Latest news with #SpencerKimball
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
New poll shows Zohran Mamdani beating Andrew Cuomo in NYC Democratic mayoral primary
There's good news for the Zohran Mamdani campaign Monday morning as New Yorkers get set to vote in Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary election. A new Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll has Mamdani neck and neck with Cuomo, with Cuomo slightly ahead in the first round. But Mamdani ultimately beats Cuomo in its ranked choice voting simulation after eight rounds. The poll has Cuomo with 35% in the first round, followed by Mamdani with 32%. Comptroller Brad Lander is the only other candidate with double digit support at 13%, followed by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams with 8% and Scott Stringer with 3%. The poll finds Mamdani's support has grown month-to-month from 22% to 32%, whereas Cuomo gained one point in the same period, 34% to 35%. The trouble for Cuomo occurs in the ranked choice voting simulation, which the Emerson poll shows Mamdani picking up 18 points as the rounds go by, as opposed to 12 points for Cuomo. That's enough to put Mamdani over the 50% threshold by the eighth round, according to the poll. The poll has a first round margin of error of plus or minus 3.4%, and a final round margin of error of 3.6%. "Over five months, Mamdani's support has surged from 1% to 32%, while Cuomo finishes near where he began," Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. "In the ranked choice simulation, Mamdani gains 18 points compared to Cuomo's 12, putting him ahead in the final round for the first time in an Emerson poll." A separate Marist poll released just last week had Cuomo remaining the front runner in the increasingly tight race. In that poll, Cuomo remained the first-choice candidate for 38% of likely Democratic primary voters, followed by Mamdani at 27%, which was up from 18% from the prior month. The Marist poll had Cuomo passing the 50% threshold in the seventh round of ranked choice voting. All of this adds to the uncertainty and anticipation in this race, where it may take several weeks before we finally know the winner.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Speed Means Nothing If You're Down: Benchmarking For The Real World
Spencer Kimball is the CEO and co-founder of Cockroach Labs. For decades, database performance benchmarks like TPC-C (Transaction Processing Performance Council Benchmark C) chased peak throughput under ideal conditions. Systems were scaled vertically and micro-optimized at every layer to game benchmarks and maximize transactions per second (TPS). But times—and technology—have changed. Today's applications live everywhere: across regions, clouds and availability zones. They're always on, global and expected to perform flawlessly despite disruptions. Users now demand instant banking balances, lag-free global broadcasts, immediate access to patient records and real-time inventory updates across international supply chains. These aren't aspirations; they're baseline expectations, assumed and demanded unequivocally. Modern workloads are unpredictable, highly distributed and intensely data-driven. Fraud detection, logistics tracking and AI-powered automation now run continuously at a global scale. Autonomous systems assume constant availability and consistency. They don't pause for outages or wait for recovery. They expect the system to be fast, consistent and always available. Yet legacy benchmarks still focus on raw throughput, rarely accounting for the realities of modern architecture: latency spikes, node crashes or regional outages. The true measure of performance isn't speed under ideal conditions—it's resilience under failure. If anyone doubts the importance of resilience, recent history is rife with cautionary tales. • Costco's Black Friday outage in 2019 allegedly cost millions in sales. • Ticketmaster's 2022 crash during Taylor Swift's ticket sales revealed its infrastructure was unprepared for massive spikes. • A faulty update in 2024 froze hospital electronic health records, forcing clinicians to revert to paper and risking patient safety. • CrowdStrike's 2024 outage halted global freight logistics due to insufficient resilience planning. • Barclays and Capital One outages in 2025 left millions unable to access banking services, demonstrating that even leading institutions aren't immune. There is a perennial thread running through this representative sampling of recent failures: The rising complexity of modern applications requires a shift in mindset to resilience as a first-order goal. Modern infrastructure complexity—multiregion, multicloud and governed by stringent regulations like GDPR, PDPA and DORA—demands new benchmarks that prioritize resilience as a fundamental metric, not an afterthought. Benchmarks that ignore this operational and compliance complexity are no longer sufficient. True resilience testing involves deliberately introducing controlled chaos: killing nodes, dropping disks, simulating outages. The objective is clear: Observe the system's behavior under stress. Does it reroute traffic seamlessly? Are transactions duplicated, delayed or lost? How rapidly does performance return to baseline? These aren't trivial operational details—they're critical indicators of system integrity. Chaos testing, a methodology where systems are intentionally stressed to uncover hidden vulnerabilities, is gaining traction. However, resilience testing often remains disconnected from standard performance metrics like throughput and latency. Integrating these tests ensures resilience isn't merely theoretical but quantifiable and central to system design. Just as vehicle performance isn't judged solely by top speed, database benchmarks shouldn't focus exclusively on maximum throughput. Benchmarks must evolve to measure continuity, recovery speed and stability under real-world pressures. Systems engineered with built-in replication, self-healing automation and geographic consensus aren't merely technically superior; they're strategically essential. These aren't just engineering choices; they're risk strategies. And they should be part of how we measure value. Speed without resilience is meaningless. Challenge your teams and vendors to prove resilience under chaos. If they can't, they're not ready for today's demands. The ultimate benchmark isn't the fastest lap—it's staying on track when legacy systems are stuck rebuilding in the pit. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump approval dips amid concerns over economy, foreign policy: Poll
President Trump's approval has dipped 100 days into his presidency amid concerns over his handling of the economy and foreign policy, according to a new poll released on Wednesday. An Emerson College Polling national survey found approval of Trump split: 45 percent approve of the job he's doing as president while 45 percent said they disapprove. Trump's approval rating has dropped slightly compared to a poll conducted in mid-March, which found him at 47 percent approval rating, with a separate 45 percent saying they disapproved of him. Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, noted that Trump's weak spots have been his handling of several international conflicts, as well as the economy. The poll found that Trump received a 27 percent approval rating over his handling the water between Russia and Ukraine, while 52 percent said they disapproved and another 21 percent were neutral or had no opinion. Compared to polling conducted in March, Trump saw a seven-point increase in his disapproval rating of his handling of the conflict and a 14-point drop in his approval rating on the same issue. The polling also found voters souring on his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, with 46 percent disapproving of his handling of the conflict and only 30 percent approving. A separate 24 percent were neutral or had no opinion. Compared to March polling, his disapproval rating over the Israel-Hamas war ticked up 5 points, while his approval rating there dropped 8 points. Emerson College Polling noted that his approval rating of his handling of the economy remains the same as it was during its 50-day poll, which is 37 percent. The polling also found that 29 percent of voters think Trump's economic policies are making the economy better, while 49 percent believe it's making the economy worse. Twenty-three percent said it had no effect or it was too soon to tell. 'Despite several unpopular domestic and foreign policies, President Trump still holds an entrenched base of voters who, if given the chance, say they would vote for him again,' Kimball said in a press release. 'Areas of concern for the president include economic and foreign policy, with voters disapproving of his actions on tariffs and in the Russia-Ukraine war, while voters continue to be divided on immigration and deportation policy,' he added. The Emerson College Polling national survey was conducted between April 25 and April 28 with 1,000 active registered voters surveyed. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Poll: Most Americans say US should have stayed out of Vietnam
A majority of American adults, including most Vietnam War veterans, think the United States should have stayed out of Vietnam, according to a new poll released on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War on Wednesday. Why it matters: The survey by Nexstar Media and Emerson College Polling illustrated the regret most Americans feel about Vietnam half a century following the nation's worst military defeat and the divisions it caused. The big picture: For much of the last few decades, the Vietnam War has split Americans across ideological and racial lines, with those divisions around the U.S. role in the world still remaining today. This latest poll, however, shows how unpopular the Vietnam War is now as the Baby Boomer Generation retires and later generations see it as unnecessary for the wounds it inflicted on the national psyche. By the numbers: A majority of adults (62%) think the U.S. should have stayed out of Vietnam, while 38% think the nation did the right thing in getting into the war, the poll found. Meanwhile, 59% of Vietnam War veterans say the U.S. should have stayed out of the conflict, compared to 41%. A plurality of U.S. adults (44%) think the war in Vietnam was not justified, while 29% believe the war was justified. The survey found that this is the lowest perceived justification for war by the U.S. public from World War II to the Iraq War. What they're saying: "Notably, 46% of Vietnam veterans think the Vietnam War was not justified, while 41% think it was justified," Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement. "A majority of veterans think the U.S. should have stayed out of Vietnam, and veterans do not think the U.S. is more cautious as a result of the war." Flashback: President John Kennedy got the U.S. involved in a civil war in Vietnam amid the Cold War and fears of spreading Communism. After his assassination, President Lyndon Johnson escalated U.S. involvement, sparking anti-Vietnam War protests on college campuses across the nation. President Nixon continued the war, even expanded it to nearby Cambodia, until agreeing to a peace accord. Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese fighters on April 30, 1975. Juan José Valdez of San Antonio, Texas, was the last of the 11 U.S. Marines out of Vietnam before the fall of Saigon. Between the lines: Thousands of returning Vietnam War veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and were shunned by anti-war protesters and war supporters for the defeat. Some Vietnam War veterans, like the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. John Kerry, ran for office, but none were ever elected president. The intrigue: Among those who lived during the Vietnam War, 56% think President Johnson often misled the public about the war, while 11% think Johnson was almost always truthful. Nearly 3 in 4 (74%) Vietnam veterans say Johnson misled people, while 10% say he was truthful. A plurality of Americans (49%) think political divisions today are bigger than they were during the Vietnam War; 16% believe they are smaller now, and 19% think they are about the same. 7 in 10 adults say Vietnam veterans have not been treated well by the U.S. government in the years since the Vietnam War. Methodology: The Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey of U.S. adults was conducted from April 8 to 11, 2025. It was based on a representative sample of 1,000 adults weighted by gender, education, race, age, party registration, and region, using U.S. Census parameters.
The Hill
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Trump approval dips amid concerns over economy, foreign policy: Poll
President Trump's approval has dipped 100 days into his presidency amid concerns over his handling of the economy and foreign policy, according to a new poll released on Wednesday. An Emerson College Polling national survey found approval of Trump split: 45 percent approve of the job he's doing as president while 45 percent said they disapprove. Trump's approval rating has dropped slightly compared to a poll conducted in mid-March, which found him at 47 percent approval rating, with a separate 45 percent saying they disapproved of him. Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, noted that Trump's weak spots have been his handling of several international conflicts, as well as the economy. The poll found that Trump received a 27 percent approval rating over his handling the water between Russia and Ukraine, while 52 percent said they disapproved and another 21 percent were neutral or had no opinion. Compared to polling conducted in March, Trump saw a seven-point increase in his disapproval rating of his handling of the conflict and a 14-point drop in his approval rating on the same issue. The polling also found voters souring on his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, with 46 percent disapproving of his handling of the conflict and only 30 percent approving. A separate 24 percent were neutral or had no opinion. Compared to March polling, his disapproval rating over the Israel-Hamas war ticked up 5 points, while his approval rating there dropped 8 points. Emerson College Polling noted that his approval rating of his handling of the economy remains the same as it was during its 50-day poll, which is 37 percent. The polling also found that 29 percent of voters think Trump's economic policies are making the economy better, while 49 percent believe it's making the economy worse. Twenty-three percent said it had no effect or it was too soon to tell. 2024 Election Coverage 'Despite several unpopular domestic and foreign policies, President Trump still holds an entrenched base of voters who, if given the chance, say they would vote for him again,' Kimball said in a press release. 'Areas of concern for the president include economic and foreign policy, with voters disapproving of his actions on tariffs and in the Russia-Ukraine war, while voters continue to be divided on immigration and deportation policy,' he added. The Emerson College Polling national survey was conducted between April 25 and April 28 with 1,000 active registered voters surveyed. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
