These institutional safeguards seem robust when they are in place, so much so that we mock them as "bureaucracy".
The call by the African Union did not seem robust enough to deflect efforts by the United States and its allies to push for international sanctions.
American growth prospects, sped along by the collapse in raw material costs and the price of oil, seem robust enough to take an upwards adjustment in their stride.
An interesting further pattern is that the poorer the country, the more strongly its chances of internal conflict seem to be tied to El Niño.The correlations seem robust, as does the direction of causation.
The authorities seem to believe that obtaining records of every telephone call made in America is either relevant to an investigation or an essential bulwark against international terrorism.As for PRISM, on paper the protections against privacy abuse seem robust.
Big, leathery hostas seem robust anywhere, while the umbrella plant (Darmera peltata) that adorns my pond margins was carved from a neighbour's garden, where it grows lustily in a bone-dry, sunless, inch-wide gap between the foundations of a shed and the top of a wall.
