Useless Conversation

[Paelos]

Cancer pretty much totally blows. Why haven't we cured this yet? I feel your pain man.

[Ironwood]

Because there's a fuckload of different types.

And they all suck.

[Arthur_Parker]

Lost my uncle/godfather & father in law in last two years to it, 6 year old boy in my daughters class has it bad.  Hope I see a cure in my lifetime.

[Ironwood]

You might not.  You're fairly old.

 

[Trippy]

Plus dogs don't live as long as humans.

[Ironwood]

Heh.

[WayAbvPar]

Because there's a fuckload of different types.

And they all suck.

Also because it is more profitable to treat it rather than cure it for good. Wish that was more facetious.

[Khaldun]

I honestly don't think we'll be able to cure it until we have very proficient skills at genetic manipulation plus near-nanotech cellular intervention. Cancer isn't a parasite from outside that we can kill (mostly), it's our own biology going wrong.

[Lantyssa]

Since I haven't said it near recently enough:  Fuck Cancer.

[Viin]

Fuck cancer.

Also, wtf is all this talk about some card game? Where did all these pimply faced teenagers come from?

[ghost]

I honestly don't think we'll be able to cure it until we have very proficient skills at genetic manipulation plus near-nanotech cellular intervention. Cancer isn't a parasite from outside that we can kill (mostly), it's our own biology going wrong.

Your first sentence is completely true and the solutions will prove to be very difficult to invent and produce.  We don't have the technology yet and the solutions will very likely be prohibitively expensive (unless something changes about our health care system).  I am personally not optimistic that a universal cure will ever be found/invented. 

It's important to note that another enormous hurdle is that "cancer" isn't just one, all encompassing, disorder.  Each type of cancer has its own nuances and there are often several different types of usually seen cancers for each organ.  Some cancers we have a decent handle on (decent meaning we can get some people to live, but it's not always effective) already.  Some we don't and probably never will, such as pancreatic cancer. 

A significant reduction in the incidence of particular cancers will most likely come from the "front end", meaning we figure out what increases risk for cancer and eliminate it.  Examples for this would be something as simple as asbestos, but other, more modern, links are the increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma with hepatitis c carriers and increased ovarian/breast cancer in BRCA1/BRCA2 carriers.  They are testing a Hepatitis C vaccine in Canada and that would be an unbelievable benefit to society if it works.  A more radical example is bilateral mastectomies and ovariectomies in the BRCA1/2 carriers.  So your second sentence isn't entirely correct-  there are clear virus/cancer links as can be seen with Hepatitis C and Feline leukemia.  I'm sure there are other viral links that we just haven't figured out yet.  Hell, there are probably scores of viruses floating around that we don't even know about.  And there have to be other prion diseases.  Even with all of our knowledge with modern medicine it should be noted that there is just still a hell of a lot about the body that we don't understand. 

[Merusk]

Speaking of Bilateral Mastectomies, did you see the Op Ed from Angelina Jolie?  She just went through that as a voluntary procedure to avoid Breast Cancer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html?hp&_r=1&

[ghost]

That is becoming the treatment of choice for carriers.  It's rather beastly, and hopefully they can come up with something better (I'm doubtful that they'll be able to in our lifetimes).

[rattran]

This cup of coffee tastes lovely. It'd be a great morning if there weren't 20+ crows all sitting on the back deck cawing like mad at each other.

[Merusk]

Oddly, I like crows and miss having them around like that.  Fuck the constant 'morning dove' cooing I get instead. Goddamn things are irritating.

[ghost]

Crows can be pretty damned loud. 

[JWIV]

This cup of coffee tastes lovely. It'd be a great morning if there weren't 20+ crows all sitting on the back deck cawing like mad at each other.

They're just looking to have breakfast with you.  From what I've heard, they're fans of cheerios.

[Yegolev]

Oddly, I like crows and miss having them around like that.  Fuck the constant 'morning dove' cooing I get instead. Goddamn things are irritating.

[Tale]

Livetweeting of the sentencing of Lulzsec members. Topiary up next.

[Signe]

Oddly, I like crows and miss having them around like that.  Fuck the constant 'morning dove' cooing I get instead. Goddamn things are irritating.

I love morning doves.  My sister rescued two, although one was so sick it died.  The lived longer than any dove technically should, but she takes such good care of them they just won't die.  I loved when I was the first one up (which used to be all the time since I was plagued with insomnia) and her beautiful morning dove would coo while I was making coffee and stuff.  Having said that, behind her house is a wooded area and a stream so we get lots of birds and wildlife.  You'd love it.  Lots of crows, turkey vultures and even some Red Tailed Hawks.  The last time we drove to Lancaster for produce, a beautiful Golden Eagle made a swoop right in front of the car.  It was awesome.  There's also bald eagles, peregrines, kites and owls.  Birds that are fun to look at when they let you see them.  My favourite, however, is walking or riding along the Brandywine or some of the other little rivers or marshy areas and watching the Cormorants, Herons, Egrets and other water birds.  My sister did a series of water bird sculptures.  Now she's back to vultures and animal gargoyles!  She did one of a crow, too, which got a lot of attention.  Farmers might hate them but nearly everyone else, especially witches, love watching them.  No?   Anyway, this part of Pennsylvania is bird heaven... interesting one's too.  LOTS of birds of prey! 

oooo... I got my fav Jim Morrison song stuck in my head now only it's the Fat Boy Slim version.  Still good.

[Merusk]

Oddly, I like crows and miss having them around like that.  Fuck the constant 'morning dove' cooing I get instead. Goddamn things are irritating.

I have more hair and less money.

[Sky]

Mourning doves are the one bird that makes my cat lose his mind. I mean, he loves birds and sits for hours watching the feeder in the yard. But we can tell when the doves land, because he starts chattering and pawing incessantly at the window.

[Nevermore]

The must taste the best.

[Soln]

Crows are highly intelligent.  And they keep grudges.

[Hammond]

Gah I hate the crows in my neighborhood. I came home for lunch one day and a pair of them was mating on my gutters on the front of my house. I threw a rock at them and all they did was glare at me before they went back at it.

[Merusk]

Crows are highly intelligent.  And they keep grudges.

Part of why I like the little bastards.  They *will* get their revenge and they've been proven to recognize human faces.

[Samwise]

I've been a big fan of the corvid family since reading this book, which I recommend to everyone. 

People always give me odd looks for some reason when I tell them there's this great book on avian evolutionary psychology that they have to read.

[Morat20]

between my new work schedule (I'm gonna like 9/80s, once I get used to them but right now they suck) and everything else, my irritation at the "ten thousand tiny little things broken in my house that I'm either not capable of fixing, don't want to fix myself, or don't want to learn to fix" has boiled over into frothing rage.

I wanted to go buy a gun merely to shoot the ceiling fan that has -- I think -- a bad wall switch. At that point I thought "Fuck it" and made a whole bunch of calls.

Plumbers are here now to sort out two annoying issues with the sinks, the electrician comes tomorrow to fix the fan and figure out what's wrong with my bathroom vent, and I'm still trying to get ahold of the exterimintor and the sheetrock guy.

Over the last, oh, ten years my interior walls have accumulated a number of holes. Mostly small, two rather sizeable -- and one I suspect is causing some water to form under the paint, and is the one I really want fixed. Don't even care if it's painted. Just want the holes gone.

UGH.

[ghost]

Trying to get anyone to do anything in a reliable fashion has gotten to be next to impossible.  I usually just break down and do it myself because I know it will be done right.

[schild]

What were you trying to get done that you said that?

[ghost]

Replying to Morat's rant. 

Plumbing is particularly a bitch. 

[schild]

Plumbing and Car Repair are at the peak of bullshit industries fueled by poor workmanship.

[Sky]

One nice thing about 40 hour weeks. I have enough time to at least get to the most annoying/pressing stuff around the house. While moving furniture for spring cleaning, I got tired of my receiver making my sub kick on for no reason, so I disassembled it and re-soldered the output jack to the daughterboard. I was quite proud of myself until I realized I had more or less convinced the old lady we needed to buy a new receiver.

[ghost]

I've actually had decent luck with car repair.  I'm sure that this statement will come back to bite me in the ass.

[Yegolev]

Things with modern cars have become difficult enough to get to that it passes my do-it-myself threshold.  Plus I mostly know about pre-computer cars and might as well be working on a UFO in some cases.