backup strategies — The New Atlantis

By Alan JacobsMay 4, 20111 min read

Here’s an odd post by Gina Barreca about a student of hers whose completely un-backed-up computer died. Everything was lost: documents of all kinds, photos, email, etc. Barreca’s response: See, this is why you should print everything out. (Everything? Even the photos?) Barreca says she pays for a backup service, though she seems to make a point of emphasizing that she doesn’t understand it: “one of those companies which (I am told) will keep my stuff safe in the ether or the cloud or the memory of one really smart guy who’ll be able to recite everything I have on...

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Why I, a Physician, Write

I remember my first encounter with great literature. Before bedtime, my father would read Great Expectations to me, using different voices for different characters. I remember Pip and Miss Havisham, though I don’t think I fully understood Miss Havisham’s peremptory and eery commandment to Pip to love Stella. I remember the stygian scene with the convict in the graveyard. I also remember reading Sherlock Holmes under my covers, enamored with his brilliance and the game that was afoot. I remember tearing through the Lord of the Rings books and the first few books of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time... The post Why I, a Physician, Write appeared first on The New Atlantis.

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We admitted the patient to our service from the emergency room to treat her for thrombocytopenia (an abnormally low platelet count) and spontaneous bruising. The patient, in her fifties, was otherwise healthy. True, she had been treated for stomach cancer nearly seven years ago, but it was in remission and had been for a while. She had no issues eating or drinking, no problems going to the bathroom, no blood in her stool, no vomiting, no bloating, no severe acid reflux. In other words, she had no residual gastrointestinal symptoms. Over the next two days, we ordered other labs, and... The post The Absent Oncologist appeared first on The New Atlantis.

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The New Atlantis

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At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, hospital administrators behaved as cautiously as possible to avoid transmission and dissemination of the virus. They strictly limited or eliminated hospital visitors. This was one of the most devastating policies enacted by healthcare institutions. As a consequence, not only were patients left without family at their bedside to advocate for them, but they were, alas, left without family at bedside to say goodbye to them as they passed. Families needed to FaceTime their loved ones near the end; no hands were held, no one gathered around the bedside. At their most vulnerable moments,... The post Let Them Visit appeared first on The New Atlantis.

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backup strategies — The New Atlantis

Related

Why I, a Physician, Write

The Absent Oncologist

A Journal of the Plague Months

The Other Victims of Covid-19

Are Doctors Heroes?

Let Them Visit