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Comment Re:If it ain't broke... (Score 2) 336

This actually answers a question I was making myself about this sense of reliability of old equipment, In my experience its a nightmare to service and maintain old equipment. One of my first job was in the manufacturing (machining) industry, it was a small operation and it needed old computers with old software that controlled some old (~6 years back then) but very expensive quality control and milling equipment; those were all old PC's, with old ISA buses, old and insanely expensive RAM (that eventually failed), I eventually convinced my boss to replace those things with cheap assembled PC's, we had to buy PCI expansion cards for all the serial and parallel ports that the measuring table seemed to need but it worked out just fine. There was a kind of sentiment that those machines were somewhat magical and no new PC's would ever be able to connect successfully and run the aging software (the equipment was second hand, out of support, software update was in the thousand dollar range), they depended on them so the things had to be reliable, right? If we add regulation to this attachment that management has with old 'working' equipment we get the nightmare that it is to deal with medical equipment and (now I know) nuclear facility equipment.

Comment Re:Why so many military folks? (Score 1) 136

You assert that with much authority but offer no explanation. I actually believe is the other way around, at least we are getting closer (though there is still a long way to go) to some FLOPS estimates of the human brain (which is nothing but a vast neural network with 'analog' input and output values). On the other hand we have no clue on what to do to solve problems like our short lifespans, food requirements, ship design, energy and the like that must be solved to at least attempt to take humans further than our own solar system (optimistically we will be ready to go to mars in 20 years).

Comment In other news... (Score 1) 298

We have always been at war with Eurasia. Is this for real? what's up with all this kind of articles lately? First is US still leading manufacturing (if you twist the metrics to suit your taste), now this. It's like someone is trying to anti-FUD (Hope Certainty and Confidence maybe?) US citizens.

Comment Re:Silver lining (Score 2) 117

Excess nutrients are not always a good thing, those can cause an imbalance of flora and fauna because not all species can benefit equally or at all (and to some, are even toxic) from the new nutrients. This is exactly what happens in Xochimilco lake, south of Mexico City, where centuries of traditional agriculture and many endemic species were put in danger because of the excess nutrients that came from using the lake as a sewer which benefited a single species of algae to the detriment of almost all other species.

Comment Re:oh the horror! (Score 1) 128

Their crops aren't better, round up ready corn yields less grain per plant and the grains are of irregular shape and size which increases complexity of machinery dealing with it (not to mention the things are plain ugly and taste funny). Their tech have effect only in one brand of pesticide (their own), round up ready means that their herbicide (a herbicide so potent that kills almost every plant because it inhibits synthesis of vital aminoacids) can be used indiscriminately without affecting the crop, that usually means that farmers use more of it (which causes much joy in Monsanto's board of directors). That thing is not toxic to humans (we believe) but ultimately ends up polluting the sea where it kills macroscopic and microscopic photosynthetic life, this is very grave and idiots (yes some environmentalists are idiots, and all people that neglects the environment because it gets in the way of someone's profit are idiots) on both sides tend to ignore it.

Comment Re:schitzophrenic summary. (Score 1) 128

My personal beef with monsanto is that they sell a chemical that is terrible for vegetable life and that ends up in the sea killing algae, phytoplankton and what not. Besides they sell GM (not intrinsically bad, I agree) seeds that make economically viable to use more and more of this nasty thing. GM could be used to make faster growing plants, that would reduce the need for herbicides (not desirable weed wouldn't be able to compete with crops) and be actually not so freaking destructive. But, hey! guess who sells the herbicide?

Comment Re:schitzophrenic summary. (Score 1) 128

GM food is not dangerous per se (at least not right now) but the thing is that the main current use for GM tech in agriculture is to make plants resistant to what is basically the most efficient chemical for plant extermination (apparently not much of a poison for us). Roundup ends up in the sea and kills vegetal plankton, which is added complexity to the ecological disaster the oceans already face. You most probably won't grow a third arm from eating roundup ready plants, but if irresponsible pollution bothers you, then you avoid GM food because your ethical principles.

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