"In many ways, the Columbia River has lightened the impact on Quincy, but even there, critics say that the long-term strain on resources isn't worth the economic gain. It's been 18 years since the first data centers went up in this place – and they're still being built. The town provides a window into what can happen when the data center industry sets up shop in a small community – and what local residents stand to gain or lose."
Washington's hydropower has created a data center boom. Some are concerned about its future
In small town Washington — where hydropower is plentiful — data centers are creating jobs and funding amenities. But water and energy aren't un...
"Nick Bostrom, an influential philosopher at the University of Oxford who has been called the “father” of the longtermism movement, has apologized for a racist email he sent in the mid-90s. In the email, Bostrom said that “Blacks are more stupid than whites.”
VICE
Prominent AI Philosopher and ‘Father’ of Longtermism Sent Very Racist Email to a 90s Philosophy Listserv
"Blacks are more stupid than whites," Nick Bostrom wrote in an email sent to a transhumanism listserv in the 1990s that he apologized for in a letter.
 These are the type of people who the tech bros adore, who helped develop "ethics" for AI. The tech world is overflowing with such rotten, depraved creeps. Bostrom is an intellectual and hero of the elite.
"New approach to economic organization is urgently needed, one that doesn’t rely on endless growth and that respects both human needs and the environment. Degrowth offers such an alternative: an economy grounded in sufficiency, where production focuses on fulfilling needs and promoting wellbeing in harmony with the natural world. Achieving this requires an equitable reduction in our material and energy consumption, bringing us back within the planet’s ecological limits."
Why Canada needs degrowth
Canada’s obsession with GDP growth fuels ecological collapse and worsens the climate crisis. Degrowth offers a realistic path forward: cutting wa...
"Truth Social rolled out a new AI chatbot on the platform last week that is apparently failing to read the room. When prompted for information, it shares plenty of truths that contradict or discredit the president." "I'm wondering how long it'll take before Truth Social will want to tell its AI: "You're fired."
MS NOW
Truth Social just installed an AI chatbot that actually exposes Trump's lies
Why Trump’s Truth Social AI chatbot feels oddly out of place in the MAGA-verse.
Devouring AI "Europe’s dream of expanding homegrown AI is hitting a resources problem – with push back against power hungry data-centres and their growing thirst for water necessary to keep racks of servers from over-heating. That’s a serious problem, given that expanding AI has become a top political priority across Europe."
Euractiv
Europe's thirst for AI runs into local water worries | Euractiv
The EU hopes to triple its data centre capacity by 2032 and that's going to need a lot of water
A beautiful song by one of Ireland's greatest artists. Luke Kelly recalls meeting Patrick Kavanagh in The Bailey pub where the poet told him he had a song for him. 'On Raglan Road' was written by Patrick Kavanagh as a poem and was set to the music of the traditional song 'The Dawning of the Day' (Fáinne Geal an Lae).
RTÉ Archives
Luke Kelly On Raglan Road
Luke Kelly recalls meeting Patrick Kavanagh in The Bailey pub where the poet told him he had a song for him.
By some analyses, the UK is already the third-largest nation for data centres behind the US and Germany. But there are concerns about their impact, including the potential knock-on effect on people's energy bills. Dr Sasha Luccioni, AI and climate lead at machine learning firm Hugging Face, explains that in the US "average citizens in places like Ohio are seeing their monthly bills go up by $20 (£15) because of data centres".
BBC News
Data centres to be expanded across UK as concerns mount
The number of data centres is set to jump by a fifth in the coming years, figures seen by the BBC suggest.
Researchers "ran an analysis on the air quality in South Memphis over the last couple of years, based on public satellite data. They found that average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide have increased by 3% when comparing the periods before June 2024 and afterward. They also found that peak nitrogen dioxide concentration levels have increased by 79% from pre-xAI levels in areas immediately surrounding the data center, and by 9% in nearby Boxtown."
TIME
Inside the Memphis Community Battling Elon Musk’s xAI
A TIME investigation reveals data tying Musk’s AI data center to pollution surges in a historically Black Memphis area.
“Generative AI is being massively deployed in digital services, at a scale that will result in significant environmental harm. We document how tech companies are transforming established user interfaces to impose AI use and show how and to what extent these strategies fit within established deceptive pattern categories.” 📄.pdf
"The BC Supreme Court has rejected a First Nation’s legal challenge against the government’s approval for Imperial Metals to raise the Mount Polley Mine tailings dam by four metres, a ruling delivered during the anniversary week of the catastrophic 2014 breach. The 2014 disaster — one of BC’s largest environmental disasters from mining — released over 24 million cubic metres of toxic mine waste into Xatśūll territory in the Cariboo region near Williams Lake." https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/news//news/Provincial/Court_clears_way_for_raising_of_Mount_Polley_tailings_dam_despite_Indigenous_opposition