There's a big to-do this week with a big passenger backlash to the perceived excesses of airport passenger screenings. There are those with luddite attitudes towards the new backscatter X-ray scanners, but it's fairly easy to see how the machines themselves are safe. But facing the Hobson's choice of either a virtual strip-search or a pat-down not dissimilar to what happens when suspected criminals are arrested just because you choose to use an airplane to exercise your constitutional right to free (as in speech) travel is unreasonable.
But we can go a step further. There is a web campaign calling on travelers to "opt-out" of the X-ray, forcing the TSA to give all of those passengers pat-downs instead, in an act of civil disobedience. And the TSA has vowed not to give in. And so, the prospect looms of air travel becoming, at least for a day, even more unpleasant.
The more air travel becomes more expensive, unpleasant or otherwise untenable, the more people forego it for their cars. And while individually they don't make headlines, people die on a daily basis on America's roads, to the tune of more than 30,000 per year (as of 2009). That compares to a fatality rate for domestic commercial aviation of approximately 100 per year. So the TSA is doing everything they can to funnel people to a transportation system that has a fatality rate 300 times higher. They should be proud of themselves.
The attacks of September 11, 2001 were only possible because of the "rules of engagement" that were in place at the time. Those rules said that passengers and flight crew should cooperate with hijackers and let them go where they wanted and let the police handle matters when the plane lands (as it inevitably must). When Al Queda demonstrated that aircraft could be turned into weapons, those rules changed. In actual fact, Al Queda's plan stopped working even before it was complete - the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania did so because the passengers revolted when they figured out what the plan was. No terrorist since then has been able to take control of or destroy an aircraft while on board because of the vigilance of the passengers.
Really, the only thing the TSA needs to do, given this state of affairs, to make air travel sufficiently safe, is to insure that the cockpits remain secure during flight, that each piece of luggage in the cargo hold belongs to a passenger, and perform the level of passenger screening that was commonplace for the 3 decades between DB Cooper and 9/11.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Who does Nancy Grace remind you of?
Every time I see her on The Soup, I can't help but think of Roland Freisler.
So what does health care cost?
Scarlet was in the hospital a few weeks ago. Fortunately, she's all better, but we got some paperwork from our health insurance today. The long and short of it: Her one week hospital stay had a retail price of $87,000. But the "network" price was $18,000, and the patient responsibility (that is, what we have to pay) is $0.
So the last of those numbers - the $0 - is fine with me. I can't complain. It is, after all, what health coverage is for. But I'm reminded of my last visit to Safeway where I bought a box of crackers for $1.99 at the "club" price, instead of the "regular" price of $3.99.
So the last of those numbers - the $0 - is fine with me. I can't complain. It is, after all, what health coverage is for. But I'm reminded of my last visit to Safeway where I bought a box of crackers for $1.99 at the "club" price, instead of the "regular" price of $3.99.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Mehserle mess
In honor of the sentencing this week, I thought it long overdue to pontificate on the shooting of Oscar Grant.
I think we can take at face value the supposition that Grant did nothing that evening that warranted the use of deadly force. But at the same time I think we also can take at face value Mehserle's assertions that he meant to use his Taser rather than his gun. After all, to believe otherwise would be to ascribe some motive that Mehserle had to kill Grant - a man whom we have no evidence Mehserle had ever met before (and, no, we have no evidence that Mehserle harbored any racist leanings that might explain his actions).
If anyone thinks Mehserle got off lightly, let's just put some things into perspective: he is going to spend another year of his life in prison, having already spent the better part of a year there. He will have a felony conviction on his record, which will make him utterly unemployable in any career even remotely related to what he is trained to do (since he is a felon, he will no longer have legal access to firearms, so he can't work as a security guard, and I don't believe felons can get a private investigator's license). And then, there's all the baggage that goes along with being an ex-con - having to check the "yes" box on all of his future employment applications that ask about felony convictions. All of this because he committed an error.
That said, we can, and I believe should hold police officers to a higher standard. But at the same time, I believe at least some of the blame should be attributed squarely to where it belongs. This was, fundamentally, a failure of ergonomic engineering.
Policemen and soldiers train themselves so that in times of stress they can rely on their instincts to carry out actions quickly and without thinking about them. They need to do so in order to stay alive, given that they are in situations where they are in contact with other people bent on doing them bodily harm. They need to act in the amount of time that the rest of us would mentally say, "Oh shit!" and soil ourselves.
I'm sure Mehserle trained for hours to pull a gun, raise it up to a target and pull the trigger.
Now go back to the picture of the actual model of Taser that Mehserle carried.
I'm sure the Taser folks were thinking that if they shaped their weapon that way that they could leverage the training that the users already would have in operating similar, but more deadly weapons.
Mehserle had time for exactly one thought that night, and his brain said, "Quick! Tase him!" Everything that followed from that decision was instinct and training. He reached for and grabbed his weapon. At that instant, had his Taser training been with a weapon that had a different shaped grip, or that you operated with a thumb trigger rather than an index finger trigger, then the reptilian portion of the brain that was following along the script would have said, "wait, this doesn't feel right." And that probably would have been enough to change the outcome. But the fact that the gripping action for the Taser X-26 was the same as his service revolver didn't give him a chance to recognize his error before it was too late.
It's too bad the book has already been written about technology failures like this. The story of Johann Mehserle and Oscar Grant absolutely deserves to be written alongside those of the Bhopal disaster and the Therac 25.
I think we can take at face value the supposition that Grant did nothing that evening that warranted the use of deadly force. But at the same time I think we also can take at face value Mehserle's assertions that he meant to use his Taser rather than his gun. After all, to believe otherwise would be to ascribe some motive that Mehserle had to kill Grant - a man whom we have no evidence Mehserle had ever met before (and, no, we have no evidence that Mehserle harbored any racist leanings that might explain his actions).
If anyone thinks Mehserle got off lightly, let's just put some things into perspective: he is going to spend another year of his life in prison, having already spent the better part of a year there. He will have a felony conviction on his record, which will make him utterly unemployable in any career even remotely related to what he is trained to do (since he is a felon, he will no longer have legal access to firearms, so he can't work as a security guard, and I don't believe felons can get a private investigator's license). And then, there's all the baggage that goes along with being an ex-con - having to check the "yes" box on all of his future employment applications that ask about felony convictions. All of this because he committed an error.
That said, we can, and I believe should hold police officers to a higher standard. But at the same time, I believe at least some of the blame should be attributed squarely to where it belongs. This was, fundamentally, a failure of ergonomic engineering.
Policemen and soldiers train themselves so that in times of stress they can rely on their instincts to carry out actions quickly and without thinking about them. They need to do so in order to stay alive, given that they are in situations where they are in contact with other people bent on doing them bodily harm. They need to act in the amount of time that the rest of us would mentally say, "Oh shit!" and soil ourselves.
I'm sure Mehserle trained for hours to pull a gun, raise it up to a target and pull the trigger.
Now go back to the picture of the actual model of Taser that Mehserle carried.
I'm sure the Taser folks were thinking that if they shaped their weapon that way that they could leverage the training that the users already would have in operating similar, but more deadly weapons.
Mehserle had time for exactly one thought that night, and his brain said, "Quick! Tase him!" Everything that followed from that decision was instinct and training. He reached for and grabbed his weapon. At that instant, had his Taser training been with a weapon that had a different shaped grip, or that you operated with a thumb trigger rather than an index finger trigger, then the reptilian portion of the brain that was following along the script would have said, "wait, this doesn't feel right." And that probably would have been enough to change the outcome. But the fact that the gripping action for the Taser X-26 was the same as his service revolver didn't give him a chance to recognize his error before it was too late.
It's too bad the book has already been written about technology failures like this. The story of Johann Mehserle and Oscar Grant absolutely deserves to be written alongside those of the Bhopal disaster and the Therac 25.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
What's Hollywood-speak for Deja vú?
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
VTA, CalTrain and Clipper, part 2
I heard back from VTA.
Clipper will not be accepted on VTA before Spring of 2011.
So in the meantime, everyone who is a monthly pass holder on Caltrain starting in October is going to get screwed out of their local fare credit on VTA.
Ausgezeichtnet!
Never mind that I have yet to ride on a VTA bus that doesn't have a clipper terminal at the front covered in a garbage bag.
Really now. How much training does it really take for the driver to recognize the correct form of "beep" noise when a card gets tagged? Yes, I understand that for VTA to actually switch over in a big way to Clipper is going to be a much bigger deal than that. But how about a fucking baby step? How about turning on the terminals that are already installed?
Damnit, why must it always be that government employees forget who they really work for?
Clipper will not be accepted on VTA before Spring of 2011.
So in the meantime, everyone who is a monthly pass holder on Caltrain starting in October is going to get screwed out of their local fare credit on VTA.
Ausgezeichtnet!
Never mind that I have yet to ride on a VTA bus that doesn't have a clipper terminal at the front covered in a garbage bag.
Really now. How much training does it really take for the driver to recognize the correct form of "beep" noise when a card gets tagged? Yes, I understand that for VTA to actually switch over in a big way to Clipper is going to be a much bigger deal than that. But how about a fucking baby step? How about turning on the terminals that are already installed?
Damnit, why must it always be that government employees forget who they really work for?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Hypocrites amuse me
Saw a guy getting ready to board the train this morning. His bike had a sticker on it that said "People powered - no oil (wars) required."
Uh huh.
What do you think they use to fill the tank of that locomotive at the front of the train you're about to board? Last I heard, CalTrain hasn't switched to biodiesel.
And even if he were so principled that he decided he would bike all the way to where he was going... Did they use canola oil to grease the chain on that bike?
You want to say that you're taking the train to cut down on our dependence on foreign oil, that's fine. Me? I take the train because I can sit here and blog or watch a movie or whatever instead of having to deal with traffic.
But it's ludicrous to self-righteously claim to be opting completely out of our petroleum-diven lifestyle. Even more so when you do it while boarding a train.
Uh huh.
What do you think they use to fill the tank of that locomotive at the front of the train you're about to board? Last I heard, CalTrain hasn't switched to biodiesel.
And even if he were so principled that he decided he would bike all the way to where he was going... Did they use canola oil to grease the chain on that bike?
You want to say that you're taking the train to cut down on our dependence on foreign oil, that's fine. Me? I take the train because I can sit here and blog or watch a movie or whatever instead of having to deal with traffic.
But it's ludicrous to self-righteously claim to be opting completely out of our petroleum-diven lifestyle. Even more so when you do it while boarding a train.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Think ahead, people!
Folks, really now.
If you're in a line for a ticket machine, and there are people behind you, you should take the opportunity you have while waiting to go digging through the Bag of Holding you call a purse to pull out your credit card and have it handy for when you get to the front of the line.
I mean, it can't be a surprise that you're going to use it. Yes, I can see that if you're unfamiliar with the machine, you won't know exactly when or how it will demand your card or cash, but what else is it going to do? Ask for a retinal scan or a DNA sample?
If you're in a line for a ticket machine, and there are people behind you, you should take the opportunity you have while waiting to go digging through the Bag of Holding you call a purse to pull out your credit card and have it handy for when you get to the front of the line.
I mean, it can't be a surprise that you're going to use it. Yes, I can see that if you're unfamiliar with the machine, you won't know exactly when or how it will demand your card or cash, but what else is it going to do? Ask for a retinal scan or a DNA sample?
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
On grey water duming
Environmentalists are often amusing in the contradictory positions they're willing to take. The latest example is the ban on cruise ships dumping grey water within 3 miles of shore.
At first, that sounds like something that you'd sort of expect to be a bad thing. But then how do you reconcile that with cities being incentivised to use grey water for irrigating parks and other public places? If it's illegal to dump it in Monterey Bay, how ought it to be a good idea to spray it on the lawn at the local public park?
Just to be clear, grey water is not sewage (that is, toilet output). Grey water is water that has been used, but other than for septic reasons. Think water from showers. So if shower water shouldn't be dumped in the bay, then should people be allowed to swim in it?
And is making the cruise ship wait until it's 3 miles offshore significant? If it's dumping while the tide is going in, the tide will carry it right into shore.
Norman, coordinate.
At first, that sounds like something that you'd sort of expect to be a bad thing. But then how do you reconcile that with cities being incentivised to use grey water for irrigating parks and other public places? If it's illegal to dump it in Monterey Bay, how ought it to be a good idea to spray it on the lawn at the local public park?
Just to be clear, grey water is not sewage (that is, toilet output). Grey water is water that has been used, but other than for septic reasons. Think water from showers. So if shower water shouldn't be dumped in the bay, then should people be allowed to swim in it?
And is making the cruise ship wait until it's 3 miles offshore significant? If it's dumping while the tide is going in, the tide will carry it right into shore.
Norman, coordinate.
VTA, CalTrain and Clipper
We're quickly running up against a situation here.
Caltrain has said that we should switch from paper monthly passes to Clipper monthly passes starting in October.
A 2+ zone CalTrain monthly pass gives you local fare credit on VTA busses and light rail. I use this every once in a while to take the #60 bus home from the Santa Clara CalTrain station.
VTA does not yet take Clipper. VTA has yet to issue any statement of any kind as to when they might. There are Clipper terminals installed on every VTA bus I have ridden on this year, so far as I can remember, but they're covered over by plastic "out of order" bags.
I'd be happy if VTA would just come out and say when they expect to remedy this situation.
Caltrain has said that we should switch from paper monthly passes to Clipper monthly passes starting in October.
A 2+ zone CalTrain monthly pass gives you local fare credit on VTA busses and light rail. I use this every once in a while to take the #60 bus home from the Santa Clara CalTrain station.
VTA does not yet take Clipper. VTA has yet to issue any statement of any kind as to when they might. There are Clipper terminals installed on every VTA bus I have ridden on this year, so far as I can remember, but they're covered over by plastic "out of order" bags.
I'd be happy if VTA would just come out and say when they expect to remedy this situation.
Monday, June 28, 2010
What happened to our country?
I had an occasion this morning before work to visit the San Mateo County (Southern) traffic court administration building.
This is where you go if you get a ticket in San Mateo county to pay the bail, turn in paperwork, what not. This is not the courthouse. This is the place where there's a velvet-rope line leading to a bunch of bank-teller-like windows with pasty faced bureaucrats that work computers. There are, oh, I don't know, 5 windows, and the building inside is maybe 10'x20'. Relatively small. I've never seen a DMV that wasn't huge by comparison.
They had a metal detector and an X-ray machine. I had to take off my belt to go hand my paperwork to the aforementioned pasty-faced bureaucrat.
Really?
Let's say I decided that my speeding ticket was the last straw and I was going to take the bastards out. If I walked in the front door with an uzi I could hose down the whole room from right there. Hell, the metal detector makes a good aiming point, actually.
In other words, the purpose of security screening is that it takes place far enough away from the thing you're trying to protect that if any funny business goes on, it has no impact on the sensitive stuff.
And what sensitive stuff? This is not the courthouse. Even if it were the courthouse, there aren't any real judges at traffic court, just administrators. Why are they wasting everybody's time (and the taxpayers' money) protecting this stupid little shack of clerks like it was a fucking airport?
This is where you go if you get a ticket in San Mateo county to pay the bail, turn in paperwork, what not. This is not the courthouse. This is the place where there's a velvet-rope line leading to a bunch of bank-teller-like windows with pasty faced bureaucrats that work computers. There are, oh, I don't know, 5 windows, and the building inside is maybe 10'x20'. Relatively small. I've never seen a DMV that wasn't huge by comparison.
They had a metal detector and an X-ray machine. I had to take off my belt to go hand my paperwork to the aforementioned pasty-faced bureaucrat.
Really?
Let's say I decided that my speeding ticket was the last straw and I was going to take the bastards out. If I walked in the front door with an uzi I could hose down the whole room from right there. Hell, the metal detector makes a good aiming point, actually.
In other words, the purpose of security screening is that it takes place far enough away from the thing you're trying to protect that if any funny business goes on, it has no impact on the sensitive stuff.
And what sensitive stuff? This is not the courthouse. Even if it were the courthouse, there aren't any real judges at traffic court, just administrators. Why are they wasting everybody's time (and the taxpayers' money) protecting this stupid little shack of clerks like it was a fucking airport?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Seriously, there's nothing better they can do with their time?
News comes to us via the MurkySnooz that the state assembly has declared next week a no cussing week.
Fuck that bullshit!
Fuck that bullshit!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Hey Scott...
Here's a clue for Scotty Lago:
Dude! If it was a gold medal, then maybe I'd say you could dangle it from your johnson for the chicks. But you do it with the bronze and you're just going to get bitch-slapped by the guys with silver and gold.
Dude! If it was a gold medal, then maybe I'd say you could dangle it from your johnson for the chicks. But you do it with the bronze and you're just going to get bitch-slapped by the guys with silver and gold.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Note to self...
Next time you're at the grocery store, and you see someone with WIC checks...
Move immediately to a new line. Doesn't matter if you're next. You'll still get out of the store faster by starting over at the end of another line.
Just sayin'.
Move immediately to a new line. Doesn't matter if you're next. You'll still get out of the store faster by starting over at the end of another line.
Just sayin'.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
That didn't take long
They kept telling me that if I voted for John McCain that we'd seen escalation in the US military presence in the middle east. I did vote for McCain, and sure enough!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Power outage
Well, the electric power has been out for, oh about an hour now. I'm able to do this because I have a UPS on the wifi and a battery in my laptop.
I tried calling the electric department at the city to get more information. They had the usual byzantine DTMF phone tree, which led to two recordings that said absolutely nothing whatsoever, except that there was a power outage. Which I knew, or I wouldn't have called in the first place. To quote Bill Murray in the movie Quick Change, "you could have been helpful, but you've been... so much more."
It's almost 2010. With all of the computer technology available, you want to tell me that when there's a power outage the utility has no way to know immediately where it is, at the very least?!
I tried calling the electric department at the city to get more information. They had the usual byzantine DTMF phone tree, which led to two recordings that said absolutely nothing whatsoever, except that there was a power outage. Which I knew, or I wouldn't have called in the first place. To quote Bill Murray in the movie Quick Change, "you could have been helpful, but you've been... so much more."
It's almost 2010. With all of the computer technology available, you want to tell me that when there's a power outage the utility has no way to know immediately where it is, at the very least?!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Money down the drain
The Capitol Corridor folks spent nearly a million dollars retrofitting one of their locomotives to emit less particulate matter.
You want to really do something about diesel locomotive emissions? How about electrifying the lines? Not only would that eliminate locomotive emissions (yes, there would be power-plant emissions instead, to the extent that non-emitting power sources - like solar, wind and nuclear - don't get used to generate the power), but it would allow deployment of EMU consists that would be able accelerate much better, meaning a faster journey, making the trains more attractive for commuters.
But instead, that's a million dollars we now don't have to electrify the lines or, better yet, to start high speed rail service. Congrats!
You want to really do something about diesel locomotive emissions? How about electrifying the lines? Not only would that eliminate locomotive emissions (yes, there would be power-plant emissions instead, to the extent that non-emitting power sources - like solar, wind and nuclear - don't get used to generate the power), but it would allow deployment of EMU consists that would be able accelerate much better, meaning a faster journey, making the trains more attractive for commuters.
But instead, that's a million dollars we now don't have to electrify the lines or, better yet, to start high speed rail service. Congrats!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Apple and China
So, how is it that the same company that did this is responsible for helping the Chinese government spread propaganda?.
So 1984 wasn't like 1984. How about 2009?
The Chinese people have a long, storied and glorious history. They deserve so much better than the Maoist goon squad they have running the place now.
So 1984 wasn't like 1984. How about 2009?
The Chinese people have a long, storied and glorious history. They deserve so much better than the Maoist goon squad they have running the place now.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Michael Moore and Me
From what we have been told, Gizmo's toilet flushing antics make a brief appearance in Michael Moore's latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story.
Gizmo has been on TV a lot. But at least so far as I am aware, he has never appeared on TV without someone from the TV show calling and asking permission. And we've never said "no" to anyone (we did tell the staff of The Tonight Show when they called to ask if he could appear live with a toilet on stage that we didn't think it was likely that he'd make a good appearance, since he wasn't trained to flush the toilet or anything, but we didn't outright say "no" to them). The most we've ever asked was to be told where we can tune in to tape a copy of the clip for our own collection.
So the news that Gizmo makes an appearance in Michael Moore's movie was a complete surprise. They didn't call and ask. We would have said "yes" to Michael had he had the good grace to call and ask for permission to use our video in his film. I don't agree with Michael's politics, but I would have been tickled to see Gizmo on the silver screen.
Given everything I know about Michael Moore, I'm not at all surprised. He wants what he wants, regardless of whatever rules (like Copyright law) he has to trample or people he has to hurt in the process. If you look up "asshole" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Michael Moore.
Mike, you owe me an apology. My only solace is that I know that I'm at the end of a very, very, very long line.
Gizmo has been on TV a lot. But at least so far as I am aware, he has never appeared on TV without someone from the TV show calling and asking permission. And we've never said "no" to anyone (we did tell the staff of The Tonight Show when they called to ask if he could appear live with a toilet on stage that we didn't think it was likely that he'd make a good appearance, since he wasn't trained to flush the toilet or anything, but we didn't outright say "no" to them). The most we've ever asked was to be told where we can tune in to tape a copy of the clip for our own collection.
So the news that Gizmo makes an appearance in Michael Moore's movie was a complete surprise. They didn't call and ask. We would have said "yes" to Michael had he had the good grace to call and ask for permission to use our video in his film. I don't agree with Michael's politics, but I would have been tickled to see Gizmo on the silver screen.
Given everything I know about Michael Moore, I'm not at all surprised. He wants what he wants, regardless of whatever rules (like Copyright law) he has to trample or people he has to hurt in the process. If you look up "asshole" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Michael Moore.
Mike, you owe me an apology. My only solace is that I know that I'm at the end of a very, very, very long line.
Monday, September 28, 2009
"Curing" cancer
I ran across a YouTube video of Lewis Black calling for more research into curing cancer.
Let's look into this a little bit.
Everybody's going to die of something someday.
According to this page Google found me, vascular disease (combining the cerebrovascular and coronary categories) accounted for almost 31% of deaths in 2006 in the US. Cancer caused 23%.
But when you talk to people about what they really mean by "finding a cure for cancer," what they really are talking about are the cancers that cut young lives short unexpectedly.
According to this page, cancer deaths in those under 54 years of age accounted for less than 15% of the total deaths due to cancer. Between 55 and 64, a further 17.5%. More than 2/3rds of cancer deaths are people over the age of 65.
The number of people who die of cancer every year under age 65 is about the same as the number of people who die every year from accidents - and accidents, unlike cancer, are a cause of death that is heavily biased towards the youth and away from the elderly. Should we not spend at least as much time, effort, energy and money stumping for accident prevention if we want to reduce the rate of untimely death?
Besides, we do have cures for cancer right now - early detection, genetic screening, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy - all of these things have given people diagnosed with cancer far, far more hope than they ever have had in the past. And to be sure, incremental gains can be made going forward. And that's not to mention the reduced risk of cancer afforded to those who make healthy lifestyle choices in the first place.
But it's not like deciding we're going to spend X amount of dollars and launch a mission to the moon - and once we land, it's "mission accomplished." It's not like there's something that the scientists have just plain missed that's going to make cancer stop killing people. But that's the case for cardiovascular disease, and dementia, and everything else that kills us too.
Let's look into this a little bit.
Everybody's going to die of something someday.
According to this page Google found me, vascular disease (combining the cerebrovascular and coronary categories) accounted for almost 31% of deaths in 2006 in the US. Cancer caused 23%.
But when you talk to people about what they really mean by "finding a cure for cancer," what they really are talking about are the cancers that cut young lives short unexpectedly.
According to this page, cancer deaths in those under 54 years of age accounted for less than 15% of the total deaths due to cancer. Between 55 and 64, a further 17.5%. More than 2/3rds of cancer deaths are people over the age of 65.
The number of people who die of cancer every year under age 65 is about the same as the number of people who die every year from accidents - and accidents, unlike cancer, are a cause of death that is heavily biased towards the youth and away from the elderly. Should we not spend at least as much time, effort, energy and money stumping for accident prevention if we want to reduce the rate of untimely death?
Besides, we do have cures for cancer right now - early detection, genetic screening, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy - all of these things have given people diagnosed with cancer far, far more hope than they ever have had in the past. And to be sure, incremental gains can be made going forward. And that's not to mention the reduced risk of cancer afforded to those who make healthy lifestyle choices in the first place.
But it's not like deciding we're going to spend X amount of dollars and launch a mission to the moon - and once we land, it's "mission accomplished." It's not like there's something that the scientists have just plain missed that's going to make cancer stop killing people. But that's the case for cardiovascular disease, and dementia, and everything else that kills us too.
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