Correspondence a Forbidden Love – ACED Magazine

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A very different kind of love story Correspondence deals with issues, communications and science while it spins a sordid tale of love and lust. Now on DVD the film is nicely directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore, the filmmaker of the Italian classic Cinema Paradiso. The movie takes you into a world of happenstance solving a way of coming back from the dead.

Prominent astrophysics professor Ed Phoerum (Jeremy Irons) has been on the lecture circuit for a while now. Actually more often than expected since taking on a beautiful young and brilliant astrophysics student and action stunt person Amy Ryan (Olga Kurylenko). Turning into an affair shortly after they met in his classroom, their sexual appetites have equaled the desire for Amy to complete PHD.

As we meet the couple hes just leaving her room at the hotel where Ed has spoken at a Astrophysics conference. They vow to meet again very soon, but life is about to take a bitter turn. Amy and Ed have been challenged because of the physical distance between them and with only opportunity of communicating via Skype. Not being able to touch and embrace the two find themselves at a loss.

The age difference, some 40 years, has never been a problem and a midlife crisis has not been the reason for Ed to have lost interest in his wife. Its more like astrophysics itself, Eds chance meeting among the stars with a woman of which hes often dreamt. But, age has brought a different kind of watershed, one that has lead him to take a chance on extending his life with Amy.

Its a story of illicit love, a test of time and writer Giuseppe Tornatores excellent imagination that makes Correspondence a compelling and provocative life experience. Not for the ordinary moviegoer, most of Tornatores films arent commonplace or mainstream for that matter. Its more like his film Malena, where age difference plays a huge part in the relationship. In that film it has a beautiful Italian woman, played by Monica Bellucci, who advances a young boys coming of age; with Correspondence its the awakening of Amys libido that delivers her from a tragic past and frees her to be a woman. Crafty, chancy and yet deftly brilliant, Toratores works are head above some of the best filmmakers.

Letting his actors open up to give amazing performances Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko are at their level best. The chemistry between the two burns up the screen even when a computer is the medium for their being together. Kurylenkos Amy turns out to be one of her better characters beyond performances in Hitman, Max Payne, Quantum of Solace and Oblivion. Here shes able to keep the action actor persona in a romance where she delivers her heartrending skills as well.

Irons fits into his role of love struck Professor Ed Phoerum like a glove. Hes infatuated by Amy, even surprised that she wants him beyond their difference in age. Yet he knows how to continuously draw her into the mysteries of their forbidden love while knowing hes a married man. I like this role for Irons even more than Reversal of Fortune and Lolita (remake), but its not his best drama as that goes to M. Butterfly.

Correspondence has not been rated by the MPAA but contains nudity, movie making violence, language and sensuality. Use caution when watching the DVD if youngsters are in the home.

FINAL ANALYSS: A cool film for mid-life romantics, actors and indie film buffs.

Specifications and additional video information: Cast: Jeremy Irons, Olga Kurylenko, Simon Johns, James Warren, Shauna Macdonald, Oscar Sanders, Paolo Calabresi, Irina Karatcheva, Paul Ridley. Directed and written by: Giuseppe Tornatore MPAA Rating: Not Rated Genre: Drama, Romance Running Time: 1 hr. 56 min. Video Release Date: June 27, 2017 Language: English Reviewed Format: DVD Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Video: Widescreen 16:9 (2:40 LBX) Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, Quebecois Number of Discs: 1 Disc Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Released in: DVD and Digital HD

The comments within this review are the critics expressed opinions.

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What’s the Business Model for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare? – Xconomy

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Xconomy San Diego

This story is part of an ongoing Xconomy series on A.I. in healthcare.

These are heady times for using artificial intelligence to extract insights from healthcare datain particular, from the tidal wave of information coming out of fields like genomics and medical imaging.

Yet as innovations proliferate, some age-old business questions have come to the fore. How can startups make money in this emerging field? How can healthcare companies use AI to bend the curve of increasing healthcare costs? And, ultimately, how can they get buy-in from government regulators, insurers, doctors, and patients? These were some of the issues that emerged this spring when Xconomy brought together some of San Diegos most-prominent tech and life sciences leaders for a dinner discussion about the risks and opportunities in the convergence of AI and healthcare.

Being a healthcare investor, I love the fact that theres interest now on the tech side, said Kim Kamdar, a partner in the San Diego office of the venture firm Domain Associates. It opens up a whole new avenue of potential co-investors for our companies.

The consensus: Its still early days for applying machine learning and related techniques in healthcare, and its hard to foresee how these innovations will play out. As Xconomy senior editor Jeff Engel has reported, questions abound over the impact AI will have on doctors and healthcare institutions. Yet there is little doubt that transformational change is coming, and tech companies ranging in size from small startups to corporate titans like IBM and GE are scrambling to gain a foothold in this emerging field.

If ever there was a sector in need of transformational disruption, it would be healthcare, where spending in the United States amounts to more than $3.2 trillion a yearand accounts for close to 18 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

The sector represents a lucrative-but-daunting target for investorscomplicated by regulatory issues, a healthcare system that separates the interests of patients, providers, and payers, and an investment timeline that can take 10 years or more to realize.

There may be no better example of the potential opportunities than Grail, the $1 billion-plus startup spun out by Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) to advance diagnostic technology sensitive enough to detect fragments of cancer DNA in a routine blood sample. Yet cautionary tales also aboundmost notably with Theranos, the venture-backed diagnostic company that was valued at $9 billion in 2015and plunged last year to less than a tenth of that.

Interest in healthcare AI runs high in San Diego, which has a well-established life sciences cluster and is home to two genome sequencing giants: Illumina and the life sciences solutions group of Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO). San Diego also has some resident expertise in neural networking technologies that accompanied the rise of HNC Software, a developer of analytic software for the financial industry that is now used by FICO (NYSE: FICO) to predict credit card fraud, among other things. (FICO acquired HNC in 2002 in a stock deal valued at $810 million.)

The dinner conversation that Xconomy convened included Kamdar and other local investors, data scientists, healthcare CTOs, startup founders, academic researchers, and digital health executives. The kickoff question: Is there a proven business model for startups that are applying innovations in machine learning in the life sciences?

The model that came to mind for Next Page

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788

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Opelika mayor expects aerospace and aviation industries to visit soon following Paris Air Show – Opelika Auburn News

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Representatives from Auburn and Opelika met with top executives and key decision makers in the aerospace and aviation industries recently at the Paris Air Show.

The event, which is held every two years at Paris Le Bourget Airport, attracts thousands of people to view exhibits from companies that include Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce. More than 350,000 people attended when the event was last held in 2015.

Opelika had several appointments with companies that are considering the possibility of locating a facility in the United States, according to Mayor Gary Fuller. He said he expects some of those companies to visit Opelika in the coming months.

The State of Alabama has an excellent reputation with many successful aerospace and aviation that have a plant in our state, Fuller said. Were working very hard, and so are our friends in Auburn, to attract these companies to our community.

Fuller and Opelika Economic Development Director Lori Huguley represented their city at this years show, held in late June. This was Opelikas third visit.

Representatives from the city of Auburn and Auburn University attended the show for the fourth time to recruit companies to come to their city.

We attend these shows when we have specific projects that we are targeting, said Phillip Dunlap, economic development director for the city of Auburn. Since our involvement in targeting aerospace companies we have successfully recruited three companies who are involved in this industry segment. A typical project may take 1-2 years to bring to fruition.

An announcement was made at this year's show by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Winkelmann Group CEO Heinrich Winkelmann that the company, a German-based manufacturer serving the aerospace industry and others, will begin production at its first United States production facility in the Auburn Industrial Park. The new location will be called Winkelmann Flowform Technology LP.

The company plans to invest $12 million to establish the metal-forming plant and expects to create approximately 50 jobs over the next five years, according to a city of Auburn release.

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UK aerospace industry is flying high after aircraft deliveries in May near last year’s record – City A.M.

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THE UK aerospace sector has enjoyed a windfall of 10.5bn so far this year after the industry globally delivered 524 aircraft to its customers.

In May alone, there were 118 aircraft deliveries worldwide, the second largest on record behind 2016. The 84 single aisle and 34 widebody aircraft represent a fillip of 2.5bn to UK industry.

Widebody classes of aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 continue to see a rise in delivery rates, with a two per cent increase year-on-year. However, overall deliveries are down slightly on 2016 levels, running 11 aircraft lower than the first five months of last year.

Paul Everitt, chief executive of UK industry body ADS, said: The aerospace sector is one of the UKs greatest industrial success stories, and is on track for another successful year.

In June, the Paris Air Show saw orders announced that will be worth another 13bn to the UK economy. Demand from customers continues to run at high levels, but we must make sure we invest in productivity to guarantee the UKs ability to compete in the years ahead.

A global order backlog remains of 13,312 aircraft and 23,038 engines, expected to be worth up to 210bn to the UK economy over the next decade.

Everitt added: In every part of the country aerospace companies are generating employment and spreading the benefits of growth. We want to see the Government give real backing to supply chains with a renewed commitment to the UKs world-leading Aerospace Industrial Strategy.

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UK aerospace industry is flying high after aircraft deliveries in May near last year's record - City A.M.

askST: Is stem cell therapy available in Singapore?, Health News … – The Straits Times

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Reader Charles Wang wrote in to ask if stem cell therapy is approved for use in Singapore. Stem cell therapy refers to the use of stem cells to treat various medical conditions. Mr Wang also asked if it is available, and where one can seek this treatment.

Health reporter Linette Lai answered.

Any new treatment must be backed by sufficient scientific evidence to ensure that it is safe and effective. However, there is not enough scientific evidence yet for stem cell therapy to be approved as a mainstream treatment in Singapore.

There is not enough scientific evidence yet to ensure that stem cell therapy is safe and effective for it to be approved as a mainstream treatment in Singapore. PHOTO: ST FILE

A Health Ministry spokesman said: "To date, stem cell therapy has not been substantiated by sufficient clinical evidence as a form of mainstream treatment for any diseases or ailments and is not available as a treatment in our public hospitals.

"If any registered medical practitioners or institutions want to administer stem cells as a form of medical treatment, it will have to be conducted within the context of clinical trials."

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Best anti-aging foods you should be eating – Bel Marra Health

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Home Anti-Aging Best anti-aging foods you should be eating

Although the fountain of youth has yet to be discovered, there are other ways you can slowly turn back the hands of time. Sure, you can spend hundreds of dollars on creams that promise youll look 20 again, but save those extra dollars. Instead of spending on the outside, start focusing on the inside.

What am I referring to exactly? Well, its your diet of course! Yes, thats right, the foods you eat daily can go a long way in either speeding up or slowing down the aging process. So, if you want to look and feel forever young, you should be eating the foods listed below.

But how can food work to turn back the hands of time? Well, studies conducted at Washington University School of Medicine found that eating foods that contain nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)a compound already naturally produced in the bodyhas a positive effect on the aging process. Their research was conducted on animals, but may very well translate to humans too.

NMN can be found in a variety of fruits and vegetables. Although the mice in the study consumed water with high levels of NMNmuch greater than what is found in fruits and vegetableseven regular consumption of NMN-rich foods can go a long way in keeping your insides forever young.

Aside from NMB foods, there are other essential compounds required to promote anti-aging. So, if you want to start the anti-aging process from the inside, youll want to begin incorporating the following foods into your diet.

These are just some of the foods that contain the essential vitamins, antioxidants, and compounds to help you achieve inner anti-aging. Research suggests that following the Mediterranean diet is also a good way of eating for anti-aging. Numerous studies have linked the Mediterranean diet to lower rates of Alzheimers disease.

The Mediterranean diet helps promote anti-aging because it is full of olive oil, fatty fish, and plenty of fruits and vegetables that work to promote overall good health. Essentially, steering clear of fatty foods, saturated fat, processed food, and refined food is a good rule of thumb if anti-aging is a priority for you.

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How to keep skin looking young? We asked the experts – Los Angeles Times

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The beauty market is awash with anti-aging products, and the lists of ingredients in serums and creams that promise to slow down or reverse that process can be confounding.

Take a look at the fine print and you might encounter Vitamin C or green tea extract or alpha-hydroxy acids. Can anything make a difference?

We checked in with a handful of experts, including Dr. Gregory Henderson, a dermatologist and clinical instructor in dermatology at UCLA, in our search for answers.

By the way, cosmetics companies test their products extensively. The Food and Drug Administration does not test products, but can take action against a manufacturer if it has concerns over product safety.

Activated charcoal, which can absorb some toxins, has been used to treat alcohol and drug poisoning in emergency rooms for decades. But in the last few years, the beauty industry has embraced it, touting its ability to absorb dirt and oil. Can it be effective?

When used as part of a mask or strip, Henderson says, the charcoal may help remove sebum and keratinous debris from skin pores.

Mud is sometimes used in masks that are used to hydrate the skin and is acknowledged by many in the medical community for its potential to help with skin issues. Mud therapy, says Henderson, is an ancient tradition and historically has been used for inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

Clay is one of the most common ingredients found in beauty products, and experts tend to agree that it can serve a useful purpose, if used according to directions. Clay masks, designed to remove oil, dirt and dead skin cells, can be used as a delivery mechanism for ingredients oils and emollients, for example to ease dry skin.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Sodium hyaluronate, which is used in all sorts of wrinkle and skin-repair products, is a cousin of hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring substance in the skin which helps hang on to water and helps give the skin a younger appearance, says UCLA dermatologist Dr. Hayley Goldbach.

Dermatologists often inject hyaluronic acid fillers into skin, resulting in more volume and a reduction in fine lines. Sodium hyaluronate, designed to be applied to the skin, has not been shown to have the same anti-aging or collagen-boosting properties as injectable hyaluronic acid. But it continues to be included in various medical studies and papers that are focused on the efficacy of various anti-aging products.

According to Medscape, an online reference source used by medical professionals, AHAs (including glycolic and citric acids) improve skin texture and reduce the signs of aging by promoting cell shedding in the outer layers of the skin. But the mechanism of the action is not completely understood.

Caffeine is used in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals to counter a number of skin conditions, including the appearance of cellulite. It works, in theory, by stimulating lipolysis the breaking down of fat in the skin and by improving the microcirculation, Henderson says.

Caffeine is also found in some eye creams, promoted by cosmetic lines for its ability to shrink blood vessels under the eyes, although its role has not been well studied.

pogrebkov / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Cellulite busting product concept. Anti-cellulite cosmetics with caffeine. Jar of cream with a spoon of coffee essential oil surrounded by coffee beans on wooden surface. Top view. Copy space ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD **

Cellulite busting product concept. Anti-cellulite cosmetics with caffeine. Jar of cream with a spoon of coffee essential oil surrounded by coffee beans on wooden surface. Top view. Copy space ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (pogrebkov / Getty Images/iStockphoto)

In the last few years, there's been a surge in the use of green tea extract in beauty products. WebMD reports that the ingredients in tea can reduce sun damage and may protect you from skin cancer when you put it on your skin. Henderson says that a study combining green tree extract, caffeine and resveratrol showed reduced facial redness.

Tia Magallon / Getty Images

Green Tea Powder ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD **

Green Tea Powder ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (Tia Magallon / Getty Images)

Vitamin C is one of the most popular ingredients in anti-aging products, promoted as something that can protect cells from free radicals, which can damage cell DNA, increase signs of aging and lead to cancer.

Some experts say the antioxidants found in vitamin C can assist the body's production of collagen. But Henderson cautions: While limited studies have shown that topical vitamin C may limit photoaging, many current preparations are not formulated to allow the vitamin C to effectively penetrate the skin. Also unless protected from the air, most preparation became inactive without hours of opening.

Karen TapiaAndersen / Los Angeles Times

Tapia, Karen 133988.HE.0213.cold&flu5.KTA 21308 (Los Angeles Times Studio) Vitamin C, used to prevent cold symptoms as well as an immune system booster and an antioxident.

Tapia, Karen 133988.HE.0213.cold&flu5.KTA 21308 (Los Angeles Times Studio) Vitamin C, used to prevent cold symptoms as well as an immune system booster and an antioxident. (Karen TapiaAndersen / Los Angeles Times)

Peptides, formed from amino acids, are cellular messengers of sorts and are commonly used in beauty products. According to Henderson, signal peptides may stimulate collagen production. Carrier peptides may aid in the delivery of copper to the skin and promote smoother skin. (Copper is said to help develop collagen and elastin.)

Ada Summer / Getty Images

beauty studio shot of a young woman with a white gel hyaluronic acid and collagen mask under her eye - beauty trend ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD **

beauty studio shot of a young woman with a white gel hyaluronic acid and collagen mask under her eye - beauty trend ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (Ada Summer / Getty Images)

Many of us associate algae with unpleasant encounters in the water (seaweed, pond scum, etc.), but algae have been used in traditional diets and folk medicine for centuries.

In the beauty world, you might read about ingredients such as blue marine algae or brown algae extract. You won't find universal agreement on their effectiveness in cosmeceuticals, but an article in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology suggests brown seaweed could be used as a potential cosmetic ingredient to make skin firmer and smoother.

YuanruLi / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Laminaria japonica?kelp?Isolated on White Background. ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD **

Laminaria japonica?kelp?Isolated on White Background. ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, CM - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (YuanruL
i / Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Some of the ingredients listed in the fine print on cosmetics and cosmeceuticals may actually help your skin. But what the experts really hope you'll indulge in are rest, exercise, a healthy diet and sunscreen.

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Five podcasts to catch up on the latest trends in cloud computing – TechTarget

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Cloud is a dynamic technology, and enterprises need to be flexible to keep up.

But before they successfully adopt the latest trends in cloud computing -- ranging from containers to continuous monitoring -- enterprises first face a number of challenges. David Linthicum, a TechTarget contributor and SVP of Cloud Technology Partners, a cloud consultancy company in Boston, explores top cloud trends, their effect on enterprise IT teams and more in these five podcasts with cloud experts. Read on and tune in to know what to expect.

With the proliferation of cloud services, enterprises want to take advantage of new offerings and better prices at any time. Unfortunately, the more dependent an enterprise becomes on a particular cloud provider and its native services, the harder it is to move applications.

Lock-in risks are high in cloud -- not just with vendors but also with models. With a private cloud, enterprises can be locked into their own design, and in public cloud, they can become dependent on add-on services. Any type of lock-in will result in high prices, according to Marten Mickos, CEO at HackerOne, a provider of vulnerability tracking software.

Many believe one of the latest trends in cloud computing -- containers -- could reduce these lock-in risks through the promise of portability. Containers continue to rise in popularity because they can make it easier to move applications from one cloud platform to another. But there's a catch: Many of the cloud providers' container management services, such as Azure Container Service, Google Container Engine and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Container Service, pose lock-in risks of their own.

"Docker and container management and orchestration solutions have made portability vastly easier, but as soon as you start availing yourself to the special services of whatever platform you're on, you're hooked," Linthicum says.

As public cloud adoption continues to rise, some enterprises question whether private cloud is dead. Others, however, believe that private cloud is alive and well, as certain compliance, cost and security requirements still fuel deployments.

Compliance is tricky, and certain requirements and standards restrict some enterprises to a private cloud. Others are reluctant to migrate to public cloud because of potentially higher costs and previous investments in an on-premises data center. In addition, there can be high costs associated with training and hiring staff to maintain a public cloud deployment.

"There is no magic button on the side of the server that you press that makes it suddenly cloud-capable. It's going to require software infrastructure, hardware infrastructure [and] operational skills," says Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica, a cloud consulting firm.

Before you make your final decision about migration -- either public or private -- review what applications you currently run and what you want to run in the future. If compliance is still an issue, consider hybrid or multicloud models.

Hacking is a growing threat and large businesses, such as Target and Home Depot, have been victims of malicious attacks. It is time for enterprises to go on the offensive and adopt ongoing monitoring and testing practices to ensure their data is secure.

"Hacking is a business now," says Zohar Alon, CEO and co-founder of Dome9 Security Ltd., a provider of cloud management as a service. "When the other side can benefit from it financially, [and] quite easily now with bitcoin, it's not surprising to see those [hacking businesses] emerge [and see] ransomware all over the place."

In addition, one of the latest trends in cloud computing is serverless architectures, which bring new security risks. Because of a serverless application's design, enterprises can't secure it with the same encryption or identity access management practices they are used to. To reduce risk, they should also ensures serverless functions don't have more permissions than they need, Alon says.

Once an enterprise runs applications in the cloud, they generally want those apps to keep running -- which is where backup and recovery come in. But some of the latest trends in cloud computing, such as the internet of things, increase the amount of data floating around. This has some IT teams rethinking their backup and recovery strategies to maintain availability in case of an outage.

For example, some enterprises have replaced strongly consistent databases, such as MySQL, with eventually consistent databases, such as Apache Cassandra, says Tarun Thakur, co-founder and CEO at Datos IO, a data protection software provider. These databases are more distributed in nature and can offer more scale.

Airlines such as Delta, JetBlue and United, experienced data center outages that affected operations. It is important to have a backup and recovery plan in place to prevent major disruptions as one system fails over to another. IT teams should learn from these high-profile outages -- namely, that, even as they adopt cloud and other new services, they shouldn't "compromise what is needed to keep ... applications and business running all the time," Thakur says.

Some of the latest trends in cloud computing -- such as hybrid and multicloud models -- have forced vendors to reevaluate their services and ask whether they meet enterprise needs. In many cases, the easiest way for them to fill out their portfolios is to partner with or acquire other companies.

A notable example of this is Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware, whose partnership enables VMware's software-defined data center software to run on AWS. Enterprises benefit from these deals because of simplified integration, but often in these situations, one vendor makes out better than the other.

"AWS gets to sit back and watch the meter go higher and lock in to more VMware install base and, perhaps, put in an advantage over what Microsoft can offer," says Dana Gardner, president and principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions.

In 2013, IBM acquired SoftLayer to strengthen its cloud platform. To differentiate itself from the top public cloud providers, IBM continues to focus its efforts on hybrid cloud, as well as machine learning, artificial intelligence and other higher-level services. With more cloud models and technologies, Linthicum and Gardner agree that we will continue to see more partnerships and acquisitions in the future.

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Five podcasts to catch up on the latest trends in cloud computing - TechTarget

Cloud computing challenges today: Planning, process and people – TechTarget

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With its promises of lowering costs and fostering a more agile IT, cloud computing holds an almost magical allure for many companies today: They think moving an application or two to the cloud will solve all their problems, said Ed Featherston, vice president and principal architect at Cloud Technology Partners.

"Then they get the bill at the end of the month and go, 'Oh my God, what happened?'" Featherston said at the recent Cloud Expo in New York. "The magic doesn't happen by itself. You actually need to plan."

In this SearchCIO video, filmed on the concourse of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Featherston and two other cloud watchers discuss the biggest cloud computing challenges IT execs are dealing with today.

Sumit Sarkar sees another type of struggle. He's a data evangelist at Progress, a vendor of data integration and data interoperability services. As organizations build cloud architecture, plugging in new technologies and services, "data is getting somewhat more abstracted," or not immediately and easily available to analytics professionals, who need to slice and dice it.

"If I build these microservices, my data is behind these different APIs. What if I have a data science practice team? How do I make sure they have access to data to really bring business value?" Sarkar says. IT executives and their business counterparts have to keep that in mind as they're "rearchitecting and refactoring all of their systems."

Greg Bledsoe, managing consultant at Accenture, says companies moving to the cloud need to adopt new ways of working. Bledsoe helps companies make the transition to DevOps, the software development process that emphasizes frequent interaction and communication between development and operations teams.

Cloud computing, he says, makes experimenting cheap. "If it doesn't work, throw it away. But companies are still managing their cloud infrastructure as if it were physical infrastructure."

So someone on the business side might request a new tech project from IT, gets it, tries it out, but then it's not quite right.

"Throw something back over the wall and have somebody hoist it back over the wall to you. This makes no sense for cloud," Bledsoe says. "It's totally a legacy artifact of our past management strategies that is completely unnecessary."

What cloud computing challenges plague IT execs today?

Ed Featherston: The biggest struggle I've seen with clients in cloud is fully understanding what it is and what it isn't for them -- and what it's going to provide them. The classic of, 'If I go to the cloud, it's going to solve all my problems.'

One of my favorite mantras is 'No technology negates the need for good design and planning.' Cloud is no exception. And the biggest challenge I see people having with cloud is if they don't do that first. If they just say, 'Oh, I'm just going to take this workload, I'm going to drop it in AWS [Amazon Web Services], I just log into the console, fire up a couple instances -- boom, I'm off to the races.' Then they get the bill at the end of the month and go, 'Oh my God, what happened?'

The magic doesn't happen by itself. You actually need to plan. You need to understand 'What am I going to get out of it? Am I going to the cloud for cost savings?' Then you better look really closely at it when you do that.

I was talking with somebody earlier about the fact that -- you move your first application over and you say, 'OK, why am I not saving any money?' Well, because the servers that application was on still have five other applications on them. I still have to maintain them. I still have to pay for them. So, I'm paying for those servers still. Plus, now I'm paying Amazon or [Microsoft] Azure for that cloud instance that I just created, so I'm actually spending more money. You actually have to think that out if you're going for the agility and being able to move faster. Do your development processes and operations processes support that capability? Yes, cloud can make you very agile -- if you have the processes in place to do it. If you're still a standard, Waterfall development type of shop that has no concept of what development and operations are and tying them together, the cloud's not going to make it go faster for you. If anything, it's probably going to make it go slower if you're not ready for that.

So those are the kinds of challenges I see clients having out there. It's getting those expectations set. It's part of why I enjoy being where I am at our company, because it's one of the things we push really hard with the clients -- of No, we're not going to start with, Go to the cloud. We're going to start with, What do you want from it? Let's look at what you've got, let's understand how we're going to get there and what the stumbling blocks are -- then, we start moving to the cloud.

Sumit Sarkar: What we're seeing is there's a lot of people who start -- I don't know if they're buzzwords, but at the show in the morning we had a kickoff about cloud-native architectures, and there's 12 attributes of them. And then there's something -- I think I heard the term cloud washed: You take an application, you stick it in the cloud, and you rebrand it as cloud.

But the thing is, in between, there's a big mix of different levels. I think with the innovation that's happening is that between a cloud-native architecture and something that's cloud-washed, for example, there's a whole lot of things happening in innovation. So I've heard different people who are taking maybe some NoSQL technologies to supplement an ERP system. Some people are building out some microservices on top of existing databases if you have a distributed data architecture.

So, what's happening is data is getting somewhat more abstracted as we have this spectrum of cloud-native and, let's say, untraditional or the monoliths. So they decompose these things, data gets moved around, make it scalable. So, what's happening is it's causing a challenge for the analytics professionals. So, if you think about the people doing operations intelligence, that is the last thing sometimes people think about. I encourage folks, the CxO people, to think about analytics as they're rearchitecting and refactoring all of their systems. Think about it: If I build these microservices, my data is behind these different APIs. What if I have a data science practice team? How do I make sure they have access to data to really bring business value? Or I have this data engineering team who can really build these nice data repositories to get 360-degree intelligence. How do I make it easy for them to get the data?

So that's what we're seeing in the connectivity space is, How do you provide connectivity for those professionals to still access data as you're refactoring these things in that big spectrum? So the CxO folks, they have these initiatives, and that's something to really think about is, Don't forget the data integration for analytics.

Greg Bledsoe: Because we've come from this legacy of managing physical infrastructure, and we're used to managing physical infrastructure in a very tightly controlled way to protect our investment and control cost, we bring that same mindset to cloud.

This mindset does not really apply to cloud. You don't have to pay for things when you're not using them. The whole power of cloud and the reason that cloud empowers DevOps is because you've cheapened experimentation. It has become dirt-cheap to try something, and if it doesn't work, throw it away.

But companies are still managing their cloud infrastructure as if it were physical infrastructure. And you have a DevOps team or someone that sets up cloud infrastructure for you, you put in a request, you put in ticket, and someone builds something, and a few days later you get a response with some things that are built. And then you start trying to use those and it's not quite right; you do this again. Throw something back over the wall and have somebody hoist it back over the wall to you. This makes no sense for cloud. It's totally a legacy artifact of our past management strategies that is completely unnecessary. So there are mechanisms that you can use to protect your cost and investment without having to centrally manage these architectures -- which is essentially the exact opposite of DevOps. It's a DevOps team that's another silo that doesn't really collaborate to solve the problem. It just becomes another source of wait time, another source of wheel spinning and another source of invisibility to the other teams.

This is exactly how to do DevOps wrong. And a lot of people are trying to implement it this way because it fits in with what they understand. It fits in with what they know. Because they haven't really understood yet that DevOps is a completely different way to manage everything from the infrastructure to the people.

Mekhala Roy filmed this video.

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Cloud computing challenges today: Planning, process and people - TechTarget

Stephen Colbert Gets a Lesson on Quantum Physics from Brian … – Patheos (blog)

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Physicist Brian Greene appeared on The Late Show the other night to discuss the famous double-slit experiment which just celebrated its 90th anniversary. He also helped Stephen Colbert conduct a lesson on quantum physics that involves liquid nitrogen, levitation, and magnets.

Dont ask me to explain whats going on. But your kids will enjoy watching it.

Maybe the most important thing Greene said was at the beginning of the segment. Colbert asked if scientists have been affected by the current administration. Greenes response?

Its utterly awful For more than 50 years, science has driven innovation, prosperity look, if you want to make America great again, you make America smart, you make America think, and you keep America at the frontier of science.

Heres to Colbert bringing more scientists on his show. Its way more interesting than most of the actors.

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Stephen Colbert Gets a Lesson on Quantum Physics from Brian ... - Patheos (blog)

Donald Trump’s very affectionate tweet about Justin Trudeau, explained – Washington Post

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It started well enough: Soon after Donald Trump won the presidency, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated him, pledging to team with him on trade and security to give Canadians and Americans a fair shot at success.

We're going to keep working withpeopleright around the world. We're going to work with our neighbors, and I'm going to work with President-elect Trump's administration, as we move forward in a positive way for, not justCanadians and Americans, but the whole world, Trudeau said at an event in Ottawa.

Sure, it lacked some of the bombast of a complimentfrom the lips of a Trump Cabinet member.But it seemed like the start of a working relationship. It probably helped that Trudeau had studiously avoided criticizing Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign (though oneLiberal Party fundraisingemail, from September 2016, characterized the American election as a fundamental choice betweenhope or fear, diversity or division and openness and inclusion, or turning our backs on the world. No candidates were named.)

But therelationship between the pair has since gone south.

First, there was Trudeau's Jan. 28Twitter dig at Trump's ban on travel from seven Muslim nations:To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.

Then cametheir first meeting, during which Trudeau famously neutralized the president's handshake.

And there was Trump's strange decision to refer to Trudeau as Justin from Canada in a speech, a relaxed descriptor that struck some as dismissive.

Then there was also a nasty fight over trade and tariffs, during which Trump called Canada a disgrace for its policies that hurt American dairy farmers. (Trudeau's response: The way to do that is to make arguments in a respectful fashion, based on facts, and work constructively and collaboratively with our neighbors.")

Trump also has threatened to"get rid of NAFTA once and for all," which would put Canada in a tough spot.

Trump, however, seems to have changed his tune at least for a day. In honor of Canada Day, the president praised his "new found friend" Justin Trudeau.

Thatshout-out perhapsreflects Trudeau's wide-ranging efforts to winTrump over, even as he opposes many of the president's policies.As the New York Times explained:Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus strategy for managing Mr. Trump is unlike anything tried by another ally. And he has largely succeeded where even experienced leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany have fallen short.

Trudeau's strategy:In the days after Trump won the presidency, Trudeau put together a war room of America-whisperers, seeking to cultivate relationships with people around the president. The prime minister has gone out of his way to compliment Trump, praising his ability to listen and suggesting that the president isn't a typical politician obsessed with being right. He invited the president's older daughter, Ivanka, to a Broadway show in March, and chaired a panel with her on women in business.

Maintaining good relations with Trump is important for Canada because, as Politico explained:

In Trump, Trudeau has the most unnatural of confederates: a man whose policies he must opposeandwhose professional partnership he requires. No matter how philosophically different they may be, Trump must be approached gingerly because of Canadas place in the world and dependence on its economic relationship with the U.S. Perhaps that is why at times Trudeau seems to go out of his way not to irk the tempestuous elephant next door.

Europeans have praised Trudeau's efforts.The way in which Canada relates to this novelty is interesting, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in an interview. He praised Trudeau's strategy of finding common ground with Trump as an effective strategy, saying I think that Canada's example can allow us to have good relations.

And it's paid off in some ways. White House advisers called Trudeau to ask him to persuade Trump to remain in NAFTA. The deal seems safe, at least for now.

Canadians, though, seem a little more skeptical of the budding bromance. In response to Trump's tweet, some replied:

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Donald Trump's very affectionate tweet about Justin Trudeau, explained - Washington Post

Donald Trump Ponders The Finer Points Of Fake, Fraud & Presidential Update – Deadline

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Update That was fast: Donald Trumps Saturday afternoon Twitter triple-play just became a foursome, with the oddest parsing of terminology since, well, the difference between fake and fraud 40 minutes ago: My use of social media is not Presidential its MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!

Previous President Donald Trump, one day into the July 4th long holiday weekend and two days into overwhelming criticism for tweeting about a faceliftMika Brzezinski didnt have, just lashed out again at the FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA for working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media.

In a three-part (so far) tweet see them separately below Trump writes, TheFAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media but remember, I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media. I had to beat #Fake News, and did. We will continue to WIN! I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN! The last of these was briefly pinned to Trumps profile page, making it as the top tweet any visitor would see.

Republican politicos including Paul Ryan and Ben Sasse didnt need much encouragement from CNN or other news outlets to condemn the presidents crude, personal tweets about Morning Joes Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. House speaker Ryan said about the facelift tweet, Obviously I dont see that as an appropriate comment, while Sen.Ben Sasse tweeted, Please just stop. This isnt normal and its beneath the dignity of your office.

Said Sen. Lindsey Graham, Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.

Exactly why Trump is parsing the difference between fake and fraud in his nickname for CNN went unexplained in this afternoons presidential Twitter triptych.

Here are the tweets:

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Donald Trump Ponders The Finer Points Of Fake, Fraud & Presidential Update - Deadline

Did Donald Trump Invent a Chemical Attack in Syria? – Mother Jones

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Kevin DrumJul. 1, 2017 10:21 PM

Ford Williams/U.S. Navy via ZUMA

A reader emails to ask why I havent written about Seymour Hershs story from last week that accuses Donald Trump of ignoring evidence that Syrias chemical attack in April wasnt actually a chemical attack at all. Its worth an answer.

First off, theres some background. Hershs main outlet was the New Yorker until a few years ago. But they refused to publish his 2013 article making the same accusation against the Obama administration, so the London Review of Books published it instead. But the LRB declined to publish his latest one, so it ended up in a German newspaper. Thats two well-respected publications that have parted ways with Hersh. Why?

Second, Hershs latest piece is almost completely single-sourced to a senior advisor to the American intelligence community. Thats mighty vague. And boy, does this advisor know a lot. He seems to have an almost photographic recall of every meeting and every decision point that preceded Trumps cruise missile attack. Its hardly credible that a civilian advisor could be as plugged in as this guy apparently is.

These things dont inspire confidence. So now lets take a look at the piece he wrote. Heres an excerpt:

Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the presidents determination to ignore the evidence. None of this makes any sense, one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. We KNOW that there was no chemical attack the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real intel and know the truth I guess it didnt matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.

And now heres an excerpt from his 2013 piece:

The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, How can we help this guy Obama when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?

This is way too similar. In fact, the whole 2017 piece reads like a warmed-over version of his 2013 article. I just dont trust it.

Plus theres this: the Trump administration is one of the leakiest in memory. If Trump flatly ignored the advice of every one of his military advisorswhich is what Hersh saysits hard to believe that this wouldnt also have leaked to one of the legion of national security reporters in DC, who have demonstrated that theyre pretty sourced up. But so far, no one has even remotely corroborated Hershs story.

Is this because the mainstream media is afraid to report this stuff? Please. Theyd see Pulitzers dancing before their eyes. Theres not a reporter in the entire city who wouldnt go after this story.

You never know. Maybe Hersh will turn out to be right. Its certainly a compelling and detailed story he tells. But for now, I dont believe it.

Mother Jones is a nonprofit, and stories like this are made possible by readers like you. Donate or subscribe to help fund independent journalism.

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Did Donald Trump Invent a Chemical Attack in Syria? - Mother Jones

‘What Are They Trying to Hide?’ President Trump Questions 25 States Refusing to Hand Over Voter Information – TIME

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More states are pushing back against President Donald Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

As of Friday, 25 states have refused to give partial or full requested information, according to the Washington Post . Some states cited state laws prohibiting them from releasing certain voter information, while others opposed the information request due to the commission itself, the Post reported.

Trump tweeted about the subject Saturday morning writing, "Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?"

Trump's commission on voter fraud asked each state to provide personal data on all registered voters going back to 2006.

California, New York and Virginia were the first states to balk at the request. Mississippi's Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann gained attention for his statement on refusing to provide the information.

"They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from," Hosemann, a Republican, said Friday. "Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state's right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes."

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'What Are They Trying to Hide?' President Trump Questions 25 States Refusing to Hand Over Voter Information - TIME

Donald Trump just went bull-in-a-china-shop on health care – CNN

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That's why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after insisting that the vote had to happen before the July 4 recess, postponed the vote earlier this week. The votes weren't there -- or even close to there.

McConnell has spent the 72 hours since announcing the unscheduled delay trying to craft a series of tweaks that would simultaneously win support from conservatives who think the bill doesn't go far enough to repeal Obamacare and centrists who worry the bill leaves too many people uninsured. This is delicate and painstaking work, trying to find the exact right balance to lose only two Republican senators and pass the bill while dealing with the very real possibility that no such "right balance" exists."

Here's how to think about what Trump's tweet does to McConnell and his ongoing negotiations: You and a big group of friends (9 or so) are going out to dinner. They are picky people. You've finally narrowed down your restaurant choices to two. Then, just as you are on the verge of deciding, some other dude you only sort of know comes in and says "Have you guys thought of this other place we could eat?"

It would be a giant pain in the butt right? (I have been in this situation before. It's the worst.) Well, that's what Trump just did.

Now, even as McConnell tries to button-hole his Republican colleagues to make hard political choices, there's an escape hatch offered by the president. And, when you have options you really don't like, anything else sounds great.

In short: It's not a good situation for Mitch McConnell. But Donald Trump just made it even tougher.

The rest is here:

Donald Trump just went bull-in-a-china-shop on health care - CNN

President Trump: MSNBC Fired Greta Van Susteren for Not Going Along With ‘Trump Hate’ – Fortune

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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, June 20, 2017, in Washington. Evan VucciAP

Updated: Jul 01, 2017 10:50 AM ET

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that MSNBC fired anchor Greta Van Susteren because she did not agree with the network's so-called "Trump hate."

The President made the claim in an early-morning tweet that read: "Word is that @Greta Van Susteren was let go by her out of control bosses at @NBC & @Comcast because she refused to go along w/ 'Trump hate!'"

Van Susteren happened to be on Twitter at the time but did not directly respond to the President's tweet. Instead, she quoted a tweet from a fake Kim Kardashian West account mentioning Trump that was posted several minutes after his tweet.

"You know what? TRUMPET," the account tweeted at the President.

"What does this mean?" Van Susteren replied.

Van Susteren, who was hired in January to host For the Record with Greta, announced she was "out" at MSNBC on Thursday, with her husband and a close friend saying that the news came without warning, according to CNN Money.

Vanity Fair , who first reported news of Van Susteren's termination, attributed the decision to a lack of ratings. A New York Times profile of the network last month touched on the issue, as well.

Its not breaking out, NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said of her show in the Times piece. Everybody wants every new show to break out Day 1. I think it takes time, and Ive got a lot of patience.

Van Susteren wasn't the only MSNBC host mentioned by the President on Saturday morning. Shortly after his comment about Van Susteren, he turned his attention back to Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

"Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!" Trump tweeted.

His latest comments follow a Thursday tweet in which he said that Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face-lift." The remark was widely condemned by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

He also railed against CNN, again calling the network "fake news."

Continued here:

President Trump: MSNBC Fired Greta Van Susteren for Not Going Along With 'Trump Hate' - Fortune

Orange County pays off the last of $1-billion bankruptcy debt – Los Angeles Times

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When Todd Spitzer first ran for a spot on the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1996, he did so with a promise to be a good steward of the publics money.

My campaign was focused under the shadow of the largest municipal bankruptcy at that point in the history of the country, he said Saturday.

Twenty-three years later, that shadow has been lifted.

The county on Saturday delivered its last payment on the $1 billion worth of bonds it used to get out of bankruptcy. With interest, the repayment totaled about $1.6 billion.

Orange County still owes about $20 million to various cities and agencies that have a separate repayment deal a debt county officials expect to clear by late next year.

Bad bets on interest rates sent the highly leveraged county into bankruptcy in 1994. At the time, it was the largest local government to seek such protection. Officials proposed raising taxes to help right the countys finances, but voters refused. The county froze hiring, laid off thousands of workers and slashed budgets.

The crash led to reforms. The state Legislature tightened investment rules, the county now has much more financial transparency and its budget doesnt rely heavily on investments.

Now that the bankruptcy is paid off, Spitzer said, he worries that other Orange County leaders will lose perspective as time goes on about being fiscally responsible.

Elected officials should always operate as if theres a bankruptcy around the corner, he said. You have such a responsibility to be financially prudent.

Still, he said, hes glad to get out from under the dark cloud of restrictive spending. He hopes to invest more in parks and in the countys aging government buildings including the civic center and central jail, which he said have been particularly neglected.

At the end of an era, whats the lesson?

Never try to make your government produce more than it can, Spitzer said. Orange County tried to make its investment funds earn a higher return than everybody else was getting. If it looks too good to be true, then it obviously is.

Former Orange County Treasurer Robert Citron borrowed money to place big bets on speculative high-yield securities that depended on interest rates remaining low. But they didnt stay low, and the money evaporated.

A grand jury investigation later found that Citron, who had won praise for his investment skills, relied on a mail order astrologer and a psychic for interest rate predictions as the countys treasury began to falter.

Citron pleaded guilty to financial fraud and was sentenced to work in the county jail. He died in 2013.

Mark Baldassare a former UC Irvine urban planning expert who wrote a book on the bankruptcy told The Times in 2013 that had Citrons speculations in complex securities not imploded, more cities, schools and local agencies would have taken similar risks to plug budget gaps.

andrea.castillo@latimes.com

Twitter: @andreamcastillo

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UPDATES:

4:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Todd Spitzer and more details on the bankruptcy.

This article originally was published at 12 p.m.

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Orange County pays off the last of $1-billion bankruptcy debt - Los Angeles Times