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The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

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Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#31

Post by im3w1l »

username223 wrote: post #29
farresito wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, if you cure aging, you drastically reduce (or make non-existent) the incidence rate of most diseases, since they tend to appear as you get older. I think curing aging is the ultimately smart thing to do.

> ... if you cure aging... That's a big if . We've spent millions of year evolving to last long enough to reproduce and care for our young. Beyond that, our bodies break down in all sorts of ways ("aging"), and "curing" all of them seems unlikely. Shortening telomeres, reduced muscle and bone mass, slower metabolism, macular degeneration, worn cartilage, arterial plaque... The ultimately smart thing to do would be to…

From what I have learned the most important cause of aging is cancer defense. As we get older DNA gets more and more damaged and cancer a bigger and bigger risk. To prevent cancer, the body slows down cell division. But cell division is very important. It's through cell division that our body renews itself and heals. With a slower division rate we become frail.

So if we could strike at the root cause, and heal DNA damage, then we wouldn't have to worry about cancer, and we would be able to turn cell division up and become more youthful. Or alternatively if we could develop better cancer cures, we could turn cell division up and deal with problems as they arise.

Now DNA damage isn't the only thing we would have to fix. For instance some poisons and junk cannot be eliminated by the body and stay with us permanently. We would need to find ways to clean them up.

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#32

Post by archey1 »

r00fus wrote: post #17
melling wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to tax all 536 billionaires? Capital gains perhaps? I’m not exactly sure why everyone middle class and above wouldn’t want to pay a little more for more medical research. We’ll all likely benefit. The ”let’s just tax the rich” is only going to get us so far.

Any stronger taxation scheme to make the rich pay their share is probably fine. I personally prefer a small financial transaction tax.

In the United States:

The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent).

The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes.

The top 1% was 1.4 million returns in 2016. The top 50% is 140.9 million returns.

How much is "fair"?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-14/top-3-of-...

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#33

Post by Marsymars »

username223 wrote: post #20
knolax wrote: post #12

Not knowing what Gore-Tex I thought it was a TeX variant for the vision impaired. According to Wikipedia: "Gore-Tex is a waterproof, breathable fabric membrane and registered trademark of W. L. Gore and Associates."

Yeah, it is a name for several types of fabric used in a lot of outdoor equipment. They all claim to be both waterproof and breathable, but in reality, they are mostly either one or the other. Waterproof Gore-Tex will fill with condensation, and breathable Gore-Tex will soak through. Pick your poison.

There are tradeoffs between waterproofing (hydrostatic head measured in mm) and breathability (measured in g/m^2/24h), but "one or the other" isn't really accurate, there are products that do very well at both.

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#34

Post by folli »

handedness wrote: post #30
guelo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of relying on billionaire's whims I'd rather we taxed them more and used CDC's and NIH's epidemiology and scientist's opinions to fund research that benefits society the most.

"If it was up to the NIH to cure polio through a centrally directed program instead of independent investigator driven discovery, you'd have the best iron lung in the world, but not a polio vaccine." -Samuel Broder, former Director of the National Cancer Institute

How are the independent investigators financed if not mainly through taxes?

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#35

Post by folli »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #21
sverige wrote: post #13

I remember when their clothing line came out decades ago. These days I have what is essentially a Gore-Tex aorta attached to my heart. I'll bet they make a difference in eye repair. They're a pretty interesting company.

Interesting that you mention this. My gut reaction to the article was along the lines of “smart rich maker doing some crazy innovative shit in an area totally unrelated from what they are known for”. Is there anything specific about Gore-Tex that would make you happy that they are pursuing the problem vs some other rich nerd? Not that rich nerds pursuing problems is a bad thing, I just want to know more about Gore-Te…

https://www.gore.com/products/industries/life-sciences/medic...

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#36

Post by dmix »

archey1 wrote: post #32
r00fus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any stronger taxation scheme to make the rich pay their share is probably fine. I personally prefer a small financial transaction tax.

In the United States: The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent). The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes. The top 1% was 1.4 million returns in 2016. The top 50% is 140.9 million returns. How much is "fair"? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-14/top-3-of-...

Income tax is also hardly the only tax wealthy people pay. It's probably the least interesting tax to consider.

I keep reading people talking about billionaires "hoarding" their money, as if it was just sitting in a vault like Scrooge McDuck and not being reinvested in countless businesses, while only a small percentage is going towards their 'luxury' lifestyle (which they also assume goes all into useless flashy cars and fashion like lower-tier wealthy celebrities they see on TV who also frequently happen to end up broke... for some reason).

We should tax that consumption, not the investments the return value and therefore jobs, technology, science, etc to society). Or focus on the far wealthier corporations who pay no direct tax through various financial trickery and/or incentives to off-shore it instead of keeping it locally to spend (although most still pay tons in taxes through other means).

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#37

Post by mrmonkeyman »

im3w1l wrote: post #31
username223 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... if you cure aging... That's a big if . We've spent millions of year evolving to last long enough to reproduce and care for our young. Beyond that, our bodies break down in all sorts of ways ("aging"), and "curing" all of them seems unlikely. Shortening telomeres, reduced muscle and bone mass, slower metabolism, macular degeneration, worn cartilage, arterial plaque... The ultimately smart thing to do would be to…

From what I have learned the most important cause of aging is cancer defense. As we get older DNA gets more and more damaged and cancer a bigger and bigger risk. To prevent cancer, the body slows down cell division. But cell division is very important. It's through cell division that our body renews itself and heals. With a slower division rate we become frail. So if we could strike at the root cause, and heal DNA da…

For some reason people see aging as an illness, some unfortunate byproduct of natural processes.

It is not. It is tuned to pefection. You are _made_ to die, it is builtin, it is a feature. Notice how from 0 to 20 you don't "age", you just get stronger and better. How? Some species are considered young in their 40s.

You consume enough nutrients and energy to constantly fix yourself. You won't. Why? You need to die for evolution to work. Just die already.

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#38

Post by zzzzzzzza »

dmix wrote: post #36
archey1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the United States: The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (37.3 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (30.5 percent). The top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97 percent of total individual income taxes. The top 1% was 1.4 million returns in 2016. The top 50% is 140.9 million returns. How much is "fair"? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-14/top-3-of-...

Income tax is also hardly the only tax wealthy people pay. It's probably the least interesting tax to consider. I keep reading people talking about billionaires "hoarding" their money, as if it was just sitting in a vault like Scrooge McDuck and not being reinvested in countless businesses, while only a small percentage is going towards their 'luxury' lifestyle (which they also assume goes all into useless flashy car…

neither income nor consumption should be taxed, instead, consider taxing that which we do not produce via the work of our own hands, such as land value (which ultimately comes from nature/the productivity of the surrounding community).

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#39

Post by JasonGenova25 »

r00fus wrote: post #17
melling wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to tax all 536 billionaires? Capital gains perhaps? I’m not exactly sure why everyone middle class and above wouldn’t want to pay a little more for more medical research. We’ll all likely benefit. The ”let’s just tax the rich” is only going to get us so far.

Any stronger taxation scheme to make the rich pay their share is probably fine. I personally prefer a small financial transaction tax.

FTT's are retarded and are very bad for any nation's financial sector. Instead, tax capital gains higher.

Re: The Maker of Gore-Tex Is Experimenting With an Artificial Cornea

#40

Post by toasterlovin »

mrmonkeyman wrote: post #37
im3w1l wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I have learned the most important cause of aging is cancer defense. As we get older DNA gets more and more damaged and cancer a bigger and bigger risk. To prevent cancer, the body slows down cell division. But cell division is very important. It's through cell division that our body renews itself and heals. With a slower division rate we become frail. So if we could strike at the root cause, and heal DNA da…

For some reason people see aging as an illness, some unfortunate byproduct of natural processes. It is not. It is tuned to pefection. You are _made_ to die, it is builtin, it is a feature. Notice how from 0 to 20 you don't "age", you just get stronger and better. How? Some species are considered young in their 40s. You consume enough nutrients and energy to constantly fix yourself. You won't. Why? You need to die for…

We have not evolved to die. Rather we have not had enough selection pressure to evolve ways to make us live longer. Big difference.
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