The military hospitals will be using them to help rehabilitate wounded warriors, and X-Box chief Phil Spencer says if it's successful - the program could expand. The collaboration aims to improve rehabilitation and recreation for veterans by challenging muscle activation and hand-eye coordination, and encouraging greater participation in social and recreational activities. That will include participation in e-sports as well as traditional solo gaming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @02:19PM (16 children)
This post is even worse than aristafool's.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 06 2019, @02:27PM (12 children)
What is wrong with Ari's subs aside from the stupid editorializing he does in them?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @02:43PM
Jeeebuz - what's NOT wrong with them?
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @02:44PM (6 children)
That they are all more or less the same piece of "news" over and over and over again ... oh look "Nazis!"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday May 06 2019, @03:49PM (5 children)
Doesn't make them wrong. If 100 news articles were written saying the sky is blue on a clear day would you believe the sky was green?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by RS3 on Monday May 06 2019, @04:40PM
Wearing my rose-colored glasses, I'll believe anything. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @04:48PM
Depends on who broadcasts the news. From Trump, a single tweet is sufficient. But if CNN and WaPo says it, that's liberal bias, of course the sky is anything but blue.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday May 06 2019, @05:12PM
Probably not, but I'd definitely take a look outside just to make sure. Then decide that people are weird sometimes, and continue on.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday May 06 2019, @06:56PM (1 child)
Those 100 similar stories may not be wrong, but after a while they stop being news.
On the other hand, I'm only discussing the shortcomings of the metaphor; I'd have to go back and see the submissions in question to evaluate their quality. I'm not going to do that, though, because they sound like they are all the same, and not really news.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @08:10PM
Actually, they are all recent events, just all alt-right events, like the convictions of two Rise Above Movement members for Charlottesville, Facebook banning the alt-right a couple days ago. So one obsession, but not all the same.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday May 06 2019, @04:43PM
That's the best part. When you see that, grab some popcorn and favorite beverage.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday May 06 2019, @10:32PM (2 children)
MY problem with his subs is he's a one trick pony: does he have NOTHING else in his life?
I'd like to learn more: TEACH me SOMETHING! I know NAZIs are bad...so are drugs, m'kay? Say NAZIs are bad, but say SOMETHING ELSE AS WELL!
Tell me something I don't know: a smart guy like him should be able to do THAT.
Anyone who had to read War and Peace and NOTHING else would go CRAZY, no matter how much they liked the book.
Imagine listening to Biebers "Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby" song and NOTHING else! Feck, I'd kill myself!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @12:35AM (1 child)
"TEACH me SOMETHING! I know NAZIs are bad...so are drugs"
NAZIs dislike drugs, and drug-peddlers are mostly jews. Jews look down on anyone who is not a jew, and for them everything degenerate and perverse is fine. So does that tell you anything about NAZIs and jews?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday May 07 2019, @10:31AM
It tells me....ummmm.... you're a NAZI Jew?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @02:47PM (2 children)
Dunno 'bout that. At first glance, it seems like frivolous bullshit, unlikely to do anyone much good. But - rehabilitation? Maybe. Part of my son's rehab after being seriously burnt was just squeezing a ball. Little things mean a lot, when you're recovering from a catastrophic injury. This is a pilot program, right? If it does any good, they plan on expanding it. If it doesn't do much, or any good, they'll cancel it.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @03:34PM
> If it does any good, they plan on expanding it. If it doesn't do much, or any good, they'll cancel it.
Isn't that what Microsoft's running dog Red Hat said about systemd?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @06:34PM
Oh noes! Still more Runaway does not know!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sshelton76 on Monday May 06 2019, @03:47PM (9 children)
I have admit, this is a really good idea. As a vet myself, I've seen so many who've suffered from a whole host of mental health ailments ranging from what I call the "change", which is something that happens to prisoners, that get so used to a structured environment they can no longer survive the real world on their own, all the way to full blown psychosis and PTSD.
Anything that can be done to help even if it's just boosting morale, is a good thing.
Kudos to Microsoft for this, I guess my next console will be an XBox.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @04:05PM (7 children)
Yeah... Tell that to the Vietnam Veteran that waited 3 years for a PTSD evaluation while homeless in San Diego.
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Monday May 06 2019, @04:32PM (5 children)
Well there's the old saying that an anecdote isn't a scientific study.
I hear there's problems, the news reminds us of it everyday.
But my experience and frankly my family's experience for the past several generations has been that VA healthcare is some of the best in the world.
Again though anecdotes.
The fact we have any homeless vets is a tragedy in it's own right.
The problem here might be more related to one's "homeless" status rather than their "veteran" status.
I don't think for a second that this is the fault of the VA, at least not systemically. Sure there's people who don't give a shit in any org.
Yet most homeless vets I've interacted with would be homeless despite their service record. Mental health issues not withstanding there are serious issues of drug abuse and addiction to other things as well such as gambling and alcohol. This is mental health concern but you can't get treatment if you aren't actively engaged in seeking it.
If you're honorably discharged you qualify for so much help to transition that literally you cannot fathom it. But all the help in the world is completely useless if you aren't ready to receive it.
Are you aware that in most jurisdictions, the VA has screeners sitting right in jail to give help to the myriad of vets who leave service and have undiagnosed / misdiagnosed issues thereby committing crimes as a result?
My personal experience is that unlike private insurance, most of the people in the VA are there because they actually give a crap. YMMV.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @04:46PM
My brother worked at the VA hospital for 30 years after his Army service was finished. He goes to Kaiser for healthcare.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @05:09PM (1 child)
Yes.
Maybe.
Like every other veteran, I have thoughts on the subject. At times, my thoughts are mutually contradictory. Yeah, some of us were all screwed up before we ever signed up. Maybe that's where some of the homeless come from. Some others were just so damaged from their experiences, they just can't "make it". Others, like many prisoners, just need a regimented life style, which they lose when the get out. Then there are those with whom I identify - the adrenaline junkies. I've often thought that civilian life is just too damned tame. So, you have the cops, the firefighters, truck drivers, and the last portion of that group: those who just can't exercise the discipline to hold a job, pay the bills, do the laundry, etc ad nauseum.
The single biggest problem with the VA is, they are overwhelmed. A brother called out for help, and I took him to the VA in Wisconsin. It took hours just to be screened. That is JUST TO BE SCREENED. At that point, he was given a priority apppointment to see a doctor the following day. Both of us were far from home, neither of us prepared to camp out in a strange town, while waiting for a doctor to get around to him. Dude was disoriented, along with his physical problems - had I not been around, he could have just wandered off into homelessness, and/or eternity.
That's just an anecdote, yeah, but I've heard similar stories often enough to treat it like a data point.
IMO, VA failures are in fact congressional failures. If congress doesn't allocate the resources, the VA hospitals can't use the resources.
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Monday May 06 2019, @05:26PM
Well I agree with you on most of that. Also I wasn't considering acute mental health care in my assessment because I've never needed to avail myself of it.
The military changes you. You are not the same person coming out that you were going in. Many of us get out and our family loses the ability to relate. We see things, things we can't really talk about, things we don't really want to talk about. But if you don't want to be homeless, you need family. No one can live a life being completely alone. You lose that family connection and you end up homeless. Some turn to drugs and alcohol and that exacerbates the problem.
As for me. I've availed myself of acute care at the VA on 3 occasions at 2 different hospitals, SLC and Grand Junction of all places. The GJ hospital seems to be there more for mental health support, but I had an accident involving a finger and a saw. I was seen right away, got stitched up and I was on my way in the space of four hours. Honestly spent more time answering questions about how the saw manage to do what it did and if it was in fact a cry for help, no it wasn't, but a word of personal advice don't sneeze when running a power saw.
Personally I've had no problems with the VA. For all other care, we've used third party providers mostly because of locale. We don't live anywhere near a VA hospital and so tend to use contract facilities. Either way I've never had a problem and my family has been in the military for literally generations. Maybe we've just gotten used to it. But prior to service I had Blue Cross and Blue Shield through an employer and wouldn't go back to that level of service if they paid me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)
The VA is nice when it's nice. Not all of them are nice.
Most "homeless vets" are not vets. Veteran homelessness is a huge issue and it's real but most people who have told me they're homeless veterans are unable to answer the simplest questions about the military.
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Monday May 06 2019, @07:50PM
I've seen that too, I just didn't want to get into it because it was irrelevant to the topic of vets in the VA system.
But you do have to separate out the actual homeless vets who've drowned their brain in so much booze and so many drugs they no longer remember anything coherently from the guys just scamming on sympathy.
Additionally, there's always the homeless guy who's clearly never served but is convinced he's Eisenhower or Robert E. Lee. I met Admiral Nimitz about a year ago doing homeless outreach. He looked great for a man his age!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday May 07 2019, @12:35AM
How about hiring more veterans instead of H1-B labor?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday May 06 2019, @10:45PM
Yeah, kudos!
Look at all the lives Microsoft has ruined over the years with their monopoly and their out-sourcing...but hey. Kudos.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @04:56PM
So this is what the employees at Google were all up about! Working for the military-industrial-healthcare complex! But since they refused, Microsoft got the gig? Oh, My, God. This is not going to end well. "Blue Screen of Death" just took on a whole 'nother meaning, and not a good one!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @05:21PM (9 children)
"We owe so much to the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, and as a company, we are committed to supporting them,"
No you don't. Them veterans got hurt while aimlessly murdering millions of foreigners in foreign lands on the instructions of the khazar jewish vermin.
How many civilians and soldiers in far away lands do you make software for, to help them live their lives better, who got hurt fighting for their country?
And what about those deaths from american bombing missions around the world each day? Lots of children lost limbs, eyes, ... while playing in the field?
But veterans... veterans must get the best treatment who fought for the dangerous enemy khazar jewish vermin.
Some people never learn from history.
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Monday May 06 2019, @06:35PM (6 children)
Must resist the urge to smack the troll.
It's unfortunate you feel that way and it goes to show that you have no idea what you're talking about.
You speak of millions, but there aren't millions who were killed on either side whether combatants or innocents, the total number is still in the thousands.
Most of these people were killed by their own local warlords and not the US Military. I'm not in any way saying there weren't mistakes and that no innocent blood was shed. However I am saying that the blood shed, especially of innocents would be far, far worse without our intervention.
Imagine you are at school and you see a bully. Does the person with enough balls to step up to the bully and get him to stop, deserve what's coming if the bully fights him? The military is like this. We protect those who cannot protect themselves and we're absolutely willing to smack the bully down so hard he never gets back up again.
In the meantime these actions did damage to otherwise normal men and women. Whether you feel like they deserved it, had it coming or whatever, the fact is they were assets to our society and they were damaged. The implied social contract is that we do everything we can to help them.
After all, do you really want to deal with the consequences of highly trained ex-military personnel wandering the street with nothing to fall back on for survival other than the skills they learned while in the military?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @09:31PM (4 children)
a minimum of 1.5 million and a maximum of 3.4 million [commondreams.org]
There were no people dying in Iraq until the illegal U.S invasion. Do not misrepresent history.
The people dying in invaded countries are also assets to their society. They did not ask to be killed. American military employees get paid to kill and be killed... in order to make money for corporations and special interests... and to clear away countries in the middle east for a greater israel... and to invade Europe with migrants who were pushed out of their homes.
You are a propagandist for the U.S/israeli khazars (might be a JIDF agent) and we see you for what you are.
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @12:24AM (3 children)
Hilarious considering you posted AC. But then again, you've clearly got mental health issues so I'm not certain whether to laugh at you or with you.
Who is we in that sentence? Do you have a mouse in your pocket or does "we" actually mean that all the voices in your head concur on this point?
It seems to me that you're plagued by your own imaginary demons because quite clearly you were brought up to be a special little snowflake and yet still you have somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by failing at life.
Rather than accept your limitations and failures, owning them, learning from them, you choose to blame those around you.
I know that nothing I say here will matter to you. You've managed to construct a brutal internal narrative. A self re-enforcing imaginary playground based on your own delusions of grandeur. One where you are being watched and persecuted by the elite lest you gain too much power and threaten their power base. One that no one can dispel because you assume that anyone who has a different viewpoint must be in service to the enemy you've constructed. So you regurgitate a bunch of BS about people you've never met, to other people you've never met and sadly it looks like you genuinely believe the stories you were fed.
All of this exists for you, because you can't be honest with yourself and realize just how insignificant you really are. You fail to see that no one really cares who you are, what you think or why you think it. That must be a sad existence. But you know something? It's your existence.
Many of the people you are blaming for killing innocents were fighting on your behalf. We fought and many died with many more injured in an effort to put down forever an enemy that would kill you because you didn't worship their imaginary sky fairy or didn't worship him in the right way. A problem which continues to this very day.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/asia/isis-philippines-church-bombing.html [nytimes.com] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-blast/pakistan-market-suicide-bombing-kills-18-half-of-them-minority-hazaras-idUSKCN1RO0KA [reuters.com] but at least they aren't pulling it off on our soil https://www.foxnews.com/us/sentence-to-be-handed-down-monday-in-bizarre-chicago-car-bomb-case [foxnews.com]
Keep believing what you want to believe. But if you really believe it then stop posting as AC. Come out of the shadows and be the hero you imagine yourself to be. Lead the insurrection and be the change you want to see in the world. Of course you have no real courage, so instead you'll charge me with being a foreign agent, part of the conspiracy, whatever. A coward is a coward, you're a coward because you can't own your own opinion. So keep hiding lest the Jews or whatever find you;
I'm just sorry there are cowardly traitors such as yourself who feel that they have the moral high ground and will accept any narrative they're sold by the raging conspiracy loonies who in most cases don't even believe their own tripe, https://whyy.org/articles/fake-news-fraud-alex-jones-suffers-his-day-of-reckoning/ [whyy.org]
but are still totally willing to sell you books, tapes, videos and other propaganda as long as they continue to get money for it and they can laugh all the way to the bank at your expense. These guys make their money off the gullible, and sorry to tell you this but you were gullible enough to believe them.
In the meantime, I have brothers and sisters in arms who were damaged trying to protect you from something you choose not to understand. You seem to want to be blind and ignorant and I'm not Jesus, I can't give you sight and frankly I'm not sure I can fix your flavor of stupid. The article was about someone doing something to help those men and women that were damaged. Some small light in the world for a group of people who suffer through living nightmares. So yeah, kudos for anyone that wants to reach out and help them.
The world is far more complex and subtle than you've been lead to believe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @12:48AM (2 children)
Jew writes:
You khazar jewish agents are easy to spot. Always asking for names and phone numbers. You never stop. There is no jail for you yet but there will be.
And by the way, ISIS is israeli khazar army. And the Phillipines bombing happened just a week ago. Israeli khazars have been pushing the agenda for far longer. They made the U.S invade Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, ... They are pushing for sanctions against Iran and others.
There is a special place in hell for the khazars, but right here on Earth, we have to make it for you. You are the ones that were kicked out 109 times from lands not your own.
The world is indeed far more complex and subtle than we've been led to believe.
Jewish rat begone!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:26AM (1 child)
Found the Russian troll!
Seriously though, what does the KGB pay now days traitor?
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:36AM
Bah! Just leave it be. I stepped right in that one by assuming he was sincere in his beliefs. But now I see his reply, I realize no one could actually be that stupid. This is probably the same AC running around saying the moon landing was a hoax and the earth is flat. Yes there are people who really believe those things. There are even people who genuinely believe that everyone who disagrees with them is an an agent of whatever they feel threatened by that day.
But this moron is just getting his jollies from riling people up and I fell for it. /facepalm
Now I have mod points I could down mod it, but that seems like a waste of good mod points. Better to just not feed the trolls in the first place, lesson learned.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday May 07 2019, @10:53AM
We spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. Now if you want to fix a window someplace they say, "oh gee, where will we get the money, let’s not do it." $7 trillion, and millions of lives -- you know, because I like to count both sides. Millions of lives. I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for Victory. With a capital V!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @07:17PM (1 child)
>Some people never learn from history.
Like when russia messes with the rest of the world for the nth time and spends another next decade in a recession. Dang globalists. Dang dirty unfair international sanctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @09:35PM
Who did Russia invade from 1991 to 1998 ?
"international sanctions"
The U.S bullies nations into sanctioning the competition, and that is nothing new. But these days people are refusing to sanction more.
The United Sanctions of America is going down and the empire is taking its last breaths, so is getting desperate.
(Score: 2) by gawdonblue on Monday May 06 2019, @10:05PM (1 child)
Is that like an RSL?
While we can guess this one from context (and I'm guessing it is the USA's Veterinarians Affairs Dept), please just add a little note in future summaries to explain American-specific terms for the rest of the world. Which, for your benefit, can be defined as everyone not involved in "World Series" sporting events.
(Score: 2) by sshelton76 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @11:07AM
Conversely what is an RSL?
https://www.rsl.com/ [rsl.com]
Evidently a it's a football team.