The Cloud strikes back

Four Lightning Strikes in Belgium Erase Google Customer Data

Google says four successive lightning strikes on one of its cloud infrastructure facilities in Europe last week permanently wiped out some customers' data stored on disks. Google called the incident "exceptional" and apologized to those affected.

In an online statement Wednesday, Google said the series of unlucky strikes happened on Aug. 13 at its data center in Belgium. The lightning briefly knocked out power to systems that host customers' data and allow clients to run virtual machines "in the cloud."

"Although automatic auxiliary systems restored power quickly, and the storage systems are designed with battery backup, some recently written data was located on storage systems which were more susceptible to power failure from extended or repeated battery drain," Google said. "In almost all cases the data was successfully committed to stable storage, although manual intervention was required in order to restore the systems to their normal serving state."

However, in a very few cases — less than 0.000001 percent of total disk storage space — the data was unrecoverable and permanently lost.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/four-lightning-strikes-belgium-erase-google-customer-data-n412561

How uninformed are American voters?

Apparently well uninformed:

According to several polls Deez Nuts is pulling nearly 10%. The only problem is Deez Nuts is a 15 year old.

Deez Nuts, the Independent candidate from Iowa, is polling at 9 percent in North Carolina for President of the United States.

Sadly, Deez Nuts does not appear to exist. But Brady Olson does.

“When I heard about the Limberbutt McCubbins story, I realized I could,” Olson tells The Daily Beast.

Brady Olson is 15 years old. He filed to run for the President of the United States with the FEC on July 26 as Deez Nuts.



So how did Brady Olson go from standard Iowa high school student to the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter—literally overnight?
“It started because somebody emailed us under the name Deez Nuts,” says Jim Williams, an issue polling specialist a Public Policy Polling. “He said, ‘I’m Deez Nuts. I’m running. Here’s my filing statement. Would you poll me?’”

Williams thought “this is something Public Policy Polling would do,” so he squared Nuts off against Trump and Clinton in Minnesota a few weeks ago. He polled at 7 percent.

“I thought, ‘Let’s put this out. This’ll be funny,’” he says, and it was met with “mild interest.”

But when his numbers rose after two more polls—8 percent in Iowa, then 9 percent in North Carolina—Nuts took off. On Wednesday, Deez Nuts was trending worldwide on Twitter.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/19/presidential-candidate-deez-nuts-does-not-exist.html

It's corn dog season, Iowa State Fair

Break out the cameras and corn dogs for candidates

FOX News saved my life...

Rick Perry stops paying all of his staff as fundraising dries up

Rick Perry's presidential campaign has stopped paying all of its staff as the Republican former Texas governor's fundraising has dried up, campaign officials and other Republicans familiar with the operation said late Monday.

Perry has stopped paying his staff at the national headquarters in Austin as well as in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, according to a Republican familiar with the Perry campaign who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Perry campaign manager Jeff Miller told staff last Friday, the day after the first Republican presidential debate, that they would no longer be paid and are free to look for other jobs -- and, so far at least, most aides have stuck with Perry, this Republican said.

News that the Perry campaign had stopped paying its staff of six in South Carolina was first reported late Monday afternoon by the National Journal. News that the campaign was not paying any staff was first reported Monday night by CBS News.

"Money is extremely tight," said Katon Dawson, Perry's South Carolina campaign chairman. “We all moved to volunteer status," he said, but added, "Our team is working as hard as it was last week."


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rick-perry-stops-paying-all-of-his-staff-as-fundraising-dries-up/ar-BBlCPaN?ocid=iehp

New step in Trump's feud with Fox News; Hillary weighs in

Speaking publicly for the first time since the debate, Clinton on Monday said Trump's comments about Kelly should not overshadow the rest of the GOP field's policies dealing with women.

"They brag about slashing women's health care funding," Hillary told reporters while campaigning in New Hampshire. "They say they would force women who have been raped to carry their rapist's child, and we don't hear any of them supporting raising the minimum wage, paid leave for new parents, access to quality child care, equal pay for women or anything else that will help to give women a chance to get ahead."


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-step-in-trumps-feud-with-fox-news-clinton-weighs-in/ar-BBlDgew?ocid=iehp

WTF:Lowe's stops black delivery driver to satisfy customer's demand

2016 Honda Accord
Honda bumps up price of several Accords
 
Buffett's Berkshire buys aerospace supplier for $37 billion

HD
OFF
PlayLowes falls short of expectations
A Lowe’s Home Improvement store in Danville, Virginia, stopped an employee from making a delivery to a customer who demanded that the store not send a black man for the job, according to reports. Marcus Bradley, an African-American who has worked with Lowe's for the past 11 years, was reportedly already in the truck last Monday when his manager told him to send another driver.

"I got a phone call on the phone telling me to bring the delivery back, saying that I couldn't do the delivery," Bradley said, according to KPHO, a CBS affiliate, which reported the news Friday. "I asked him why I couldn't do it and he said because you're black and they don't want you at the house," he said, adding: "I mean, I thought that Lowe's would take up for me."

The customer who made the demand reportedly said, according to the Daily Mail: "I got a right to have whatever I want and that's it.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/lowes-stops-black-delivery-driver-to-satisfy-customers-demand/ar-BBlBrWL

Mapping Migration in the United States

Where people who lived in each state in 2012 were born

Each shape represents where the people living in a state were born. Within a state, larger shapes mean a group makes up a larger share of the population.

Click to see interactive map on where your neighbors are from. It is quite interesting.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html?WT.mc_id=2015-KWP-AUD_DEV&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&kwp_0=18046&kwp_4=169467&kwp_1=167564&abt=0002&abg=0

Love this headline: G.O.P. Candidates and Obama’s Failure to Fail

Krugman - G.O.P. Candidates and Obama’s Failure to Fail

What did the men who would be president talk about during last week’s prime-time Republican debate? Well, there were 19 references to God, while the economy rated only 10 mentions. Republicans in Congress have voted dozens of times to repeal all or part of Obamacare, but the candidates only named President Obama’s signature policy nine times over the course of two hours. And energy, another erstwhile G.O.P. favorite, came up only four times.

Strange, isn’t it? The shared premise of everyone on the Republican side is that the Obama years have been a time of policy disaster on every front. Yet the candidates on that stage had almost nothing to say about any of the supposed disaster areas.

And there was a good reason they seemed so tongue-tied: Out there in the real world, none of the disasters their party predicted have actually come to pass. President Obama just keeps failing to fail. And that’s a big problem for the G.O.P. — even bigger than Donald Trump.


Start with health reform. Talk to right-wingers, and they will inevitably assert that it has been a disaster. But ask exactly what form this disaster has taken, and at best you get unverified anecdotes about rate hikes and declining quality.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/opinion/paul-krugman-gop-candidates-and-obamas-failure-to-fail.html?emc=edit_th_20150810&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45299538

Damn you Obama...

How important is FOX to the GOP? Their reaction to Trumps comments on Megyn tell much

Hand-Wringing in G.O.P. After Donald Trump’s Remarks on Megyn Kelly


Donald J. Trump’s suggestion that a Fox News journalist had questioned him forcefully at the Republican presidential debate because she was menstruating cost him a speaking slot Saturday night at an influential gathering of conservatives in Atlanta. It also raised new questions about how much longer Republican Party leaders would have to contend with Mr. Trump’s disruptive presence in the primary field.

Continuing his complaints about Megyn Kelly, one of the moderators of the debate, in an interview on CNN Friday night, Mr. Trump said, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” The remark prompted Erick Erickson, the leader of RedState, the conservative group, to disinvite him.

“If your standard-bearer has to resort to that,” Mr. Erickson told hundreds of conservative activists in a packed Atlanta hotel ballroom on Saturday, “we need a new standard-bearer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/us/politics/donald-trump-disinvited-from-conservative-event-over-remark-on-megyn-kelly.html?emc=edit_th_20150809&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45299538&_r=0

Now we all know that what he said is misogynistic, but the GOP generally falls in that category anyway with all the efforts to kill plant parenthood and other actions they take. So the fact that they are upset about this, shows that FOX is too valuable to the GOP and their efforts to kill the government for which they want to use to rob civil liberties from non-whites and non-males.