• Commonplaces
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sergneri

Commonplaces

Aide-Memoire

IT Failures

Wired: Firing Christopher Krebs Crosses a Line—Even for Trump

November 30, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

At Wired, an in depth essay on the work and firing of Chris Krebs at the CISA. While this is, I’m sure, just one of the many assholeries we’ll see from Trump on his way out, it is a tragedy in its own right.

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: Christopher Krebs, CISA, DHS, Rumor Control website, Trump

The preexisting conditions of the coronavirus pandemic

October 18, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Over on Ars Technica, a link to an essay summarizing the data found in a new report from the Global Burden of Disease project based at the University of Washington – An enormous new data set peers into the health of the world’s population before 2020. Adam Rogers, wired.com – 10/18/2020, 4:07 AM Try to … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: cardiovascular disease, Coronavirus, coronavirus pandemic, essential workers, Global Burden of Disease, metabolic disorders, pandemic, people of color, poor, report, risk factors

Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT Systems

October 17, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Inside the Hidden World of Legacy IT SystemsHow and why we spend trillions to keep old software going By Robert N. Charette IEEE Spectrum

Posted in: Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Science, Thinking about Tagged: air traffic control, COBOL, COBOL programmers, computer systems, government administration, IRS, IRS computer systems, IT products, IT services, IT systems, legacy IT systems, power grids, telecommunications services, unemployment claims, wastewater treatment plants

Assessment of Deaths From COVID-19 and From Seasonal Influenza

May 31, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

JAMA Intern Med. Published online May 14, 2020 – An article discussing the difference between the statistics on influenza deaths and covid-19. Assessment of Deaths From COVID-19 and From Seasonal Influenza by Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, MS1; Carlos del Rio, MD ————————————————————— Comments: Daniel Goyal, MRCP, PhD | Gibraltar Health Authority I welcome this clear … [Read more…]

Posted in: IT Failures, Obituaries, Pandemic, Politics, Science, Thinking about Tagged: COVID-19, deaths, public health, seasonal influenza

The NEWS you may not have read …

May 31, 2020 by sergneri 1 Comment

In the Columbia Journalism Review is an essay The bad news quietly buried during the pandemic by Zoë Beery: With the world’s attention glued to the coronavirus pandemic, news about anything else has been slipping farther and farther down the proverbial front page. But that doesn’t mean nothing’s been going on. Whether by design or … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Ethical and green living, Feminism, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about, This Day in History, Trump Tagged: Airlines, Andrew Cuomo, Andrew Wheeler, Brett Kavanagh, carbon offsets, Coronavirus, coronavirus pandemic, department of Defense, EPA, food stamps, fuel efficiency standards, Immigration, Jared Kushner, Justin Walker, Keystone XL, Mitch McConnell, oil sands, pandemic, PATRIOT Act, President Trump, Stephen Miller, watchdog

Big Oil Finally Runs Out of Gas

May 14, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Over at the New York Review of Books Daily, Bill McKibbon writes about the how big oil is losing its “big”. Read it here, from May 12, 2020. A study published this week in the journal Nature by economists at the Beijing Institute of Technology calculated that while investments to reduce greenhouse gases in line … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Ethical and green living, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Thinking about Tagged: Berkshire Hathaway, Big Oil, Exxon, fossil fuel industry, greenhouse gases, JPMorgan Chase, Lee Raymond, renewable energy

The investor class is excited

May 9, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

From the comments on this NYT essay on The Disastrous Employment Numbers, May 8, 2020: sedanchair Seattle 9h ago @nero Because thanks to Trump, they can simply steal our money and get away with it on a scale unprecedented even in previous bailouts. As with every scam Trump ever participated in, there’s no need for … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Thinking about, Trump, Uncategorized Tagged: investor class, scam, Trump, working class

Hot Spots for Students

May 5, 2020 by sergneri 1 Comment

On their web site, Mark Quattrocchi explains the why of their donations of internet hot spots to rural and unconnected students in Sonoma County. This effort is also written up in the Press Democrat on May 2, 2020. We all need a feel good moment every once in a while.

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Thinking about, This Day in History Tagged: coronavirus pandemic, distance learning, low-income communities, mobile hot spots, online access, Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, reliable internet, Sonoma County Office of Education, students

We Are Living in a Failed State

May 2, 2020 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Sobering summary of our current state from The Atlantic’s George Packer: When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about, This Day in History, Trump Tagged: boasts, Donald Trump, failed state, Heidi Klum, Lies, Pétain, Sarah Palin, scapegoating, virus, willful blindness

The Beard is Gone

April 6, 2020 by sergneri 2 Comments

Last time I shaved off my beard was in 2009, just after I was fired during the recession. Then I did it just to see what was under the facial hair, as part of the ritual of self-examination during a fit of depression. This time I cut it off slowly to make sure my face … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Content, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Obituaries, Politics, Racism, Science, Sea Stories, Thinking about, This Day in History Tagged: balaclavas, climate emergency, consumptions, face masks, fatal weight, health care, Muffin, mustache, my beard, Pandemic Journal, soul patch
« Previous 1 … 3 4 5 … 7 Next »

Copyright © 2025 Commonplaces.

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall