371–380 of 589 posts
médical research and logistics have been reorganized, now critical economic structure has to be ensured
do countries list immunized people to know who can fill in rapidly ?
should people learn how to ration more ?
I don't necessarily expect to be reduced to needing to fish to feed myself, but at least I have one backup plan if all else fails. Now, note to self... go order that roll of snare wire that I meant to order months ago, and forgot...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hello Slow Ban my old friend. For growth technology firms that is true - I remember his debate with Eric Schmidt - he was really arguing being a technology firm should be a temporary award contingent on how the firm behaves instead of a title. Technologies mature into infrastructure and stop being thought of as technologies. This is part of his thesis that technology companies should be monopoly companies - and that…
It could be hard for Google to weather a downturn without cash reserves. Ad revenue could dry up substantially.
Ctrl-F "raised pavement markers" http://rodneybrooks.com/agi-has-been-delayed/
I don't know if I'm right about those - but I am saying the technology giants are not putting their money where their mouth is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Certainly the environment is doing better, I wouldn't be so sure (yet) about the overall outcome. For example, the EPA just suspends enforcement of all environmental laws "because corona". https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489753-epa-sus... > The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to…
I really don’t get this. How is this helpful against the pandemic?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have friends who are locomotive engineers, none of them have been called out for 3 weeks. Everything is stopping. I think the US is going to learn why it’s dangerous to centralize food supply. Most of the local farmers in my region (upstate ny) are bankrupt, and much of our production or processing of food is from far away. The half and half from my grocer is processed in Virginia.
> ... none of them have been called out for 3 weeks. Everything is stopping. I had naively assumed (in the US) that agriculture and rail would be considered essential industries and continue as usual? Is this all due to migrant labor issues?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People should pay more for fruit and food if more money is required to fairly compensate laborers. The solution shouldn't be importing a disadvantaged population to exploit for cheap labor. If our modern economy is so weak we cannot afford fruits and vegetables we should confront and overcome that weakness rather than conceal it by importing an underclass.
Interestingly, it's a shift-by-one kind of situation. I.e. while British or German crops are picked by Poles, Polish crops are picked by Ukrainians... It seems that agriculture everywhere relies on underpaid migrant labor. I wonder if even Ukraine imports some migrant labor for this purpose.
I assume Ukraine does as well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not sure about fresh food, but The Netherlands is world's second largest agricultural exporter (and no, it's not only flowers): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/holland-... Also, it's not only about size, also efficiency. Scroll down the article and look at the insane yields per square mile for tomatoes, chilies + green peppers, and cucumbers. No other country comes even close.
Not sure if blind test can determine whether you are eating Netherlands' tomato or styrofoam. The only good tomatoes from these parts of the world I have tasted were cherry ones. Not sure whether it is cultivar, climate, agricultural practice or terroir. But they taste nothing like real tomatoes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tangentially related: Yet another reason why illegal aliens must be expelled from the country and not allowed to return unless through legal means. Of course Republicans love illegal labor because it's cheap and Democrats love it because they don't believe in borders anymore. Thus the American people and the American worker must wage a two front war against two selfish and entrenched political classes.
Please don't use HN for political battle. We ban accounts that do that, because it destroys what this site exists for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html