Hi all, I'm Zafir from the App Engine team. We're trying to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. For updates, you can follow @app_engine on Twitter or the thread we are updating on Google Groups: http://goo.gl/wur3v
It is entirely possible for Google to have an outage that takes down GAE and G+. Given that reality, it makes sense that their "emergency public communication" should be as separated as possible from their own infrastructure.
Bazinga! But below the belt, given the circumstances. I'd like to encourage engineers like Zafir to make themselves available to us (outside of google groups) more often.
This is a fundamental problem with our always-on, 24 hour news, headline-based world. Unfortunately, it tends to breed fear, hopelessness and apathy as people feel overwhelmed about too many problems they can't control.
Not sure what to do about it, though. Get outside and disconnected more, I suppose. :)
Not me. For one thing, keep in mind these people are selling page views. If the headline was "Odds of being diagnosed with brain parasite at .00061%", would you even bother reading the story? Dividing things out is a big anxiety stopper.
And think about it when you see something like "...100% increase in your risk of brain cancer," since it represents the doubling of a very small number. Taking percentages of percentages is a sneaky way to make things look more important than they really are.
I don't know which article you're referencing, but we also had brain parasites found in a man who died about 50 miles from me in Indiana. We've basically been told to avoid freshwater lakes and rivers for now.
Those freshwater incidents sound like protozoa (amoeba) infections with an high mortality rate ("Brain-eating amoeba suspected in Indiana death"). GP is referring to another hazard, also seems to be from nasty water. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4492244. Don't say you weren't warned though !
