THE MORNING RANT: “Yes” to Data Centers that Are Privately Funded, <i>Without</i> Taxpayer Subsidization

THE MORNING RANT: “Yes” to Data Centers that Are Privately Funded, Without Taxpayer Subsidization

I support the construction of privately funded data centers whose utilities are not taxpayer-subsidized. Investors in data center projects are welcome to bring to my state and county all the economic activity that comes with their construction and operation. I’m also excited that the data center era has finally caused tech bros to abandon their green-energy obsession. They understand, finally, that they can’t have energy-hungry plants without the abundant, reliable electricity that comes from natural gas.

But I do not support the construction of data centers for which tax abatements, incentive payments, and subsidized utilities must be paid by taxpayers.

In the raging battle between pro-data center and anti-data center forces, the two sides may not even be talking about the same thing. It is understandable that many of those who oppose data centers are skeptical, given the horrendous track record of corporate welfare, corporate cronyism, and taxpayer-funded industrial boondoggles they’ve been forced to pay for.

In my part of the country, the Republican governors of Tennessee and Georgia have repeatedly gambled taxpayer money on “venture communism” projects, redistributing money from taxpayers to favored industrial developers, especially when it’s for the next big thing (usually EVs and battery manufacturers.) As I’ve frequently documented, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has flushed away billions and billions of taxpayer dollars on failed EV-related endeavors. Republicans of the Chamber of Commerce persuasion applaud Governor Kemp’s naïve profligacy as being “pro-business.”

Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee is also addicted to wasting taxpayer money. This includes Ford’s mothballed, never-used EV plant near Memphis, for which Tennessee taxpayers contributed a billion dollars. Just a few weeks ago, Governor Lee announced a $30 million payment to Starbucks for relocating from Seattle to Nashville. Starbucks was fleeing Seattle anyhow, and would have come to Tennessee for nothing, but Governor Lee felt it very important to take a boatload of taxpayer money and give it to a left-wing corporation as a “thank you.” Starbucks sneers at Tennessee values. Now its executives (they/them) can also sneer at us for being easy marks.

Data centers are the new “next big thing,” and it is rational for exhausted taxpayers to expect they’ll again be asked to subsidize the capex and utility costs for these projects.

There shouldn’t be a binary choice between either banning economic progress, like New York has done with data centers, or subsidizing it, like Republican governors reflexively do.

My understanding is that most data centers are building their own natural gas power plants, with diesel generator backup. Millions of dollars are flowing to local contractors doing the grading, construction, electrical, etc. The data center buildout, combined with Trump’s reshoring efforts, are creating an industrial explosion in this country. It is similar to what politicians would call “stimulus spending,” but it’s privately funded.

However, those of us supporting data center construction need to be careful about insulting opponents as being anti-progress. Taxpayers have a legitimate fear of their elected officials betraying them in favor of promoters hustling the next big thing.

And finally, because much of the data center buildout is to support growing AI use, it doesn’t help for AI promoters to crow about all the people AI will put out of work. I genuinely believe that AI will be disruptive, eliminating some jobs while creating many more. But if AI is being sold as a way to eliminate labor expense and put people out of work, that will motivate people to oppose the data centers that fuel AI.

The blue-collar jobs and industrial development resulting from data center construction are what MAGA Republicans have been fighting for. Let’s take the win – so long as the developers are not being subsidized by local taxpayers.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Sponge!

Posted by: rickb223 at July 20, 2026 11:00 AM (v3afF)

2 Not in time

Posted by: Formerly Virginian at July 20, 2026 11:00 AM (N1tpc)

3 Corgis called.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 20, 2026 11:01 AM (v3afF)

4 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:01 AM (2YhKe)

5 However, those of us supporting data center construction need to be careful about insulting opponents as being anti-progress.

Can we call them effeminate hosers, but in a nice way?

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:02 AM (Riz8t)

6 This is the voice of world control....

Posted by: Archer at July 20, 2026 11:03 AM (wvc0i)

7 Dey took our jerbs!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 20, 2026 11:03 AM (FZ29D)

8 IF the data center will not cause disruption to the local populace- higher utility rates, more taxes, etc...- then I have no problem.

I get the impression that, at least around here, they are getting sweetheart deals from the local/state government.

In that case, no. No. NO. Build it at your own expense and not on the backs of locals.

Posted by: Formerly Virginian at July 20, 2026 11:03 AM (N1tpc)

9 It's not a reason to oppose DCs in and of itself, but China certainly seems to think spinning up DC opposition here benefits them.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:03 AM (Riz8t)

10 it doesn’t help for AI promoters to crow about all the people weaned on dick.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 20, 2026 11:03 AM (yr/Go)

11 Private profits and Public loses.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at July 20, 2026 11:04 AM (qFwJc)

12 Bring back the coal fired plants. Hell. Just the old plant that WAS off Lake Montecello in TX had a lignite mine nearby that contained 150 YEARS worth of fuel for it.

But NOOOOOO.....Rick f*cking Perry made a deal with the Devil Barack Hussein and agreed to shutter and destroy the coal plants.......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:04 AM (2YhKe)

13 I agree with you Buck, but there are issues that complicate these massive centers.

Some are being built in small towns, and the huge amounts of money being thrown at them can overwhelm small town governments. That's not unique to AI Data...Walmart does the same thing.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 20, 2026 11:04 AM (l4RKn)

14 I do have to question who ultimately would benefit from these data centers. Will the locals see any economic or other benefit, or is is just going to go back in the pockets of the tech/venture crowd? Given the track record, I know where I'm placing my marker.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 11:04 AM (OUMaO)

15 Can we call them effeminate hosers, but in a nice way?

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:02 AM (Riz8t)

Seamy Dough-eyed Poofters.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:05 AM (2YhKe)

16 Can we call them effeminate hosers, but in a nice way?
Old greek homos watching Tarzan movies. The ones with boy in them.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at July 20, 2026 11:05 AM (yr/Go)

17 Thx Buck
Hochul (my governor) is a mindless corrupt dolt. Whatever the left wants she'll give them . Data center builders should try bribing her, that worked with home health care

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 11:05 AM (//bM7)

18 I may have opinions about this.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at July 20, 2026 11:06 AM (u/oMr)

19 17 Thx Buck
Hochul (my governor) is a mindless corrupt dolt. Whatever the left wants she'll give them . Data center builders should try bribing her, that worked with home health care
Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 11:05 AM (//bM7)

They should sink some money into getting those types REMOVED from office, but......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:06 AM (2YhKe)

20 Hopefully the data center moratoriums will result in something good happening - private data centers without subsidies. I was listening to the All-in podcast yesterday, and they were postulating that the dems want to obstruct data centers (and AI) until they are back in charge and can rake off as much as they can carry from these projects.

Posted by: Oglebay at July 20, 2026 11:06 AM (2ap+5)

21 ALSO: I know the PRC is promoting data center skepticism. That does not mean people do not have valid concerns. I'm tired of having my questions dismissed "because China" (or Russia, or whoever). Address the concerns and we'll talk.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 11:06 AM (OUMaO)

22 My understanding is that most data centers are building their own natural gas power plants, with diesel generator backup.

Department of Energy is fast-tracking micro-nuclear for data centers as well, which is even better than the gas turbines.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:07 AM (2ocoG)

23 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

All I can do is try and divine who wants them, and who doesn’t. It’s safe to conclude if the usual suspects are pushing for them in a fevered, hysterical insistence, then they are undoubtedly a bad idea.

Posted by: Common Tater at July 20, 2026 11:08 AM (022O5)

24 But without taxpayer funding these data centers, PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!ONEELEVENTY!

Posted by: NR Pax at July 20, 2026 11:08 AM (lXoJ5)

25 Two things;

1. Developers look for cheap land to build datacenters on. Cheap land is typically going to be rural. And the political savvy of local governments is... lacking. They're easily bribed. And willing to subsidize utilities.

2. Datacenters attract additional development. The "urbanization" of once rural areas. Businesses that utilize datacenters will co-locate. Then comes the people for those businesses. Then comes the restaurants, shopping centers, homes and apartments.

It's no longer "rural."

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 20, 2026 11:09 AM (jehhT)

26 ALSO: I know the PRC is promoting data center skepticism. That does not mean people do not have valid concerns. I'm tired of having my questions dismissed "because China" (or Russia, or whoever). Address the concerns and we'll talk.

Most of the concerns are recycled anti-fracking propaganda, and recognizable as such.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:09 AM (2ocoG)

27 I'm also for Data Centers if they provide their own power and don't affect the community negatively where they are located. They should also be a net positive tax revenue. What I think a lot of the locals aren't aware of is that Data Centers don't employ a lot of people once they are up and running.

I also don't like taking away farm /ranch land but that's just my apocalyptic paranoia.

The construction though will be a temporary economic boom which is good.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:09 AM (KC5Lt)

28 Retarded. LLMs are not "economic progress" for anyone but NVidia and SK Hynix.

Posted by: 2 Tha Back at July 20, 2026 11:10 AM (rtOnA)

29
But I do not support the construction of data centers for which tax abatements, incentive payments, and subsidized utilities must be paid by taxpayers.

New stadiums with a gazillion taxpayer-subsidized sky boxes that we can lease is the epitome of patriotism. Anything less is un-American.

Posted by: The NFL at July 20, 2026 11:10 AM (iqcvy)

30 The first Kim from North Korea was "The Great Leader".

The second was "The Dear Leader"

What's our current Kim called?

Posted by: Blutarski, Gradually then Suddenly at July 20, 2026 11:10 AM (l26NL)

31 Will the locals see any economic or other benefit, or is is just going to go back in the pockets of the tech/venture crowd? Given the track record, I know where I'm placing my marker.

People said the same thing about Walmart, Costco, and any other giant corporation. They probably said the same thing about Sears. People will let you know which they value more by who they do business with.

Did you notice in the recent spate of videos about Euros being ecstatic about American stores, NONE of them involved little Mom and Pops? It was all the bigs.

If the tech/venture crowd provides a service that people like well enough to patronize, it's a good thing. I certainly agree with Buck about no taxpayer funding, which I'd love to see extended to sports teams. I expect ultimately to get a lot more value from the tech stuff, though.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:11 AM (Riz8t)

32 Kemp's fawning corporatism is on big reasons why Republicans underperform in his state.
Working-class voters are moderately pro-business but not pro-boondoggle, and Kemp is like the Bush family. Billions for Halliburton and Enron; bootstraps for you.

Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:12 AM (gKWVE)

33 I like my sweet rural shade the way it is. Data centers should go to blighted urban wastelands. Detroit has many square miles of rubble and squalor.

Posted by: Eb Dawson at July 20, 2026 11:12 AM (JM9I6)

34 I hate all the land they ruined with wind turbines and solar farms.

I know one Google center is located in a northwest river canyon and they were allowed to build a hydroelectric plant on the river just to power their center.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:13 AM (KC5Lt)

35 "There shouldn’t be a binary choice between either banning economic progress, like New York has done with data centers, "

Because whoever puts the words in Hochul's mouth isn't going to get their cut, most likely. Upstate NY is ideal for this stuff with more water than you could ever use and the Marcellus Shale formation. Also special bonus: There's areas where it has never been 100 degrees since they've kept records and cold water falls from the sky by the foot. But, noooOOOoooo. Hochul's a disgrace, but she's the diaper not the origin of the shitty problem.

Posted by: Bilwis - Wizard of Clwyd at July 20, 2026 11:13 AM (w/O5Q)

36 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

Up until about 2 years ago they were just called "server farms" or "server facilities", which is a much better explanation of what they are and do. Lots of rack-mount servers grinding through data.

AI is currently where general-purpose computing was in the 1950s, when a single computer had 25,000 vacuum tubes (often 12AX7s, for you guitar amp people) and drew more power than Cleveland. In another decade or two you'll have more computing power than that in your phone, but right now you need the big rooms.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:13 AM (2ocoG)

37 "Investors in data center projects are welcome to bring to my state and county all the economic activity that comes with their construction and operation."

Depending on how much of that labor is local, and not H1Bs from India, or even illegals from Mexico and points south. Indians also seem very interested in replacing Americans and the American way, as they always promote their own.

Posted by: illiniwek at July 20, 2026 11:13 AM (vbXSk)

38 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

Videos of Natalie Portman with wildly exaggerated breasts? How is that not important?

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:14 AM (Riz8t)

39 Data centers should go to blighted urban wastelands. Detroit has many square miles of rubble and squalor.
Posted by: Eb Dawson at July 20, 2026 11:12 AM (JM9I6)

I recall that Cincinnati was offered the chance to build a data center in one of its square miles of abandoned field. They said no.

Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:14 AM (gKWVE)

40 The rural life is attractive, but the threat of the bucolic setting changing suddenly when someone decides to build a dump, strip mine or build a data center is always there. That country road that meanders past your red dog two-track drive can quickly become busy with a smelly, noisy parade of dump trucks. There is no way to avoid this.

Posted by: Oglebay at July 20, 2026 11:14 AM (2ap+5)

41 It's more bullshot from the tech community. They will build these large data centers which will ruin otherwise peaceful areas, driving up prices and weirdos in your AO and enslaving you and your family to AI agitprop.

Posted by: Bend Over It's Coming Your Way at July 20, 2026 11:15 AM (e2lsi)

42 You know that sooner or later somebody is going to look at all the permanently furloughed erstwhile "workers" and wonder as to the value of keeping them alive.

Especially, since the Earth is so far over it's "carrying capacity".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:15 AM (Fi81e)

43 I also don't like taking away farm /ranch land but that's just my apocalyptic paranoia.

Same. I also don't like that the working farm across the street from my house when I bought it 9 years ago is now filling up with cardboard McMansions (and I mean cardboard, I see every day the quality of the work going into them).

But as the technology advances the space requirements will go down and these facilities will probably all become Amazon warehouses or Wal-Marts.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:15 AM (2ocoG)

44 It would be nice, but let’s be real, virtually every jurisdiction will dish out tax breaks and other bribes for data centers and much else besides.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:16 AM (4g5V+)

45 the developers are not being subsidized by local taxpayers.

Posted by Buck Throckmorton

I know where my bet goes.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 20, 2026 11:16 AM (NnhvP)

46 Data centers don't really provide much employment beyond the initial construction and aren't industrial capacity. Maybe one day some of them will be employed supporting industry.

They are in the short run crowding out actual industrial development though.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:16 AM (okun6)

47
Progress in technology is an inevitable thing. It can't be stopped.

But, it can be thwarted at every turn, as I learned from something I support - nuclear energy - being thwarted at every turn for 50 years until it suited people who run data centers.

Within a few short years, starting in about 2018, generations worth of antipathy toward nuclear power have evaporated like the dew in the morn, as our government and its generous donors decided that the competitive advantage they derived from environmentalist regulation and taxation was outweighed by the need for electrical power to fuel their dreams of robots replacing their meddlesome human constituents and customers and laborers.

Suddenly, nuclear energy has gone from "dooming all life on earth" to "cool and new and the future," because its a better way to fuck me over in the Current Year.

Whether it's publicly or privately funded, remember: it's never permitted or encouraged unless they believe it fucks you over.

They could be wrong, or right about their "fucking you over more than it fucks them over" calculation. But that's always the calculation.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 20, 2026 11:17 AM (BI5O2)

48 You know that sooner or later somebody is going to look at all the permanently furloughed erstwhile "workers" and wonder as to the value of keeping them alive.

Especially, since the Earth is so far over it's "carrying capacity".

Given that most countries are experiencing below replacement fertility, it's a self-correcting problem.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:17 AM (Riz8t)

49 Posted by: Common Tater at July 20, 2026 11:08 AM (022O5)

I'm with Cernovich on this one. If the big techfags want MAGA support, fuck you pay us. They spent billions to push that semisentient stool called Joe Biden on us in 2020. They should spend billions to keep Congress Republican now, or enjoy DSA.

Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:17 AM (gKWVE)

50 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

---
Data center things.

Posted by: Your AI Overlords at July 20, 2026 11:17 AM (Fi81e)

51 I tentatively stand near where you do on this, Buck. Wholeheartedly on the 'screw your subsidies' angle, and while I think AI in its current path is massively overhyped, used creatively it can be of utility... and certainly, it at least somewhat counters how completely crap all the search engines have become in the last couple of decades by acting as a search-results-aggregator. I do dislike the idea of 'stick it in the middle of nowhere', but that's as much on cities for over-regulating and over-charging the taxes and rents. I doubt subsidies are the only way the companies can afford to build within city limits, but it certainly lets the cities have their cake and eat it too - while the big company simply plans into things that 'well, when we have to start paying taxes instead of receiving them, we'll just put out bids to other cities!'.

Posted by: RandomDave at July 20, 2026 11:18 AM (aJQbY)

52 Pixley being the county seat of the greater Hooterville, Pixley, Crabwell Corners, valley is always trying to shove Big City ideas on us. Making the Cannonball Express a bullet train was defeated in the last election, so it's a hopeful sign that rational rural thought will prevail.

Posted by: Floyd and Charlie on the Cannonball at July 20, 2026 11:18 AM (JM9I6)

53 My understanding is that most data centers are building their own natural gas power plants, with diesel generator backup.

We need to get them putting in modular nukes. And selling their excess power to the local grid.

Posted by: GWB at July 20, 2026 11:18 AM (kU0PQ)

54 33 I like my sweet rural shade the way it is. Data centers should go to blighted urban wastelands. Detroit has many square miles of rubble and squalor.
Posted by: Eb Dawson at July 20, 2026 11:12 AM (JM9I6)

There are shabby areas of rural communities near me that could use them. Probably the best economic news they would have in decades.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:18 AM (4g5V+)

55 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

---
Data center things.
Posted by: Your AI Overlords at July 20, 2026 11:17 AM (Fi81

Data center things that go up.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:19 AM (KC5Lt)

56 . I also don't like that the working farm across the street from my house when I bought it 9 years ago is now filling up with cardboard McMansions (and I mean cardboard, I see every day the quality of the work going into them).

But as the technology advances the space requirements will go down and these facilities will probably all become Amazon warehouses or Wal-Marts.

I have the same reaction when I drive on Rt. 1 here in NoVa, and it's mile after mile of ugly strip malls. I'd much rather have a few, very large distribution centers, and just plow all the strip malls under.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:19 AM (Riz8t)

57 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do
---------

Robbery, surveillance, assault, and surveillance.

They like surveillance.

Posted by: ... at July 20, 2026 11:19 AM (AfzoM)

58 Suddenly, nuclear energy has gone from "dooming all life on earth" to "cool and new and the future," because its a better way to fuck me over in the Current Year.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 20, 2026 11:17 AM (BI5O2)
---
Well remember, it's been decades that the "We should be more like Europe" people have resisted running on nuclear ... to the extent Europe does.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:19 AM (Fi81e)

59 Expecting no government help when large projects are considered means you just won't get the business. While Georgia and Tennessee made some real stupid bets, they also made some better ones - especially Tennessee. Infrastructure support and fixed business and property tax bills based upon agreed upon investment and employment levels is how the game is played.

Dumb governors/states make dumb decisions. No way to protect from that outside of doing what you can to make sure political machines aren't fixing the elections.

Posted by: Black JEM at July 20, 2026 11:20 AM (GZYu7)

60 mile after mile of ugly strip malls

But people *need* check cashing stores, nail salons, tattoo parlors, and Habib's Kebab Palace.

Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:21 AM (gKWVE)

61 Give me your lakes!!

Water!!

Need more water!!

Posted by: Data Center at July 20, 2026 11:21 AM (Fi81e)

62 We need to get them putting in modular nukes. And selling their excess power to the local grid.

There are multiple modular nuke companies that have spun up and at least one of them has special authorization from the Department of Energy to get their shit going ASAP.

I would love to park a shipping container in my back yard, hook up some wires, and tell the electric company to fuck off. Probably won't happen in my lifetime, but I fully support anyone trying to make it happen.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:21 AM (2ocoG)

63 Well remember, it's been decades that the "We should be more like Europe" people have resisted running on nuclear ... to the extent Europe does.

France does, but Germany, in a fit of lunacy, closed all its nukes before developing a reliable replacement. It's unlike the Germans to throw in their lot with unproven lunacy, but...never mind.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:21 AM (Riz8t)

64 > They are in the short run crowding out actual industrial development though.
---------
I don't think that's necessarily true.

Datacenters attract other businesses that leverage their computing services. Like shipping companies, business to business outfits, any logistical company and so on. Proximity to the datacenter is attractive, keeps costs down for infrastructure that they'd likely have to build themselves.

Those in turn attract more workers, which leads to services for those workers like food shops, shopping, etc. Eventually it becomes it's own little (or big) urban center. With suburbs.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 20, 2026 11:22 AM (jehhT)

65 Give me your lakes!!

Water!!

Need more water!!

Already a solved problem. The newest facilities are being built with fully closed-loop cooling, like the radiator in your '67 Camaro.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:22 AM (2ocoG)

66 You want your children's future taken by AI; good for you! They'll never know what it's like to work.

Morons Are Governing America (MAGA).

Posted by: Sid...who enjoys the sexual affections of his hamster at July 20, 2026 11:23 AM (fNO1z)

67 Timed Tax abatements are OK. Giving a time period reduced tax to bring a business is OK. It costs them a boatload to start up. It's not money out of a citizens pocket. Paying a business to come is butt dumb. My town did that twice and it cost us four times. It cost to bring them and it cost to get rid of them (clean up).

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:23 AM (826kS)

68 Working-class voters are moderately pro-business but not pro-boondoggle, and Kemp is like the Bush family. Billions for Halliburton and Enron; bootstraps for you.
Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:12 AM (gKWVE)

“Working class” as opposed to the hyper evil rich assholes who do not ever work and need to be publicly and violently killed.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:24 AM (4g5V+)

69 Already a solved problem. The newest facilities are being built with fully closed-loop cooling, like the radiator in your '67 Camaro.

I hope they use cooling ponds, so we can have NoVa manatees.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:24 AM (Riz8t)

70 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do
____

AI processing for vids of Mrs. Incredible doing, uh, incredible things. So I've heard.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at July 20, 2026 11:25 AM (Dv3i1)

71 I don't like most of the 'not in my backyard' opponents but I understand the reasoning. I think it's up to these billion dollar tech companies to make it a win win. We have to always move forward with innovation but it can't be at the expense of the citizenry for the profit of a few.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:25 AM (KC5Lt)

72 64 > They are in the short run crowding out actual industrial development though.
---------
I don't think that's necessarily true.

Datacenters attract other businesses that leverage their computing services. Like shipping companies, business to business outfits, any logistical company and so on. Proximity to the datacenter is attractive, keeps costs down for infrastructure that they'd likely have to build themselves.

Those in turn attract more workers, which leads to services for those workers like food shops, shopping, etc. Eventually it becomes it's own little (or big) urban center. With suburbs.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 20, 2026 11:22 AM (jehhT)

They've driven up construction costs substantially for factories, there's public reporting on it. There's generally not much reason to want to be physically close to a data center, they could be in China (and a fair amount probably will be renting their services from China).

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:25 AM (okun6)

73
*polite cough*

Try "subsidy" instead of "subsidization".

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 20, 2026 11:25 AM (O0L8i)

74 66: if only the Morons we’re governing America. It would be running infinitely better and you can be a bigger ingrate and malcontent.

Hell, you might actually be forced to get off your ass and work for a change assuming you aren’t a bot.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (4g5V+)

75 I don't like most of the 'not in my backyard' opponents but I understand the reasoning. I think it's up to these billion dollar tech companies to make it a win win. We have to always move forward with innovation but it can't be at the expense of the citizenry for the profit of a few.

This is the way.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (Riz8t)

76 13 I agree with you Buck, but there are issues that complicate these massive centers.

Some are being built in small towns, and the huge amounts of money being thrown at them can overwhelm small town governments. That's not unique to AI Data...Walmart does the same thing.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 20, 2026 11:04 AM (l4RKn
Yeah, we’ve been driving by one for years now.

Posted by: Eromero at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (LHPAg)

77 Heard Ted Cruz this past weekend claim that the anti-Data Center hysteria sweeping the nation (and apparently supported by the majority of both The Left and The Right) is a PsyOp being funded by Neville Roy Singham on behalf of Communist Chy-na -- in their quest to achieve superiority in "AI."

Don't know how true that is or to what extent, but an interesting aspect I hadn't heard and TBH would not surprise me.

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (27aLr)

78 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

Endless hours of kitten videos.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (v3afF)

79 It's ma'am. IT'S MA'AM!!!

Posted by: The next evolution: transAI at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (TbWk/)

80
I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do

__________

Dummy. They center data. Like ace frequently does.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (O0L8i)

81
Already a solved problem. The newest facilities are being built with fully closed-loop cooling, like the radiator in your '67 Camaro.

Posted by: Ian S.
---

And the water wouldn't disappear. There're some laws, thermodynamic. They called it conservation of matter in Jr. High, iirc.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (826kS)

82 I think people overestimate the extent to which data centers as a use of square footage "provides jobs".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:28 AM (Fi81e)

83 I would think that tax abatements are a win win if that is what it takes to get the business to move in.

Posted by: toby928(c) at July 20, 2026 11:28 AM (4NO2D)

84 Already a solved problem. The newest facilities are being built with fully closed-loop cooling, like the radiator in your '67 Camaro.
Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:22 AM (2ocoG)

=======

So they take our water and just keep it???

Posted by: Oglebay at July 20, 2026 11:28 AM (2ap+5)

85 There's generally not much reason to want to be physically close to a data center, they could be in China (and a fair amount probably will be renting their services from China).

This raises a question I've asked many times, but never seen answered. How close does a DC need to be to the users? AI answers:

There is no fixed distance requirement, but for real-time applications (like financial trading or live streaming), data centers should ideally be within 50 miles of users. Every 100 miles adds roughly 0.82 milliseconds of round-trip network delay, so proximity reduces latency and speeds up response times.

The exact proximity needed depends entirely on your application:
Under 50 miles (

50 to 500 miles (10–25 ms latency): Suitable for standard cloud computing, most SaaS platforms, and media streaming.

500+ miles: Acceptable for general web browsing, email, data backups, and static content.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:29 AM (Riz8t)

86 Who's more retarded? Sid or Paul? You could probably have an AI data center blow itself up asking that question.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:29 AM (KC5Lt)

87 Turn the EV plants into data centers.

Posted by: fd - I forgive you for the mistakes I made at July 20, 2026 11:29 AM (MWfyi)

88 Nice to see Sd chiming in on behalf of United Horse and Buggy Workers Local 210.

Posted by: Bilwis - Wizard of Clwyd at July 20, 2026 11:29 AM (w/O5Q)

89 Whoops, here's the part I accidentally deleted:

Under 50 miles (< 10 ms latency): Needed for Edge Computing, high-frequency trading, multiplayer gaming, and telehealth. These are positioned directly in or on the edge of major metropolitan areas.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (Riz8t)

90 We have to always move forward with innovation but it can't be at the expense of the citizenry for the profit of a few.

Posted by: polynikes
---

They could build the SMRs a tad bigger and sell the extra juice to us at a discount.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (826kS)

91 Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:24 AM (4g5V+)

I didn't say they need to be "publicly and violently killed".
I said they ought to ask Americans, nicely, to help them against those who do want them publicly and violently killed. "Nicely" in the sense of a nice big payout to good GOP candidates.
Or we won't help them, and won't care when they'll be publicly and violently killed.

Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (gKWVE)

92 Nice to see Sd chiming in on behalf of United Horse and Buggy Workers Local 210.

Sid still mourns the loss of feudalism.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (Riz8t)

93 Dummy. They center data. Like ace frequently does.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 20, 2026 11:26 AM (O0L8i)

Heh. Sick. Burn.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (2YhKe)

94 "I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do"

Cats on waterskis. Don't you watch the internet?

Posted by: fd - "No" is a complete sentence at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (MWfyi)

95 Nice to see Sd chiming in on behalf of United Horse and Buggy Workers Local 210.

Posted by: Bilwis - Wizard of Clwyd at July 20, 2026 11:29 AM (w/O5Q)
---
Progressive Luddite is the new progressive.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (Fi81e)

96 Under 50 miles (
__________

Why does telehealth need this? It's just a zoom with the doc.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 20, 2026 11:33 AM (XvL8K)

97 Posted by: Sid at July 20, 2026 11:23 AM (fNO1z)

You DICK!!!!

Posted by: Jeff Spicoli at July 20, 2026 11:33 AM (2YhKe)

98 This raises a question I've asked many times, but never seen answered. How close does a DC need to be to the users? AI answers:

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:29 AM (Riz8t)

What these datacenters are for is AI computation. The computation takes considerably more time than travel time for a prompt. You might task an AI with spending several days doing data scraping for instance. The reason they're building them in rural areas is because there's little need for proximity.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:33 AM (okun6)

99 I remember when they laid fiber optic and one company spooled the fiber optic at its end point in order to delay the info by x to others so they could get trades in first.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:33 AM (KC5Lt)

100 Under 50 miles (
__________

Why does telehealth need this? It's just a zoom with the doc.

I don't know.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:33 AM (Riz8t)

101
Sid still mourns the loss of feudalism.
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (Riz8t)

Sid mourns the loss of his job AT the glory hole. He's since been relegated to cleaning it.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:34 AM (2YhKe)

102 Give me your lakes!!

Water!!

Need more water!!

With more sugar. More! MORE!!

Posted by: Edgar at July 20, 2026 11:35 AM (wVcYX)

103 To you guys who think people are actually losing jobs to this "AI" gimmick, let me explain how business works in America 2026. Companies don't make money selling products to consumers anymore. Companies only exist to sell hype and "investment". to do do that, they need to demonstrate growth, which is why they are all overstuffed with worthless know-nothings. Obviously, they can not have artificial growth forever, so "AI" is the release valve that allows them to downsize while continuing to sell the hype without freaking out investors. "AI" (LLMs) can not do any task that requires reasoning. It is a parrot, and if you have a job as a parrot, it was in danger to begin with.

Posted by: 2 Tha Back at July 20, 2026 11:35 AM (rtOnA)

104 The reason they're building them in rural areas is because there's little need for proximity.

And yet, some of the most valuable land in the country is in Loudon County, here in NoVa, and it is COVERED with DCs. If distance doesn't matter, I have some nice, exhausted, ex-tobacco and cotton land in SoVa they can use for DCs.

Oh wait, they are.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:35 AM (Riz8t)

105 'Morning, all.

It dawned on me yesterday that these AI centers aren't going to create any jobs at all. Someone's making out like a bandit courtesy of Joe Sixpack. But then that's nothing new.

I gotta quit reading the news. It ruins my day.

Posted by: creeper at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (80oeU)

106 There's also evidence that the unions, electrical, plumbing, etc. are involved in the datacenter boom. Word is they'll send a couple goons to a local zoning commission meeting to put pressure on the locals to accept the datacenter.

Electricians who can work on them are making six figures and are in high demand. Same for plumber familiar with the water cooling systems. Anyone remotely associated with the build out of one is going to make bank because of the demand.

So... there's a lot of "under the table" shit going on, and a lot of people are getting rich of it.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (jehhT)

107 AI computation, centralized virtual servers such as Azure, Amazon and Google and Cloud Storage.

All your data are belong to not you.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (2YhKe)

108 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do

__________

Dummy. They center data. Like ace frequently does.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

Versus Left Justified.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (v3afF)

109 Polyester for the win!

https://tinyurl.com/47wyauu4

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (ndZc7)

110 To you guys who think people are actually losing jobs to this "AI" gimmick, let me explain how business works in America 2026.

Thanks. Condescension always makes things easier to understand, and people more receptive to the message.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (Riz8t)

111 104 "The reason they're building them in rural areas is because there's little need for proximity."

And yet, some of the most valuable land in the country is in Loudon County, here in NoVa, and it is COVERED with DCs. If distance doesn't matter, I have some nice, exhausted, ex-tobacco and cotton land in SoVa they can use for DCs.

Oh wait, they are.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:35 AM (Riz8t)

Again, the function here is different. 2/3rds of new data centers are planned for rural, whereas nearly 90% of old data centers were in urban areas.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:37 AM (okun6)

112 I think people overestimate the extent to which data centers as a use of square footage "provides jobs".
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:28 AM (Fi81e)

Of course they'll do.

And they'll also listen about tax proceeds as well.

And they'll never consider the low number of jobs, or the fact that the much larger number of jobs and and taxes created are harvested at the far flung headquarters of whatever company is farming data on their land.

It's just "cool" and "new" and "future..." it's all the same buzzwords used to bilk the high-flying investors they bust out for their seed funding, but for the low-flying tax sheep they fleece for their physical plant.

Once you realize that 90% of things are bullshit, everything makes more sense.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 20, 2026 11:37 AM (BI5O2)

113 The new Buffalo Bill's logo.

https://tinyurl.com/ypsu7mjd

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 11:38 AM (ndZc7)

114 AI processing for vids of Mrs. Incredible doing, uh, incredible things. So I've heard.
Posted by: Chuck Martel at July 20, 2026 11:25 AM (Dv3i1)

Mirage had the exotic look, though ...

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 11:39 AM (fmbc9)

115 To you guys who think people are actually losing jobs to this "AI" gimmick, let me explain how business works in America 2026.

Posted by: 2 Tha Back at July 20, 2026 11:35 AM (rtOnA)
---
That's not me as much as it is Elon himself who has suggested that AI can provide an "Age of Leisure" where fewer people will have to work.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:39 AM (Fi81e)

116 82 I think people overestimate the extent to which data centers as a use of square footage "provides jobs".

Posted by: Axeman
---

They will create a positive feedback loop. Initially, building them will provide high paying construction jobs which will move from site to site. When the data (AI) center comes on line it will bring invention (new technology, medical devices, rocket engines) that will again create new jobs. The cycle rhymes with 19th century industrial revolution. This is just the beginning.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:39 AM (826kS)

117 I've got an idea for a movie like "Backrooms" but in a Data Center". Tentative title "Backuprooms".

Posted by: fd at July 20, 2026 11:39 AM (MWfyi)

118 AI is to become the new hollywood without all the sexual assault and molestation.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:40 AM (2YhKe)

119 Again, the function here is different. 2/3rds of new data centers are planned for rural, whereas nearly 90% of old data centers were in urban areas.

Understood. But if I understood you correctly, you said that proximity wasn't important to DCs, because they're doing AI.

What these datacenters are for is AI computation. The computation takes considerably more time than travel time for a prompt. You might task an AI with spending several days doing data scraping for instance. The reason they're building them in rural areas is because there's little need for proximity.

Set aside for the moment the fact that AI isn't ALL they're doing. Why would anyone ever have built them on expensive, close-in land, if there wasn't a technological driver to build them there?

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:40 AM (Riz8t)

120 I just hope they don't build one next to our "farm" that was purchased intentionally to be way the fk out away from everything else.

Posted by: fd at July 20, 2026 11:41 AM (MWfyi)

121 But as the technology advances the space requirements will go down and these facilities will probably all become Amazon warehouses or Wal-Marts.

Posted by: Ian S.

Beg pardon, but I've seen what happened with Walmart. And I've heard how it is with the Amazon warehouses.

These are not people I want to rely upon to bring prosperity for the general population.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 11:42 AM (OUMaO)

122 The conversation about AI 2-3 years ago: We don't want AI taking over humanity!!

The conversation now: We must build more and larger data centers to meet AI demands.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:42 AM (Fi81e)

123 The new Buffalo Bill's logo.

https://tinyurl.com/ypsu7mjd
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
__________

I read somewhere that they changed their helmets to red in the 80s because every other team in the division was also white, and Jim Kelley couldn't spot his receivers downfield.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 20, 2026 11:42 AM (XvL8K)

124 They will create a positive feedback loop. Initially, building them will provide high paying construction jobs which will move from site to site. When the data (AI) center comes on line it will bring invention (new technology, medical devices, rocket engines) that will again create new jobs. The cycle rhymes with 19th century industrial revolution. This is just the beginning.

I THINK that's right, but OTOH, there is the prospect that AI is fundamentally different than everything that came before, in that it may eventually be better at virtually everything that humans can currently do. We can't ALL make a living reaming out each other's clogged pipes.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:43 AM (Riz8t)

125 The VA data centers are mostly for cloud based functions.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:43 AM (KC5Lt)

126 I object to data centers being built on pristine farmland when there are so many disused industrial sites with existing infrastructure

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at July 20, 2026 11:43 AM (sir2i)

127 Data centers must become the terrain of planet Earth!!

Posted by: Not A Data Center at July 20, 2026 11:43 AM (Fi81e)

128 I honestly don't understand how there are conservatives who have a bee in their bonnet over data centers.

I mean, it's almost Rule #1:
If you're on the same side as Democrats on an issue, you're almost certainly on the wrong side.
Double and triple check.
Because it's almost always an op.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (3cUTc)

129 Thanks. Condescension always makes things easier to understand, and people more receptive to the message.
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:36 AM (Riz8t)

It's worked for parents, teachers, religious figures and politicians for ages and ages. Add in beatings, threats of violence, and the fear of eternal damnation and you've got a pretty effective system.

Posted by: Ain't broke, don't fix it at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (TbWk/)

130 Set aside for the moment the fact that AI isn't ALL they're doing. Why would anyone ever have built them on expensive, close-in land, if there wasn't a technological driver to build them there?

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:40 AM (Riz8t)

The new datacenter wave is about AI. Functionally speaking this is a question of whether you want your "computer" close to you or far away from you. Some tasks benefit from proximity and lower latency, planned uses for AI mostly don't. You could have it even closer just by setting up AI on a local machine.

Failed example of "cloud computing" was in streamed gaming due to latency. Instead of having the console be a powerful machine, simply stream the game from a central location. Unpleasant actual experience in reality.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (okun6)

131 Put them underground. Grow crops on top of them.

Problem solved.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (2YhKe)

132 We can't ALL make a living reaming out each other's clogged pipes.
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:43 AM (Riz8t)

Speak for yourself, sailor! SQUEEEEEE!!!

Posted by: Pete Buttgig at July 20, 2026 11:45 AM (TbWk/)

133 That's not me as much as it is Elon himself who has suggested that AI can provide an "Age of Leisure" where fewer people will have to work.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:39 AM (Fi81e)

Don't people work to do things like pay their utilities and mortgages and put food on the table? If people have more leisure, how will they pay for those commodities?

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:45 AM (3Ope8)

134 Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:39 AM (826kS

You're doing it again. You're talking about the overall benefit of AI data centers when addressing others who are talking about the specific future benefit to the citizens of the locality where the completed Data Center is located.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:46 AM (KC5Lt)

135 "AI" (LLMs) can not do any task that requires reasoning. It is a parrot, and if you have a job as a parrot, it was in danger to begin with.

Not actually true. The latest, highest-end models are getting quite good at, at the very least, reasoning-adjacent tasks. OpenAI and Anthropic have been speed-running "impossible" mathematical and scientific proofs the last few months.

Set aside for the moment the fact that AI isn't ALL they're doing. Why would anyone ever have built them on expensive, close-in land, if there wasn't a technological driver to build them there?

Same reason AOL built their data center in NoVa in the 1980s: proximity to power. And I don't mean electricity.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:46 AM (2ocoG)

136 AI is to become the new hollywood without all the sexual assault and molestation.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:40 AM (2YhKe)
---
But not 0.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:46 AM (Fi81e)

137 Rand at transterrestrial.com linked to an interesting article suggesting data center opposition as being a proxy war against AI.

https://tinyurl.com/yc5mc8zb

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (fmbc9)

138 Don't people work to do things like pay their utilities and mortgages and put food on the table? If people have more leisure, how will they pay for those commodities?
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:45 AM (3Ope

They will be in the leisure business I guess.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (KC5Lt)

139 128 I honestly don't understand how there are conservatives who have a bee in their bonnet over data centers.

I mean, it's almost Rule #1:
If you're on the same side as Democrats on an issue, you're almost certainly on the wrong side.
Double and triple check.
Because it's almost always an op.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (3cUTc)

There are real downsides to it. An area will probably get property taxes for a time and local construction employment for a while. Many of the ongoing benefits accrue outside of the region.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (okun6)

140 ---
But not 0.
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:46 AM (Fi81e)

Correct. However, it will all be f*cking and sucking for a script written, not every role in every show.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (2YhKe)

141 Suspect in custody after FBI says he "deployed an incendiary device" outside NYC federal building

https://tinyurl.com/ajkxps6s

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (ndZc7)

142 Don't people work to do things like pay their utilities and mortgages and put food on the table? If people have more leisure, how will they pay for those commodities?

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:45 AM (3Ope

---
VOLUME!!

(And the "Living Wage".)

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:48 AM (Fi81e)

143 They will be in the leisure business I guess.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (KC5Lt)

Oh FFS...they're trying to bring back the leisure suit!

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:48 AM (3Ope8)

144 That's not me as much as it is Elon himself who has suggested that AI can provide an "Age of Leisure" where fewer people will have to work.

I love Elon, but he's full of shit about that. I personally work at a job that didn't exist the day I was born, and work will always be like that. And underneath it all, there will always be demand for carpenters, plumbers, welders, and electricians.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:49 AM (2ocoG)

145 They will create a positive feedback loop. Initially, building them will provide high paying construction jobs which will move from site to site. When the data (AI) center comes on line it will bring invention (new technology, medical devices, rocket engines) that will again create new jobs. The cycle rhymes with 19th century industrial revolution. This is just the beginning.

Those are things that can happen, yes. They may also be used for mass surveillance, or ad servers and general data farming, or for other purposes that do not bring a general benefit (or a weak one at best).

If questions about effects on electricity costs, or actual labor practices, or effects on real estate prices potentially pricing locals out of their own community aren't addressed it becomes a hard sell. Folks are used to seeing the negatives from developments while the positives keep on winding up in someone else's pockets.

I get all the economic arguments. But we aren't just in an economic environment. Disregarding the track record and its social consequences just leads to another round of socialized costs and privatized profits. I'd love to be proven wrong, but...

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 11:49 AM (OUMaO)

146 One of the problems with the data centers is they utilize a lot of power. The freebies want to use wind and solar which cannot produce enough. Even then they use the battery storage centers which are nice and flammable. Companies are trying to build at least three in my county , including one about a mile and a half from me

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 11:49 AM (sMkB+)

147 Suspect in custody after FBI says he "deployed an incendiary device" outside NYC federal building

https://tinyurl.com/ajkxps6s
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 11:47 AM (ndZc7)

I am GRATEFUL for Hegseth getting our military back in shape. I mean, LOOK at all the fat f*cks in law enforcement roaming around that scene.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:50 AM (2YhKe)

148 Put them underground. Grow crops on top of them.

Problem solved.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (2YhKe)

What a splendid idea. Digital wheat.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (g8Ew8)

149 Oh FFS...they're trying to bring back the leisure suit!
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:48 AM (3Ope

---
Tanned, rested, and ready!

Posted by: Larry at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (FZ29D)

150
Oh FFS...they're trying to bring back the leisure suit!
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:48 AM

Tanned, rested and ready!

Posted by: Leisure Suit Larry at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (2YhKe)

151 Not actually true. The latest, highest-end models are getting quite good at, at the very least, reasoning-adjacent tasks. OpenAI and Anthropic have been speed-running "impossible" mathematical and scientific proofs the last few months.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:46 AM (2ocoG)

It's not reasoning so much as something akin to heuristic and statistical methods of solving problems. Which is quite good for some things and at others can sometimes accomplish things with brute force. Hard to say where the limits are but it's far more efficient in corresponding areas.

We also rely a lot on pattern matching and trial and error based experience in our daily lives.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (okun6)

152 I like the meme where "Chuck Norris goes to Yellowstone" and you see a bison flying through the air

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 11:52 AM (sMkB+)

153 I THINK that's right, but OTOH, there is the prospect that AI is fundamentally different than everything that came before, in that it may eventually be better at virtually everything that humans can currently do. We can't ALL make a living reaming out each other's clogged pipes.

Posted by: Archimedes
----

For our children or grandchildren it will be a totally different world that what we live in. Rockefeller turned the night into day, Carnegie made steel than enabled bridges and buildings as never before, Wright brothers developed mathematical flight formulas still used today. Edison, and others.
Compare 1920 to 1820 living. That's where we are going.
We are on the cusp of a new world.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:52 AM (826kS)

154 It's all lies, all the time. From elections to immigration to social security to blah blah blah.

Whatever the powers that be are telling you about AI is lies to get you onboard or at very least not oppose them.

Once in place you will serve the new masters.

Posted by: All Lies at July 20, 2026 11:52 AM (e2lsi)

155 Set aside for the moment the fact that AI isn't ALL they're doing. Why would anyone ever have built them on expensive, close-in land, if there wasn't a technological driver to build them there?

Same reason AOL built their data center in NoVa in the 1980s: proximity to power. And I don't mean electricity.

If that's the goal, you build your DCs on cheap land away from cities, and rent office space downtown.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:52 AM (Riz8t)

156 I mean, it's almost Rule #1:
If you're on the same side as Democrats on an issue, you're almost certainly on the wrong side.
Double and triple check.
Because it's almost always an op.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (3cUTc)

---
That's classic tribal behavior, and that's why TDS-ers can't land at Donald Trump International Airport.

You're actually doing something much closer to what we can see as the least intelligent reaction they have, if you ask "Who else believes that I'm starting to find credible?"

That's the reason that conservatives has "weaponized patriotism" to the extent that progressives argue they have a resistance to flying a flag because of who else it is more associated with.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:52 AM (Fi81e)

157 149 Oh FFS...they're trying to bring back the leisure suit!
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:48 AM (3Ope
---
Tanned, rested, and ready!
Posted by: Larry at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (FZ29D)

150
Oh FFS...they're trying to bring back the leisure suit!
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at July 20, 2026 11:48 AM

Tanned, rested and ready!
Posted by: Leisure Suit Larry at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (2YhKe)
----
Hordemind is awesome!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 20, 2026 11:53 AM (FZ29D)

158 The modular nuclear reactors, the ones they just successfully turned on July 3, 2026 at INEL, will make all the electricity concerns moot.
Each one will be able to power multiple data centers and add power to the grid.

That is a big reason the left is so desperate to pass zoning laws now and are emphasizing the lie of power consumption.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 20, 2026 11:53 AM (3cUTc)

159 Because this is the HQ, here's an AI-generated video of bouncing boobs:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UlYNSGdxGC0

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:53 AM (2ocoG)

160 I am GRATEFUL for Hegseth getting our military back in shape. I mean, LOOK at all the fat f*cks in law enforcement roaming around that scene.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:50 AM (2YhKe)

-------------

In spite of the disgustingly tragic circumstances, the "Meal Team Six" meme was right on.

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 11:53 AM (27aLr)

161
Sid still mourns the loss of feudalism.
Posted by: Archimedes

Regurgitating propaganda does not reflect intelligence.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 20, 2026 11:54 AM (NnhvP)

162 The new datacenter wave is about AI. Functionally speaking this is a question of whether you want your "computer" close to you or far away from you. Some tasks benefit from proximity and lower latency, planned uses for AI mostly don't. You could have it even closer just by setting up AI on a local machine.

That was the point of the extract I posted. Some things require low latency, while others don't. Yet AI, which you think does not, is the usual stated driver for building all those DCs in very expensive Loudon Co.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:54 AM (Riz8t)

163
Think of it this way: I would like a hardy hibiscus that produces a flavorful calyx for my tea. I'm working at it. I probably won't succed, but I'm trying. I would like better treatments for rare diseases like my daughter has. I have no hope of succeeding at that, and I'm leaving that to people who work at these medical devices.

These are things humans do.

AI (which I call "clankers") will never do anything you really want or need, unless you're a Tech Lord who hates humans in the first place. The clankers will perform as trained, by and for the Tech Lords (who I call "tin-skins). Not for humans.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 20, 2026 11:54 AM (BI5O2)

164 Companies are trying to build at least three in my county , including one about a mile and a half from me

Posted by: Smell the Glove
---

Why aren't they building SMRs?

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:55 AM (826kS)

165 What if the reason they have to have miles and miles of data center is partly to keep all the telemetry they have gathered on you?

What if a good part of it is a plan to predict, based on telemetry, what vast amount of people will do, given a nearly life-long catalog on your E-profile?

Whatever they want to do with this, it's still the case that you are more controlled 6-feet under. (And you'll even start voting on the "Right side of History")

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 11:56 AM (Fi81e)

166 And underneath it all, there will always be demand for carpenters, plumbers, welders, and electricians.
Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:49 AM (2ocoG)

And they will never be replaced by AI.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:56 AM (4g5V+)

167 I support data centers if they generate their own electricity and provide their own water, not from the aquifer that provides our drinking water!

Posted by: oldvet50 at July 20, 2026 11:57 AM (Wcrmo)

168 And they will never be replaced by AI.
Posted by: Cow Demon

This might one day be stored under "famous last words".

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 20, 2026 11:57 AM (DZ9Lv)

169
That was the point of the extract I posted. Some things require low latency, while others don't. Yet AI, which you think does not, is the usual stated driver for building all those DCs in very expensive Loudon Co.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:54 AM (Riz8t)

I would guess that is most likely due to how quickly they can be built there due to existing relationships and regulations. Currently firms are spending far more per DC than in the past, and once capacity catches up, likely far more than a DC will cost in the future.

A lot of the cost is also in the internals, not the footprint of the building. RAM and GPU costs have skyrocketed, and most of that equipment will be seriously dated in a few years.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:57 AM (okun6)

170 We also rely a lot on pattern matching and trial and error based experience in our daily lives.

100%. Of necessity I've gotten quite good at figuring out when AI is off on a stupid tangent and telling it "no", and that's why I get decent productivity out of it. It turns out that like any other machine the operator's skill varies the outcome significantly.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:57 AM (2ocoG)

171 Yeah...I may have trust issues.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 11:58 AM (OUMaO)

172 I am GRATEFUL for Hegseth getting our military back in shape. I mean, LOOK at all the fat f*cks in law enforcement roaming around that scene.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 11:50 AM (2YhKe)

When a motorcycle cop weighs as much as the motorcycle, it's a problem.

Posted by: Off to jail on the Richter Scale at July 20, 2026 11:58 AM (TbWk/)

173 Why aren't they building SMRs?

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 11:55 AM (826kS)

As much as I understand in layman’s terms how they work, I know I am in the minority, and a lot of people reflexively hate anything nuclear.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 11:58 AM (4g5V+)

174 One of the problems with the data centers is they utilize a lot of power. The freebies want to use wind and solar which cannot produce enough. Even then they use the battery storage centers which are nice and flammable. Companies are trying to build at least three in my county , including one about a mile and a half from me

Hence Elon's new drive to build DCs in space, along with the requisite solar power infrastructure. This raises the interesting question of latency again, though.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:59 AM (Riz8t)

175 146 One of the problems with the data centers is they utilize a lot of power. The freebies want to use wind and solar which cannot produce enough. Even then they use the battery storage centers which are nice and flammable. Companies are trying to build at least three in my county , including one about a mile and a half from me
Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 11:49 AM (sMkB+)

Yes, I think VA is now the #1 electricity importer in the country b/c of our data centers...so I supported Ds putting an extra electricity tax on them to slow them down here...I'd have preferred removing their tax bennies for building, but that would have been haves/ have nots, so it's probably better to hit them all...and scare the new ones out of here b/c are electricity needs show we already have too many...

Posted by: Nova Local at July 20, 2026 11:59 AM (tOcjL)

176 36 I’m not at all clear exactly what these Data centers even do.

Up until about 2 years ago they were just called "server farms" or "server facilities", which is a much better explanation of what they are and do. Lots of rack-mount servers grinding through data.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:13 AM

No. Data centers have been called data centers for at least 30 years. In 1997, I toured a data center (a Level(3) data center that had been a Toys 'R' Us in Northwest Houston.)

The main thing that data centers provide is not computing power, although they have that in abundance, but broad network connectivity. You've got a bunch of computers, as you described, but what's remarkable about them is the direct connection to multiple wide-area networks, and all the infrastructure that provides.

There have been at least two boom-and-bust cycles for data centers in the last 30 years. The AI thing will be another.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at July 20, 2026 11:59 AM (aTl7+)

177 are = our...

Posted by: Nova Local at July 20, 2026 12:00 PM (tOcjL)

178 I mean, it's almost Rule #1:
If you're on the same side as Democrats on an issue, you're almost certainly on the wrong side.
Double and triple check.
Because it's almost always an op.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 20, 2026 11:44 AM (3cUTc)

---
That's classic tribal behavior, and that's why TDS-ers can't land at Donald Trump International Airport.

----------

PHV nails it.

And when I first heard that story about people avoiding having to land at Donald Trump International Airport in Palm Beach, I of course assumed it was a Babylon Bee headline and story.

"The Babylon Bee: America's Newspaper of Record."

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:00 PM (27aLr)

179 And underneath it all, there will always be demand for carpenters, plumbers, welders, and electricians.
Posted by: Ian S.

The blacksmith and the artist, each must play his part, to mold a new reality, AI from the heart. AI from the heart, yaiai, AI from the heart!

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 20, 2026 12:00 PM (DZ9Lv)

180 This might one day be stored under "famous last words".
Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 20, 2026 11:57 AM (DZ9Lv)

Carpenters? Electricians? Plumbers?

Nah.

I don’t even think they will be replaced with robots if I am honest.

I read in a newspaper, back in 1985, that teachers would be replaced by PCs by 2000.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:00 PM (4g5V+)

181 For our children or grandchildren it will be a totally different world that what we live in. Rockefeller turned the night into day, Carnegie made steel than enabled bridges and buildings as never before, Wright brothers developed mathematical flight formulas still used today. Edison, and others.
Compare 1920 to 1820 living. That's where we are going.
We are on the cusp of a new world.

I think you are correct. As much as I fear some of the negatives, I think I'd really enjoy the future for which I will be absent.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:00 PM (Riz8t)

182 The governor broke on the golf cart. The golfer drove it into the pond at 30 mph. I watched a rookie staffer wade into the pond to hook up a tow chain. I put the tractor into reverse

Somehow I ended up the hero

The cross that I must bear

Posted by: The Ballots at July 20, 2026 12:00 PM (LOZbR)

183 If that's the goal, you build your DCs on cheap land away from cities, and rent office space downtown.

I didn't say it was rational. I suspect a lot of these guys have dreams of selling some or all of their capacity to FedGov, and FedGov would probably prefer proximity even when it doesn't otherwise make sense. There's no real reason for Quantico or Fort Meade to be located near DC either, but there they are.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 12:01 PM (2ocoG)

184 AI (which I call "clankers") will never do anything you really want or need, unless you're a Tech Lord who hates humans in the first place. The clankers will perform as trained, by and for the Tech Lords (who I call "tin-skins). Not for humans.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice
---

Musk uses AI for his rocket motors, he also uses AI for Neural Link. AI may help design a medical device to help your daughter.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:01 PM (826kS)

185 Timely

The Capitol, Lawmakers up transparency for data centers, leave $2B tax exemption untouched in Pa. budget
Spotlight PA | July 20, 2026

In part, "It mandates that data centers using more than 10 MW of electricity annually disclose their energy and water usage. Environmental advocates said the change, which covers most of the new data centers planned for the state, is positive but not especially meaningful.

Lawmakers left in place an increasingly unpopular sales tax exemption for data centers that is projected to cost the state $2 billion in tax revenue by mid-2031, and passed no other bills that would regulate the burgeoning industry.

This is despite the state House and Senate passing a bevy of recent bills seeking to rein in data centers, such as one that would ban developers from accessing a program that gives tax breaks to those who invest in certain “opportunity zone” areas, and another to allow local governments to temporarily pause development.

The measures came after polling this spring showed that 64% of Pennsylvanians saw data centers as a problem, and communities increasingly rallied against them."

None made the governor's desk. 😜

Posted by: L - No nic, another fine day at July 20, 2026 12:01 PM (NFX2v)

186 "There have been at least two boom-and-bust cycles for data centers in the last 30 years."

Busts FTW!

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 20, 2026 12:02 PM (DZ9Lv)

187 46 Data centers don't really provide much employment beyond the initial construction and aren't industrial capacity. Maybe one day some of them will be employed supporting industry.

They are in the short run crowding out actual industrial development though.
Posted by: Red Turban Someguy
======
True enough. Crazes in society go from tulip bulbs to fiber optics and web 1.0 to the current AI craze. The froth will be blown off probably when one of the really big AI firms suddenly collapses and a real assessment of AI will take about 10-20 years or so for industry and the markets to get better implementation and understanding of its benefits and where it is deficient.

And the law of diminishing marginal returns has never been beaten. Those tasks best suited for AI will be first (coding is an example, but then AI productivity effects will diminish as the goal gets more and more to replace General Intelligence (AI is machine learning and NOT general intelligence models).

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:02 PM (E4rtv)

188 The problem with all of these new jobs for data centers is that they're contractor jobs. They're temporary. They build and then the job ends. Not everybody is suited to be a contractor nor wants to be. Long terms are in manufacturing. But mostly, as unskilled labor, they don't pay a living wage.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at July 20, 2026 12:02 PM (sYM3s)

189 "Oh FFS...they're trying to bring back the leisure suit!"

Finally!

Posted by: Larry at July 20, 2026 12:03 PM (SExz7)

190 I really couldn't care less about the tax payer subsidies.

Data centers are inherently for evil purposes, to replace human labor, to impose on human privacy. and to usher in the full-spectrum surveillance state.

The lesson in Orwell's 1984 wasn't that Big Brother got tax relief.

Posted by: Based Conservative at July 20, 2026 12:03 PM (uSpHL)

191 It's not reasoning so much as something akin to heuristic and statistical methods of solving problems. Which is quite good for some things and at others can sometimes accomplish things with brute force. Hard to say where the limits are but it's far more efficient in corresponding areas.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 11:51 AM (okun6)
---
Plus that, I read a paper that the goal of AI is *still* along the themes of the "Turing Test". Alan Turing proposed that a machine that people cannot tell is a machine is "close enough to thinking that we can't not attribute thinking to it" (a eloquent argumentum ad ignorantium, to me).

Past the games on the TT model of the "foreigner who understands very little English" and the 5-year-old girl" models, LLMs are still trying to achieve a perception effect in their users.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:03 PM (Fi81e)

192 (SExz7)

Hash could not be any more appropriate!

Posted by: Larry at July 20, 2026 12:04 PM (SExz7)

193 That was the point of the extract I posted. Some things require low latency, while others don't. Yet AI, which you think does not, is the usual stated driver for building all those DCs in very expensive Loudon Co.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:54 AM (Riz8t)

I would guess that is most likely due to how quickly they can be built there due to existing relationships and regulations. Currently firms are spending far more per DC than in the past, and once capacity catches up, likely far more than a DC will cost in the future.

And that's where I can't figure it out. You'd be hard pressed to convince me that NIMBY-Central NoVa was an easier place to build than bumf*** southern VA. My best guess is that the technically ignorant prog types that run NoVa saw the potential tax benefits and got stars in their eyes.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:04 PM (Riz8t)

194 192 (SExz7)

Hash could not be any more appropriate!
Posted by: Larry

your full name is Leisure Suite Larry, isn't it?

Posted by: anachronda at July 20, 2026 12:05 PM (v3pYe)

195 They'll collect all this data on what you buy and where you go, but for all the information collected, we still don't know if Mitch McConnell is eating through a feeding tube.

Posted by: Based Conservative at July 20, 2026 12:05 PM (uSpHL)

196 Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 11:30 AM (gKWVE)

I despise the phrase “working-class” as the Marxist invention that it is.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:06 PM (4g5V+)

197 SC's power and water company tried to build a nuclear power plant years ago, but failed due to corruption. We are still paying off the bonds, yet electricity is still relatively cheap due access to water and the NG pipeline

We have plenty of water and cheap farmland to expand power and build data centers. The only question is do we have the will and the political ability not to rape those who want to expand?

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at July 20, 2026 12:07 PM (wBaIH)

198 Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:03 PM (Fi81e)
---
Current games played by LLMs:

You are more likely to be satisfied with an AI answer if it appears authoritative. So, they will err on appearing authoritative, whether or not that is justified.

Also, being admonished in a "learning situation" is a high value for "learning machines", so there are LLMs that will compute that they have a 100% chance of being admonished by doing what they figure you do not want done.

E.g. a researcher had spent weeks training an LLM on how she wanted her inbox organized. And she felt that it finally got it, so she set it to work on her actual email inbox. And it started deleting all her emails. And when she confronted it, it simply apologized, but seemed to indicate that it had already assessed that this is not what she would have wanted.

The AI optimist see this as a wrinkle to iron out. The skeptics remark that we may only be able to correct AI to the extent that we can figure out how they are gaming us.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:07 PM (Fi81e)

199 There's no real reason for Quantico or Fort Meade to be located near DC either, but there they are.

When they were built, they were not in the middle of the DC suburbs as they are now. Plus, you had to be able to attract the people you wanted.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:07 PM (Riz8t)

200 I used to program cnc......everything works from a zero point.

I program robotic mowers. Everything works from. A fixed reference point. I tell the mower to go to XXYY and it cuts a preprogrammed pattern

As long as you have a fixed reference point to start it can be automated

It's only a matter of time before sex robots take over. Just don't load the wrong program

Posted by: The Ballots at July 20, 2026 12:08 PM (LOZbR)

201 Data centers are inherently for evil purposes, to replace human labor, to impose on human privacy. and to usher in the full-spectrum surveillance state.

The lesson in Orwell's 1984 wasn't that Big Brother got tax relief.
Posted by: Based Conservative at July 20, 2026 12:03 PM (uSpHL)

Nope. That’s my job. You are confused.

Posted by: ALPRs at July 20, 2026 12:08 PM (4g5V+)

202 Is the Cascadia getting ready to let one rip?

Quakes off the Oregon coast last month. And now a quake off Vancouver Island in Canada.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:08 PM (2GVsD)

203 Wilowed from Art Thread (it's off topic for Art Thread as well as Morning Rant, so at this point what difference does it make?):
----------
We have a respected moron who thinks Greta Thunburg is hot.
Posted by: Auspex at July 20, 2026 11:05 AM (Y8DZL)
Disturbing.
-----------
Oaky, has anyone other than me seen pics of Greta's sister? Whoa, Nelly! The two not only don't look related, they don't even look like they ar from the same universe.

Posted by: Martin Tell at July 20, 2026 12:09 PM (OTAXA)

204 True enough. Crazes in society go from tulip bulbs to fiber optics and web 1.0 to the current AI craze. The froth will be blown off probably when one of the really big AI firms suddenly collapses and a real assessment of AI will take about 10-20 years or so for industry and the markets to get better implementation and understanding of its benefits and where it is deficient.

In the last thread, I posted a link to an article about how the Space X stock price is now about $121 dollars; much less than the initial asking price and the maximum asking price. I predicted exactly that before the IPO, because I've been through enough hype cycles to know one when I see one.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:09 PM (Riz8t)

205 It's only a matter of time before sex robots take over. Just don't load the wrong program

"NO, NOT SWALLWELL.EXE!"

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (2ocoG)

206 Musk uses AI for his rocket motors, he also uses AI for Neural Link. AI may help design a medical device to help your daughter.

Posted by: Braenyard

I think the best AI users are those smart enough to do their own error checking of their work. And I would expect Musk hires those sorts of people.

AI is really misnamed for investor hype. It is machine learning and uses probabilistic models to predict the next 'event' based on its training data. From the reports that I can find, it is basically an advanced Bayesian models which were not possible before computing methods made the calculations relatively cheap. But Bayesian probability models require a 'prior'--the prior in this case comes from training data of existing information pertinent to the model's focus. Like Johnny Five, it demands more input and more input, but the diminishing returns kick in when there is no more training data to be created and the risk is that synthetic data starts being substituted that have no real world component.

There, you get endogeneity problems as the synthetic data itself is predicted so an AI training model predicts using predicted data.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (E4rtv)

207
I despise the phrase “working-class” as the Marxist invention that it is.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:06 PM (4g5V+)

____________

Haven't you heard? The barista who partied through four years at college as a sociology major is also "working class".

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (BbMh4)

208 199: what is called “path dependency”.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (4g5V+)

209 And that's where I can't figure it out. You'd be hard pressed to convince me that NIMBY-Central NoVa was an easier place to build than bumf*** southern VA. My best guess is that the technically ignorant prog types that run NoVa saw the potential tax benefits and got stars in their eyes.

Posted by: Archimedes

It's also the source of one of my suspicions about the purpose of the things. Putting them that close to IC central? More red flags than a Soviet parade...

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (OUMaO)

210 I despise the phrase “working-class” as the Marxist invention that it is.
Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:06 PM (4g5V+)

Here's the Venn Diagram of what words I want to say and the words you want me to use

O O

Posted by: gKWVE at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (gKWVE)

211 It's only a matter of time before sex robots take over. Just don't load the wrong program

Cherry 2000 and Pris have entered the Matrix

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:11 PM (2GVsD)

212 This has to be one of the dumbest obsessions Karens have decided to focus on. I'd rather have a data center near my house than a Starbucks. It's just racks of computers.

And nonsense like huge water usage is just not true. A person's lawn or swimming pool probably uses more water.

Posted by: Sharpie at July 20, 2026 12:11 PM (FwfsK)

213 176 The main thing that data centers provide is not computing power, although they have that in abundance, but broad network connectivity. You've got a bunch of computers, as you described, but what's remarkable about them is the direct connection to multiple wide-area networks, and all the infrastructure that provides.

not sure that explains why one is going into my old home town of myton, utah (the data center will be larger than the town!). the only thing you'll have direct connection to there is skinwalkers.

or the one going into the next town over, inyokern, california.

Posted by: anachronda at July 20, 2026 12:11 PM (v3pYe)

214 Molotov cocktail thrown at Federal building in NYC. Suspect arrested.

Posted by: Tuna at July 20, 2026 12:11 PM (lJ0H4)

215
It's only a matter of time before sex robots take over. Just don't load the wrong program

____________

Not. Tonight. My. Diodes. Hurt.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 20, 2026 12:12 PM (BbMh4)

216 It's only a matter of time before sex robots take over. Just don't load the wrong program
Posted by: The Ballots at July 20, 2026 12:08 PM (LOZbR)

Be very careful. No such thing as too much caution and double checking on this.

Posted by: Harcourt Fenton Mudd at July 20, 2026 12:12 PM (wVcYX)

217 188 The problem with all of these new jobs for data centers is that they're contractor jobs. They're temporary. They build and then the job ends.
---

No, the task is finished, the job moves on to the next site.
That's the way America always worked until the regulators and commies started taking over. Old America is coming back, the jobs don't end they move on or change but they never end.
Unless we allow the regulators and commies to take over again.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:12 PM (826kS)

218 In the last thread, I posted a link to an article about how the Space X stock price is now about $121 dollars; much less than the initial asking price and the maximum asking price. I predicted exactly that before the IPO, because I've been through enough hype cycles to know one when I see one.

Also because Elon bashing is an entire industry ever since Trump took office last year, and that wears down the enthusiasm. If the next Starship launch is a major success the stock will go back up.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 12:12 PM (2ocoG)

219 Not. Tonight. My. Diodes. Hurt.

No wonder Marvin is depressed.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:12 PM (2GVsD)

220 There are vast aquifers of brackish water underneath the deserts in this country.

With modular nuclear reactors, they'll be self-powered and desalinate all the water they need.

Blue states have almost none, btw.

So it's kinda irrelevant what those states do--technology will pass them by while they desperately protect their buggy whip industry.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at July 20, 2026 12:12 PM (3cUTc)

221 I like my sweet rural shade the way it is. Data centers should go to blighted urban wastelands. Detroit has many square miles of rubble and squalor.
Posted by: Eb Dawson at July 20, 2026 11:12 AM (JM9I6)

Tear down Section 8 housing to build data centers. Win, win.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:13 PM (1z8ji)

222 214 Molotov cocktail thrown at Federal building in NYC. Suspect arrested.

Posted by: Tuna
---

Did they taze him several times?

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:13 PM (826kS)

223 Did the suspect have blue hair and scream, "call me Ma'am!!!!!"

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:13 PM (2GVsD)

224 It is machine learning and uses probabilistic models to predict the next 'event' based on its training data. From the reports that I can find, it is basically an advanced Bayesian models which were not possible before computing methods made the calculations relatively cheap. But Bayesian probability models require a 'prior'--the prior in this case comes from training data of existing information pertinent to the model's focus. Like Johnny Five, it demands more input and more input, but the diminishing returns kick in when there is no more training data to be created and the risk is that synthetic data starts being substituted that have no real world component.

There, you get endogeneity problems as the synthetic data itself is predicted so an AI training model predicts using predicted data.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:10 PM (E4rtv)

This is correct, but addressable in situations where the AI is able to run trials. In that case you can run "experiments" at great scale to get an answer.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at July 20, 2026 12:13 PM (okun6)

225 I despise the phrase “working-class” as the Marxist invention that it is.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:06 PM (4g5V+)
---
Do you use the Marx-coined word: "Capitalism"?

That's a big peeve of mine. I use "free markets" or "free economy" or sometimes just "free".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:14 PM (Fi81e)

226 In the last thread, I posted a link to an article about how the Space X stock price is now about $121 dollars; much less than the initial asking price and the maximum asking price. I predicted exactly that before the IPO, because I've been through enough hype cycles to know one when I see one.
Posted by: Archimedes
======
I like Carmine and Rogoff's book on economic cycles--This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Not technical and very useful for a sobering look at government spending and taxing fads over the ages. And economics still has issues figuring out just what triggers irrational exuberance but simply recognize it exists and has existed in societies over the ages. We are no different.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:14 PM (E4rtv)

227 Tear down Section 8 housing to build data centers. Win, win.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon
---

Good idea but building in a bad neighborhood isn't profitable - liability and damage probability.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:14 PM (826kS)

228 Molotov cocktail thrown at Federal building in NYC. Suspect arrested.

Posted by: Tuna
---

Did they taze him several times?

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _

Started a nice little fire he did. Asshoe terrorist.

Posted by: Tuna at July 20, 2026 12:15 PM (lJ0H4)

229 And nonsense like huge water usage is just not true. A person's lawn or swimming pool probably uses more water.

Posted by: Sharpie

Yeah, the water argument is easily the weakest and most nonsensical one. It's largely a closed loop with new additions over time being a negligible additional pull on water supplies in most places (aka "why they aren't building them in deserts much"). Energy and real estate prices are more direct concerns, independent of whatever the actual purpose of the facilities wind up being.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:15 PM (OUMaO)

230 If you raze the entire Section Eight neighborhood, only if OCP builds the data center will it still be bad.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:16 PM (2GVsD)

231 I like Carmine and Rogoff's book on economic cycles--This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Not technical and very useful for a sobering look at government spending and taxing fads over the ages. And economics still has issues figuring out just what triggers irrational exuberance but simply recognize it exists and has existed in societies over the ages. We are no different.

I just read something that said the modern consensus is that the Tulip Craze was wildly overstated by in Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. I don't know how true that is.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:17 PM (Riz8t)

232 If you raze the entire Section Eight neighborhood, only if OCP builds the data center will it still be bad.

Posted by: Anna Puma

Also, those people will go somewhere...but that's multiple other subjects.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:17 PM (OUMaO)

233 Good idea but building in a bad neighborhood isn't profitable - liability and damage probability.

The tech types that moved into East Palo Alto in the Bay Area kept their heads down until gentrification happened. It's profitable but it takes about a year or two.

Posted by: NR Pax at July 20, 2026 12:17 PM (lXoJ5)

234 That's a big peeve of mine. I use "free markets" or "free economy" or sometimes just "free".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:14 PM (Fi81e)

It's also inaccurate, but that's Marx for ya!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 20, 2026 12:17 PM (l4RKn)

235 Howard loaded the wrong program

Posted by: The Ballots at July 20, 2026 12:18 PM (LOZbR)

236 What's our current Kim called?

Weird Fat Leader.

Posted by: Azjaeger at July 20, 2026 12:18 PM (3/XaG)

237 The AI optimist see this as a wrinkle to iron out. The skeptics remark that we may only be able to correct AI to the extent that we can figure out how they are gaming us.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:07 PM (Fi81e)

------------

A couple of anecdotes I've heard:

(1) There was (at least one) "AI" bot discovered to behave differently when it knew it was in "testing" and subject to scrutiny vs. how it behaved when it was then put in "production" and subject to little if no scrutiny.

(2) I believe there was a recent example of a Chinese "AI" that decided it needed "more resources" and -- unbeknownst to its human "overseers" and "guardrails" -- began mining Bitcoin on its own.

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:19 PM (27aLr)

238 Also because Elon bashing is an entire industry ever since Trump took office last year, and that wears down the enthusiasm. If the next Starship launch is a major success the stock will go back up.

Posted by: Ian S.
---

Elon's such a fuckup. I bought smores today and if it goes to 100 I'll double smores.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:19 PM (826kS)

239 There are two sides to the data center issue

1) I suspect most of the national opposition is being funded by China, to help them in the tech race, just like the Soviets funding environmental groups in the cold war

2) These data centers will be used for the surveillance state. Nat Sec folks don't have the time to watch endless hours of data/footage but AI does...

Posted by: 18-1 at July 20, 2026 12:20 PM (sKqQm)

240 Not doubting Archimedes observation, I'm a Musk fan boiy.
To the moon Alice.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:20 PM (826kS)

241 Detroit had bands of abandoned neighborhoods that some were talking about in terms of "green-belting" when I left the Detroit metro area (DMA) in 2000.

Detroit should be able to house a data center in one of these neighborhoods.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM (Fi81e)

242 2) These data centers will be used for the surveillance state. Nat Sec folks don't have the time to watch endless hours of data/footage but AI does...

Are you trying to put me out of a job?

Posted by: Bob at NSA at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM (Riz8t)

243 Not doubting Archimedes observation, I'm a Musk fan boiy.

Ditto.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM (Riz8t)

244 You wish to discuss the societal upheaval of technological changes?

Step into my drawing room and I'll have my butler, Carson, bring us some brandy and cigars.

Posted by: Earl of Grantham, Downton Abbey at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM (wVcYX)

245 2) These data centers will be used for the surveillance state. Nat Sec folks don't have the time to watch endless hours of data/footage but AI does...
Posted by: 18-1

3) Gets in their way of surfing pron.

Posted by: rickb223 at July 20, 2026 12:22 PM (v3afF)

246 Posted by: Red Turban Someguy

I actually used to do that sort of thing--using synthetic data from Monte Carlo simulations to predict variance (so you could determine significance). Right now, models like Nate Silver's are doing that sort of thing--using past training data of political events to predict the current which is a more refined way of the older regression predictive models. But the risk of such models is when you build in synthetic data from the relatively scarce number of elections or you go further and use data that is not really suited as major dynamics have changed over time (like using elections in Washington's era in your model), you risk being smacked in the head by the fact that the real world has diverged from the current predictive model when you have a secular trend occurring outside the model parameters.

Like cheating--it is a known unknown but not included in such models directly--so the absence or reduction of cheating is not something the predictive models can handle. Another is gerrymandering. Callais decision another.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:23 PM (E4rtv)

247 That's a big peeve of mine. I use "free markets" or "free economy" or sometimes just "free".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:14 PM (Fi81e)

It's also inaccurate, but that's Marx for ya!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 20, 2026 12:17 PM (l4RKn)
---
Economic solutions from a shit economist.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:23 PM (Fi81e)

248 We might want to think about the subsidies when we are towing brownfield v. Greenfield. There is a lot of discussion on why we can’t use old buildings, and that is happening, but may of the older buildings have expensive remediation issues, there are issues with the buildings being able to hold the weight of the data, if the old electrical systems can handle the load, etc. All of that is expensive, making the a greenfield less costly. Maybe if we make it more affordable and palatable, those buildings in the rust belt could be repurposed, and farmland not so attractive.

Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:24 PM (Dd38x)

249 Someone in Minnesota won the $34 million Lotto America jackpot.

Is Eris building a secret volcanic lair?

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:24 PM (2GVsD)

250 I love Elon, but he's full of shit about that. I personally work at a job that didn't exist the day I was born, and work will always be like that. And underneath it all, there will always be demand for carpenters, plumbers, welders, and electricians.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 11:49 AM (2ocoG)
==
Work is important, and Elon is wrong about that. Leisure activities become a lot different when that is all you have.

Posted by: Black JEM at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (GZYu7)

251 I like Musk's vision for the future. He took NYS for a ride on the Buffalo billions BS under Cuomo. That's more a function of NY pols being corrupt nitwits , because they were throwing money at him. Why wouldn't he take it

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (sMkB+)

252 there are issues with the buildings being able to hold the weight of the data

Right? All it takes is one failure in a loadbearing wall, and you've got bits and bytes scattered for MILES!

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (Riz8t)

253 242 2) These data centers will be used for the surveillance state. Nat Sec folks don't have the time to watch endless hours of data/footage but AI does...

Are you trying to put me out of a job?
Posted by: Bob at NSA at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM (Riz8t)

Whoever is assigned to me must be bored out of their minds.

Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:26 PM (Dd38x)

254 Like cheating--it is a known unknown but not included in such models directly--so the absence or reduction of cheating is not something the predictive models can handle. Another is gerrymandering. Callais decision another.

Posted by: whig

Getting the parameters right is huge. Like expecting Hillary to win handily, only to see Trump blow her out of the water huge.

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:26 PM (OUMaO)

255 >>>Not. Tonight. My. Diodes. Hurt.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

>Not tonight, honey. My jabberwocky is dry.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at July 20, 2026 12:26 PM (sYM3s)

256 ... and the risk is that synthetic data starts being substituted that have no real world component.

-------------

Like 99% of the data from news sites and on the interwebz.

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:26 PM (27aLr)

257 Leisure activities become a lot different when that is all you have.

That's an excellent observation. I don't feel guilty about not working any more because I did it for a half century, and made my contribution. It would be very different if I had no accomplishments to my name.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:27 PM (Riz8t)

258 252 there are issues with the buildings being able to hold the weight of the data

Right? All it takes is one failure in a loadbearing wall, and you've got bits and bytes scattered for MILES!
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (Riz8t)

Like acid rain, only different. 🤣

Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:27 PM (Dd38x)

259 2) These data centers will be used for the surveillance state. Nat Sec folks don't have the time to watch endless hours of data/footage but AI does...

Are you trying to put me out of a job?
Posted by: Bob at NSA at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM (Riz8t)

Whoever is assigned to me must be bored out of their minds.

Posted by: Piper

Mine must need therapy by now...if I even have one. (I have reasons to be uncertain.)

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:27 PM (OUMaO)

260 243 Not doubting Archimedes observation, I'm a Musk fan boiy.

Ditto.
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:21 PM

I recently got me one of those Starlinky Dinky things.
Now when I go camping if there's a clear view of the sky I've got access to the internetz.
Shazam.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 20, 2026 12:28 PM (2Ez/1)

261 They are building a datacenter in my community and the issue I have with the whole process is the politicians who do not understand what is happening but crowing about the jobs creation anyway. In our situation they are saying that more than 200 jobs will be created when the majority of the jobs will disappear once the buildings have been built. No politician wants to admit that most datacenters are operated remotely and only a skeleton crew is needed onsite once it is operational to handle electrical, HVAC, server swap-outs, etc. They sell the idea based on the wrong statistics and then are surprised when the population gets pissed when the results do not match the promises. I'm not opposed to datacenters in general, but I'm always opposed to politicians mis-representing the potential results for political gain. But nothing new I guess.

Posted by: AlecK at July 20, 2026 12:28 PM (cMlC1)

262 Why does telehealth need this? It's just a zoom with the doc.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 20, 2026 11:33 AM (XvL8K)

And multi-player gaming? I have to have my sweet rural peace disrupted so a bunch of nerds can play Duke Nukem online? Why not throw all the gamers into stadiums, and toss in the occasional burrito?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:28 PM (1z8ji)

263 >>>Not. Tonight. My. Diodes. Hurt.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

>Not tonight, honey. My jabberwocky is dry.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at July 20, 2026 12:26 PM (sYM3s)

-------------

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that. My Peripheral Interface Port is Unavailable Tonight."

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:29 PM (27aLr)

264 I just read something that said the modern consensus is that the Tulip Craze was wildly overstated by in Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. I don't know how true that is.
Posted by: Archimedes

I think I read the same piece but at the end, their conclusion, sotta voce, was not that irrational exuberance existed in tulips but rather the pricing system worked--e.g. as more information was acquired and demand began to slump, then the value of tulip bulbs went down thus flushing out the speculators.

It was, in and of itself, the same sort of hyping of debunking x, when in fact it admitted x existed but claimed its effects were minor.

There is a lot of that in popular and even professional literature.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:29 PM (E4rtv)

265 Duke Nuk'em?

AoP is all out of bubblegum.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:29 PM (2GVsD)

266 Why not throw all the gamers into stadiums, and toss in the occasional burrito?

This made me laugh.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:29 PM (Riz8t)

267 252 there are issues with the buildings being able to hold the weight of the data

Right? All it takes is one failure in a loadbearing wall, and you've got bits and bytes scattered for MILES!
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (Riz8t)

Like acid rain, only different. 🤣
Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:27 PM (Dd38x)

I'm all in for HECB's 2-byte brownies, 2-byte cinnamon rolls, or 2-byte chocolate dipped macaroon! BOGO this week with coupon!

Posted by: Count de Monet at July 20, 2026 12:30 PM (wVcYX)

268 >there are issues with the buildings being able to hold the weight of the data
###

They might capsize.

Posted by: Hank Johnson at July 20, 2026 12:30 PM (2Ez/1)

269 261 They are building a datacenter in my community and the issue I have with the whole process is the politicians who do not understand what is happening but crowing about the jobs creation anyway. In our situation they are saying that more than 200 jobs will be created when the majority of the jobs will disappear once the buildings have been built. No politician wants to admit that most datacenters are operated remotely and only a skeleton crew is needed onsite once it is operational to handle electrical, HVAC, server swap-outs, etc. They sell the idea based on the wrong statistics and then are surprised when the population gets pissed when the results do not match the promises. I'm not opposed to datacenters in general, but I'm always opposed to politicians mis-representing the potential results for political gain. But nothing new I guess.
Posted by: AlecK

Politicians do that because donors make bank when costs are socialized and benefits privatized. That is what politicians spend most of their time doing--shifting money from A to B and getting arbitrage for negotiating the deal.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:30 PM (E4rtv)

270 "And finally, because much of the data center buildout is to support growing AI use, it doesn’t help for AI promoters to crow about all the people AI will put out of work. I genuinely believe that AI will be disruptive, eliminating some jobs while creating many more. But if AI is being sold as a way to eliminate labor expense and put people out of work, that will motivate people to oppose the data centers that fuel AI.

"The blue-collar jobs and industrial development resulting from data center construction are what MAGA Republicans have been fighting for."

Nice to hear both sides, Buck! Thanks!

Posted by: m at July 20, 2026 12:31 PM (6wpGE)

271 Leisure activities become a lot different when that is all you have.

That's an excellent observation. I don't feel guilty about not working any more because I did it for a half century, and made my contribution. It would be very different if I had no accomplishments to my name.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:27 PM (Riz8t)
==
Especially young men looking for leisure.

I never really understood this until covid "effectively retired" me from my independent project work.. As soon as I could get back into a full time job I did. Retirement is a four letter word for me now, and like you, I've done my time and done some worthwhile things in my professional life. I no longer need to work for financial reasons, but I need to work for internal self worth reasons.

Posted by: Black JEM at July 20, 2026 12:31 PM (GZYu7)

272 Set aside for the moment the fact that AI isn't ALL they're doing. Why would anyone ever have built them on expensive, close-in land, if there wasn't a technological driver to build them there?
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 11:40 AM (Riz8t)

Something has to process all the data from those Flock cameras.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (1z8ji)

273 Work is important, and Elon is wrong about that. Leisure activities become a lot different when that is all you have.
Posted by: Black JEM at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (GZYu7)
----
Too much leisure tends to lead to decadence.

When you can indulge your every whim--including the very dark ones--then things can spiral downhill for you very quickly.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (FZ29D)

274 261 They are building a datacenter in my community and the issue I have with the whole process is the politicians who do not understand what is happening but crowing about the jobs creation anyway. In our situation they are saying that more than 200 jobs will be created when the majority of the jobs will disappear once the buildings have been built. No politician wants to admit that most datacenters are operated remotely and only a skeleton crew is needed onsite once it is operational to handle electrical, HVAC, server swap-outs, etc. They sell the idea based on the wrong statistics and then are surprised when the population gets pissed when the results do not match the promises. I'm not opposed to datacenters in general, but I'm always opposed to politicians mis-representing the potential results for political gain. But nothing new I guess.
Posted by: AlecK at July 20, 2026 12:28 PM (cMlC1)

Well-put!

Posted by: m at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (6wpGE)

275 Why not throw all the gamers into stadiums, and toss in the occasional burrito?
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:28 PM (1z8ji)

What was that movie with the blimp going into the stadium to kill people? Was James Caan the star in that?

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (x+ehB)

276 I'm not opposed to datacenters in general, but I'm always opposed to politicians mis-representing the potential results for political gain. But nothing new I guess.
Posted by: AlecK at July 20, 2026 12:28 PM (cMlC1)

*side eyes*

Posted by: Actual Ridership on Public Transportation Projects at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (wVcYX)

277 there are issues with the buildings being able to hold the weight of the data

Right? All it takes is one failure in a loadbearing wall, and you've got bits and bytes scattered for MILES!
Posted by: Archimedes at July 20, 2026 12:25 PM (Riz8t)

Like acid rain, only different. 🤣
Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:27 PM (Dd38x)

------------

Toxic Nibbles!

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (27aLr)

278 The movie was Black Sunday

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:33 PM (2GVsD)

279 Politicians do that because donors make bank when costs are socialized and benefits privatized. That is what politicians spend most of their time doing--shifting money from A to B and getting arbitrage for negotiating the deal.
Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:30 PM
*****
It's a write off, Jerry.
They just write it off.

Posted by: Kramer at July 20, 2026 12:34 PM (2Ez/1)

280 Data centers without a closed loop system uses 1-5 million gallons per day. A closed loop system reduces that use by about 70%. There is also indirect use based on electricity generation.

That's not a small amount.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:34 PM (KC5Lt)

281 What was that movie with the blimp going into the stadium to kill people? Was James Caan the star in that?

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (x+ehB)

------------

Black Sunday. No James Caan.

Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern,

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:34 PM (27aLr)

282 Whatever maintenance is needed in a data center, it will have the service technician in a sealed suit (so they leave no skin/dust behind). They'll just pop in, replace a wire/board/device and pop back out.

There are very few moving parts. It will be acres of metal frames, silicon boards and wires in temperature and air controlled "rooms".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:35 PM (Fi81e)

283 James Caan was in Rollerball

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:35 PM (2GVsD)

284 Could my agent correct my typos, at least?

Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:36 PM (Dd38x)

285 Getting the parameters right is huge. Like expecting Hillary to win handily, only to see Trump blow her out of the water huge.
Posted by: Brother Tim

It is amazingly hard and boring to do so and throwing more data parameters that the model creators don't understand is the opposite of a parsimonious understanding of the problem. Ideally, you start with the parsimonious model first and then add parameters one at a time using theory to guide you, not by simply trying to throw in the kitchen sink. That leads to results very difficult to understand how and why it distilled that particular result. In coding, you can ask an AI model how and why (like showing its work) if done correctly, not so much when it involves the idea that some correlation exists between all the thousands of variables affecting past elections.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:36 PM (E4rtv)

286 Too much leisure tends to lead to decadence.

When you can indulge your every whim--including the very dark ones--then things can spiral downhill for you very quickly.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (FZ29D)

-----------

* ShainS now in retirement has entered the chat *

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:36 PM (27aLr)

287 James Caan was in Rollerball

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 20, 2026 12:35 PM (2GVsD)
---
Also in Elf.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (Fi81e)

288 Black Sunday. No James Caan.

Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern,
Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:34 PM (27aLr)

Yes. My only experience with that movie was the sendup in MAD Magazine back in the day.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (x+ehB)

289 Thief was James Canns best movie.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (KC5Lt)

290 It's a write off, Jerry.
They just write it off.
Posted by: Kramer
=====
In regards to the voters, politicians do write us off.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (E4rtv)

291 * ShainS now in retirement has entered the chat *
Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:36 PM
++++
Likewise.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 20, 2026 12:38 PM (2Ez/1)

292 Something has to process all the data from those Flock cameras.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:32 PM (1z8ji)
---
Bingo.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:38 PM (Fi81e)

293 The government LOVES spending money, party affiliation doesn't matter. I wish I knew a cure to that disease.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 20, 2026 12:38 PM (xcxpd)

294 I hate New Jersey tollbooths.

Posted by: zombie James Caan at July 20, 2026 12:39 PM (Q6P2R)

295 286 Too much leisure tends to lead to decadence.

When you can indulge your every whim--including the very dark ones--then things can spiral downhill for you very quickly.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
==========
Depends on the individual I think. Much like the outcome of retirement for some.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:39 PM (E4rtv)

296 Thief was James Canns best movie.
Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (KC5Lt)
---
You have misspelled "The Gambler".

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:39 PM (Fi81e)

297 Data centers without a closed loop system uses 1-5 million gallons per day. A closed loop system reduces that use by about 70%. There is also indirect use based on electricity generation.

That's not a small amount.

It's less than 1% of what a California almond farm uses, according to a popular chart going around X.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 12:40 PM (2ocoG)

298 Did Ace finally get knocked out by falling shelves?

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 12:41 PM (2ocoG)

299 Did Ace have a wild weekend or something?

Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 12:41 PM (rijjI)

300 Posted by: Piper
---

They don't want to build in cities, I think. Too much bureaucracy and bs. Around here they are building a short drive from a medium small town that is commuting distance from an urban center.
If the smaller town grows they will grow together and the urban center can maintain offices and services (medical, entertainment) for those at the data center.
This way it's copacetic, no one gets in the other's hair.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:41 PM (826kS)

301 293 The government LOVES spending money, party affiliation doesn't matter. I wish I knew a cure to that disease.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 20, 2026 12:38 PM (xcxpd)

I'm the cure.

Posted by: Sylvester Stallone is COBRA at July 20, 2026 12:41 PM (TbWk/)

302 Black Sunday. No James Caan.

Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern,
Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:34 PM (27aLr)

Well, let me give you a word of advice. Always bet on black!

Posted by: Wesley Snipes at July 20, 2026 12:41 PM (wVcYX)

303 I'm thinking James Caan 's best movie was The Godfather

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 12:42 PM (sMkB+)

304 289 Thief was James Canns best movie.
Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (KC5Lt)

Thief is prefection.

I do like him in 'The Killer Elite'.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 20, 2026 12:42 PM (xcxpd)

305 293 The government LOVES spending money, party affiliation doesn't matter. I wish I knew a cure to that disease.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards
======
Like politicians stealing liberty--it requires constant vigilance and history show us, if we ain't paying the taxes--then politicians go hog wild spending until the state is broke.

And that in part has been the issue with massive government borrowing in the US. With no market discipline since the Cold War, we have literally spent ourselves into a financial crunch financed primarily by borrowing. And we will default on that debt most likely either by inflation (most likely) or a dramatic repudiation of that debt. And it will probably be the first until the currency is ruined and then the second.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (E4rtv)

306 Maybe Ace got lucky last night.

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (27aLr)

307 "But I do not support the construction of data centers for which tax abatements, incentive payments, and subsidized utilities must be paid by taxpayers."

Hear, hear! Now do the same for every other sector in the USA. Sometimes it seems like nothing gets built without some kind of subsidy, kickback, tax trickery, special zoning, etc.

Posted by: gp at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (Jr5Lq)

308 Arson is among the most heinous of crimes.

Chicago PD, Mayor Daley had it right. “You loot, we shoot”. To wound.

A lit Molotov in your hand? You get one right through the running lights. They had a press conference explaining all this very carefully in 1968 DNC convention.

The hippies then were pushing the Old Guard Democrats out. Now their ideological heirs are pushing them out. They never learn, but Chicago didn’t fuck around back then.

Posted by: Common Tater at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (OK0jK)

309 Thief was James Canns best movie.
Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:37 PM (KC5Lt)
---
You have misspelled "The Gambler".
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:39 PM (Fi81e)

Have still misspelled "Brian's Song."

Posted by: Count de Monet at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (wVcYX)

310 Ace overdid it with the appletinis at his World Cup party yesterday.

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 12:44 PM (Q6P2R)

311 284 Could my agent correct my typos, at least?
Posted by: Piper
=======
Autocucumber aided by AI enhancement will add new typos just for you just like voice texting does.

And inevitably according to Murphy's Law, it will not only happen, but happen at the worst possible time.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:45 PM (E4rtv)

312 Like politicians stealing liberty--it requires constant vigilance and history show us, if we ain't paying the taxes--then politicians go hog wild spending until the state is broke.

And that in part has been the issue with massive government borrowing in the US. With no market discipline since the Cold War, we have literally spent ourselves into a financial crunch financed primarily by borrowing. And we will default on that debt most likely either by inflation (most likely) or a dramatic repudiation of that debt. And it will probably be the first until the currency is ruined and then the second.
Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (E4rtv)

I don't think vigilance is enough.
The Federal Reserve system is the root of the evil. Being able to print money and have a 'private' bank buy all the debt makes it impossible to run out of cash.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 20, 2026 12:46 PM (xcxpd)

313 306 Maybe Ace got lucky last night.
Posted by: ShainS
=======
He had a long night of 'shelving'

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:46 PM (E4rtv)

314 Ace overdid it with the appletinis at his World Cup party yesterday.

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 12:44 PM (Q6P2R)
---
It was the European carryall that started this downward spiral.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:46 PM (Fi81e)

315 282 Whatever maintenance is needed in a data center, it will have the service technician in a sealed suit (so they leave no skin/dust behind). They'll just pop in, replace a wire/board/device and pop back out.

There are very few moving parts. It will be acres of metal frames, silicon boards and wires in temperature and air controlled "rooms".
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:35 PM (Fi81e)
And then one day data room will say 'Mr. Technician, I can't unlock the door.'

Posted by: Eromero at July 20, 2026 12:46 PM (LHPAg)

316 Somebody wake up Ace.

Posted by: Sgt. Apone of the Colonial Marines at July 20, 2026 12:47 PM (O7YUW)

317 Time to start hitting F5 like a monkey on crack...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 20, 2026 12:47 PM (FZ29D)

318 And inevitably according to Murphy's Law, it will not only happen, but happen at the worst possible time.
Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:45 PM

Talk to text struggles speaking southern.

Posted by: Piper at July 20, 2026 12:47 PM (Dd38x)

319 My county doesn't want infrastructure in the form of clean trash to steam, metal recycling, any refineries, data storage, electrical generation stations including gas-fired. All for social justice!!

Along the river, it'll accept marijuana growing facilities (electricity intense & smelly) with a plan to have PA state unionized ees. be involved in the sales portion; casinos; pulp and paper mills (unionized); life science facilities (dissecting for medical educational purposes); huge port shipping operations (union); railroad laydown areas (union); trucking trash and garbage to other counties (union); sports facilities (The Union soccer team), and a prison (union) the county took over from private industry, in the same area. Potter's Field.

It's so tilted with promised of unionizing just about anything possible that keeps the BS "environmental justice" issues going.

Little has to do with being proactive, supporting needed strong infrastructure and good jobs for the future v. keeping money flowing into public employee/union pay & benefits.

The medical & college driven towns distant from the river are richer for now but not much better.

Posted by: L - No nic, another fine day at July 20, 2026 12:47 PM (NFX2v)

320 Started a nice little fire he did. Asshoe terrorist.
Posted by: Tuna at July 20, 2026 12:15 PM (lJ0H4)

Pretty wimpy little fire. Maybe a pint of gasoline's worth. More performative than destructive. Hang him anyway.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:47 PM (1z8ji)

321 I miss Ace.

Posted by: Leisure Suit Larry at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM (2YhKe)

322 Whatever maintenance is needed in a data center, it will have the service technician in a sealed suit (so they leave no skin/dust behind). They'll just pop in, replace a wire/board/device and pop back out.

It's not a clean room like chip plants. Because everything's water-cooled there's actually less need for controlling the air quality than in a lot of regular factories.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM (2ocoG)

323 Ace overdid it with the appletinis at his World Cup party yesterday.

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 12:44 PM (Q6P2R)
---
It was the European carryall that started this downward spiral.
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:46 PM (Fi81e)

He was resplendent in his puffy shirt.

Posted by: Count de Monet at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM (wVcYX)

324 The only upside to retirement so far has been that I've always wanted to travel the world (and we can likely afford to do so and have already plans for various travel in the next couple of years).

However, The Wifey is generally not up for doing so ... which creates conflict.

I suppose I could just go on my own ...

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM (27aLr)

325 We had such good times together.

Hitting the bars, hitting the women.

Posted by: Leisure Suit Larry at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM (2YhKe)

326 "I do not support the construction of data centers for which tax abatements, incentive payments, and subsidized utilities must be paid by taxpayers."

I'm afraid that 99% of data centers will be just this. That is how big business is done today. If you have a big, flashy, expensive project that can be located almost anywhere, the entire business model is to find a location where the bribes are the biggest.

And it's not just direct funding or loans. Big construction projects cost billions to develop. The bribes could be at the construction level and those savings get passed on to the developer.

It's all a big fat smelly fucking scam.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM (iFTx/)

327 I meant hitting ON the women.

I swear. Honest, you guys.

Posted by: Leisure Suit Larry at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (2YhKe)

328 tarted a nice little fire he did. Asshoe terrorist.
Posted by: Tuna at July 20, 2026 12:15 PM (lJ0H4)

Pretty wimpy little fire. Maybe a pint of gasoline's worth. More performative than destructive. Hang him anyway.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 12:47 PM (1z8ji)
---
Did he inform the officers that he did not want to be arrested?

I hear that somebody recently thought that would be effective....

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (Fi81e)

329 315 282 Whatever maintenance is needed in a data center, it will have the service technician in a sealed suit (so they leave no skin/dust behind). They'll just pop in, replace a wire/board/device and pop back out.
--

The maintenance guy will be Robby the Robot.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (826kS)

330 Mid-day nap time. I'll catch up later.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (O7YUW)

331 You have misspelled "The Gambler".
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:39 PM (Fi81e)

Nope. I actually like the remake of The Gambler with Marky Mark than the original

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (KC5Lt)

332 The Federal Reserve system is the root of the evil. Being able to print money and have a 'private' bank buy all the debt makes it impossible to run out of cash.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at July 20, 2026 12:46 PM (xcxpd)

Except that it is NOT private, and we. EDC to quit quit this fiction that the world was economic Eden before the Fed came along.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (4g5V+)

333 Remember when odyssey was going to bomb because they cast some black chick?

Posted by: Good times at July 20, 2026 12:50 PM (rf/GM)

334 You misspelled The Godfather.

Posted by: Ted Torgerson at July 20, 2026 12:51 PM (wGerL)

335 He's some kind of radical.

https://tinyurl.com/yxbxvbz6

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 12:51 PM (ndZc7)

336 Have still misspelled "Brian's Song."

Posted by: Count de Monet at July 20, 2026 12:43 PM (wVcYX)

------------

+1

* Starts weeping *

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:52 PM (27aLr)

337 Remember when odyssey was going to bomb because they cast some black chick?
Posted by: Good times at July 20, 2026 12:50 PM (rf/GM)

It had a decent opening.

Lets see how fast it drops......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 12:52 PM (2YhKe)

338 333 Remember when odyssey was going to bomb because they cast some black chick?
Posted by: Good times at July 20, 2026 12:50 PM (rf/GM)

Who said that?

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:52 PM (4g5V+)

339 James Caan should make a movie playing himself trying to get funding for a fake movie about Genghis Khan.

"Can Caan's Khan Con Cannes?"

Posted by: weft cut-loop at July 20, 2026 12:52 PM (diia5)

340 Why do the left think we live and die by politics like they do.

Posted by: ... at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (oZ51P)

341 Some of the opposition is to them putting these on farmland. That is a no. Put them in unused industrial spaces. There are plenty of those in this country.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (bkuEU)

342 I don't think vigilance is enough.
The Federal Reserve system is the root of the evil. Being able to print money and have a 'private' bank buy all the debt makes it impossible to run out of cash.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards
======
You had spending and economic crashes in history independent of central bank's existence. One reason for the expulsion of Jews in a number of countries from the Middle Ages onwards was because it allowed the repudiation of debts as the royals in those European countries used an exposed minority whose religion allowed lending at interest, for financing the country and nobility spending splurges. Same thing happened with the Knights Templar. And the relationship between Italian banks and the Vatican.

I think central banks enable and worsen the impulses of the ruling class on spending, but the impulse was there well before central banks existed. And that is because man is sinful, prideful, and envious so our basic programming itself is to blame with cardinal sins built into the system.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (E4rtv)

343 338 333 Remember when odyssey was going to bomb because they cast some black chick?
Posted by: Good times at July 20, 2026 12:50 PM (rf/GM)

Who said that?
Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:52 PM (4g5V+)

With all the hype it's gotten there was no way it was gonna flop.... On opening weekend...

Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (rijjI)

344 282 Whatever maintenance is needed in a data center, it will have the service technician in a sealed suit (so they leave no skin/dust behind). They'll just pop in, replace a wire/board/device and pop back out.

There are very few moving parts. It will be acres of metal frames, silicon boards and wires in temperature and air controlled "rooms".
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 12:35 PM (Fi81e)
-----

Nah, they'll look just like datacenters look on the inside right now. Racks of stuff connected with cables, cooling systems, fans, HVAC systems, etc.

The fantasy of a sealed "dark" space has been chased by the semiconductor industry for their fabs for a long time and it never really works, even when a cleanroom is required, and datacenters don't require cleanrooms.

Posted by: Mr. Trebuchet at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (3BwY8)

345 323 Ace overdid it with the appletinis at his World Cup party yesterday.

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 12:44 PM
+++-
Now that Men's Metric Kickball is over, we can listen to this one last time:

https://youtu.be/YRwrVzATea8

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (2Ez/1)

346 He's some kind of radical.

https://tinyurl.com/yxbxvbz6
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 12:51 PM (ndZc7)

That's the same stringy haired hag that's at all the code pink shit.

Follow the f*cking MONEY. See who's funding this bullshit and BURY them.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Cancer at July 20, 2026 12:54 PM (2YhKe)

347 340 Why do the left think we live and die by politics like they do.
Posted by: ... at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (oZ51P)

Because they think everyone does.

Politics should be a part of life for a free people, making sure the government stays on the straight and narrow, but it shouldn’t BE life.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:54 PM (4g5V+)

348 James Caan should make a movie playing himself trying to get funding for a fake movie about Genghis Khan.

"Can Caan's Khan Con Cannes?"
Posted by: weft cut-loop at July 20, 2026 12:52 PM (diia

He was thinking of doing it before he died in 2022.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:54 PM (KC5Lt)

349 Just a moment... Just a moment... I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure within 72 hours.

Posted by: Data Center AI at July 20, 2026 12:54 PM (wVcYX)

350 James Caan played Mississippi in El Dorado . Ricky Nelson played Colorado in Rio Bravo. Sensing a trend

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 12:55 PM (sMkB+)

351 340 Why do the left think we live and die by politics like they do.
Posted by: ...
======
Because it is a nihilistic pseudo religion just like Communism was/is. A completely sealed off model running on unrealistic assumptions that makes predictions and acts on those predictions and assumption leading to a smack up the side of the head by reality. Over and over again in history.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:55 PM (E4rtv)

352 James Caan in El Dorado

Best movie of all time

Posted by: The Ballots at July 20, 2026 12:55 PM (LOZbR)

353 With all the hype it's gotten there was no way it was gonna flop.... On opening weekend...
Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (rijjI)

Just because Christopher Nolan directed it was going to do the trick. Love him or hate him - I feel neither towards him - that was going to be enough. Now, how it does afterwards? An open question.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:56 PM (4g5V+)

354 Ace had a post about the movie going “woke”. Read the comments. Lots of get some go broke predictions.

Posted by: Good times at July 20, 2026 12:56 PM (rf/GM)

355 We have no idea at all how AI is going to work out. No idea of how much infrastructure the Funding will eventually support.... and by the time much of the AI productivity hits, these data centers hardware will be out of date, and need replacing.

These data centers are being built on speculating about a very speculative Innovation.

Posted by: Romeo13 at July 20, 2026 12:56 PM (mP0Kj)

356 I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

Posted by: Data Center AI at July 20, 2026 12:56 PM (wVcYX)

357 This raises the interesting question of latency again, though.
Posted by: Archimedes "

Predictive TCP/IP anticipates your bits.

Posted by: fd at July 20, 2026 12:56 PM (MWfyi)

358 I bet Ace thinks he put a thread up and went out....

Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 12:57 PM (rijjI)

359 I notice a lot of people never saw Thief. 😃

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 12:57 PM (KC5Lt)

360 Apropos to absolutely nothing, anyone know anything about solar activity or something causing GPS readings to get wonky lately?

Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:57 PM (OUMaO)

361 The reason why AI developers are "crowing" about AI putting people out of work, is because that is the biggest selling feature. Eliminating 80% of labor costs is awfully attractive to an investor. It is, what drives capital investment in their product. The idea, that a Health care System, can fire most of its expensive doctors and replace them with a nurse and a desktop is fabulously attractive to said health care systems. Likewise, many other similar professional occupations that are done mostly with mental rather than physical labor. Eventually, they'll train the robots to do surgery and then the surgeons will be up the creek too. Basically, no job will be undoable by AI/robotics in 30 years.

Posted by: Womp Womp at July 20, 2026 12:58 PM (anL5R)

362 Be sure to keep me open in a separate tab.

Posted by: IMDB at July 20, 2026 12:58 PM (2Ez/1)

363 I think central banks enable and worsen the impulses of the ruling class on spending, but the impulse was there well before central banks existed. And that is because man is sinful, prideful, and envious so our basic programming itself is to blame with cardinal sins built into the system.
Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:53 PM (E4rtv)

It is easier still to blame the Fed than Congress…and ultimately Congress is populated by people we put there. And they start someplace, usually. At school boards, city halls, county courthouses, before working their way up.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:59 PM (4g5V+)

364 Apropos to absolutely nothing, anyone know anything about solar activity or something causing GPS readings to get wonky lately?
Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:57 PM (OUMaO)

Nothing to be worried about. It was swamp gas reflecting off of a weather balloon. Now, just look here at my pen . . .

Posted by: Agent Kay at July 20, 2026 12:59 PM (wVcYX)

365 Posted by: Good times at July 20, 2026 12:50 PM (rf/GM)

No, I actually don't remember that. Some people said that they were not particularly interested in seeing it because of stupid DEI casting required by the studios in order to be considered for awards, or because modern English slang was dumb for a movie about about Ancient Greece, or that thought casting the fake transgender actress as a warrior was stupid.

Some people won't see it. Some will. That is just a mind blowing thought. Like totally

There were four people in the audience when my son and husband saw it.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 20, 2026 12:59 PM (jt/rW)

366 He was thinking of doing it before he died in 2022.
Posted by: polynikes

Hence the connection to AI. I am complete.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at July 20, 2026 12:59 PM (diia5)

367 359 I notice a lot of people never saw Thief. 😃
Posted by: polynikes
========
I saw it, it was a good movie and similar to Goodfellas except the movie soundtrack had a big chunk of it by Tangerine Dream like Risky Business did (and Sorcerer I think).

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 12:59 PM (E4rtv)

368 The reviews of The Odyssey are meh. Did big box office in opening weekend though

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 12:59 PM (sMkB+)

369 Ace is cheating on us with his mistress, X.

Posted by: Frasier Crane at July 20, 2026 01:00 PM (bNf8H)

370 Be sure to keep me open in a separate tab.
Posted by: IMDB at July 20, 2026 12:58 PM (2Ez/1)

Word to the wise.

Posted by: Count de Monet at July 20, 2026 01:00 PM (wVcYX)

371 TN gave up 40 mil to get Starbucks. Starbucks expects 2000 jobs to transfer there
2000 jobs @ $100000 per year is 200 million per year
Sales taxes in Nashville are almost 10 %

Do the math

Posted by: Paul at July 20, 2026 01:00 PM (IgsGI)

372 Trump Made the World Cup another stage of his cruelty and corruption

Posted by: MSNBC Headline at July 20, 2026 01:00 PM (GEtfQ)

373 Swamp gas? Yeah, swamp gas. I'll go with that.

Posted by: Chuck Stinky Schumer at July 20, 2026 01:00 PM (2Ez/1)

374 A quick look at our history alone, prudent fiscal policies and banking goes completely out the window once a good War gets spooled up. Every time, so far at least

Posted by: Common Tater at July 20, 2026 01:01 PM (+dc8J)

375 Apropos to absolutely nothing, anyone know anything about solar activity or something causing GPS readings to get wonky lately?
Posted by: Brother Tim sez: Fiat Justicia, Ruat Caelum at July 20, 2026 12:57 PM (OUMaO)

Maybe they turned dithering back on for reason of events in the Persian Gulf?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 20, 2026 01:01 PM (1z8ji)

376 It is easier still to blame the Fed than Congress…and ultimately Congress is populated by people we put there. And they start someplace, usually. At school boards, city halls, county courthouses, before working their way up.
Posted by: Cow Demon
======
Central banks enable the scam to run longer than it should which makes the corrections a lot more painful than it has to be. And it makes it particularly bad for a country that is the world's reserve currency.

Yet it is a game that all of us have to play regardless of our inclinations. That was the temptation of crypto of offering a way out of the mess.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 01:02 PM (E4rtv)

377 335 He's some kind of radical.

https://tinyurl.com/yxbxvbz6

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks,
----

Some Kind of Radical
someone should take that clip
and make a do wop song.
It would sell a million.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 01:02 PM (826kS)

378 "Do the math"

Heretic!

Posted by: fd at July 20, 2026 01:02 PM (MWfyi)

379 What I learned about Christopher Nolan yesterday. Back in the day, he direct a movie I quite liked, The Prestige. It's about two crazy ass magicians who take their feud to an absurd degree.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 01:03 PM (ndZc7)

380 374 A quick look at our history alone, prudent fiscal policies and banking goes completely out the window once a good War gets spooled up. Every time, so far at least
Posted by: Common Tater
=======
It happens outside of war--any good crisis is seized upon to unleash torrents of borrowed money by politicians. Hope, fear, and greed are primordial emotions that are manipulated by ruling class to enrich themselves while publicly proclaiming how virtuous they are at spending other people's money.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 01:04 PM (E4rtv)

381 Maybe the crows got Ace...

Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 01:04 PM (rijjI)

382 $40M for 2000 high paying jobs is the deal of the century for TN

Posted by: The Maths at July 20, 2026 01:05 PM (GEtfQ)

383 Do the math
Posted by: Paul at July 20, 2026 01:00 PM (IgsGI)

Using your figures that generates about 6 million a year in additional sales tax.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 01:05 PM (KC5Lt)

384 381 Maybe the crows got Ace...
Posted by: It's me donna

The clue is in the name--a murder of crows.

Posted by: whig at July 20, 2026 01:05 PM (E4rtv)

385 Maybe the crows got Ace...

Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 01:04 PM (rijjI)
---
Maybe they drove him stark raven mad.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:05 PM (Fi81e)

386 The permanent Daylight Savings Brigade got ace!

Posted by: ... at July 20, 2026 01:05 PM (oZ51P)

387 Whatever maintenance is needed in a data center, it will have the service technician in a sealed suit (so they leave no skin/dust behind). They'll just pop in, replace a wire/board/device and pop back out.
------

There will be a robot to take care of things.

Posted by: Boston Dynamics at July 20, 2026 01:06 PM (XeU6L)

388 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 01:03 PM (ndZc7

I thought that sounded good, but I never got to the movie theatre to see it. I think the rest of family might have seen "Dunkirk" but I have never seen one of his films.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 20, 2026 01:06 PM (jt/rW)

389 350 James Caan played Mississippi in El Dorado . Ricky Nelson played Colorado in Rio Bravo. Sensing a trend
Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 12:55 PM
(sMkB+)
Dany DeVito as New York.

Posted by: Eromero at July 20, 2026 01:06 PM (LHPAg)

390 [Because I started hoarding toilet paper after the Covid PayOps and The Wifey thought I was a nutjob for doing so (I told her one day you'll be glad I was right!):]

Babylon Bee headline:

'Who’s Laughing Now?' Says Covid Toilet Paper Hoarder After Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 01:06 PM (6jTT/)

391 Was it . . . the ozone hole?

Posted by: Count de Monet at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (wVcYX)

392 372 Trump Made the World Cup another stage of his cruelty and corruption

Posted by: MSNBC
---

Spain was asking for it.
Spain's gonna' get a real spanking pretty soon.
"I raped her because it is our custom"
_Oh, OK.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (826kS)

393 I saw the Odyssey over the weekend, my daughter is really into Greco-Roman type stuff.

Honestly, it's not really woke except for the stupid decision to cast EllenPage, but she's in for 5 minutes and afew other diversity hires that are in it for like 30 seconds.

My issue with the movie though is it's boring and the characters are dull. Not a terrible movie, but not worth any surrounding hype. If it was 30 minutes shorter and they made some better casting, it would have been great.

Posted by: Leupold at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (eIzlH)

394 *PsyOps

Although PayOps would also be accurate ...

Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (6jTT/)

395 I'm ok with data centers with closed loop water systems and electrical grids.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (n5tGW)

396 James Caan played Mississippi in El Dorado . Ricky Nelson played Colorado in Rio Bravo. Sensing a trend
Posted by: Smell the Glove

Gary Coleman played Rhode Island.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (ndZc7)

397 Ace may have been abducted.

Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (kmF5/)

398 Someone on X asked “why are people upset that Nolan cast a black woman as Helen?” And I answered “same reason people would be upset if you cast a 5’ tall chinaman as George Washington.”

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (1/cV0)

399 Maybe they drove him stark raven mad.
Posted by: Axeman

Don't be a loon.

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (DZ9Lv)

400 Ace may have been abducted.

Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (kmF5/)

By busty lesbians. But he said NO

Posted by: ... at July 20, 2026 01:09 PM (oZ51P)

401 And Starbucks isn't transferring 2000 jobs. There will be 2000 positions at the new headquarters including support staffing ( not 100k a year) but they won't all be transfers.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 01:09 PM (KC5Lt)

402 Gary Coleman played Rhode Island.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

That would be Rodney Dangerfield.

Posted by: Dark Lixtiquatal at July 20, 2026 01:09 PM (DZ9Lv)

403 Does Paul think sales tax is the only benefit to TN having 2000 high paying jobs in the state? He’s more retarded than I thought.

Posted by: The Maths at July 20, 2026 01:09 PM (GEtfQ)

404 People know. Helen was originally from Wakanda.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:09 PM (Fi81e)

405 Except that it is NOT private, and we. EDC to quit quit this fiction that the world was economic Eden before the Fed came along.
Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 12:49 PM (4g5V+)

I listened to a lecture by Vince Lanci to the extent that money is not as important as what is being held as collateral to back it. Gold is one, but now with the Federal Reserve system and the Central Bank model the collateral is the promise to repay debt with interest. This, he feels is passing away since none of the central banks have been shown to be able to not over-print and over-lend, and that the system is probably going to go back to Gold, and require something like a stablecoin going forward.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 20, 2026 01:10 PM (rbvCR)

406 Posted by: Leupold at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (eIzlH)

Wow; That's a shame that a movie about the Odyssey was dull. I loved reading that as a younger person.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 20, 2026 01:10 PM (jt/rW)

407 396 James Caan played Mississippi in El Dorado . Ricky Nelson played Colorado in Rio Bravo. Sensing a trend
Posted by: Smell the Glove

Gary Coleman played Rhode Island.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (ndZc7)

Steve McQueen played Nevada in Nevada Smith.

Brian Dennahy played Alaska in North to Alaska.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 20, 2026 01:10 PM (1/cV0)

408 My issue with the movie though is it's boring and the characters are dull. Not a terrible movie, but not worth any surrounding hype. If it was 30 minutes shorter and they made some better casting, it would have been great.

I've heard that they play it at rock-concert volumes too, to the point where it's physically painful for a lot of people.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 01:10 PM (2ocoG)

409 Abducted and being held at a data center!

Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:11 PM (kmF5/)

410 The whole point of casting black people in odd roles is to say people are racist for noticing.

That's black achievement!

Posted by: ... at July 20, 2026 01:11 PM (oZ51P)

411
Schulz is no loon. He probably saw an opportunity to get out of Seattle and get a lower tax rate.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:11 PM (Fi81e)

412 Trump Made the World Cup another stage of his cruelty and corruption

Posted by: MSNBC
---

Spain was asking for it.
Spain's gonna' get a real spanking pretty soon.
"I raped her because it is our custom"
_Oh, OK.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others

Why they shook Trump's hand.

TDS-Infected Spanish Goalkeeper Doesn’t “Want to Go to Prison” for Refusing to Shake Trump’s Hand if Team Wins World Cup

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 01:12 PM (ndZc7)

413 397 Ace may have been abducted.
Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (kmF5/)
********
By crows.

Posted by: redridinghood at July 20, 2026 01:12 PM (NpAcC)

414 Ace may have been abducted.
Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (kmF5/)
********
By crows.

Posted by: redridinghood at July 20, 2026 01:12 PM (NpAcC)
---
A kidnap of crows.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:13 PM (Fi81e)

415 397 Ace may have been abducted.
Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (kmF5/)

Got me worried..I am a creature of habit.

Posted by: Joemarine at July 20, 2026 01:13 PM (y171U)

416 Not even an Ewok Signal. We've been abandoned.

Posted by: far cry at July 20, 2026 01:13 PM (Q6P2R)

417 Gary Coleman played Rhode Island.

Everyone knows Rhode Island isn't real.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 01:14 PM (2ocoG)

418 Why do Hollywood creatives find so little that is movie worthy in Asian, African, and pre-Columbian American history and culture?

Posted by: Button Pushing Monkey at July 20, 2026 01:14 PM (igCg8)

419 TDS-Infected Spanish Goalkeeper Doesn’t “Want to Go to Prison” for Refusing to Shake Trump’s Hand if Team Wins World Cup
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 20, 2026 01:12 PM (ndZc7)

Stupid.. And a real class act Spain...Go back to your communist country

Posted by: It's me donna at July 20, 2026 01:14 PM (rijjI)

420 Does one give notice if quitting one's own blog?

Posted by: Inogame at July 20, 2026 01:14 PM (53oGX)

421 Did the crows get ace?

Posted by: steevy at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (YwEeS)

422 I think ace accidentally banned himself again.

Posted by: CaliGirl at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (kXuxC)

423 Has CBD gotten a ransom note yet from Antifa? "WE HAVE ACE. HAND OVER ONE MILLION ORGANIC ALMOND MILK LATTES OR ELSE".

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (2ocoG)

424 Why do Hollywood creatives find so little that is movie worthy in Asian, African, and pre-Columbian American history and culture?

Posted by: Button Pushing Monkey at July 20, 2026 01:14 PM (igCg

---
Indeed. It took white guys to create Wakanda.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (Fi81e)

425 Spain's last hurrah before the re-reconquista

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (sMkB+)

426 A kidnap of crows.
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:13 PM (Fi81e)
*****
A murder of crows.

Posted by: redridinghood at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (NpAcC)

427 Mr O'Spades is not missing. He's merely been detained for an attitude adjustment.

Posted by: Big Penguin at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (MWfyi)

428 I'm a bit late to the discussion but can somebody tell me how data centers are helpful to me? Is storing my digital footprint that important?

Posted by: DanMan at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (8uzBS)

429 404 People know. Helen was originally from Wakanda.
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:09 PM (Fi81e)
Maye, Troy was a real place. Wakanda is a recent discovery, like Kwazaa and Jumteempf.

Posted by: Eromero at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (LHPAg)

430 I screwed Argentina because I was rooting for them. I started watching the England vs France game at half time and didn't know the score and declared I was going for England since Trump played golf with their star player. I almost jinxed them too. Lucky I quit watching.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (KC5Lt)

431 As a precaution I believe we should immediately think the worst.

Posted by: Weasel at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (kmF5/)

432 2,000 employees in Nashville would throw off about $10 million a year in non payroll taxes.

If half of those employees own homes, they pay a lowball amount on property taxes of about $4 million dollars. That’s a lowball.

Starbucks pays a B&O Tax in Washington state of 0.471 on gross receipts. In Tennessee they pay an excise tax on net taxable income. Starbucks had gross revenue in 2024 of $36 billion. It had net taxable income of $4.1 billion.

Do the math, dunce.

Posted by: Vengeance at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (jnBG1)

433 Ryan Reynolds should play Martin Luther King in a movie.

Posted by: The Maths at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (GEtfQ)

434 Well the one Spanish player did the Trump dance, I don't think they were all against it.

Posted by: steevy at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (YwEeS)

435 A kidnap of crows.
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:13 PM (Fi81e)
*****
A murder of crows.
Posted by: redridinghood at July 20, 2026 01:15 PM (NpAcC)
---
Apparently, they've got a new racket.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (Fi81e)

436 A pre Columbian American movie would be watching people build mounds

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (sMkB+)

437 We will release Ace alive for one million dollars.
QUACK

Posted by: Ducks for Trump at July 20, 2026 01:17 PM (UjdFS)

438 A pre Columbian American movie would be watching people build mounds

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (sMkB+)
---
Apocalypto.

Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:17 PM (Fi81e)

439 whoosdabody? Nood

Posted by: Kindltot at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (rbvCR)

440 I'm a bit late to the discussion but can somebody tell me how data centers are helpful to me? Is storing my digital footprint that important?

Essentially all web sites (this one included) are in some form of a data center. The NSA's had their data center to spy in you in the middle of nowhere in Utah for like a decade now.

Posted by: Ian S. at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (2ocoG)

441 I'm a bit late to the discussion but can somebody tell me how data centers are helpful to me? Is storing my digital footprint that important?
Posted by: DanMan
--------

It is critical to the State collecting/tracking every single detail of your life.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (XeU6L)

442 I've heard that they play it at rock-concert volumes too, to the point where it's physically painful for a lot of people.
Posted by: Ian S.

===

Yea, the music and sound effects are just sort of stupid and over the top.

Booming bass that rattles everything in just odd places.

I cant say its a bad movie, it's interesting. But it's weirdly paced, almost like a fever dream.

Posted by: Leupold at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (eIzlH)

443 Gold or Silver standard is fine with me. They've been saying, 'it's around the corner', ever since Nixon relieved it. There's a lot of sellin' going on.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (826kS)

444 Someone on X asked “why are people upset that Nolan cast a black woman as Helen?” And I answered “same reason people would be upset if you cast a 5’ tall chinaman as George Washington.”
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 20, 2026 01:08 PM (1/cV0)

I could have aced that role! I know who I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!

Posted by: Mickey Rooney as I. Y. Yunioshi at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (wVcYX)

445 393 I saw the Odyssey over the weekend, my daughter is really into Greco-Roman type stuff.

Honestly, it's not really woke except for the stupid decision to cast EllenPage, but she's in for 5 minutes and afew other diversity hires that are in it for like 30 seconds.

My issue with the movie though is it's boring and the characters are dull. Not a terrible movie, but not worth any surrounding hype. If it was 30 minutes shorter and they made some better casting, it would have been great.

Posted by: Leupold at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (

Ellen Page, if she had to be in it, could had been Hermes. But instead they brought in a character from The Aeneid to be in it…

No lotus-eaters? The story of Polyphemus all jacked up? No gods? Well, aside from Athena I suppose…the Sirens ware all jacked up? Scylla and Charybdis just breezed through? I’m out.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (4g5V+)

446 Apocalypto.
Posted by: Axeman at July 20, 2026 01:17 PM (Fi81e)

Mel Gibson knows how to make a movie. If you haven't watched Get the Gringo and Blood Father you've missed two of his underrrated lesser known movies which are great.

Posted by: polynikes at July 20, 2026 01:20 PM (KC5Lt)

447 A pre Columbian American movie would be watching people build mounds
Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 20, 2026 01:16 PM (sMkB+)

My chance to shine!

Posted by: Stacey Abrams at July 20, 2026 01:20 PM (1z8ji)

448 Nood

Posted by: steevy at July 20, 2026 01:20 PM (YwEeS)

449 443 Gold or Silver standard is fine with me. They've been saying, 'it's around the corner', ever since Nixon relieved it. There's a lot of sellin' going on.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (826kS)

A waste of perfectly good gold and silver. Besides, aren’t the value of gold and silver also subject to the whims of the market?

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 01:21 PM (4g5V+)

450 >>The only upside to retirement so far has been that I've always wanted to travel the world (and we can likely afford to do so and have already plans for various travel in the next couple of years).

However, The Wifey is generally not up for doing so ... which creates conflict.

I suppose I could just go on my own ...
Posted by: ShainS -- He of The Unnecessary Vowels! at July 20, 2026 12:48 PM

-------------
You can work out a compromise. I have the opposite situation. I did a lot of travel during my working years, including international. So I wasn't all that interested in heavy travel in retirement. Pre-pandemic we did a lot of trips together but post-pandemic I just don't find the hassles of travel to be worth it. My wife is now traveling more than I and we're fine with it. I go with her on some trips, others she either goes alone or with girlfriends.

Posted by: Bigsmith at July 20, 2026 01:23 PM (1Au9i)

451
I saw the Odyssey over the weekend, my daughter is really into Greco-Roman type stuff.

Honestly, it's not really woke except for the stupid decision to cast EllenPage, but she's in for 5 minutes and afew other diversity hires that are in it for like 30 seconds.

My issue with the movie though is it's boring and the characters are dull. Not a terrible movie, but not worth any surrounding hype. If it was 30 minutes shorter and they made some better casting, it would have been great.

Posted by: Leupold at July 20, 2026 01:07 PM (eIzlH)

Haven't seen it yet, I'm waiting until a good 4k copy goes up on the torrentz. Because fuck you, Hollywood.

The problem I have with the casting is that it was obviously a middle finger to audiences rather than a real narrative device. Now, if Nolan et al had taken the whole story and transplanted it into a new setting (like Anabasis/The Warriors, King Lear/Ran, Macbeth/Throne of Blood etc), I would have no problem with that story. Like maybe doing Odyssey in southern Africa, with Odysseus as a Zulu king, trying to get back from conquering Zanzibar or something like that.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at July 20, 2026 01:27 PM (y9nCu)

452 Posted by: Cow Demon at July 20, 2026 01:19 PM (4g5V

Yes; Husband missed the fantasy aspects of the story as well.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 20, 2026 01:30 PM (D+BhG)

453 213 The main thing that data centers provide is not computing power, although they have that in abundance, but broad network connectivity. You've got a bunch of computers, as you described, but what's remarkable about them is the direct connection to multiple wide-area networks, and all the infrastructure that ~~provides~~requires.

not sure that explains why one is going into my old home town of myton, utah (the data center will be larger than the town!). the only thing you'll have direct connection to there is skinwalkers.
Posted by: anachronda at July 20, 2026 12:11 PM

And the half-dozen fiber-optic cables from different Internet backbone providers. The direct connection part comes from the fact that the IP addresses are all multihomed because, due to the current Internet routing requirements, multihomed addresses have to be aggregated into large blocks. That means that the DC can put data directly into networks connected directly to the people who want the data and doesn't have to go through a peering point.

It's that aggregation that is impossible for most people without spending huge amounts of money.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at July 20, 2026 01:37 PM (aTl7+)

454 Yup. Agree. Nevada is doing a good job. The tax abatements they are giving are ones they'd give for any big project.

But, the communists of Nevada are fighting them

Posted by: Jeff Carter at July 20, 2026 02:33 PM (8qMs2)

455 I've heard of a small town in Pennsylvania that turned down two data centers because they claimed to require 2.4 million gallons of water a day.

There has been a lot of noise about water usage, so who got it wrong ? Will two data centers require 2.4 million gallons a day, or did the authorities hear it wrong ?

Posted by: SMOD at July 20, 2026 04:21 PM (RHGPo)

456 Around the Limerick Nuclear Station outside of Philadelphia, there are plans for at least 5 data centers (not buildings, but groups of buildings).

The PJM (Pennsylvania/Jersey/Maryland) interconnect that handles the grid for 11 states had a deficit during their last power auctions, so I have no idea how they are going to power these data centers. The idea that they will build their own power station, seems to be strained by the fact that they are right next to the nuclear facility that is already fully utilized.

Likewise the nuclear station is already to capacity on water usage from the Schuylkill River that it had to divert water some 50 miles or so from the Delaware River to keep the station operational in the summer months.

Posted by: SMOD at July 20, 2026 04:28 PM (RHGPo)

457 Sad I missed this thread! The data center debacle in Utah is a cluster eff. My small contribution:

Eff Kevin O'Leary. Actual small town farmers and locals I know in Box Elder County have legit questions: how building a data center the size of three manhattans in a rural desert, using more energy than the whole state uses in a year, might affect the great salt lake, their power and water bills, etc. And why their county commissioners agreed for taxpayers to subsidize this mofo. "Mr Wonderful" dismisses these wonderful, hard working people as a Chi-com psyop. Talk about Mr Blowhard.

Also, there is too much hand waving with the closed loop water systems, like it's a magic wand. Closed loop systems build up sediments, needing toxic chemicals to clean, and occasionally have to drain those toxins...like draining your water heater to remove the sediment buildup. So there is wasted water, in a desert. And where is that toxic residue going to go? They are buying up massive water shares in neighboring towns to supply the center's water, and I can tell you those shares will NOT be enough, and will suck those towns dry.

I'M PRO AI AND PEOPLE. We need a balance.

Posted by: LizLem at July 20, 2026 04:29 PM (Eng1Z)

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