Deploying disaster-proof apps may be easier than you think

“There's still a lack of clarity about who takes ownership of the resiliency issue when it comes to cloud,” he explained, adding that while the public cloud providers offer many tools for building resilient applications, the onus is on the user to implement them.

An analysis of these tools showed that achieving high degrees of resiliency was a relatively straightforward prospect – especially when the cost of lost business and cloud SLAs were taken into consideration.

#cloud_computing

You may not be interested in Clarence Thomas, but Clarence Thomas is interested in you

In the face of a state that won’t do anything about climate change, economic inequality, personal debt, voting rights, and women’s rights, it’s no wonder that an increasing portion of the population, across all races, genders, and beliefs, have determined that the best way to protect themselves, and their families, is by getting a gun. A society with no rights, no freedoms, except for those you claim yourself—this was always Thomas’s vision of the world. Now, for many Americans, it is the only one available.

#us_politics #scotus

What to do about climate change (1): Not too late

It doesn’t make for joyful reading, yet most of what I describe that made my colleagues gloomy was merely factual. The facts simply show that matters are very bad and the situation urgent

#climate

Democide: An Inside Job?

Chou points to two different categories of democide: when a “democracy boldly sanctions critical affronts to its current course,” and “situations where a democracy incrementally elects to limit the democratic rights and freedoms available to its citizens in order to safeguard itself from popular threats.” Both “too much democracy” and “too little democracy” have the potential to kill it off.

Expanding a notion from political theorist Nathalie Karagiannis, that “democracy is a tragic regime,” Chou argues that there is “no effective mechanism in a democracy which can prevent that democracy from paving the way for its antitheses, that is, without itself being a risk to democracy.”

#political_science

‘One wave after another’: Brigham and Women’s doctor predicts the foreseeable future for COVID

Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, said in an interview with Black Iowa News that there will be “surges of new variants for the foreseeable future.”

“But the meaning of those waves has changed, and this is why I want to make sure that people don’t get discouraged,” Faust said. “It’s bad that BA.5 is here and is causing cases and hospitalizations. But it’s not like 2020, where every single patient that I treat has terrible pneumonia and is starving for oxygen and is going to be on a ventilator.”

#medicine #covid19

What If the War in Ukraine Spins Out of Control?

In their adherence to invisible rules, Putin and Biden have recaptured an important Cold War dynamic. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, the United States and the Soviet Union never formally agreed on how to fight proxy wars. Neither side, for instance, established ground rules for the Korean War—the first hot conflict of the Cold War era. Instead, over nearly four decades, both sides improvised their way to a sustainable way of doing business. There was the permissible: mutual denunciation, cultural and ideological competition, espionage, active measures such as propaganda and disinformation campaigns, the pursuit of spheres of influence, interference in the domestic politics of other countries, and support for the other’s adversaries in peace and war (usually sweetened by degrees of plausible deniability). And there was the impermissible: direct military clashes and the use of nuclear weapons.

#foreignpolicy #geopolitics #military #politicalscience

Why Elon Musk can’t get out of Twitter deal even if his lenders bail

When Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion, he had a pitch to make the company better by adding new features, fending off spam bots and being more transparent about its algorithms. He won support from a consortium of banks who agreed to loan him more than half the total deal price to take over the company.

But now Musk wants out, blaming Twitter for not giving him more information and what he sees as the company’s dimming business prospects. Twitter is suing him to close the deal, saying his reasons for stepping away are excuses to get out of a financial commitment that he no longer wants to honor. His financial backers, meanwhile, are stuck.

#twitter #social_media #business #law #tech

Research underway to find Gaspee shipwreck — and Rhode Island’s claim to the start of the Revolution – The Boston Globe

But Gaspee proponents, like McNamara, say the search for Gaspee has ginned up more interest than the search for Endeavour in Newport Harbor. And diving into Rhode Island history beats talking about more modern problems.“This is a lot better than talking about how much the price of calzones has gone up,” McNamara said.

#rhode_island #history

Imagine that your job is to preserve every word and make it tell a story. Meet the lexicographers behind the OED

The English language evolves at such a pace that, for the OED lexicographers, the goalposts aren’t so much shifting as sprinting away from them. Once a word has gained its place, it may be moved – for example, to be listed as a variant spelling – but it is never taken out, meaning that the dictionary only ever expands. (This is true even of mistakes. The word “astirbroad” was added in 1885, but when an editor came to revise it in 2019, they discovered that it was an early-modern typo: the typesetter for the 17th-century book in which the word was originally found had dropped the word “stir” into “abroad”. Still, astirbroad remains.) Nor is the OED limited to British English: the dictionary includes varieties spoken outside the UK – what its editors refer to as “World Englishes” – from Singapore to Jamaica.

#oed #language #english

The perfect crime – undone by the perfect email backups

“You mean,” came the horrified question, “when we press delete, the emails don't actually delete, they get saved to backup tape?”

Back-to-office mandates won't work, says Salesforce's Benioff

Salesforce is no stranger to the debate, having cancelled the lease on an unbuilt 325,000 square foot (30,193sqm) tower. Last year, Brent Hyder, Salesforce president and chief people officer, said that “the employee experience is about more than ping-pong tables and snacks” as he announced an end to the assumption that most staff would work from the office, and introduced a flexible working plan.

This week CEO Marc Benioff has gone further, saying an enforced return to the old normal won't be successful.

#business #work

The Rabbit Died

The scientists have said to prepare for another Covid Winter. Listen to them.

#covid19

The Controversial Economics of Abortion Law

Competing views on the economics of abortion were a part of the Court’s considerations. A group of 240 female researchers who oppose abortion filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that abortion access had set women back after Roe. Legalization, they argued, coincided with more women falling into poverty, women reporting lower levels of happiness in surveys and fewer women saying they were in satisfying long-term relationships.

An opposing group of 154 economists, led by Prof. Myers, filed their own amicus brief in response, pointing to “a substantial body of well-developed and credible research” that contradicted the anti-abortion brief. They argued that in giving women more control over their childbearing preferences, abortion legalization led to a range of social and economic benefits for women, particularly related to education and work.

Research on these questions hinges on the fact that a number of states legalized abortion before the Supreme Court did so nationally with its 1973 decision in Roe. Economists saw an opportunity to examine the economic and social effects of abortion access by looking at the states that had legalized abortion by 1970—Alaska, California, Hawaii, New York and Washington—and several others that had liberalized restrictions. By comparing them to states that legalized later, they had a natural experiment.

#uspol #abortion #economics

Introduction: The Questions of Minimal Computing

Broadly speaking, minimal computing connotes digital humanities work undertaken in the context of some set of constraints. This could include lack of access to hardware or software, network capacity, technical education, or even a reliable power grid.

#digitalhumanities

Government Watchdogs Attack Medicare Advantage for Denying Care and Overcharging

Congress should crack down on Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors that sometimes deny patients vital medical care while overcharging the government billions of dollars every year, government watchdogs told a House panel Tuesday.

#uspol #healthcare