#provisioning infrastructure

[virtualizationhowto]

Ansible vs Terraform: Best DevOps tool?

Ansible vs Terraform: Best DevOps tool? @vexpert #vmwarecommunities #homelab #ansiblevsterraform #cloudinfrastructuremanagement #provisioninginfrastructure #configurationmanagementtools #infrastructureascode #multiclouddeployment #networkautomation

Ansible and Terraform are excellent DevOps tools that can provide many automation benefits in enterprise and cloud environments. Both of them have capabilities that can overlap with each other. However, I would say that each has its strengths in configuring and provisioning infrastructure. Look at Ansible vs Terraform and see which automation tool is best for which task. Table of contentsAt a…

[nepalenergyforum]

Lawmakers Question Minister Khadka on Stalled Energy Bills and Projects

Kathmandu — During the meeting of the Infrastructure Development Committee under the House of Representatives held on Sunday, lawmakers fired a series of questions at Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Deepak Khadka. the lawmakers questioned Minister Khadka’s working style, pointing out the long delay in moving forward with the Water Resources, Electricity, and Renewable Energy…

[acquaintsofttech]

Expectations vs. Reality—Scalability vs. Elasticity in Cloud Computing

The concept of scalability vs. elasticity in cloud computing often gets mixed, but the reality hits different! In software product engineering service, both scalability and elasticity are needed.

In any system design, both scalability and elasticity hold a distinct significance. It helps businesses to keep their system intact with the latest features, capabilities, and resources. However, deciding on the right steps is still a basic software product development need. We'll eventually talk about the comparison between scalability vs. elasticity in cloud computing in detail in this blog.

What is Cloud Computing in a System?

Its foundation relies on on-demand delivery of servers, data storage, and systems over the internet for users to access them without owning them. underneath the infrastructure.

Cloud computing is the talk of the time, and capability and elasticity serve as top database solutions for handling high traffic. By knowing the static differences between the system scalability and system elasticity, you can make smarter business decisions about its utilization. 

Let's get a quick introduction before diving further into scalability vs. elasticity as a software product engineering service—

CTA 1:

Make your Legacy system more scalable!

Get top database solutions for handling high traffic by Acquaint Softtech! You can consult with the best experts and get relevant business insights to help with your software product development project every now and then!

Let us know!

System Scalability: An Overview

Scalability within a system refers to a system's core capability to handle increased workloads by optimal resource utilization and without compromising its functional perspectives. 

System scalability is more of a long-term strategy; taking the right steps ensures steady business growth. It's one of the two buzzwords in the world of cloud computing, the second being elasticity. People usually expect more from either of these two to be working similarly, but it is to understand for the businesses that these are two different things to get done!

System Elasticity: A Review  

In contrast to system scalability, elasticity is something on a different level. Its foundational concept relies on the system's ability to dynamically adjust and manage its resource allocations based on workload fluctuations.

However, system elasticity is a short-term solution for effortless system management. In comparison to system scalability, elasticity serves to very different purposes. By implementing the right elasticity and network optimization strategies for scalable applications, businesses can explore cost-effective system elasticity and adaptability in modern IT infrastructure.

Scalability Vs. Elasticity In Cloud Computing: Expectations & Reality

The expectations and reality differences of scalability and elasticity within a software product engineering service hold their own practical implementations. Here's a detailed breakdown of anticipating and leveraging these two features within a system—

#1: Expectation: “Scalability and Elasticity Are Similar”

Reality: 

It's a half-truth that system scalability and elasticity are safe. The reality is that they are closely identical in terms of business implementations. So, being closely related doesn't mean they're identical on every stage and level of the work process.

Scalability within a system is its ability to grow by the addition of more resources. It is about making your business grow eventually with time.

Elasticity is about managing the resource dynamics in real-time based on the system requirements. It's about handling multiple traffic spikes frequently in a shorter time duration.

#2: Expectation: "Scalability alone can handle resources without performance degradation."

Reality:

It's not just about system scalability when it comes to business growth. It's a long-term process that requires many cost-effective measures to operate constantly. If a business will be more predictable, you can make better plans to align with your business goals. Proper scalability requires pre-planning for resource allocation and infrastructure design.

Implementing best practices for a scalable system architecture, like vertical/horizontal scaling, will help you out in such cases. If not done proficiently, it can lead to cost overruns, ultimately making an inefficient system.

#3: Expectation: "Elasticity can achieve fully automated scaling without any workload challenges."

Reality:

Elasticity serves as a top database solution for handling high traffic, but it comes with its automation challenges. For example, if accurate monitoring techniques will not be involved, then elasticity may not be able to potentially optimize complex workloads. It needs cost-efficient auto-scaling rules and regulations to minimize your budget.

Frequent scaling events within a system lead to unexpected bills and cost volatility. Even if you're adopting high-defining techniques like resource provisioning, it may lead to latency, further leading to performance bottlenecks.

#4: Expectation: “Scalability can work automatically as soon as businesses adopt cloud computing.”

Reality:

It's not over when you adopt the cloud computing techniques for the system; actually, the work starts from there. Maintaining a system's scalability requires prompt planning and configuration with budget constraints in mind. Cloud computing, though, makes the scaling possible to a significant extent, but it's not fully automatic, to be honest.

Ask any expert of a reputed software product engineering company; they will tell you the reality in detail. First, you must configure the right auto-scaling guidelines according to your system and then the right scaling model. Continuous system monitoring and testing are applicable to align with the scalability needs.

If your system code and architecture are not concurrent, then even the heftiest of cloud servers aren't going to save you.

#5: Expectation: “Elasticity always saves a lot of business money.”

Reality:

Relying on elasticity will not always save you tons of money; it can go the other way with too much overconfidence!

System elasticity helps avoid data overprovisioning, but only when it's fully configured and planned. Poorly configured data causes frequent scaling, resulting in driving up the system costs. Elasticity planning must be done in a way that all the system resources could be utilized to their full extent. Reserving the resources but not utilizing them will waste your expenditure.

So, plan to couple your system elasticity with smart resource management, or else be ready to pay hefty bills on system scaling more often.

#6: Expectation: "Scaling and system elasticity can provide instant flexibility and infinite growth within the system."

Reality:

It requires much effort to maintain this expectation and make it a reality with time. Achieving great system flexibility works slowly, not instantly. It requires a robust, strategic business architecture to adhere to the latest market processes, smart business optimization, and ongoing business trends.

Both system scalability and elasticity hold a modern approach in cloud strategies, but they aren't any magic wands either, meaning proper planning is needed for sure to achieve both milestones. The key lies in building a highly adaptable system with the latest cloud computing system that embraces automation, statelessness, and modularity.

#7: Expectation: “Everything can be scaled easily.”

Reality:

It's a half-truth, as easy scaling is only limited to a few system components, initially. Other components don't scale that easily and require significant effort to perform such tasks. For example, you can scale stateless components with ease by applying horizontal scaling methods. In a microservice architecture, the services are loosely coupled, making space for many databases, caches, and file storages to scale better horizontally.

Whereas the same cannot be elastically scaled that easily, the third-party integrations can also become an issue if not controlled or managed. You must adopt the latest cloud-native system architecture to meet your users' demands eventually. hence, understanding the real capabilities of the system is important, and more important is to understand its limitations!

#8: Expectation: “Scalability is costly, and it is only for large enterprises to afford.”

Reality:

Scalability is a term introduced for small startups to eventually grow bigger with regular adaptation. They can benefit the most from continuous work on business scalability and elasticity. You just need to know the right scaling metrics, such as—

MVP and product-market fit standards

Cost-efficient system growth

Effortless system accountability planning to avoid replanning

Expert tip: The earlier the adoption, the better the scalability!

Businesses need to align their cloud strategies with the relevant system scalability and elasticity techniques. System scalability provides a more predictable business growth, whereas elasticity offers better management with work fluctuations. Based on workload patterns and the needs of the time, businesses must optimize their cloud strategies.

Scalability Vs. Elasticity In Cloud Computing: Major Differences

Concept

System Scalability

System Elasticity

Working

Adds resources to handle workloads.

Adjust resources to handle work demands.

Timing

According to increased work demands

Real-time dynamic scaling

Resource Allocation

Manually

Automatically

Response Time

Time-taking implementations

Instantaneous

Work load Management

Manually

Automated

Cost Effectiveness

Leads to over-provisioning

Enabled cost optimization

System Flexibility

Flexible but not instantaneous.

Instant and automated resource adjustments.

System Efficiency

Underutilized resources due to low demand

Optimized resource utilization

System Complexity

Simple to manage

Requires automation and monitoring

Use Cases

Best for systems with predictable patterns

Best for applications with unpredictable and highly variable workloads

CTA 2:

System scalability or elasticity—We Do Both!

Acquaint Softech is a leading software product engineering company that excels in availing top-rated affordable business solutions for your digital brand. Just let us know your requirements, and we'll blend classy system scaling techniques to create the most result-driven product!

Let's talk!

Conclusion—The Future of Scalability and Elasticity

Rethinking the future of scalability vs. elasticity in cloud computing is vital as the world progresses toward serverless resource provisioning. Automatic scaling-based platforms like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure offer immense scaling utilities as per the resources, helping developers avoid overprovisioning. It is indeed one of the most cost-effective choices you can ever make for your business!

Understanding that both system scalability and elasticity are needed in order to maintain a legacy system well is important. Both approaches are necessary as AI and ML both are now giving tough competition in these cases. If you are keen to know more, simply contact a software professional to get much more detailed insight.

FAQs

1. What does scalability mean in cloud computing?

A system's core ability to manage increased workloads without sacrificing its functioning is called system scalability. It is required in every software product development legacy system to remain market-fit for a longer time.

2. What does system elasticity mean in cloud computing?

A system's ability to dynamically adjust the resources based on the system's demand and need is termed system elasticity. It basically allows the system to auto-scale up and down as required when demand increases or decreases, for optimizing business costs.

3. Can I use scalability and elasticity together within my legacy system?

Absolutely, you can easily implement either option's scalability vs. elasticity in a cloud computing system, or both, accordingly. You must consult a software engineering expert to learn more about the issue and how to implement both system scalability and elasticity well within the system.

4. What are the best tools for infrastructure scaling and elasticity?

There are many scalability tools for system infrastructure and elasticity. You must first know the exact system requirements and then figure out which tech stack will prove to be the best solution for your business. For example, to get the best system scalability, you can consult top experts and learn more details about load balancing and cloud storage solutions. Plus, top-rate system elasticity tools include Auto-scaling groups (AWS), and monitoring systems like CloudWatch.

[ramniwas-sangwan]

Learn to Deploy a Web Server on AWS using Terraform - Infrastructure as ...

[newcodesociety]

[vastedge330]

Cloud Automation is crucial for optimizing IT operations in multi-cloud environments. Tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, and AWS CloudFormation enable businesses to streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance infrastructure management. These solutions provide efficiency and scalability, making them indispensable for modern cloud management.

[creativeera]

Multiservice Provisioning Platform Market Poised to Grow at a Robust Pace Owing to Increasing Demand

Market Overview The multiservice provisioning platform market allows operators to deliver a variety of telecommunication services such as voice, data, and multimedia over a single network infrastructure. The platform enables service providers to seamlessly roll out new converged data, voice and multimedia services for residential and business customers. It offers a simplified and automated approach for adding new connection types and innovative service bundles. Leveraging software-defined networking and virtualization technologies, multiservice provisioning platforms help operators maximize resource utilization, simplify operations and improve time-to-market for new services.

Global multiservice provisioning platform market is estimated to be valued at USD 47.83 Bn in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 65.27 Bn by 2031, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% from 2024 to 2031.

Key Takeaways Key players operating in the multiservice provisioning platform market are Alcatel SA, Ciena Corporation, Cisco Systems Inc., ECI Telecom Ltd., Ericsson, Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc., Marconi Corporation plc. The Multiservice Provisioning Platform Market Size  is expected to witness growing opportunities due to increasing demand for cloud-based, software-defined and virtualized services. Multiservice provisioning platforms enable simplified, automated and unified delivery of various digital services including voice, data, content, mobility and smart home solutions. Globally, North America dominates the multiservice provisioning platform market currently. However, Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness the highest growth over the forecast period supported by rapid infrastructure development, 5G deployment and growing population. Major players are focused on expansion opportunities in emerging economies through partnerships and collaborations. Market Drivers The increasing demand for convergence services is a major growth driver for this market. Customers expect seamless access to different services through multiple devices. Multiservice provisioning platforms allow telecom operators to offer innovative converged service bundles across different technologies through a single solution. Multiservice Provisioning Platform Market Size and Trends simplifies operations and improves customer experience. Multiservice provisioning platforms also help operators maximize infrastructure utilization and monetize existing network assets through efficient rollout of new services.

PEST Analysis Political: The globalization and emergence of multinational corporations has led many nations to form regulations and policies encouraging digitalization and connectivity. This has positively impacted the adoption of multiservice provisioning platforms. Economic: Growing economies worldwide have increased spending on network infrastructure. Telecom operators are investing significantly in upgrading legacy systems to keep pace with rising data usage and demand for high-speed networks. This presents opportunities for multiservice provisioning platform providers. Social: Widespread internet and smartphone adoption have changed consumer behavior and preferences. People now demand high-speed reliable connectivity for accessing real-time entertainment, social media, and collaboration tools from anywhere. This has accelerated the need for platforms offering centralized operations. Technological: Emerging technologies like 5G, IoT, and edge computing require more flexible, software-defined infrastructure that can rapidly deploy new services. Multiservice provisioning platforms allow dynamic service creation, integration and optimization across physical and virtual networks through open APIs and SDN/NFV principles. The market in terms of value is concentrated primarily in North America and Western Europe. This is due to high mobile and broadband penetration along with major telecom operators headquartered in these regions who are leading adopters for modernizing their networks. The Asia Pacific region, especially countries like China and India, presents the fastest growth opportunity. Rapid digitalization initiatives by governments coupled with increasing consumer demand for broadband and rising smartphone usage are driving massive network investments. Key telecom firms view multiservice platforms as strategic to handle exponentially rising data traffic and support new technologies.

Get more insights on Multiservice Provisioning Platform Market

For Deeper Insights, Find the Report in the Language that You want

French

German

Italian

Russian

Japanese

Chinese

Korean

Portuguese

Priya Pandey is a dynamic and passionate editor with over three years of expertise in content editing and proofreading. Holding a bachelor's degree in biotechnology, Priya has a knack for making the content engaging. Her diverse portfolio includes editing documents across different industries, including food and beverages, information and technology, healthcare, chemical and materials, etc. Priya's meticulous attention to detail and commitment to excellence make her an invaluable asset in the world of content creation and refinement.

(LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/priya-pandey-8417a8173/)

[probablyasocialecologist]

Microsoft has quietly implemented a policy blocking employee emails containing the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide” on its internal Exchange servers, according to No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestine Microsoft employees. The automated filter, which silently prevents such emails from reaching recipients was first detected on Wednesday—just after Microsoft’s Build developer conference faced repeated disruptions by the activist group. Microsoft has been rocked by internal dissent over its collaboration with the Israeli military and government amid the ongoing assault on Gaza. The company has faced disruptions to its events, including protests from employees over its provision of cloud services and other critical infrastructure used by the Israeli military. Now, the company appears to be tightening its grip on internal discourse. The terms “Israel” and “P4lestine” do not trigger a block, the group said. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[...]

Just days after the October 7, 2023 attack and the start of Israeli offensive in Gaza, Microsoft started pitching to the Israeli military, anticipating major military spending. Over the next few months, Israeli military became one of Microsoft’s top 500 global customers.

22 May 2025

[lepidopterium]

art by malak mattar

The Occupation has systematically destroyed every social infrastructure that makes civil society possible, whether it be healthcare, food systems, or education. They've targeted schools, hospitals, businesses, and every person who supports their community through their profession.

Rana and Ahmed (@ranafam2) are educators from Khan Younis, with Rana as a statistics professor at the Islamic University of Gaza and Ahmed as the principal of his school: both institutions have now been destroyed.

Palestinians have survived occupation for well over a century now, and they will remain steadfast, but they need your support.

Even with the ceasefire, resources are still limited and expensive. The weekly allowance for basic provisions like baby formula and flour is about $1000. Rana is also anticipating additional costs for baby formula, clothes, and natal care as she's eight months pregnant and expecting soon.

Finally with the ceasefire, Rana is hoping to evacuate with her family altogether. The cost of evacuation per person ranges from $5000 to $7000. If Rana gives birth before she can evacuate, that puts the total anticipated cost at $49,000 (5 children, 2 adults).

As of today (1/23), we are at:

$8185/$100,000

$0/$1500 <- Weekly provisions

$0/$2400 <- Daily goal to reach $49,000 in three weeks

Donate here.

I know these are overwhelming numbers, but if every person who shared this post donated $5, we can get them to safety.

Vetting + proof of conversation below the cut

Art by @jellyfishmoon72

Vetted by association

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall-Free

"The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday [October 8, 2024] requiring water utilities to replace all lead pipes within a decade, a move aimed at eliminating a toxic threat that continues to affect tens of thousands of American children each year.

The move, which also tightens the amount of lead allowed in the nation’s drinking water, comes nearly 40 years after Congress determined that lead pipes posed a serious risk to public health and banned them in new construction.

Research has shown that lead, a toxic contaminant that seeps from pipes into the drinking water supply, can cause irreversible developmental delays, difficulty learning and behavioral problems among children. In adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead exposure can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function and cancer.

But replacing the lead pipes that deliver water to millions of U.S. homes will cost tens of billions of dollars, and the push to eradicate them only gathered momentum after a water crisis in Flint, Mich., a decade ago exposed the extent to which children remain vulnerable to lead poisoning through tap water...

The groundbreaking regulation, called the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, will establish a national inventory of lead service lines and require that utilities take more aggressive action to remove lead pipes on homeowners’ private property. It also lowers the level of lead contamination that will trigger government enforcement from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb.

The rule also establishes the first-ever national requirement to test for lead in schools that rely on water from public utilities. It mandates thatwater systems screen all elementary and child-care facilities, where those who are the most vulnerable to lead’s effects — young children — are enrolled, and that they offer testing to middle and high schools.

The White House estimates that more than 9 million homes across the country are still supplied by lead pipelines, which are the leading source of lead contamination through drinking water. The EPA has projected that replacing all of them could cost at least $45 billion.

Lead pipes were initially installed in cities decades ago because they were cheaper and more malleable, but the heavy metal can wear down and corrode over time. President Joe Biden has made replacing them one of his top environmental priorities, securing $15 billion to give states over five years through the bipartisan infrastructure law and vowing to rid the country of lead pipes by 2031. The administration has spent $9 billion so far — enough to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes, the administration said.

On Tuesday, the administration said it was providing an additional $2.6 billion in funding for pipe replacement. Over 367,000 lead pipes have been replaced nationwide since Biden took office, according to White House officials, affecting nearly 1 million people...

Environmental advocates said that former president Donald Trump, who issued much more modest revisions to the lead and copper rule just days before Biden took office, would have a hard time reversing the new standards.

Erik Olson, the senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the Safe Drinking Water Act has provisions prohibiting weakening the health protections of existing standards...

Olson added that the rule “represents a major victory for public health” and will protect millions of people “whose health is threatened every time they fill a glass from the kitchen sink contaminated by lead.”

“While the rule is imperfect and we still have more to do, this is by far the biggest step towards eliminating lead in tap water in over three decades,” he said."

-via The Washington Post, October 8, 2024

[communistkenobi]

struggling to reconcile my dislike of the use of “choice” in relation to transgenderism. sex assignment itself is not a choice and I don’t find it meaningful or helpful to think I “chose” to be transgender. in fact there were many things I “chose” to do prior to transitioning to make this feeling go away and it did not. Choice is further wrapped up in intentionally de-politicised ideas about social action and agency, constantly positioned in opposition to “structure” or “social pressure” or what have you. “Choice” is what happens only in the absence of domination, it is the expression of the “individual” trapped within us all. What this leaves you with is a subject who appears to rise above the power of history, making decisions ‘of his own free will’ in spite of all this violence as a result of, um, well that’s not important! Let’s not look at the law or the state or history to see where these ideas of personal individual freedoms come from or how they are themselves enforced through violence. It’s just an individual acting on his desires! To “choose to be trans” in popular consciousness means to be given the privilege of being free from patriarchal social pressures. And this is a line terfs often use - trans people are reinforcing patriarchy by deluding ourselves into thinking we can “simply choose” to be another gender. I think committing to the idea of choice as a concept and all its attendant ideological baggage (overwhelmingly structured by bourgeois legal frameworks in the popular imaginary) forces you into some deeply flawed analyses of power and domination.

And I likewise hate that the other dominant framework is “born this way/born in the wrong body” because of how it naturalises the very political and violent nature of sex assignment and its embeddedness within state census data, administrative architecture, the pathologisation of sex and desire (all of which are not natural or eternal), and so on. furthermore I deeply respect the position other trans people have when they say that they chose to be transgender - outside of conversations of individual validity, I think that is a politically useful and powerful way to position yourself. Even if we were to accept that being transgender is fully a choice, people would still do it, because being trans is not disgusting or shameful. I am not a sick individual, or a tragedy, or a danger to others, I am transgender and that is an incredibly meaningful and fulfilling part of my life. To frame this as a sexual perversion or life-long condition means reinforcing the idea that transgenderism is a shameful deformity (we have much in common with our disabled & intersex comrades in this regard), that the cissexual body is the exclusive site of beauty and authenticity.

And so this is where I find the idea of autonomy much more useful - while ‘choice’ is situated as a thing that individuals do, autonomy is power that is granted to you. I can’t meaningfully demand choice as a political goal, but I can demand autonomy. I don’t want choice, I want the autonomy to act on my desires, and the way that will happen is through the state provision of free hrt, surgery, name and gender marker changes, and so on. Autonomy feels like a much more productive articulation of “choice” because it necessitates that we think about who and what grants autonomy, for what purposes, in which contexts. Who gives a shit about choices! Transgenderism is not a social position an individual can have in society, it is produced through cissexualism, through state and medical sex assignment, through coercion and pathologisation and violence - all of which can be changed.

As a direct comparison, I don’t think people should be given the “choice” to have an abortion, but the autonomy to do so - sure you can choose to get one, but unless there is the medical, financial, and social infrastructure available to you to act on that decision, then that is not a meaningful choice you can “make.” Abortion being legal (and therefore an action you are granted the ‘choice’ to take) doesn’t mean it is actually realisable as a decision, it just means that whoever already has the power & resources to act on that legality will, and those that don’t, won’t. Who decides which people have those resources and which don’t? Well let’s not worry about that, the important thing is that people have choices!

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Four of the six Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa and four in Minnesota will shut down in a year, the Midwestern affiliate operating them said Friday, blaming a freeze in federal funds, budget cuts proposed in Congress and state restrictions on abortion. The clinics closing in Iowa include the only Planned Parenthood facility in the state that provides abortion procedures, in Ames, home to Iowa State University... "We have been fighting to hold together an unsustainable infrastructure as the landscape shifts around us and an onslaught of attacks continues," Ruth Richardson, the affiliate's president and CEO, said in a statement.

...the bill contains provisions that have alarmed health care advocates since they first showed up in earlier versions of the bill. Among them is a plan seeking to defund Planned Parenthood, which the organization warns will affect its ability to provide critical services, including pap smears, cancer screenings, and birth control. But on Thursday, two last-minute additions went even further: The reconciliation bill that was passed now seeks to ban Affordable Care Act health care plans from covering abortion and gender-affirming care for all Medicaid patients, including adults, after initially proposing to ban care for just minors.

So there you have it. Planned Parenthood was already on life support and if the "Big, Beautiful Bill" passes it will effectively pull the plug on their finances. More clinics will need to close whether Megan Thee Stallion likes it or not. What gets downplayed (or left out entirely) by major newspapers is that as clinics close, more babies live.

The analysis of birth data found that in the states with abortion bans, the rate of births per 1,000 women of reproductive age increased by 1.7 percent more than would be expected from previous years’ data... In states with abortion bans, that increase translated to 22,180 more births than expected, the researchers said.

You won't find anyone in the media doing follow-ups with these 22,180 children. No one will attend their 1st birthday party or ask the mothers if they regret having them. The media has decided it's just better not to say anything. Unless it's a horror story about a woman who couldn't get an abortion it's a non-story. No one in the major media outlets will admit that's how it works, of course, but that is how it works.

Twenty two thousand one hundred and eighty. Per state if I'm reading that correctly. That's what banning abortion does. Twenty two thousand lives that would have been murdered in the womb are now going to live. That's amazing. That's awesome, in the original definition of inspiring awe.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Secret tunnels: who built them, and who uses them?

So there aren't "Secret" tunnels in the Seireitei.

There are "These are SUPPOSED to be secret tunnels to evacuate the nobles and central 46 in an emergency but you have a better chance of keeping a fart secret in an elevator than you do of any kind of construction project in Seireitei" tunnels.

There are "Well we definitely built this for a reason but it's been eight fucking centuries and fuck if anyone alive remembers what the hell it's for" tunnels.

There are even quite a few "this tunnel is a secret because it wasn't *built* by anyone, it's the by-product of centuries of dubious infrastructure and construction shortcuts and no small amount of subsidence. This is just a gap waiting to collapse, but sure. You can try your luck" tunnels.

---

If there was ever a Master of these Sort-of-Secret tunnels, it was the 5th captain of the 11th division, Tokagero Kenpachi.

Certainly, Unohana and the fourth division collectively are the lords of the undercity now, but Unohana is a busy woman with lots to do topside. So in 1438, she Very Generously allowed the 11th to maintain the sewers and underground infrastructure while she figured out vaccines.

Tokagero regarded this as very kind of Unohana, because Tokagero was a water monitor of gargantuan scale, and regarded the dark and twisting undercity as her natural habitat. Which it may well have been, because that's certainly a space where an already large lizard might be exposed to Kido Corps magical waste or other Suspect Substances and grow to be large enough to swallow the fourth Kenpachi whole and assume his title.

Tokagero and the 11th had many a fine hunt in the undercity, after hollows that had escaped from noble-backed Bloodsports, to fugitives, to other strange creatures of the urban abyss, including a worrisomely large koi fish that Tokagero decided to grant dominion over the undercity's waterways as one Supernatural Beast to another. There was some wagging of tongues that Tokagero was backing out of a fight with Daikoi, but that was quickly silences by Tokagero flicking her own tongue and reminding everyone that she never packed provisions for these trips.

One day however, Tokagero discovered something bizarre.

Ice.

She'd been on the hunt of an escaped war criminal when she found him in an odd corner of the sewers with a very large hole where his head used to be, as if shot with an incredibly powerful projectile.

Weird.

She thought she felt a crackle of reiatsu before, but this was unlike any Kido spells she knew, and her quarry was not the type to do himself in.

Weirder still was the frigid patch of ice smeared against part of the floor an wall beside him. This bastard had no proclivity for Kido and did not carry an ice-type weapon, so where had it come from?

---

"Youre back early." Jugram frowned at Lille Barro as he came in from the unusually intense blizzard outside castle silbern.

"Sewers 're haunted." Barro grunted, hefting his massive gun off his shoulder.

"Pardon?" Jugram blinked.

"Sewers 're haunted." Barro repeated, rolling his eye. "The sewers near the primary spy portals are PACKED with shinigami on the hunt for something- one of them nearly ran into me. So patrols will have to wait."

"Ah." Jugram nodded. "...coffee?" The second-in-cmand offered Barro, for lack of anything sensible to say.

"Hm?" Barro blinked, looking up from hanging up his strange hat. "Oh, yes. Please. Sorry, it's been a while since an enemy got that close and it's unnerved me. I keep feeling like I've forgotten something..."

"Just so long as you didn't leave the portal open." Jugram teased, confident in his commrade's competence.

[ayeforscotland]

What is Dataflow? Part 3: Doing the Practical

Apologies for the delay in getting this next section up - past few weeks have been super busy and then, hilariously, I was ill last week.

Read Part 1 here.

Read Part 2 here.

In Part 2 I wrote about how important diagrams have been throughout history. Understanding the 'big picture' has been important for every triumph of engineering. From bridges to skyscrapers to oil rigs and wind turbines, all of these have had diagrams backed by international standards which enabled them to be built.

The digital world hasn't quite managed that yet. In the other posts I've tried to drill home the point that modern digital businesses are often extremely siloed, communication and documentation isn't there and there is a lack of a common language between 'Business' and 'IT'.

This lack of understanding means organisations do not understand how data flows through their business and their supply chain.

It's the understanding of dataflow that's important here because it enables organisations to focus on optimising, securing and maintaining flows across an organisation rather than siloed teams patching things up where they can and not understand the upstream and downstream impact on the business.

Method and Layers

Going to preface this by saying that this may come across as complete common sense, and to some extent you'll be completely correct!

This is an example of how to create a very basic dataflow. But I will first start with understanding all of the People, Processes and Technology that I use to post on Tumblr.

So I start with six layers:

Ownership

Business Process

Application

System

Hardware

Infrastructure

What is important to remember here is that you do not have to be a specialist in every single layer.

A Business Analyst will feel much more at home in the Business Process Layer, while an Infrastructure Manager will be much more knowledgeable about the Infrastructure layer.

The important thing is that this Business & IT Diagram allows them to communicate more efficiently.

Let's Build a Dataflow!

In this example - There's an 'AyeforScotland' Element (the rectangle!) at the top. I'm the owner of everything below that element. The black lines are 'connections' representing the connectivity between the different elements.

Following the example, I'm responsible for' managing my blog 'Blog Management' which breaks down into smaller processes: Draft posts, schedule posts, answer anon abuse, and reblog shitposts.

Coming down to the Application Layer (red) - You can see that I draft and schedule posts using Tumblr Desktop and I'm using Firefox Web Browser for that.

But for answering anon abuse and reblogging shitposts, I'm using the Tumblr App.

In the Systems layer you can see I'm using Windows 11 on my PC (Hardware) and I'm using iOS on my iPhone.

Both my PC and iPhone connect to my BT Router.

And that's it for this Business & IT Diagram. I've shown clearly how I'm responsible for the processes and how I use the technology to perform those processes. I don't necessarily need to show everything on a single diagram because it would lose clarity.

This next Business & IT Diagram is much smaller, and establishes the relationships and dependencies on Tumblr to provide the service. And that's because we're complying with the laws and rules of a methodology.

In this diagram (probably need to zoom in to see it) I'm at the top left as 'AyeforScotland' and my 'BT Router' is spatially below me. Following the rules and laws of the method, that maintains the relationship that I have with the BT Router, I own it.

But I don't own the small 'Internet' that's next to it horizontally. I've simplified the concept of the internet for this example.

There's also two owners - 'Automattic' which owns and operates 'Tumblr' below it, with Tumblr being responsible for the 'Provision of Tumblr Services'.

Now naturally 'provision of Tumblr services' will break out into loads of sub-processes. Tumblr could map out their entire organisation (and if they need a hand, they can DM me!) But for this dataflow it's not really required.

Now both diagrams above are not dataflows. But close your eyes for a second and you can visualise what they are.

But because we've created our two diagrams, we understand the connectivity and using the software we can create the dataflow.

Now again, this is very basic. But when you put things into a dataflow context, you can put this down in front of a wide range of people from different business disciplines and they can start to optimise how the business works.

Here's a much larger Dataflow example, that you won't be able to read because it exceeds A0 printing size, but it should convey the scale.

If any of the connections or elements fail along this dataflow - The dataflow stops.

This costs organisations time and/or money.

So understanding dataflows allows IT people to articulate to business people "Hi boss, if this server goes down it will bring down this dataflow and cost the business $10,000 an hour" - Suddenly it's in a language they understand.

It helps with strategic decision-making, it helps with communication, it helps document how things *actually* work as opposed to how people think they work, and once you switch to thinking in terms of 'dataflow' it's hard to stop.

Conclusion

I can't wait to answer all the questions on the back of this.

Also one area I didn't go into is that each of the elements (rectangles) can also hold data (Financial data, Technical Specs, Risk & Cybersecurity metrics, Governance documentation etc).

It's also really easy to get started with it. You can start in any of the layers based on your area of work.

[raygun631]

The "Big Beautiful Bill" will fund ICE as a private military force which is already grabbing Americans off the streets.

This bill currently in senate will fund a private military force and genocide:

At the heart of the bill is $29.85 billion in funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), designated to remain available through 2029. The funds cover large-scale personnel expansion, new deportation infrastructure, and digital enforcement technology.

According to the legislative text, ICE is appropriated “$29,850,000,000...to remain available until September 30, 2029” (p. 904).

But ICE is just one piece of the package. When combined with new appropriations for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), immigration courts, detention expansion, and state-level border assistance, the bill’s immigration enforcement budget totals approximately $175.155 billion. Summary of Immigration-Related Funding (FY2025)

According to the legislative text of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the following immigration-related funding appear across multiple sections of the bill:U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is appropriated $29.85 billion “to remain available until September 30, 2029,” for hiring 8,500 new enforcement officers and expanding deportation operations. The funding appears on page 826 of the PDF. An additional $45 billion is set aside for expanding ICE detention capacity, including “single adult and family residential center beds,” as outlined on page 827. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) receives $46.55 billion for physical border infrastructure, including “constructing tactical infrastructure and physical barriers,” found on page 824. CBP is granted another $12.007 billion to hire new Border Patrol agents, provide signing and relocation bonuses, purchase vehicles, and upgrade facilities. This funding is detailed on page 825. The bill dedicates $6.168 billion to modern surveillance, biometric, and screening technologies at the border, including “autonomous surveillance towers” and “artificial intelligence for threat detection.” This provision appears on page 828. A newly established State Border Security Reinforcement Fund is appropriated $10 billion to reimburse states for building their own wall systems, transporting migrants, and operating checkpoints. This is outlined on page 832. Separately, Section 70605 of the bill imposes a 1% federal excise tax on cash-based international remittance transfers, which applies to any funds sent outside the U.S. via money orders, cash, or cashier’s checks. This section spans pages 613 to 615. Originally, it was 30%, then 5%, then 3%, and now 1%.

Massive ICE Buildout and Bonuses

ICE alone would be authorized to hire “not fewer than 8,500 additional officers and agents” plus over 2,000 attorneys and support staff (p. 905). To support recruitment and retention:Signing bonuses of up to $20,000 are offered to new ICE hires who commit to five years of service (p. 906). Retention bonuses of up to $15,000 annually are available in “high-attrition field offices.” ICE agents may now qualify for law enforcement availability pay (LEAP) and 10% premium overtime.

Over $5.2 billion is allocated for infrastructure modernization, including $1.25 billion for new detention facilities and $2.5 billion for artificial intelligence, biometric data systems, and digital case tracking (pp. 907–908).

They are funding a secret police

We need designs, to plaster everywhere, informing people and the need for an emergency reponse to this thing. Monday the 30th at noon until this thing is stopped. Protest, call out sick, dont buy anything, stay home and doomscroll

Spread the word be creative

[apas-95]

Idk how to feel about China opening diplomatic relations with the Taliban. Yes Afghanistan's assets should be unfrozen and the entire reason the Taliban runs Afghanistan now is the fault of the US, but they are still an extremely brutal reactionary theocracy enforcing the most extreme gender apartheid in the world. It's not China's (or anyone's) place to change that obviously, but I can't bring myself to celebrate China opening diplomacy with them as a win for the third world.

So, in a word: non-interference.

You're right that the Taliban are a reactionary organisation, and you're right that they're in power because of US interference and invasion. Furthermore, you correctly point out that China should not attempt to change the internal political structure of Afghanistan, but the reason for that is much more than an abstract notion of sovereignty or respect - it is moreso a matter of practicality.

The Taliban are in power because they are the Afghan-nationalist group most favourable to US interests. The US would prefer its puppet government be in power, but failing that, there are groups it very much does not want to take power, such as Afghan communist organisations. The US directs more resources to undernining those groups than it does the Taliban. In any case, the Taliban are still better for Afghanistan than the US-comprador government is, but they are still ultimately in power due to continued US intervention. The US refusal to recognise the Taliban is an element in a continuum of intervention, attempting to tip the scale towards US-favourable groups - it is, counter-intuitively, an element of the exact strategy that is keeping the Taliban in power.

China's non-interference policy not only does not influence the internal affairs of other countries - inherently, it actively *weakens* US influence in those countries. If the threat keeping US-favourable groups in power is sanctions, blockade, and international non-recognition, then the credible promise that China, an incredibly useful partner, will engage with *whichever* domestic group takes power, no matter their ideology, allows for organic Afghan interests to express themselves and bring about organic Afghan political goals. Similarly, the provisioning of no-strings-attached investment, infrastructure, etc, makes US support of preferred groups less effective, as Afghanistan is both less desperate for support, and also has less incentive to take aid packages that include 'restructuring' demands.

In essence: refusing relations with the Taliban, like the US is doing, is part of the exact gradient of political-economic pressures that keeps the Taliban (the group least threatening to US interests, other than an unsustainable puppet) in power. Opening non-judgemental relations to *whoever* achieves power weakens that gradient, and strengthens the ability for the genuine interests of the Afghan people to determine who achieves and retains power. China refusing to open relations with the Afghan government because they do not align ideologically would not change that gradient at all, and could only add yet another set of foreign interests overriding those of the people (interests which could not be more commanding than those of the US military empire, in any case). Free and non-judgemental relations with a reliable trading partner is precisely the environment that weakens the political base of reactionary organisations, and strengthens genuinely revolutionary ones.