"There is no evidence to support that."

[HEMI6point1]

Not really a things I hate type deal but a phrase when it's used in a response to something so glaringly obvious, well....

1. Appliances and electronics.

The range we have is the same one that the house we bought came with. The house was built in 1972. You do the math. Other than having to replace the oven's heating coil, it's still working fine. When the appliance repair man replaced the coil, he said that the new ranges don't last nearly as long and don't work nearly as well.

New appliances for some reason only last for 5-10 years give or take before they give up the ghost and you need to replace them. The reason is that in the past, manufacturers overbuilt things. They made stuff to last. Somewhere along the way, they discovered that it's more profitable to make stuff from cheap materials and workmanship so that you have to replace them a lot sooner.

It's the same with electronic things like TVs. I know some people who still have 20 year old CRTs that are still trucking. Meanwhile people who bought the expensive flat screens suddenly find themselves having to replace them in just a few years. Of course, the CRTs are relegated to the guest bedrooms or whatever LOL.

I was telling a buddy of mine this, and his response? "I know it sounds good but there is no evidence to support that. How about blaming the switch to all those damn computerized components that they are using instead of the simple stuff they used to use?"

Good try, but.... no. Even basic no-frills models break all the time!

2. Food allergies.

I remember a nightly news broadcast about how there is a rise in allergies to foods that people never had allergies to before, and "scientists are baffled as to why."

I have an idea as too why. All these damn pesticides, hormones, chemicals, genetic engineering and who knows what else that we put into our food supply are more than likely a big reason why people are getting these food allergies! Scientists for some reason are just afraid to come out and say it.

I posted this to my facebook one time and somebody actually left this comment:

"There is no evidence to support that, and quite frankly is a very serious accusation. There is absolutely no proof that any of those things causes food allergies. How about the fact that more and more people are coming forward with food allergies because we're less likely to accuse them of faking it than before?"

I ended up deleting his comment, to which he messaged me: "Why did you delete my comment?"

I told him, "When you stop being a shill to Monsanto I won't delete such an obviously stupid comment."

He didn't take it well. In fact, he unfriended me. Whatever.

It's just like Bill Mahar said on his show recently, "When I was in school no one ever heard of a peanut allergy. Nowadays you can't bring peanuts into a school because half the kids in the cafeteria will die!" Something to think about....

[HYHYBT]

Many modern versions of products are the opposite: though they're often designed in a way that's virtually impossible to repair, they don't *need* repair or adjustment for far longer than their predecessors, and their purchase price, adjusting for inflation (and especially if you include added features) is lower. They also generally use significantly less energy. Yes, when Grandma died, she still had a refrigerator running out in the shop from the days when the freezer was a small box *inside* the refrigerator. But replacing it would have paid for itself on the electric bill many times over, even allowing for newer ones not lasting as long.

And it's hard to say anyway: yes, you see people with appliances and TV's that are many decades old. But what's easy to forget is that MOST of them didn't last that long. Some of them didn't finish their warranties. Some quit after five years, or ten, or were damaged through no fault of their own. And those are what we see with new stuff: the ones that *don't* make it. We can't see LED HDTV's that last a quarter century or more because they haven't been around that long yet. When they have, and if the standard is still useful, I don't doubt there will be at least a few that are in homes today still functioning then, probably, as you say, relegated to a guest room.

As for electronic components... those go both ways. In some ways, they make things more reliable (as well as more efficient.) But they're also far more susceptible to things like power surges, and they're also more likely to be model-specific, meaning both that there will be fewer spares available of *that exact component* and also that others probably cannot be substituted. I lost an oven that way. It had had very little actual use, but the control panel had nonetheless been operating the whole time. Something in it quit, which caused the oven not only not to work, but to make a loud, obnoxious alarm noise that couldn't be shut off except by leaving the breaker switched off. It would have been an easy fix; I could have done it myself in fifteen minutes or so, given the part. Except there *was* no part. It wasn't available anywhere, because it had to be that exact one and the only ovens that used it were all built around 1994. And unlike cars, you don't generally see oven junkyards.

As for the other: accusing someone of being "a shill for Monsanto" is going too far just for their not buying your pet hypothesis on the origin of food allergies. Do you always delete people's comments and call them stupid just for disagreeing with you?

[Nekojin]

In addition to what HYHYBT said about repairs - much of modern electronics isn't "repairable" because the labor cost alone to repair it would be worth more than the item itself is worth. Not only are the sets cheaper*, the parts inside are more complex, leading to a higher threshold of knowledge for competently repairing one. When you can get a new 32" LED TV for $200 or less, there's not a whole lot of incentive to repair it. A weeks' wages and you can just replace it.

* When I was in my early 20's, stepping out on my own, I went to an electronics store, and I thought I was getting a hell of a deal to get a display model 19" tube TV for $300. And I was... new, the set would have cost me $500. Compare to now, when I've got a 32" LED TV/DVD combo in the front room (cost $350 - and weighs less than that 19" tube TV, incidentally) and a 23" LED TV/DVD combo in the bedroom (cost $189), I look back at myself then and laugh.

[Andara Bledin]

All things considered, there isn't actually any evidence to support either of your assertions, and I'd have probably unfriended you over the "Monsanto shill" comment as well. I won't put up with that out of my brother (who is the worst sort of unthinking conspiracy theorist to be found), and I sure as hell won't put up with it from somebody on Facebook.

As mentioned, there actually is quite a bit of evidence in opposition to your first assertion.

As for the latter, it's just as likely our fixation as a society of raising our kids in this ridiculous antiseptic bubble is likely as much a causative factor as anything else. The corn? Well, as much as I despise Monsanto for many different reasons, eating the corn is unlikely to have any effect as it stands now.

Also, Bill Maher is a comedian; he exaggerates for laughs so one should take what he says with a grain of salt.

[siead_lietrathua]

as long as you wash your fruits and veggies most pesticides are pretty much a non issue. they coat the outsides of the plant and don't soak into them unless the fruit or etc has a break in it's flesh. you would have to basically drink the undiluted spray to get effed up from it.
i don't get the rage against GM food anyway. all food is modified, by selective planting and breeding if nothing else. hell some fruit trees don't even grow naturally, you have to make them grow onto another tree (which is hella cool). ever eaten cherry pie? congrats, modified food.

i've heard from my inlaw that her doctor said many allergens are caused by moms eating too much peanut butter/ canola oil/ glucose/ other allergen while pregnant. but that one doesn't have a big scary corporation to rage against so it's less popular. i also agree that it's partially our overly-sterile world.

seriously, farming chemicals are so controlled on pesticide use farms that the effects are known! unless you are buying from a place where you don't know the regulations are strict, you are fine. buy food grown in the US or Canada if you're worried about pesticide and move on.

[Ginger Tea]

A guy on a tech forum I visit had to replace his laptop LCD outright due to the ribbon cable being damaged, a small easily replaceable part if it wasn't soldered on nano fine.
If it could be removed like old IDE cables then it would just be a case of sourcing the parts and whamo.

There is planned obsolesce in a lot of things but some are just as unplanned.
There is a scene in Kinky boots where the owner is contacting his main buyer for a new shipment to find his last lot still unsold

"People are buying these shoes these days"
"but these are terrible, they wont last more than a few months."
"I know it's great isn't it."

gawd knows how many electronic items are no longer user serviceable or even by a technician, once the soldering is machine based and as fine as a human hair, well chances are you could short out the board by having residual blobs crossing paths on the PCB, it's like trying to trace over mechanical pen with a sharpie.
The oven reflow technique might work, but I for one am not going to take my chances,

as long as you wash your fruits and veggies most pesticides are pretty much a non issue. they coat the outsides of the plant and don't soak into them unless the fruit or etc has a break in it's flesh. you would have to basically drink the undiluted spray to get effed up from it.
i don't get the rage against GM food anyway. all food is modified, by selective planting and breeding if nothing else. hell some fruit trees don't even grow naturally, you have to make them grow onto another tree (which is hella cool). ever eaten cherry pie? congrats, modified food.

Cauliflower or Broccoli is GM food, it was made before it could be done in the lab, but one is a man made variant of the other, not sure which or where I heard or read about it before, only recently heard that carrots were bred to be Orange when they were originally Purple of all colours, due to the nature of those talking whilst gaming, I took it with a pinch of salt, 2 of em have a shtick where they intentionally get movies wrong, so purple carrots in that conversation was as plausible as commenting about Elvis in the supermarket.

Cross pollination in the plant world is GM too, again older than the petri dish, but still man made and probably not possible in the wild, yet you never see anyone loose their shit in a florist seeing a type of rose that could never exist without man's intervention.

[HEMI6point1]

As for the other: accusing someone of being "a shill for Monsanto" is going too far just for their not buying your pet hypothesis on the origin of food allergies. Do you always delete people's comments and call them stupid just for disagreeing with you?

I don't delete people's comments, to be honest. I do when someone says I'm making a serious accusation because I say something that people are afraid to say on TV. What, Mansanto is going to hunt me down and sue me?

All things considered, there isn't actually any evidence to support either of your assertions, and I'd have probably unfriended you over the "Monsanto shill" comment as well. I won't put up with that out of my brother (who is the worst sort of unthinking conspiracy theorist to be found), and I sure as hell won't put up with it from somebody on Facebook.

As mentioned, there actually is quite a bit of evidence in opposition to your first assertion.

As for the latter, it's just as likely our fixation as a society of raising our kids in this ridiculous antiseptic bubble is likely as much a causative factor as anything else. The corn? Well, as much as I despise Monsanto for many different reasons, eating the corn is unlikely to have any effect as it stands now.

Also, Bill Maher is a comedian; he exaggerates for laughs so one should take what he says with a grain of salt.

I stand by my assertions. It's quite simple really when you think about it. What's more profitable for a manufacturer, a stove that last 30-40 years or a stove that lasts maybe 10 years before needing replacement?

The only thing I do agree on is that part of that "plan" by manufacturers is that other than cheap materials and workmanship is also discontinuing easily replaceable parts after just a few years, or making so you can't replace them when they break without replacing the whole unit.

As for the food allergies, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to notice that since the rise of pesticides, hormones, chemicals, genetic engineering and who knows what else in our nation's food supply people are developing food allergies that we have never heard of before.

Personally, IMO the reason why there is no "proof" is because if scientists did try and find proof Mansanto and other companies would try and squash them from reporting their findings.

[Andara Bledin]

As for the food allergies, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to notice that since the rise of pesticides, hormones, chemicals, genetic engineering and who knows what else in our nation's food supply people are developing food allergies that we have never heard of before.

Riiiight.

And I'm sure the rise in autism levels is because of vaccinations, too.

It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that we're actually testing for this stuff, now, and we're starting to feel the effects of so many people breeding who would otherwise have died as children if we didn't have modern medicine.

You want to know why third world countries don't have as high an incidence of allergies in their population? You can find the answer in their child mortality rate.

[Aethian]

"There is no evidence to support that, and quite frankly is a very serious accusation. There is absolutely no proof that any of those things causes food allergies. How about the fact that more and more people are coming forward with food allergies because we're less likely to accuse them of faking it than before?"

I ended up deleting his comment, to which he messaged me: "Why did you delete my comment?"

I told him, "When you stop being a shill to Monsanto I won't delete such an obviously stupid comment."

He didn't take it well. In fact, he unfriended me. Whatever.

I don't delete people's comments, to be honest. I do when someone says I'm making a serious accusation because I say something that people are afraid to say on TV. What, Mansanto is going to hunt me down and sue me?

You don't delete people's comments? Wanna try that phrase again?

Many food allergies are coming up now because of foods being able to be transported to different places that normally wouldn't have them. With that comes the ability to test for different allergies as well. With the scratch test, testing for many different allergens at one go people can find out a bit more easily what they are allergic to without having to eat the food in the first place.

[LewisLegion]

Correlation does not equal causation. More women and minorities are voting today than were voting in the fifties and sixties. Since then, we've seen a rise in food allergies.

Therefore, women and minorities voting leads to food allergies!

Correlation does not equal causation.

[Aethian]

I would like your post if I could LewisLegion.

[Kheldarson]

Increases in ice cream sales lead to higher murder rates too :nod:

Oh wait, no, it's just the fact that it's summer so both increase at the same time. You've noticed two things that have increased in similar patterns, Hemi, but that doesn't mean they caused each other.

[BlaqueKatt]

You've noticed two things that have increased in similar patterns, Hemi, but that doesn't mean they caused each other.

Nor does it mean "conspiracy".

I'm allergic to latex, as is around 10% of the american population, the rise is due to exposure from health care(mine arose when I wore latex gloves for 8-10 hours a day).

That being said, a latex allergy carries with it food allergies, a LOT of food allergies, yet the initial allergy has nothing to do with food.

Recently, coincident IgE-mediated allergies to latex and multiple fruits or vegetables have been documented. In vivo and in vitro investigations of clinical specificity have produced complex patterns of allergenic cross-reactivity (suggesting shared or common antigenic components) among botanically-unrelated allergens such as latex and foods.

[siead_lietrathua]

Correlation does not equal causation. More women and minorities are voting today than were voting in the fifties and sixties. Since then, we've seen a rise in food allergies.

Therefore, women and minorities voting leads to food allergies!

Correlation does not equal causation.

i disagree with this a bit. just because it's such a diffrent level of comparison. saying: 'more testing = more known cases of allergies' is not the same thing as saying 'voting causes allergies'. like... it's beyond sensibilities and strikes me as a bit of a strawman.

i mean, we now have tests for things like cancer, which before would have just been referred to as "wasting illness" or something similar. but we can't say the ability to test for cancer has to do with there being more recorded cases? i'm sorry but that makes no sense.

[protege]

Many modern versions of products are the opposite: though they're often designed in a way that's virtually impossible to repair, they don't *need* repair or adjustment for far longer than their predecessors, and their purchase price, adjusting for inflation (and especially if you include added features) is lower. They also generally use significantly less energy. Yes, when Grandma died, she still had a refrigerator running out in the shop from the days when the freezer was a small box *inside* the refrigerator. But replacing it would have paid for itself on the electric bill many times over, even allowing for newer ones not lasting as long.

I've had to replace some of my 1970s-era appliances recently. After 30 years, both were wearing out, and going to need major repairs. Both were in the house when I bought it in 2006. After having to throw out food in my 'fridge for the second time, it had to go. I couldn't see the point of messing around with a 30-year-old 'fridge. Nor could I see the point in dealing with a 30-year-old stove (one of those nasty yellow ones) either. Both simply weren't worth repairing. Same with my 22-year-old A/C unit. Those things had all given their money's worth, multiple times over. I could buy a newer, more efficient appliance for less than the old ones would cost to fix. Eventually, everything reaches the "point of no return." Sooner or later, no matter what the item, it eventually reaches the point that it's only good for scrap.

As for electronic components... those go both ways. In some ways, they make things more reliable (as well as more efficient.) But they're also far more susceptible to things like power surges, and they're also more likely to be model-specific, meaning both that there will be fewer spares available of *that exact component* and also that others probably cannot be substituted.

Of course, we have to remember that technology marches on. What is state-of-the-art today, will be outdated tomorrow. Look at the vacuum tubes, ENIAC, the Apple II, CP/M, and daisy-wheel printers. They were fine in their day, but when someone came up with a better product, things changed. Those things were expensive as hell then--my dad had a Xerox computer at his office. Even my 2-year-old Samsung laptop would blow that thing away and then some. As technology advances, the prices come down. That Xerox computer I mentioned ran CP/M and cost about $6,000 My laptop...running Windows 7? About $700.

Some of the prices coming down were because many computers use 'standard' parts. That is, you might have a Dell, but if the hard drive goes, you can drop anyone's drive in there. Same with the video card, sound card, keyboard, monitor, etc. Couldn't get away with that in the Xerox. That thing had quite a few unique bits in it, and weren't always available.