this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
61 points (100.0% liked)

news

24703 readers
685 users here now

Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:

We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.

Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:

The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.

  1. Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.

  2. Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.

  3. Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.

  4. Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.

  5. Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.

  6. Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.

  7. American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.

  8. Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.

  9. AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

using ai to monitor water usage

I got news for them there. So data centers they get hot and need to cool off. Basic refrigeration cycle but on the condenser end they spray water on the coils with a fan blowing on it. Most of it gets reused but drift is lost in evaporation. The water they use has to be clean and then they add chemicals to it to maintain standards. Even when they do recapture most of the water ever so often because of accumulation they gotta drain it out. They use this method because it's the 'cheapest' to have these things running vs say how typical high pressure side refrigeration systems use air. Of course it's cheap because they're allowed to use the water by municipalities but as you imagine the cost is subsidized by the community same with electrical costs.

I agree that farming is water intensive but with no mention of data centers in the article I feel this just shifts the blame and protects ai as a solution instead addressing one of the issues issue

[–] Hexamerous@hexbear.net 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's still abysmal compared to all the watering needed to grow food for livestock. Meat is the problem, as usual.

[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 16 points 2 months ago

I mean I get that and I'm vegan myself just saying I very much doubt we'll get a push towards veganism from the top and will present instead the ai solution as a means to solving this problem