Notices by Paris Marx (parismarx@mastodon.online)

Spain is facing severe droughts that are getting worse because of climate change, yet data centers still want immense amounts of water.

Up next in our premium interviews from DATA VAMPIRES is @CorioPsicologia from @tunubesecamirio!

Become a Patreon supporter to listen: https://www.patreon.com/posts/spain-doesnt-for-117637665

#tech #spain #datacenters #cloud #ai

Data centers now consume 21% of all the electricity in Ireland, more than all the homes in its cities and towns combined. Cloud providers still want more.

This drive for ever-increasing computation serves no one but the bottom lines of major tech companies. It must be stopped.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/23/ireland-datacentres-overtake-electricity-use-of-all-homes-combined-figures-show

#tech #ai #datacenters #ireland #energy

I signed an open letter demanding answers from Substack leadership on why they’re platforming and monetizing Nazis, white nationalists, and other far-right figures.

This isn’t free speech. It’s hate speech.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/substackers-against-nazis

#substack #tech

Fascinating article about what it takes to keep Gaza online during the Israeli bombardment.

PalTel buries its cables 8m/26ft deep (standard is 60cm/2ft), uses generators, solar panels, and batteries for redundancy, and has 750 employees braving bombs to do fixes. Even still, Israel can cut them off at any time.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/21/keeping-gaza-online-gazas-telecom-heroes-risk-life-and-limb-under-israels-bombs

#tech #internet #gaza #israel #palestine

visited the museum of communism in prague and it was fun to see all the anti-communist tropes in one place, like how bad it was that the state built a lot of housing

“What’s at stake here is literal human life. But Palestinian life matters so little, that spreading incendiary information that justifies Israeli war crimes isn’t a concern for those tasked to punch up to power by virtue of being journalists.”

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/11/israel-hamas-disinformation/

#tech #misinformation #gaza #israel

The US decision to privatize space has given Elon Musk immense power over how satellite communications are used and who has access to them. He controls 53% of active satellites in orbit, and countries have started voicing concerns to US officials. They won’t speak publicly for fear of the consequences of angering Musk.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/28/business/starlink.html

#space #spacex #starlink #tech #elonmusk

A 52-year-old with a child’s sense of humor.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri says pretty conclusively they don’t want Threads to be the new app for news and journalists. Makes sense given Meta is threatening to pull news in Canada and California.

Ultimately, Threads is a sanitized space for brands, grifters, and celebrities — all designed to sell you more shit.

#meta #tech #threads #socialmedia #instagram

I had a great time speaking at @republica earlier this week to dig into why Silicon Valley’s approach to transportation is all wrong and won’t actually solve the problems with how we get around.

You can watch it here (6:05:58): https://www.youtube.com/live/gQtCZ44rI-k?t=21958

#tech #transportation #uber #mobility

Elon Musk says his dog is now the CEO of Twitter, and honestly I think the dog will do a better job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/12/elon-musk-twitter/

#tech #elonmusk #twitter #dogs

Elon Musk directly intervened to ban left-wing accounts at the same time he was opening the floodgates to far-right users that had been kicked off Twitter. So much for being a “free speech absolutist”!

https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-leaked-internal-message-suggests-musk-ordered-leftwing-account-freeze-2023-1

#tech #elonmusk #twitter