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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data centers
(Fernando Cassia)
2. Re: Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data centers
(David)
3. Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC judges on
life under Trump sanctions (Kim Holburn)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 22:16:07 -0300
From: Fernando Cassia <[email protected]>
To: Kim Holburn <[email protected]>, Link <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [LINK] Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data
centers
Message-ID:
<CACGw4H5c=owonojmgv9ln9edngtjrgaoj6sxhglx-mfgdzd...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
On Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 7:37?PM Kim Holburn <[email protected]> wrote:
> https://theintercept.com/2026/01/12/data-centers-space-ai/
>
>
> Space is cold and has abundant solar energy ? the very things data centers
> need. Experts tell us it?s not that simple.
>
Exactly. It is cold but has no air.
>From Grok:
How Heat Dissipates in Space
- Radiation is Sole Method: Without air or matter to transfer heat via
conduction/convection, objects must emit thermal radiation (infrared light)
to cool down.
- Slow Process: Radiative cooling is generally slower than other forms,
making heat management in space difficult.
- Spacecraft Engineering: Satellites and the ISS use large radiators to
artificially manage this, as they cannot rely on air to carry away heat.
[image: Reddit]Reddit +6
FC
But large questions remain: Is it even possible? And if it is, why bother?
>
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:33:15 +1100
From: David <[email protected]>
To: Kim Holburn <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: [LINK] Elon Musk is getting serious about orbital data
centers
Message-ID: <1993775.7Z3S40VBb9@ulysses>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
On Wednesday, 18 February 2026 12:16:07 AEDT Fernando Cassia wrote:
> But large questions remain: Is it even possible? And if it is, why bother?
It would certainly be a tempting target in the event of hostilities too, one
huge data centre in one go with no casualties, perhaps an "accident" could even
be arranged in the event of another cold war. And did anyone mention
high-energy solar flares or cosmic background radiation? Or the really basic
issue of adequate access bandwidth and a reliable network of ground stations?
Suppose such a project gets funding and has to earn a return. Who would really
miss it if it sudden;y became unserviceable? Mankind has only had the Internet
since yesterday afternoon in the scheme of things, within the lifetime of my
older grandchildren I think! Let alone AI...
_DavidL_
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:59:48 +1100
From: Kim Holburn <[email protected]>
To: Link mailing list <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC
judges on life under Trump sanctions
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/feb/18/international-criminal-court-icc-judges-trump-sanctions
Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC judges on life under Trump
sanctions
Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ib??ez Carranza vow US reprisals will not
affect work of international criminal court
When the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump?s administration had
imposed sanctions on her, it came as a shock.
For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing
accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved
in organised crime. ?It really was a moment of a bit
of disbelief,? she said.
The fallout was both material and psychological. As her credit cards, Amazon
and Google accounts were cancelled, she reeled from
what she described as a ?direct and flagrant attack? on one of the world?s most
prominent courts.
?These are coercive measures designed to attack our ability to do our jobs
objectively and independently,? she said. ?We want people
to appreciate how wrong this is.?
Since Trump returned to power last year, his administration has worked steadily
to hobble the Hague-based court. To date, 11 of the
court?s officials ? including the chief prosecutor and eight judges ? have been
placed under sanctions, subjecting them to measures
that include bans on travel to the US and fines and prison sentences for
American companies who provide them services.
The executive order led 79 countries ? including Canada, Brazil, Denmark,
Mexico and Nigeria ? to come together in support of the
court. The sanctions, they said in a joint letter, ?increase the risk of
impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode
the international rule of law?.
Prior to joining the ICC, Prost had spent five years working with the United
Nations on its sanctions programme. Even so, she was
surprised at how far-reaching the sanctions were. ?It has such a serious impact
in terms of day-to-day life, it?s not symbolic,? she
said. ?You lose all your credit cards, no matter where they were issued.?
Simple tasks, from booking an Uber to reserving a flight or hotel room, became
impossible. Bank transfers now included uncertainty
over whether they would sail through the system or be rejected. Following the
cancellation of her Amazon and Google accounts, Prost
lived with the constant worry that her other accounts would also vanish.
?Everything becomes such a challenge,? she said.
For the Peruvian judge Luz del Carmen Ib??ez Carranza, the US sanctions marked
the second time she had been targeted by a global
superpower for her work with the ICC. In December, a Russian court had tried
her in absentia, along with the court?s chief
prosecutor and seven other judges, following the ICC?s decision to put out an
arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the invasion of
Ukraine. They were handed sentences of up to 15 years in prison.
But the US sanctions were on another level, given the country?s weight in the
global financial system. Soon after she was
sanctioned, Ib??ez Carranza said her bank in the Netherlands cancelled her
credit card. ?Why? It?s a European bank, not an American
bank,? she said. ?We?ve seen a kind of over-compliance with the sanctions,
because some banks are terrified about their relations
with US banks or institutions.?
What had been most painful, however, was to see how the sanctions had targeted
her daughter, leading to the cancellation of her US
visa and Google accounts. ?She lives in another part of the world, she has no
link to the ICC,? she said. ?It?s sad. This is pure
retaliation for something she hasn?t done.?
It was a pattern seen across the ICC, she said, where spouses, parents and
children of officials had ended up caught in the dragnet
of the sanctions. ?This is the kind of persecution that I think the world
should not allow to happen,? said Ib??ez Carranza. ?We
serve humanity. We are delivering justice for the most vulnerable victims
around the world, for millions and millions of women and
children who have no voice.?
She pointed to the critical work the court did in taking on cases when nations
were unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes on their
territory. ?So my call is for the entire world to defend this institution that
is the cause of humanity.?
The sanctions have added to an already complicated panorama for the court,
landing months after its top prosecutor, Karim Khan, was
accused of sexual misconduct. He has denied the allegations.
While the measures have so far focused on individuals, the court has been
wrestling with fears that Washington could impose
sanctions on the court as a whole. ?The concern is the sanctions will be used
to shut the court down, to destroy it rather than just
tie its hands,? one ICC official told the Guardian last year.
The court had since sprung into action, said Prost. ?It has been taken very
seriously and a number of preventative measures are in
place,? she said.
She and Ib??ez Carranza were resolute that the actions of the Trump
administration, while challenging on a personal level, had not
impacted the work of the court. ?These measures are completely futile,? said
Prost. ?I can say that, on behalf of all of the judges
of this court and the prosecutors, we will continue to do our jobs
independently. It does not affect the way we look at our cases or
how we decide them.?
--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
------------------------------
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