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A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

littlebrown.co.uk

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Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#281

Post by akrasia »

engtech wrote: post #169
bzudo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I go to the dentist twice a year to check for cavities. I can only guess the costs for the tests are too expensive. Still couldn't insurance cover the tests?

The only great change I can think of is getting cheaper MRIs. The problem with MRIs is that there are so many false positives, but maybe regular scanning would help reduce that noise? It is thought that most people fight cancer 5-6 times in their life before anything is ever detected.

Little known fact - most MRI machines are always on because they are made via a superconducting magnet, I know some residents who climb into them at night and scan themselves for educational purposes.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#282

Post by [deleted] »

egypturnash wrote: post #280
guy2221 wrote: post #279

This is tragic and heart-breaking. Please be strong and live every minute to the fullest. But I do have one constructive comment perhaps someone can get to this author. >The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it’s extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last. >As a…

I'm a woman. And I say, if Adele wants to end her time with Iain this way, let her. Wikipedia says they've been "together since 2006". In her position, I'd rather remember six years with a wild last year or so of doing all those crazy things that got put off than six years with a last year of just sitting there watching the man I love die. Also it is quite possible that Adele would pretty much consider herself a wido…

[deleted]

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#283

Post by makomk »

Mc_Big_G wrote: post #136

Is there really no preventative tests we can take periodically to discover these things before they get out of control? I have the feeling that future generations are going to ask WTF we were thinking.

There really aren't. Developing screening tests that are actually useful is hard, because unless you can achieve an absurdly low false positive rate you inevitably find that most of your positives are false ones. In fact, the NHS tends to be a lot more cautious about funding universal screening programs than the US is because most of the time they're a net negative.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#284

Post by anigbrowl »

arethuza wrote: post #272
anigbrowl wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider Phlebas is more of a literary novel that happens to take place in the future. I like all of Banks' work and thinkSwombat's suggested reading order above is spot on, but I also think Consider Phlebas is by far his best work.

Silly nitpick: doesn't Consider Phlebas take place in our past?

Depends where you think humanity-on-Earth sits relative to the Culture. Since most of the Culture is human and we on Earth are as yet unaware of any spacefaring civilizations, I view it as a possible future for humanity. I would not be surprised if we encounter other life in space, but I'd be extremely startled if it turned out to be human life.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#285

Post by meric »

Hannan wrote: post #151
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs, more than likely, would have survived if he didn't try "alternative" cancer therapies. Banks did everything by the book and his outcome is poor, but at least he tried properly. http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-refused-early-canc...

The 5-year survival for the earliest stage (I) neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer treated with surgery is 61%. The latest stage (IV) is 15%. Stage II puts you at about 50%. That just doesn't seem like he "more than likely" would have survived to me, but looks more like a coin flip. And that was with the "good" pancreatic cancer.

He survived for more than 9 years, so the coin flip was favourable.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#286

Post by chicagobob »

CoffeeDregs wrote: post #247

Very sad news indeed. Just introduced the works of Iain M. Banks to a friend, so something happy does come from sad news. Also, if you're a fan of the Culture universe and want a smile, have a gander at a list of Culture ship names @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cultu... "Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The" "Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again" "Lapsed Pacifist" "Subtle Shift In Emphasi…

I love the names of the Culture ships! sigh this is sad news.

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#288

Post by scarmig »

xenophanes wrote: post #258
michaelochurch wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, that's my exact point. I didn't say that they make $125k (that's about average for a half-decent VC-istan programmer) because I knew scientific salaries to be low (I'm surprised to hear that they're that low) and they shouldn't be. Those salaries should be at least 3 times higher. You should make more working on scientific research that helps everyone than you'd make ($100-150k for typical programmers) writing y…

> Those salaries should be at least 3 times higher. Why? What about supply and demand? Do you mean salaries shouldn't be determined by supply and demand, or demand "should" be higher? If demand for these skills should be higher, but isn't, that is an opportunity for entrepreneurs. Your or anyone else, if correct, could make a killing using these skills at low prices (salaries). The more people who do that, the more t…

Though it shouldn't need pointing out, it does:

Supply and demand do not determine value. Supply and demand do determine price. The equating of price and value is a lazy attempt to find an objective interpersonal measure of value by saying "what is" is equivalent to "what should be," since determining "what is" is typically easier than forming a consensus on "what should be."

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#289

Post by darkarmani »

brazzy wrote: post #183
engtech wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, more money is needed. 41% of deaths are due to cancer. It really is one of the biggest problems we have as a species and we should spend more effort on it rather than the things we do spend effort on. But I wholeheartedly agree that rather than trying to be a billg and earn money to fund philanthropy, the world needs more researchers.

> 41% of deaths are due to cancer. That's not even true if you look only at rich countries - cardiovascular diseases cause more deaths. The amount of effort, let alone money, spent on cancer research is already obscene compared to what is spent on other serious problems.

So if i move to a poorer country, I have less of a chance to get cancer?

Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks

#290

Post by rsofaer »

guy2221 wrote: post #279

This is tragic and heart-breaking. Please be strong and live every minute to the fullest. But I do have one constructive comment perhaps someone can get to this author. >The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it’s extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last. >As a…

One of Richard Feynman's books speaks to his wedding to Arline Greenbaum. They married partly because they thought she was dying much faster than she actually was. Pain isn't necessarily regret. I think you're wrong about this.
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