With Cancer, Let's Face It: Words are Inadequate

I had a nice, brief, discussion on Facebook about the use of the word "hero" to describe someone with leukemia. This article on the New York Times Wellness blog speaks to that as well.

Then there’s the matter of bravery. We call cancer patients “brave,” perhaps, because the very word cancer makes most of us tremble in fear. But there is nothing brave about showing up for surgery or radiation sessions. Is a tree brave for still standing after its leaves shrivel and fall? Bravery entails choice, and most patients have very little choice but to undergo treatment.

The article is a quick read. Recommended.

Tim Bray joins Google

Details here.

Best quote of the week, quite possibly the month:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger.