@TheBreadmonkey just to note closed loop watercooling does not suddenly start consuming water, that's the same kind of stuff watercooled game PCs use

the only reason water is consumed in datacenters is when you're using open loop evap water cooling, which saves 25% of the datacenter's power to be fair, but isn't a good idea in dry areas, so they don't, they just use actual airconditioning instead. the closed loop water cooling is just what they use inside the servers because it's more efficient

@TheBreadmonkey #OldsAlberta #abpoli #ableg #greenviewcounty

WOWZA! Sure wish this person spoke for Alberta, too.

@TheBreadmonkey

This is probably happening in lots of places right now. Most of all here in Texas.

All we hear is - oh, you want to build a new data center? We're so lucky! In fact, here's a gigantic tax break to do it!!!! Please suck us dry of every resource!

Fucking evil politicians selling us out for "business" bc they know when the bill comes due it won't be their problem anymore.

@TheBreadmonkey

Excellent speaker.

@TheBreadmonkey

If you want to keep track of the LLM datacenter battles nationwide, this is a good resource. Also good for strategizing/resources if *your* community is faced with this threat.

https://www.datacenterwatch.org/newsletter

@TheBreadmonkey

  bravo dude! Can you take that speech on the road?

@TheBreadmonkey

This was the best speech that I believe I have ever heard.

(Meeting is held in a courtroom-like setting with a panel sitting at a horseshoe table in front with the public in black chairs facing them)
Chairwoman in a gray suit at the center of the table: Yes. Um, Mr. Hollingsworth, I know that you had your hand up to talk.
(Hollingsworth, a long-haired guy in jeans, rises from his chair to stand at a cheap-looking waist-high podium facing the panel. He starts reading from his notes.)
Hollingsworth: Hello, my name is Will Hollingsworth. I work at Reed Memorial Library, and thank you all for hearing me today.
Hollingsworth: I’m not a cynic when it comes to technology: My love for it first started when my uncle first sat me down at a beige Windows 95 computer and began teaching me HTML. I will never forget the first thing I googled — it was an image search for pigs flying. I wanted to see if the Internet could make the impossible, real.
Hollingsworth: This love of the digital shaped my career as I went on to become a programmer and professional content creator. For the last decade and a half, I have been in service of learning burgeoning technology. In my last job, I was the digital artist they trusted to do that kind of work. I was the one feeding Midjourney prompts to create the perfect commercial — training the very machine that would eventually replace me, as three months later they would lay me off. I didn’t just watch it happen, I was holding the tools when the tools were turned on me.
Hollingsworth: I want to stress, I don’t stand here as an enemy of progress. The thing is, when I look at the data center proposal, I don’t see progress. I see a gamble where the big tech companies get the gold while Portage County foots the bill. Now, I know there are good-faith arguments for this... project. There are people in our community, informed, honest people who will tell you that the modern data centers use what’s called a (air quotes) “closed loop” system. They say the water is filled once and then recycled forever. In a laboratory that might be true, but we aren’t living in a laboratory. We’re living in Ohio. I can tell you that as the chips get smaller and AI demands get larger, the heat these machines generate is outstripping the closed loop theory. To keep the servers from melting, a data center has to bleed the lines to remove toxic sludge, a.k.a. forever chemicals, and bleeding water needs to be evaporated. It does not stay in the loop. It evaporates into the sky by millions of gallons.
Hollingsworth: The very place that laid me off was an organic mattress company, and while working for them I actually learned a lot about forever chemicals. I got to see how the sausage gets made. I saw the inside of those so-called regulations. I saw how (air quotes) “rigorous studies” are often self-funded, a pay-to-play model where if you’ve got the cash, they’ll give you the certificate. If a trillion-dollar company is funding the study that says their forever chemical wearoff won’t hit our water table, they’re not giving us the science; they’re giving us a sales pitch.
Hollingsworth: We’re told that we have to accept this because we need (air quotes) “big employers.” We’re told that if we don't say yes we’re driving away the future. But that’s a false choice. A big employer who uses the water of 50,000 people, which by the way is a combination of both Kent and Ravenna, only hires about 10 people, is not an employer. They are an extraction. (Rustling as page is turned) We are being asked to fund a 21st-century luxury with a 19th-century resource heist. We’re being asked to sacrifice the lifeblood of our city so a trillion-dollar company can save a fraction of a cent on its margins. We’re being asked to drain our reservoirs so a chatbot can write a poem or so a sheriff can generate a picture of himself standing next to Bigfoot. (Audience laughter) Which, by the way, of course he made himself look taller. (More laughter) They want us to trust a trillion-dollar industry that tells us, with a straight face, that they can suck 5 mililon gallons of water out of our ground a day, use it as a liquid heat sink, and return it to our rivers without a single consequence. They are asking for a measured approach while they hide their actual usage behind secret contracts and NDAs.
Hollingsworth: Ohioans have seen this trick play before.We know what happens when massive utility interests and blackbox energy deals get fast-tracked behind closed doors. We’re still paying the bill, literally, for the FirstEnergy scandal. We were told these bailouts were essential and measured, too, and it turned out to be the largest racketeering plot in the history of our state.

[cont. in thread]

@TheBreadmonkey

@TheBreadmonkey

@tunubesecamirio impressive speech. 👁️‍🗨️