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Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

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101–106 of 106 posts

Re: Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

#101
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm going to guess this dodge is here because you support, or at least wish to avoid antagonising, people who believe that killing other people is a legitimate criminal punishment and so somehow it's not "murder" if the state chooses to do it. Although it's also possible you condone extra-judicial killing, with the same dodge, it's OK to torture somebody to death so long as you know, they're bad guys... I don't bel…

We've drifted far off topic here, but what's happened here is you've (hopefully by mistake) mistaken human natural language for a system of logical statements. Human utterances in natural languages have a bunch of unspoken rules, breaking the rules is something that happens periodically by accident, and enables some amusing comedy (the late Ronnie Barker's most famous work "Four Candles" is a classic example) but on…

You were wrong (and were also being uncharitable). The reason why I phrased the definition the way I did was so that I did not preclude the possibility of killing someone who was not innocent. This includes every instance of lack of innocence, but minimally, instances of self-defense.

I found your talking about implicature patronizing.

I agree, we can't communicate with people who insist on Humpty Dumpty's rule; what you fail to recognize is that you're happy to use Humpty Dumpty's rule in regard to 'human'. You have to make recourse to odd language like 'clump of cells'. The human fetus is a human being; that is, it is a human, and it doesn't really matter that you don't want to admit what is obvious to biologists, OB/GYNs, couples trying to conceive, people in parts of the world that haven't been colonized by Westerners and their ideologies, etc.

Re: Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

#102
post #88

This is a phase 1 trial (usually just undertaken to check safety before larger trials are done to test efficacy and dose), so it seems all the more amazing that such a big improvement was seen.

Strictly speaking, it's a big improvement because you're hearing about a phase 1 trial, and predictably so - not surprising at all. Phase 1 trials typically get little publicity unless they either kill someone or turn in a statistically-significant improvement. (A phase 1 trial in which the controls do exactly as well as the experimentals and no side-effects are observed, which is highly likely for even excellent tre…

Interesting point. I was thinking about it in terms of dose, usually phase 1 trials seem to have significantly lower doses, to feel out any issues with safety. But perhaps that doesn't apply in this case, and you are left with the issues you mention about statistical significance, selection bias and regression to the mean.

Re: Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really depends on the person. I have very small sight problems (+.5/-.75) which don't affect me most of the time, but are a danger in traffic. The doctor that diagnosed that really didn't care to answer any of my questions.

Did i kick someone's puppy here or what? I could understand getting this level of disagreement if i claimed all doctors are psychopaths, but all i did was point out that not all eye doctors enjoy their job. Not like i give a shit about karma, but i am honestly curious what caused this seemingly extremely irrational reaction.

It's not nice to pee in your neighbor's new pool.

Re: Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did i kick someone's puppy here or what? I could understand getting this level of disagreement if i claimed all doctors are psychopaths, but all i did was point out that not all eye doctors enjoy their job. Not like i give a shit about karma, but i am honestly curious what caused this seemingly extremely irrational reaction.

It's not nice to pee in your neighbor's new pool.

What.

Re: Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not nice to pee in your neighbor's new pool.

What.

The tone of the thread was positive. Everybody knows there are doctors who don't care about their patients. It didn't add anything to the conversation and was needlessly negative. In other words: you peed in the pool. Don't pee in the pool.

Re: Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What.

The tone of the thread was positive. Everybody knows there are doctors who don't care about their patients. It didn't add anything to the conversation and was needlessly negative. In other words: you peed in the pool. Don't pee in the pool.

I don't agree that that is a rational reaction, but it explains the reaction. Thanks for the explanation. Allows me to know i didn't do anything wrong.
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