171–180 of 306 posts
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When it comes to cars, nothing is stopping some yahoo not paying any attention from careening into you no matter how careful you are.
Of course not. The point is there are things one can actively do to decrease risk (though not eliminate it). With many types of cancer that isn't the case.
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When it comes to cars, nothing is stopping some yahoo not paying any attention from careening into you no matter how careful you are.
In many ways it's not preventing accidents that's important it's preventing people getting hurt. Being a defensive driver can drastically change your odds of being killed by some random yahoo. Further, the kind of car you drive can make a significant difference and improvements in car design are largely responsible for a huge reduction in fatalities. Remember, our dealing with V^2 and slow reaction time so a 50MPH ca…
For what it's worth, we have also drastically reduced exposure to carcinogens for most people.
This keeps me up at night. I hope the collective advancement in science makes it possible to defeat cancer some day. I believe/hope that my contribution as a insignificant CS-student helps somebody develop tools that help somebody researching etc. I am really convinced that every advancement is connected somehow and the collective improvement in efficiency and livings standards makes it possible to commit more resour…
We all die at some point. While I too abhor cancer I find hard to fear it more than any other thing that can kill me - a stroke, a car accident, etc. The universe is out to get us - we've evolved into tough bastard but we've not defeated mortality.
Well. We evolved to be a collection of cells. Before, we were unicellular organisms, fighting against other organisms for resources and ultimately, survival.
Some cells just decide to revert back to the old ways. I'd say it's a form of evolution, one that's pruned by natural selection, when the host organism dies.
This keeps me up at night. I hope the collective advancement in science makes it possible to defeat cancer some day. I believe/hope that my contribution as a insignificant CS-student helps somebody develop tools that help somebody researching etc. I am really convinced that every advancement is connected somehow and the collective improvement in efficiency and livings standards makes it possible to commit more resour…
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Do you think it meet of a Christian man to speak so at a time like this, or indeed any other? This is cruelty. We are called to kindness. Do you think it's your place to judge what God will and won't forgive? This is arrogance. We are called to humility. Would you demand that someone else continue in unbearable agony to satisfy your own personal notion of the right way to act? This is hatred. We are called to love.
> Do you think it meet of a Christian man to speak so at a time like this, or indeed any other? I do. > This is cruelty. Is it cruelty, or love? Is it kindness to say to someone, 'the world is better off without you in it'? Is it kindness to help someone destroy himself, and with himself every second he could have had? > Do you think it's your place to judge what God will and won't forgive? This is arrogance. We are…
But joy and wonder are not the only things our world has to offer. Misery and terror live here, too, and they have the power to turn that gift of life into a curse, and to make the occasion of waking in the morning cause not for joy, but for sorrow, because a new day brings nothing but suffering without hope of remission.
If there is one true thing our faith tells us, it is that we are more than our flesh, that there are other lives than these, and that the sorrow of death is but temporary - that death is not the end, and we will be together again, if we wish to be, in the world that is to come. This is the sine qua non of our faith. If you don't believe that, then there's no point in us even trying to have this conversation. And if you imagine yourself to be Christian and you do not believe that, then I pity you.
In light of that truth, what sense does it make to counsel that we cling to flesh when to do so brings only agony, not only to ourselves, but to those who, because they love us, cannot bear to see us suffer? Why not shrug off the burden that only weighs us down, and discover what comes next? Were death only an ending, I could only agree with you that to do so is terrible. But death comes to us all; the rest is merely timing. And if death is only an ending, then why do you bother with faith? Why should any of us ever bother with anything save nihilism, except to say: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Third parties: Please don't downvote or flag the parent comment out of existence. I understand the urge, but it merits a considered response, and I would greatly appreciate your forbearing to deny me the opportunity to replace this placeholder comment with one.
I downvoted, and flagged, the post because it's a fucking horrible thing to say in this thread about an individual person's choice to die. Feel free to have a discussion about the rights and wrongs of euthanasia in some other thread. Here people are remembering someone they know. They either know him AFK, or from his work. This thread about that man is totally the wrong place for self-righteous cunts to wang on about…
Pieter: I don't know if you are reading Hacker News at this point or not. Most likely not. I respect your rights and understand the challenge you are faced with. We don't know each other but your work has touched me profoundly as a fellow technologist. All I have to say is I am crying at the moment. I'm crying because I feel very helpless. As a fellow human I am unable to do anything to help you. I am sorry.
Over 500,000 people die of cancer in the US, and over 8 million worldwide. Maybe you can't do something about one particular person today but millions of more future deaths can be prevented. Some of the people here will be dying "early" deaths in 10 or 20 years. You won't be saying: "well, you've gotta go someday when you have a couple of kids", for example.
You see, cancer was a tiny spot on radar just 50 years ago. Or 100 even more. So the question is - what happened? Have we somehow changed overnight as a spices? No we haven't. Perhaps what we intake changed because after all cancer has to come from something - yes! our water get polluted, our food get packed with chemistry (Dupont produces your tires as well as ingredients for your breakfast bread and is more into food business than ever), and also our air got more polluted than ever.
So before you feel good writing check to a non profit or think that adding a $1 to your bill in food market helps fight cancer, do any of the following:
- call your local officials and complain. while your complain might be a blimp on radar, the more complains then more your officials will notices. at the end they want to know what people like/hate about their community -- not to help you, but rather to help themselves win next election. - sign petitions for better oversight into companies like Monsato who are in business to sterilize you and force your friend-farmer to suicide through dropping their attorney's fees on them. - buy a water filter but also check with your local water supply they run statistics on water pollution. make sting if they are out of chart (most counties, they are) - educate friends on food quality. Have them stop looking at price but more on ingredients. just because something is 40cents cheaper, doesnt mean its okay. - educate your friends and family on high corn fructose syrup and sugar substitutes. - promote and make your friends aware of non-gmo organic movement - research and educate yourself and your family on list of ingredients and products that EU bans. EU is the last bastion of common sense when it comes to your family's health safety but with laws like TPP in place, Monstato will be able to sue EU countries and force them to sell products with ingredients that EU had good reasons to ban in the first place.
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For some reason, in Europe, even less people seriously consider cryonics as an option, despite the population being generally less religious. Some view it with cynicism. Others just laugh.
Maybe we Europeans just have less faith in the goodness of corporations. As it stands, they seem like the perfect opportunity for a scam - they'll freeze you up, then after some years they'll say "unfortunately there's still no cure", and your family can then opt between paying a large annual sum in perpetuity or killing you. While I hope my descendants would have the guts to tell them to burn me up, I can't in good…
This keeps me up at night. I hope the collective advancement in science makes it possible to defeat cancer some day. I believe/hope that my contribution as a insignificant CS-student helps somebody develop tools that help somebody researching etc. I am really convinced that every advancement is connected somehow and the collective improvement in efficiency and livings standards makes it possible to commit more resour…
There is an immense amount of software work to be done in biotech. Molecular biology research is in need of better automation, analysis, visualization techniques, and on and on. We need folks at all levels. I entered biotech as a web developer and have been able to pick more challenging problems to approach on a monthly basis. We know next to nothing about the human body. Im optimistic that tech will help out us on a…
I wish I lived in a country that gave someone this choice