Did we actually expect that silicon valley and their ilk required warrants? Or even verified who was asking?

This isn’t news to anyone that’s paid any sort of attention for the last 20+ years.

The ACA we got was the original Republican plan. It was Romneycare in a jacket. It’s why they can’t do anything every time they threaten to replace it, they already got their version.

Animals haven’t been able to go war and prove that they can beat us. With the notable exception of The Australian Emu.

Not really… According to Pew Research Approximately 45% of Republicans report owning a gun, compared to about 20% of Democrats. Considering the parties are often roughly equally sized when it comes to these statistical models, that’s not actually a massive difference. There are plenty of armed Democrats, they’re just not vocal about wanting to worship their tools.

People claiming a personal relationship with the goddamn creator of the universe are hella conceited.

I’d say even prideful, you know one of the 7 deadly sins, often considered the worst of them and even the root/source of the other 6. The sheer hubris needed to believe you have a personal connection that others don’t is ridiculous.

You seem to have missed the massive sections of the Internet that effectively disappeared recently with AWS, Azure, and Cloudflare outages.

Not sure how since all of those happened in the last 2 months, and nearly every part of the internet was affected between all three.

If only people actually read the ORIGINAL Rolling Stone article instead of just regurgitated secondary headlines for clicks.

Because despite their own headline being similar, the actual article contents indicates that the cause is mostly from agriculture and drought. Measurements from the water leaving the datacenter are even lower than the measurements from some local wells a decade ago.

Technically the headline is right, it’s not a lie, there is a link between the datacenter and adverse health effects… but the context surrounding it is dramatically different than what they want you to assume.

Cool, agreed. They don’t pay nearly their fair share.

Yet here they’re being blamed for something that seems isn’t their fault. They’re not actively working to fix the issue, but considering they’re a tiny fraction (looks like only ~0.1% impact in the overall area according to some articles) of the cause, the articles attacking them seen a bit ridiculous. Amazon needs to pay for the things they do. Blaming them for shit that isn’t their fault just means losing credibility.

The Amazon datacenter is concentrating the nitrates more in the water that they use, yes, that is the nature of how the water usage works and evaporates. But the nitrate concentration was already above Oregon state limits in 1992, and some wells in 2015 had ~20% higher readings than the water coming out of the datacenter now a decade after that. That certainly doesn’t seem to correspond to the datacenter being the major contributor. And the original article says as much, saying it’s primarily from agriculture and drought.

I just want to point out… From the original Rolling Stone article:

In 1992, DEQ measured an average nitrate concentration of 9.2 ppm across a cluster of wells pulling from the basin. By 2015, that average had risen 46 percent, to 15.3 ppm. For some wells, DEQ found nitrate levels nearly** as high as 73 ppm**, more than 10 times the state limit of 7 ppm.

When that tainted water moves through the data centers to absorb heat from the server systems, some of the water is evaporated, but the nitrates remain, increasing the concentration. That means that when the polluted water has moved through the data centers and back into the wastewater system, it’s even more contaminated, sometimes averaging as high as 56 ppm, eight times Oregon’s safety limit.

So the average back in 1992 was already above Oregon’s safety limit, but barely below the national limit. The water coming out of the datacenter now is lower than some of the base levels detected in some wells back in 2015.

Not saying Amazon isn’t a part of it. But it certainly seems like they’re not actually nearly as big a part as the article wants to make you believe. The Rolling Stone article is 90% about agriculture and drought adding to the increase in nitrate concentration, but that doesn’t get clicks.

Another related article said the Amazon portion is approximately 0.1% of the total nitrate increase.

Theyre doing fuck all to make the issue worse. But they’re the big bad datacenter, so they get the blame. Facts are inconvenient, make Amazon pay for the issue because Amazon bad.

As the comments at the provided link point out… this is disingenuous… at best.

The original Rolling Stone article this is based on… says the vast majority of the increase in nitrate levels is from expanding agriculture in the area.

The massive inputs of fertilizer to grow crops and feed for the animals came at a price: the contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin. In 1992, DEQ measured an average nitrate concentration of 9.2 ppm across a cluster of wells pulling from the basin. By 2015, that average had risen 46 percent, to 15.3 ppm. For some wells, DEQ found nitrate levels nearly as high as 73 ppm, more than 10 times the state limit of 7 ppm.

And…

As the underground aquifer became tainted with more nitrates, even the ostensibly clean water that the Port pulled from the aquifer’s deepest wells — which it used to service its large industrial customers like Amazon — became polluted. Soon, Amazon was using water to cool its data warehouses with nitrates as high as 13 ppm — above the federal and state limits.

When that tainted water moves through the data centers to absorb heat from the server systems, some of the water is evaporated, but the nitrates remain, increasing the concentration. That means that when the polluted water has moved through the data centers and back into the wastewater system, it’s even more contaminated, sometimes averaging as high as 56 ppm, eight times Oregon’s safety limit.

So Amazon isn’t directly adding anything, the nitrates are more concentrated over time due to basic evaporation as the water is recycled through for a while before it is replaced.

Amazon isn’t the source of the contaminants.

So yes, it is “tied” to the spike, because they are using already contaminated water from the area and evaporation exists. Everyone’s water use is increasing this issue unless they’re actively filtering nitrates, which no one does. Normally that would be handled at a municipal level, but these are mostly local wells where that’s not part of the system. Amazon is just a big company, and uses a lot of water so it’s footprint is larger. But a fraction of the water use overall, and definitely compared to the agriculture adding the nitrates in the first place.

They’re not. The cost skyrocketed as soon as student loans and grants meant a nearly nun limited supply of funds for Administration to legally grift.

Oh look a Canadian that can’t see their own descent into the far right fascist rabbit hole on the horizon. Somehow even watching the US, you seem to still be headed that direction as if it couldn’t possibly happen in Canada. Because… reasons?

We look like fucking morons on the world stage.

The only sort of solace to this, is that many other countries are clearly following the same path, so its not something inherent to just the US. Idiots are everywhere, and they vote.

Everyone is pointing to the US, but the same initial precursors are happening under their own nose.

Most people don’t know extensions exist. Because they don’t care and have never been shown.

Pissing someone off is a strong motivator for them to start searching though.

People watch Avatar because of the bleeding edge CG. It’s not a unique story. It never has been. It’s Pocahontas. It’s Dances with Wolves. It’s Fern Gully. It’s A Man Called Horse.

Theyre all similar stories. Foreign heroes saving the “savage” local population that can’t defend themselves from the technology, while learning about them along the way.

The story isn’t why people go to watch Avatar.

Oh people have definitely used corn for that. It is a phallic shape.

To be fair, corn is native to the Americas. And it can be made into virtually anything: food, fuel, cleaning products, even plastic (PLA).

No, but it does specifically call out some for EV specific comparisons.

the asker must know and trust the one providing the answer.

This is possible if there’s a central authority for that that everyone can agree to trust, like the government records directly. The issue is ensuring the rest of the chain remains anonymous so the only thing the authority gets is the request that an undisclosed service is verifying John Doe is 18+ and nothing else. And that’s not something many governments are going to want to allow with the increasingly alarming amount of authoritarian leadership.