Help me understand what you think data centers do with the water.

I’m also a lot more concerned about energy use than water. Golf courses use 30x more water than data centers. Residential lawns, arguably the most useless crop in the world, use 9 billion gallons of water every day. Orders of magnitude more water goes into growing corn for livestock feed and biofuels.

The immediate issue is how much electricity AI consumes and where that electricity comes from, as that has the larger impact on public health and the environment. xAI relies on gas turbines that violate environmental rules and pollute the surrounding communities. The surge in demand for electricity is driving the cost higher, further increasing the cost of living for a lot of families.

The ELI3 you requested: All the hubub around water is diverting attention away from bigger issues, which the makes the AI companies and the rich people happy.

That said, I don’t think the water issue should be dismissed either, especially since the water demand is projected to increase fourfold by 2028. They’re both legitimate concerns. I just think energy generation is the one with the greater consequences and should be getting more of the attention.

Metrics sourced from here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew-couillard_every-ai-data-center-in-america-uses-less-activity-7465076822012235777-QONC

Wow, I totally missed that. I need to start wearing my glasses🤦‍♂️
I must have just assumed proton, since photons have zero rest mass and doubling that wouldn’t change anything.

Best case? atoms shrink slightly and some changes to how chemistry works

Realistic case? The change in nuclear binding energies renders protons unstable, making many elements unstable or radioactive. All matter suddenly becomes much heavier, changing gravity and internal pressure, which in turn disrupts stellar and planetary structures. Fusion reactions depend on precise mass differences between particles, which may alter how stars generate energy, or completely prevent them from forming altogether. Additionally, since proton mass is tied to the strong nuclear force, it will fundamentally alter physics, and it’s likely that protons will decay into neutrons, preventing atoms from existing at all.

The first wish would affect how fluids act under pressure, including how our blood would move throughout our bodies. Depending on the exact effects, the wisher may not even get the chance to make the second wish because their blood would either stop moving, or they would drop to ground as every capillary in their body ruptures causing an immediate loss of blood pressure, quickly followed by loss of consciousness and then death.

IF they live long enough to make the second wish, then they probably wouldn’t live long enough to make the third.

Sure, please do. I’m just a cog in the industrial machine and life insurance payouts will get my family out of debt.

YT Music also has an AI impostor problem.

I was listening to Crimson Veil (melodic grey metal, woman vocalist) when it started playing songs of a completely different genre, but the ‘band’ was still “Crimson Veil”; but this other music was drone-y industrial with flat, uninspired lyrics that felt AI generated. I poked around a few other streaming platforms and found the same thing on Spotify and Tidal. I think the band was eventually able to get the impostor removed, but they were up there for at least a couple weeks.

Lots of musicians are getting their discographies infiltrated this way. The last time I listened to Primus on Tidal, there was an AI generated rap group, and an AI generated blue/jazz act listed in their discography. The streaming services must know that this is an issue by now, as labels are having to spend a lot of time finding and squashing these impostors. Hopefully they implement some way of validating artist uploads to prevent playlist hijacking like this.

This is probably the right answer, and I can’t fully describe the ennui it provokes. It’s like the neighbor’s kid you watched build a treehouse with his dad grow up to be repeatedly arrested for drunk and disorderly.

Newer EVs use NACS, which opens up a huge number of fast DC chargers all across the interstate system. Unfortunately those chargers are almost all Tesla superchargers, and we all wish there was a less musky alternative out there.

I’ve taken a road trip in the new NIssan Leaf, which has NACS. It wasn’t bad; we had to stop for ~30 minutes every ~300 miles, which lines up with just about how often my aging body needs to go pee these days…

Wait until you find out what they put in the food does to you.

Parasitic wasps keep hornworms from destroying my garden and haven’t stung me once. I vote they stay.

I wasn’t able to start saving for retirement until my 30s, so I’ve joked for a while that my retirement plan is to die early. It’s not so much of a joke anymore.

It has been an age since I last saw the 'mongler posted in the wild.

I also like some religious music, I think the key is that the music needs to be interesting with zero pandering.
At the risk of turning this into a “not religious, but…” music recommendation thread: I’ve enjoyed mewithoutYou for a long time now. They have a subdued art-rock sound, and I even enjoy a lot of their more overtly religious songs like “In a Sweater Poorly Knit” and “The King Beetle On A Coconut Estate.”
Mewithoutyou - “Cattail Down”

I get you. Thanks for the call out and clarifying. Decades of being on the internet has turned me into a grumpy pessimist🫥

EDIT: one of my best friends has a ~15 year old Toyota Yaris. He just replaced the clutch in it last year, and that was the first major work that it’s needed. That thing is going to outlive his kids. I think it’s great he (and you) are driving old cars that still work; it really is the most economical and ecologically sound thing to do.

The OP’s position is reasonable given their circumstances, and several people, including you, have clearly said as much. Even industry and financial experts acknowledge that if someone already owns a functioning vehicle, the most economical and environmentally responsible choice is often to continue driving it until replacement becomes necessary, regardless of whether it is ICE or EV.

OP seems less interested in discussing practicality than repeated reaffirmation of “I do not want an EV.”

Pre-COVID (Trump’s first time) I took a trip to Europe. All of the European customs officials were polite and professional, did what they needed to do, and still made me feel welcome in their country. When I returned to America, the customs official checking me back into the country was mean-mugging the entire time, rude, and acted like I wasn’t welcome back to my own home.

Your hardiness zone is probably the best way to decide what kind of berries to grow. In my experience, compared to most other crops, berries are most likely to be cheaper when grown at home versus buying at the store. I’d recommend looking at what berries grow best in your zone, then choose cultivars based on what growing conditions you can provide.

Blackberries tend to need a lot of space, growing an average of 2m high and 1.5m across. When I was little, one of my neighbors had a blackberry patch and some of the plants were over 3m tall. Raspberry plants are marginally smaller, growing an average of 1.5m high and 1m across, though there are some dwarf varieties that can thrive in patio containers. Blueberries are moderate in size and can be grown in containers, but they thrive best in acidic soils. Plant near pine trees, or mulch with pine needles for good results. You can also fertilize with specific blends that increases acidity specifically for blueberries.

Strawberries are fairly easy to grow. The only downside is the most varieties only fruit once a year in late spring/early summer. Varieties that produce all summer are still tasty, but they are typically just a little bit sweeter than store bought. The great thing about strawberries is that if you have half-decent soil and don’t prune runners, they will propagate endlessly with very little upkeep.

I planted several gooseberry bushes on my property. They take a few years to start putting out berries, but once they do it’s so nice. Unripe gooseberries are tart and great for making pies and jams. When ripe they are sweeter, but not too sweet, and I love eating them fresh off the bush… as long as I can get to them before birds do.
I also have several aronia, chokecherry, and elderberry bushes. Their berries are smaller and more tart that other ‘dessert’ berries, most suitable for syrups or mixed into desserts or jams. Supposedly their health benefits are phenomenal, but I discount a lot of that kind of talk and just enjoy using them where and when I can.
I’ve also planted a Hawthorne tree that puts out a ton of berries each year, but one thing I didn’t realize is that they are extremely susceptible to rust (fungal disease), and if I don’t treat it every spring when it flowers then I won’t be able to use the berries in the fall. When I do treat it, and I do get around to using the berries, they taste like a cross between an apple and a cranberry, and I like to use them in my thanksgiving stuffing/dressing and cranberry sauces.

My parents didn’t yell or scream or threaten. They explained. Even as a child I understood why smoking was bad and what damage it did to lungs. By the time I was old enough to consider smoking or have any opportunity to do so, I understood lung cancer, and addiction, and that it’s much easier to start something addictive than to stop.

I also told all that stuff when I was kid, but don’t underestimate the power of youthful arrogance and the influence of an older girl who smokes and is interested in you… I ended up being a smoker for over ten years before I finally quit. Shared my own experiences with my daughter, educated her on all the reasons not to smoke. She still ended up vaping because of youthful arrogance and the influence of an older girl that was interested in her.

You can teach a horse to water but you can’t force it to not vape. Or something.

I chose my username because when I was young I desperately wanted to be the smartest person in the room. While I did devour knowledge (encyclopedias were bedtime reading; thank you, undiagnosed autism), I was stubborn, overly certain of myself, and far less self-aware than I believed.

Getting older humbled me. I began to see how small and defensive my certainty really was, and I made a conscious effort to grow beyond it. Real knowledge, as you said, breeds doubt rather than arrogance. Learning to be more intellectual is learning to live comfortably beside what we do not know, to accept being wrong as an invitation to learn, and to not take criticism personally.

I am still working on that last one. Criticism is easier to learn from when it is not passive-aggressive, but that seems to be most people’s preferred communication style.