It’s like the opposition to solar farms, which around here are relatively small, like a few acres. I’ve seen people cite noise as a reason. Noise? Seriously? Another typical claim is they will poison the ground with heavy metals so it can never again be used for farming. (I don’t think this is true.) Yet they truck Chicago sewage treatment sludge out to spread on the fields as fertilizer. Nope, no heavy metals or pharmaceuticals in that.
This was at least somewhat true with wind turbines and shadow flicker affecting people with epilepsy, but the wind farms will usually accommodate those people. And wind turbines do make SOME noise, kind of like a washing machine if you’re downwind of them. And there was some validity behind people not wanting a pig farm next to their house (although if the farm was there first and you built your house next to it, that’s on you). The smell downwind of a pig manure lagoon is pretty powerful. Or the people who complained about building the new elementary school next to the giant county landfill. But solar panels don’t make noise that I’m aware of. And some people even graze sheep under them. I pass one that’s down the road from a vineyard, and honestly they look pretty similar. Except they don’t cover the solar panels with bird netting. I’m not sure self generation is a good solution. I think a big complaint about Elon’s datacenter in Memphis is rather than hook up to the grid, they brought in dozens of gas turbine generators that are noisy and polluting. Normally you would only see these as backup generators. I can see where 30 or 40 gas turbines running 24x7 near your house could be inconvenient. Steve hit the nail on the head. Nobody wants ANYTHING in their back yard, but they want it in someone else’s backyard. Whether it be a nuclear waste dump or multitenant housing or a shelter for homeless veterans. NIMBY! From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, May 29, 2026 3:56 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI Funny, I posted a query in the Eagle Mountain FB group a few days ago and asked: Since the FB data center was built, starting 2018, what has been the impact to your daily quality of life. Crickets. The only local reply that I remember was a report on the financial windfall to the city. This is a big data center 5 million feet. 2 units of CPU based servers and 3 GPU. Alcohol glycol cooling system. But if these things were going to ruin everything, you would think the locals would have had a single negative comment. _____ From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Sterling Jacobson via AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, May 29, 2026 12:48 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: Sterling Jacobson <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI I think this is going to be a big industry in the near future, the self-hosted AI. Steve, the Data Center AI pushback is going to be a problem short term, but like the internet in general, everyone is going to agree it's vital shortly so that won't be as big an issue long term. I also think there will be a lot of enterprise around the heat offput of data centers and should be. With self-hosting, I think there will be a lot of specialization of standalone AI "units" that can be run from hardware locally. I just read about a product that is basically a low wattage NUC type computer advertised or provided as emergency essential that can be run off battery and solar. And it has an AI built in referencing like all Wikipedia and maps, medical and tuned for emergency use with full AI interactivity. That sounds amazing frankly. It would actually be good for us nationally if we can get a lot more residents and business to host their own language models locally, powered by a lot more battery and solar. That would actually allow us as a nation to eventually and more slowly, repair our aging power distribution and infrastructure, if everyone had battery and a good portion had solar... _____ From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, May 29, 2026 10:31 AM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI Self hosted might be the future, or at least underappreciated. I notice I’m seeing the term “tokenmaxxing” everywhere. Kind of the AI equivalent of virtue signaling. Look, boss, I’m using lots of AI. (even if it’s just to have agents do busy work) From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Steve Jones Sent: Friday, May 29, 2026 10:47 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI I NIMBY on datacenters, but i absolutely want them in everybody elses I think datacenters should be banned from bulk discount power rates unless they commit to generating their footprint in power within 5 years. Massive fines if they dont comply. Power consumption and us paying for its my only real gripe with them. I always wondered how integrated a datacenter could get, theyre pumping water all over anyway, could that volume and heat exchange be used to generate something else, like can they pump in sea water and evaporate the discharge onto collectors to desalinate.... and bring down the cost of seasalt. Ive been reading about osmotic power generation and wonder if a circle of life couldnt be created around the datacenters. Never spent much time looking into it other than the evaporative collection would fail because it couldnt dissipate the heat to a degree the water would condense in a reasonable volume of collection space or some shit like that. I dont know how hot the discharge is either, like is it hot enough to run medical tool sterilization facilities? or warm enough to bring back bathouses. maybe put small ones in new york and have hot water taps for hot dog vendors Im heavy into AI and automation now. Seeing the trend of datacenter bans is really starting to concern me. We havent even gotten through the customer acquisition phase of the LLMs to see what the real token cost is going to be, so if theyre spending more and building less, my customers prices will shoot up and the services wont seem as attractive anymore. but then again im minimal AI automation centric and big on self hosted platforms, so maybe its a win for me when the stickers start shocking I went to a big cryptominer once, the exhaust heat was crazy, I cant imagine major datacenter energy discharge in person On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 6:59 PM Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Greenland has cooling. Oh, that might explain some things. From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Dan P via AF Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 6:21 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: Dan P <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI Yeah waterless cooling is fine in DC’s only disadvantage is that it cost more / uses a ton of power where using as much water as possible doesn’t use as much power and water is cheap. But you cant beat bang for buck evaporative cooling in dry areas. From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 2:06 PM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI I posted a query on the Eagle Mountain, Utah city page. There is where a massive FB data center is. I had a hand in building that data center in 2018 and 2018. I asked about the impact to the daily quality of life there. Crickets A city council person did write a very nice and long response showing all the research they did prior to it getting built and the massive revenue they receive from it. 100% positive effects. I have been told they use an alcohol/glycol cooling system there so no water is consumed. Best Regards, Chuck McCown McCown Technology Corporation 8401 N Commerce Dr Lake Point, Utah 84074 801-250-9503 Office 435-830-4306 Cell www.mccowntech.com <http://www.mccowntech.com/> www.microtrench.pro <http://www.microtrench.pro/> www.terabitnetworks.com <http://www.terabitnetworks.com/> _____ From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 12:01 PM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI I just drove past a Meta datacenter. Judging from the cars in the parking lot, it must employ almost 10 people. Probably all security guards in case of anti-datacenter or anti-AI terrorists. The place looks like an army base, if aliens abducted all the humans. From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 1:50 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Chuck getting it on in the FB groups :) Anti Datacenter/AI I still laugh every time someone bitches about data centers....on Facebook. On Wed, May 27, 2026 at 2:37 PM Dan P via AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: That is great, I have been watching the pitch forks come out for datacenters, naturally we put up new signs and it says “Ogden datacenter” on them now. Wish I could pull it as people have gone completely insane. I was reading over a local FB ground and low and behold Chucks message was in there: Data centers exist so you can post on Facebook, watch Netflix, order from Amazon, use Doordash, book an airline ticket, pay a bill, check your dental records, dial 911 and have them find your location, use TicTok, Instagram, X, play online games, etc etc. The whole world is run by servers in data centers. People fear surveillance activities, but Google, FB and Amazon know 1000 x more about you than any surveillance center ever will. If you are against data centers, throw away your phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, smart thermostats. Get a TV aerial up on the roof and a land line phone from the phone company if they will still do that. A typewriter and a roll of stamps will complete your conversion. Otherwise stop bitching about data centers as you are the reason they exist in the first place. -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
