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[birdy51]

They're the best birb: they're fed with into whole grains.

Fixed it for you. Also those poor birds. ;.;

[Reelya]

Seriously, the birbs are fine. It's the hedgehogs which are in trouble:

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/18/09/27/1739209/robot-lawnmowers-are-killing-hedgehogs

robot lawnmowers are killing hedgehogs

[overseer05-15]

Seriously, the birbs are fine. It's the hedgehogs which are in trouble:

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/18/09/27/1739209/robot-lawnmowers-are-killing-hedgehogs

robot lawnmowers are killing hedgehogs

Gotta go fast hedgehog

[TamerVirus]

First they mowed over the hedgehogs, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a hedgehog

Then they mowed over the raccoons, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a raccoon...

[ChairmanPoo]

Seriously, the birbs are fine. It's the hedgehogs which are in trouble:

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/18/09/27/1739209/robot-lawnmowers-are-killing-hedgehogs

robot lawnmowers are killing hedgehogs

Gotta go fast hedgehog

[Kagus]

There's apparently quite a lot of cancer in my family. My maternal grandfather had one cancer, got clean, then got hit with a second cancer that took him out (pancreatic). My paternal grandfather had colon cancer, had his colon operated out, and was confirmed as cancer-free... Then he got kidney cancer, had that operated out, was confirmed as being cancer-free again... And then he developed prostate cancer, had that cleaned up, and has been declared clean a third time.

His doctor told him that his case was effectively unique... The chance of developing three different types of cancer is, well, pretty unheard of. ...and then his wife went through a similar routine of three different cancers, and was similarly told that her case was unique.

And apparently his father, my great-grandfather, ended up dying from some sort of stomach/intestinal cancer. And his father before him died from some sort of gut cancer as well.


Just goes to show ya... If I don't take myself out before 60, I'll probably have a firing squad of cancers ready to do the job.

[ChairmanPoo]

His doctor told him that his case was effectively unique... The chance of developing three different types of cancer is, well, pretty unheard of. ....

and then his wife went through a similar routine of three different cancers, and was similarly told that her case was unique

As you might have guessed already by virtue of having two  "unique" cases, it isn't quite *that* rare. I mean, family factor aside, cancer is not that rare, and as (thankfully) treatments get better and more people survive, it also means that those people will get the chance to roll snake eyes again. And some tumors (like prostate cancer for instance) are really common.

Also, cancer therapy in itself can increase the risk of second cancers down the line. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy, obviously... but also procedures such as CT scans (and if you get cancer you're getting quite  a few CT scans).  Compromised immune systems also lead to increased cancer risk, and both the disease and therapies tend to lead to a compromised immune system

Edit: and a compromised immune system may in turn lead to different types of cancer which would normally be wiped out, to thrive.

And... well, I dont know your relative's lifestyles, but risk factors tend to increase the risk to more than one type of cancer, too.

As far as personal experience: first day in clinical practice in med school I met a guy with two simultaneous, distinct types of cancer.  I too was astonished by the coincidence... and by the attitude of the internal medicine physicians and the pathologists, who weren't all that surprised. I think that both tumors happening at the same time did prompt a proposal to screen the family for common cancer causing mutations, but I dont know if they actually followed through.

I've met (and on occasion treated) more, since. It's not exactly usual but it's not unique. In certain circumstances it's actually an immediate risk that you have to adjust for.

[scourge728]

And then someone shows up with 12 types of cancer at once

[Doomblade187]

And then someone shows up with 12 types of cancer at once

The deadly dozen.

[MrRoboto75]

And then someone shows up with 12 types of cancer at once

The deadly dozen.

7 deadly cancers

[MorleyDev]

Ah, the wonders of volume. If something has a 1 in a million chance of happening to someone on a given day, it will happen to 6000 people every day and it'll happen 2190000 times a year.

Statistics: you aren't special and everybody dies alone.

[Greiger]

You know if my statistics class has put it that way I would have liked the professor more. 

It is literally the only math class I got better than a C in and the only math class outside of the basics of the basics I ever got practical meaningful use out of what I learned.  Shame the teacher was completely boring and humorless.

[Frumple]

Y'know, now that I think about it, isn't "everyone dies alone" wrong in a statistical sense? The odds of there not being someone else dying at the same time you are is pretty staggeringly slim, even if you discount the whole "you're all dying a slow death by age" or whatever. When you die, someone else is probably dying with you.

[overseer05-15]

Y'know, now that I think about it, isn't "everyone dies alone" wrong in a statistical sense? The odds of there not being someone else dying at the same time you are is pretty staggeringly slim, even if you discount the whole "you're all dying a slow death by age" or whatever. When you die, someone else is probably dying with you.

This is weirdly comforting.

[Hanslanda]

Y'know, now that I think about it, isn't "everyone dies alone" wrong in a statistical sense? The odds of there not being someone else dying at the same time you are is pretty staggeringly slim, even if you discount the whole "you're all dying a slow death by age" or whatever. When you die, someone else is probably dying with you.

This is weirdly comforting.

Not really weird to draw comfort from that. I find it comforting that some 96% of all humans have faced the test of death before me and one day it will be my turn to do the hardest and easiest thing in the world: die well.