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Two weeks ago, a seven-alarm blaze at a storage warehouse smogged up the
Brooklyn ether
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/large-warehouse-fire-continues-to-burn-in-brooklyn.html>
(and confettied parts of the East River) with "decades’ worth of charred
medical records, court transcripts, lawyers’ letters, sonograms, bank
checks, and more." Huge swaths of Brooklyn's legal history literally fueled
the fire, leaving one Clerk's Office representative to lament
<http://www.vice.com/read/how-much-history-was-lost-in-the-williamsburg-fire-206>
of the stacks of data lost: "They're priceless."

If there's any solace to be had from such a disaster, aside from its lack
of fatalities, is its seeming outdatedness. The move to digitize vital
files as well as electronically store keepsakes, letters, and photos
should, in theory, safeguard future generations from the agony of losing
data to a fire or flood
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/nyregion/hurricane-destroyed-evidence-held-by-new-york-police.html>.
But what happens when we outgrow our own technology?

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-- 
Peterk
Dallas, Tx
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"The problems of our economy have occurred not as an outgrowth of
laissez-faire, unbridled competition.
They have occurred under the guidance of federal agencies, and under the
umbrella of federal regulations."
Senator Ted Kennedy, in defending trucking deregulation in 1978.

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