Notes, references (including the video referenced), & transcript: https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/dont-believe-data-center-hype
This is a recording including clips from the town meeting on data centers in Menomonie, Wisconsin, from the perspective of someone facing the same data center power plant projects being shoved at us in Pennsylvania.
I’m interested in other recorded town meetings on data centers. Those wishing to contact me about other data center public comment recordings: paid and free substack subscribers to my newsletter can reply the email received in your inbox, others can use the form located at the contact link on ChloeHumbert.com
The references are in order of mention in the podcast, including stuff mentioned by the public meeting speakers. I made a note about stuff I couldn’t verify that was stated by the speakers.
Covington Twp. supervisors hear residents' concerns, vote to add data centers to its zoning WVIA | By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published July 25, 2025 at 1:30 AM EDT
Menomonie City Council for August 4, 2025 - Eye On Dunn County Streamed live on Aug 4, 2025
Cars Trucks Roads - Understanding High-Pressure Sales Tactics: Spotting Manipulation and Making Smarter Choices November 11, 2024
Clifton Twp. zoning hearing about data centers moved to September, if needed at all WVIA | By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published July 30, 2025 at 10:34 AM EDT
TechRepublic - Why data centers fail to bring new jobs to small towns Published September 19, 2016 Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft continue building large data centers in rural areas, but most do not create jobs for local residents. Here's what you need to know.
We Have Undervalued Freshwater; We Have Also Undervalued How Much It Matters Date: 16 October 2023 Author: Michele Thieme, Deputy Director, Freshwater, WWF
The Failure of Trickle-Down Economics | Robert Reich Robert Reich Oct 5, 2017
Blood in the Machine - The "AI jobs apocalypse" is for the bosses As Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei forecasts mass job loss, Business Insider lays off staff and embraces AI Brian Merchant May 30, 2025
Futurism - Jul 28, 7:06 PM EDT by Frank Landymore CEO Brags That He Gets "Extremely Excited" Firing People and Replacing Them With AI "AI doesn't go on strike. It doesn't ask for a pay raise."
Charter - Time - How AI Adoption Is Sitting With Workers By Michelle Peng August 3, 2025 6:30 AM EDT
People in Texas in massive suffering caused by data centers. "It's disgusting. It's cowardly. It's disgusting. There's a certain amount of cruelty…" Chloe Humbert Aug 03, 2025
I Live 500 Feet From A Bitcoin Mine. My Life Is Hell. More Perfect Union Jul 24, 2025
The New York Times - Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door In the race to develop artificial intelligence, tech giants are building data centers that guzzle up water. That has led to problems for people who live nearby. By Eli Tan Visuals by Dustin Chambers Reporting from Newton County, Ga. Published July 14, 2025 Updated July 16, 2025
Economic Policy Institute - Working Economics Blog Posted August 2, 2013 at 12:05 pm by Lawrence Mishel Walmart Fight is About the Degradation of Work in America Originally published in the Current Newspapers, July 31, 2013.
Economic Policy Institute - A Conservative Estimate of ‘The Wal-Mart Effect’ - Wal-Mart’s growing trade deficit with China has displaced more than 400,000 U.S. jobs Report • By Robert E. Scott • December 9, 2015
DC News Now - Prince William Co. supervisors sued over data center proposal - by: Max Marcilla Posted: Dec 2, 2022
Tech Billionaires’ Shocking Plot for Rural America More Perfect Union Sep 4, 2024
The tycoons want us all to live in their authoritarian company towns instead of free communities. Mar 14th, 2025
Reuters - California landowners lose bid to dismiss buyer’s antitrust lawsuit over property prices
By Mike Scarcella April 1, 20242:54 PM EDT Updated April 1, 2024
NOTE: I tried to look for references on business electricity service and premium lines to prioritize uninterrupted service, but I can't remember what they call it and I only found that out because I briefly worked for a web hosting company (a data center) in the early aughts. At the time I was able to read about it on the internet but I can't find that on the power company sites now, though I can't imagine that's no longer a thing.
CNBC - Bitcoin production roars back in China despite Beijing’s ban on crypto mining Published Wed, May 18 20226:26 AM EDT Updated Wed, May 18 20229:02 AM EDT lRyan Browne
Memphis residents erupt at hearing over Musk's xAI data center More Perfect Union Jun 11, 2025
We Went to the Town Elon Musk Is Poisoning More Perfect Union May 30, 2025
Musk’s xAI gas turbines: no emission controls, filling Memphis air with smog - David Gerard 14 May 2025
“Musk Is Scamming the City of Memphis”: Meet Two Brothers Fighting Colossus, Musk’s xAI Data Center Democracy Now! Apr 25, 2025
Efficiency and Abundance Lowering costs or shifting them? - Dylan Gyauch-Lewis and Revolving Door Project Apr 14, 2025
How Elon Musk is Poisoning Memphis | Ren Brabenec | TMR - The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder Jul 20, 2025
Can Data Centers really achieve Carbon Neutrality/Net Zero? Author Info: Darren Webb Co-founder and CEO of Evolution Data Centers w.media Cloud & Data Center Magazine
Image description: A watercolor drawing of an above view of an intersection in downtown Scranton showing traffic moving into a left turn with a green light at the same time as pedestrians, depicted as frogs, have a green walk light to cross the street. The drawing is signed Chloe Nov 4, 2019. This conflict of the traffic light pattern led to people calling the crosswalk "playing Frogger" like the old video game. The drawing was presented to the state representative at the time in 2019, someone was hit one morning and taken away by ambulance after that. I haven't really walked downtown in that area since before the pandemic started, so I'm not sure if it was ever fixed. The Rolling Stone - The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind Aubrey McClendon’s Gas Boom. It’s not only toxic – it’s driven by a right-wing billionaire who profits more from flipping land than drilling for gas. By Jeff Goodell March 1, 2012
State impact Pennsylvania Fracking in Pennsylvania hasn’t gone as well as some may think Twenty years after the state's first shale gas well was drilled, jobs comprise less than 1% of the workforce, residents fear health impacts and environmental damage continues. Susan Phillips October 1, 2024 | 9:43 AM
Scientific America - Poor Communities Bear Greatest Burden from Fracking - By Brian Bienkowski - May 2015
The Pennsylvania Capital-Star Pennsylvania’s fracking boom is hurting its oldest residents By: Kate Raphael - November 12, 2023 This story was originally published by Grist.
The Impact of the Fracking Boom on Rents in Pennsylvania Lucija Muehlenbachs Elisheba Spiller Andrew Steck Christopher Timmins February 15, 2015
Andrew T. Balthrop, Zackary Hawley, I can hear my neighbors' fracking: The effect of natural gas production on housing values in Tarrant County, TX, Energy Economics, Volume 61, 2017, Pages 351-362, ISSN 0140-9883, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2016.11.010 .
Yahoo Finance - Fracking Is “the Biggest Boom Since the Housing Bubble”: Will It End the Same Way? Bernice Napach November 6, 2013
E&E News Politico - Campers, oil drillers are neighbors in ‘land of many uses’ By Marc Heller | 08/23/2016 12:59 PM EDT
State Impact Pennsylvania - Despite drilling slowdown, rents still high in fracking boomtowns Marie Cusick December 8, 2015 | 11:11 AM
NPR - Oil Industry Ups And Downs Price Out Longtime Residents Of Fracking Towns December 17, 2015 - 4:19 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Marie Cusick
Christmas movie propaganda, job creator myths, and “sides” in perpendicular axis People frame things as “conservative vs. liberal” but there’s also “regular people vs. elites” and successful fiction writers know this, because “All art is propaganda” after all. Chloe Humbert Dec 25, 2023
Mackay, A. (2015). Housing-Related Migration in the Marcellus Shale Region of Pennsylvania (Master's thesis, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/849
Pennsylvania Attorney General - 43rd Statewide Grand Jury Finds Pennsylvania Failed To Protect Citizens During Fracking Boom June 25, 2020
PennLive - 'Gasland' review: Documentary on gas drilling in Pennsylvania isn't perfect, but it's worth watching - By Donald Gilliland Updated: Jun. 21, 2010
Lucija Muehlenbachs, Stefan Staubli, Ziyan Chu, The accident externality from trucking: Evidence from shale gas development, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Volume 88, 2021, 103630, ISSN 0166-0462, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103630 .
Minhong Xu, Yilan Xu, Fraccidents: The impact of fracking on road traffic deaths, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 101, 2020, 102303, ISSN 0095-0696, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102303 .
Daily Mail - Residents of small Pennsylvania town are being driven mad by huge BITCOIN MINE whose two large cooling towers vibrate and hum more loudly than a waterfall By Dominic Yeatman For Dailymail.Com Published: 14:40 EDT, 13 December 2023
The Dump Stink. "You don't know exactly what it is" they say - Yes, my DEP public comment covered that, thank you. So what the hell is it? We know where it’s coming from, so please make it stop. Chloe Humbert Mar 08, 2024
Opposing The Dump Stink. A follow up on the local dump stink problem… a judge has ruled the state regulator dropped the ball. Chloe Humbert Apr 06, 2025
Carbon Dioxide | Wisconsin Department of Health Services
The Documentary Podcast - LOUD: Is noise an invisible killer? March 16, 2025
NOTE: With regards to the article quoted by one of the speakers referencing "loss of rural character and residential peace" – I searched for where this quote came from but could not find it. It's possible it was in a local paper that's behind a paywall that the search engines can't get to or in a print only format that someone scanned to social media or something.
NOTE: Who is Balloonist? I searched and I couldn't find anything about Balloonist LLC other than the name attached to a likely shell company that's courting Menomonie, Wisconsin with data center plans. Being that AI data centers are probably a pump bubble, I think the choice of "Balloonist" for the name of this company is something else. I've seen enough to know that these tech tycoons and crypto speculators have no problem saying the quiet parts out loud, because so far, they've gotten away with it.
Investopedia - Understanding Mill Rates: Calculate Your Property Taxes Easily By Julia Kagan Updated August 08, 2025 Reviewed by Lea D. Uradu Fact checked by Vikki Velasquez
Rick Pollay, Pack of Lies: The Advertising of Tobacco (1992)
BBC News US & Canada - Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as 'baseless cries', emails show. By Rebecca Morelle, Alison Francis & Gareth Evans, June 23, 2023
Pollay RW, Dewhirst T - The dark side of marketing seemingly “Light” cigarettes: successful images and failed factTobacco Control 2002;11:i18-i31.
Gardner, Martha & Brandt, Allan. (2006). " The Doctors' Choice Is America's Choice": The Physician in US Cigarette Advertisements, 1930-1953. American journal of public health. 96. 222-32. 10.2105/AJPH.2005.066654.
World Health Organization - THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY DOCUMENTS WHAT THEY ARE, WHAT THEY TELL US, AND HOW TO SEARCH THEM A PRACTICAL MANUAL (2002) The WHO Tobacco Free Initiative would like to thank Dr Norbert Hirschhorn for the preparation of this document.
Why You Shouldn't Believe the AI Hype, with Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna The Good Robot Feb 6, 2024
Tech Won’t Save Us - 25 05 22 [#277] Generative AI is Not Inevitable Alex Hanna, Emily M. Bender
DDT From Wikipedia
Love Canal From Wikipedia
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast / livestream
Eric Schmidt Full Controversial Interview on AI Revolution (Former Google CEO) Financial Wise Aug 18, 2024
AI is not inevitable. More specifically the tech tycoon preferred implementation of AI is not inevitable. Chloe Humbert Jun 15, 2025
AI does not exist but it will ruin everything anyway Angela Collier Jul 16, 2023
"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World Democracy Now! Jun 4, 2025
Cats in Wonderland - the Uncanny Valley of lying AIs It’s just a huge coincidence that AI chatbot services are very much like a lot of other tech products with problematic tradeoffs and just happen to be useful to a lot of the same questionable actors. Chloe Humbert May 29, 2023
Pure Diablo - Why Diablo is so addictive- a Psychological perspective. i Thread starter mjpw Start date Feb 14, 2006
Generative AI runs on gambling addiction — just one more prompt, bro! Pivot to AI Jun 5, 2025
Sam Altman @sama 8:19 PM · Oct 24, 2023
Psyblog — Grifters: The 7 Psychological Principles That Con Artists Use *- Dr Jeremy Dean — Posted on July 16, 2022
The Internet of Fakes — PR Tactics, Troll Farms, Sock Puppets, Botnets, Influencers, Operatives, & Chaos Agents. A collection of evidence of persuasion, advertising, sales, target marketing, propaganda, agent provocateurs, and cognitive warfare – the true reality of the media landscape. Chloe Humbert Sep 14, 2023
Jessica Burn Notice · Jan 22, 2023 Chloe Humbert
Jessica Where There’s Smoke, and Mirrors · Jun 28, 2023 Chloe Humbert
Jessica Whatever Validates Your DoomScroll · Oct 30, 2023 Chloe Humbert
Jessica Misfire · Jul 9, 2024 Chloe Humbert
Jessica Overdose · Oct 9, 2024 Chloe Humbert
I Can Spot AI Writing Instantly — Here’s How You Can Too Evan Edinger Jun 8, 2025
Google Is Exposing Peoples’ ChatGPT Secrets 404 Media Aug 6, 2025
Enshittification - From Wikipedia
Better Offline - The Invisible War December 31, 2024
Small Wars Journal - Wed, 01/19/2022 - 8:29pm WHY RESPONDING IS LOSING: The Plays We Run (and the Plays We Don’t) to Defeat Disinformation. By Alan Kelly
Image description: Garfield cartoon cat head with the caption you are not immune to propaganda. Tech Won’t Save Us - 25 05 22 [#277] Generative AI is Not Inevitable Alex Hanna, Emily M. Bender
The Modern Luddite - What can a common person do about generative AI? 4.6.2025
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber published: 2015
Everyday Analysis - The Politics of God Building and “Eschatech” Jag Bhalla 03 July 2025
Futurism - 11.15.23, 12:05 PM EST by Victor Tangermann Sam Altman Seems to Imply That OpenAI Is Building God Is that what AGI is going to be?
VOX - AI companies are trying to build god. Shouldn’t they get our permission first? The public did not consent to artificial general intelligence. by Sigal Samuel Oct 11, 2024, 8:30 AM EDT
Linkedin - Sam Altman Wanted to Build a God??? Jigisha Dave Building Strategic Narratives for Lasting Impact March 18, 2025 The Verge - They think they’re building God by David Pierce Sep 24, 2024, 9:19 AM EDT
The Decoder - Nov 1, 2024 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman feels like he's "on the side of the angels" working on AI models - Matthias Bastian
DARK GOTHIC MAGA: How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America Blonde Politics | The Silly Serious Nov 13, 2024
NOTE: I couldn't find an article to confirm the suicide in East Palestine Ohio linked to the train derailment and explosion, but I did find an article where people report that some townspeople have told sick townspeople to go stand on the train tracks which is pretty grim.
The Subprime AI Crisis Edward Zitron Sep 16, 2024
There Is No AI Revolution Edward Zitron Feb 24, 2025
AI Is A Money Trap Edward Zitron Aug 6, 2025
Better Offline - Ed Zitron - Coolzone Media and iHeartPodcasts
OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry Edward Zitron Apr 14, 2025
The Library of Economics and Liberty Industrial Policy Isn't About Jobs - 2023 - Veronique de Rugy
Reuters - Companies Trump said would create thousands of jobs have failed to deliver By Tim McLaughlin January 31, 2020 3:01 AM EST Updated January 30, 2020
Current Affairs - Beware The Job Creators People need jobs. But some jobs shouldn’t exist. Nathan J. Robinson filed 15 January 2017
Data centers are noisy as hell 6th October 2024 -- Gerry McGovern
TechTarget - Understanding the impact of data center noise pollution Data center noise pollution from generators and cooling systems disrupts nearby communities and affects health. Community concern raises demand to reduce noise levels. By Kelly Richardson, Associate Site Editor Published: 03 Dec 2024
We Went To Georgia. Facebook's Data Center Took This Town Hostage. More Perfect Union Mar 27, 2025
BBC - 'I can't drink the water' - life next to a US data centre 10 July 2025 Michelle Fleury & Nathalie Jimenez North America business correspondent & Business reporter Reporting from Georgia
Futurism - Jul 19, 12:00 PM EDT by Frank Landymore AI Data Centers Accused of Creating Major Problems for Local Water Systems For tech companies, "water is an afterthought."
TIME - Why Timnit Gebru Isn’t Waiting for Big Tech to Fix AI’s Problems By Billy Perrigo January 18, 2022 6:55 AM EST
Tech Won't Save Us - 23 01 19 [#151] Don’t Fall for the AI Hype Timnit Gebru
The Generative AI Con Edward Zitron Feb 17, 2025
[D] Is Linear Regression Considered AI? : r/MachineLearning REDDIT - Nov 11, 2024
Is Regression Analysis Really Machine Learning? What separates "traditional" applied statistics from machine learning? Is statistics the foundation on top of which machine learning is built? Is machine learning a superset of "traditional" statistics? Do these 2 concepts have a third unifying concept in common? So, in that vein... is regression analysis actually a form of machine learning? By Matthew Mayo, KDnuggets Managing Editor on June 5, 2017
Claims about pivoting from crypto to AI may actually be false promises too. Is it even possible for Panther Creek to just "pivot" to anything else? Chloe Humbert Apr 27, 2025
Wall Street Journal - The AI Data-Center Boom Is a Job-Creation Bust Tech and political leaders tout them as an employment bonanza, but data centers need very few workers in very large spaces By Tom Dotan Feb. 25, 2025 9:00 pm ET
NPR - Data centers bring money to small towns. But do they also bring jobs? April 10, 20254:42 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Stephan Bisaha
Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Qualified Data Centers Fact Sheet 2114 revenue.wi.gov 2023 Wis. Act 19 created a sales and use tax exemption for the sale of certain property for qualified data centers that are certified by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).
Data Center Knowledge - What Is Closed-Loop Cooling, and When Should Data Centers Use It? Here's a look at the differences between open- and closed-loop cooling systems in data centers – and how the latter can improve energy efficiency. Christopher Tozzi, Technology Analyst, Fixate.IO October 21, 2024
MENOMONIE MINUTE Jun 9, Lawn care information from the City of Menomonie
Menomonie Wisconsin 8-1-6: LIMITATIONS ON LAWN IRRIGATION
The New Republic - Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling / February 28, 2025 Republicans Are Freaking Out About Trump’s Budget After Voting for It - Republicans are suddenly not so pleased with their reconciliation bill win.
Issues You May Know, 28 February 2025. A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about. Chloe Humbert Feb 28, 2025 Jellyfish Rob Bresnahan folds like a cheap lawn chair and breaks promise to not cut Medicaid.
Issues You May Know, 11 July 2025. A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about. Chloe Humbert Jul 11, 2025 Conflict of Interest: Rep. Rob Bresnahan campaigned on stopping congress stock trades and then dumped medicaid-related stock before voting for the big boondoggle bill.
ABC News - As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act - Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers By MARC LEVY Associated Press August 9, 2025, 12:03 AM
The Conversation - How your electric bill may be paying for big data centers’ energy use Published: June 5, 2025 8:48am EDT
EarthJustice - New Report Examines Electricity Contracts for Data Centers and other Mega-load or Large-load Facilities February 4, 2025
Power for data centers could come at ‘staggering’ cost to consumers New report highlights how traditional ways of setting rates don’t fit Big Tech’s massive, immediate demand for more electricity Pam Radtke/Floodlight Mar 5, 2025
Business Insider - If you live in one of these 13 states, you might have a higher electric bill next year. Blame data centers. By Ellen Thomas Jul 28, 2025, 9:00 AM UTC
University of Wisconsin–Stout From Wikipedia
AP - New law cracks down on shell companies to combat corruption By JOSHUA GOODMAN Published 12:01 PM EDT, January 10, 2021
Jancsics, D. (2018). Shell Companies and Government Corruption. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3566-1
The Dark Side of Shell Companies Uncovering their Use in Corruption and Financial Crimes Sarah Lee · May 24, 2025
Private Equity is Coming for the American Dream! Brittany Page Jun 10, 2025
Arizona Luminaria Public officials reconsider NDA process amid Project Blue outrage Elected officials for both the city of Tucson and Pima County say they wish they had more information — and could have shared more with the public by Yana Kunichoff and John Washington August 4, 2025
PBS - Nondisclosure agreements are rare in government. Here’s why Aug 14, 2018 6:35 PM EDT
Michigan News Source - Ending ‘Secrecy Pacts:’ Two Reps Look to Stop Lawmakers from Entering into NDAs By Katie Heid February 3, 2025
Michigan House Republicans - Rep. Carra announces plan to ensure legislators never sign non-disclosure agreements again RELEASE| November 16, 2023 Contact: Steve Carra
A California Republican tries again to stop secret deals in Sacramento | Opinion By Joe Patterson Special to The Sacramento Bee April 25, 2025 5:00 AM
The Detroit News - Editorial: Politicians should never sign non-disclosure pacts The Detroit News Oct. 12, 2024
Pioneer - Big Rapids Township board approves new nondisclosure policy By Cathie Crew, Staff writerJan 14, 2025
CEA Co-Founds “Ban Secret Deals” Coalition to End Use of NDAs in Subsidy Deals
WBRE/WYOU - Lackawanna County commissioners accept Matt McGloin resignation by: Kathryn Oleary Posted: Mar 5, 2025 / 06:09 PM EST Updated: Mar 5, 2025 / 06:09 PM EST
NOTE: I wrote to the Scranton City Council asking if they're taking money from the data center industry and the Scranton City Clerk replied on Thu, Jul 31, 9:05 AM "Good Morning Chloe, Thank you for your email. I’ve forwarded to our Council members and Council Solicitor for their information and review."
Image description: the Covington Township Board of Supervisors meeting about the re-zoning was in a public notice in a print edition of some local newspaper, and a screenshot was posted on Facebook by the North Pocono HIstorical Society Inc. Cambridge Analytica From Wikipedia
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie appears before MPs - watch live Guardian News Streamed live on Mar 27, 2018
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380. doi:10.1086/225469
Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania
PA State Parks, Forests and Geology Interactive Map - DCNR
Fact check: False claim Earth can produce infinite supply of clean water Portrait of Kate S. PetersenKate S. Petersen USA TODAY Oct 31, 2022
Kandice Grossman; TigerSwan at Standing Rock: Ethics of Private Military Use Against an Environmental-Justice Movement. Case Studies in the Environment 31 December 2019; 3 (1): 1–7. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2019.002139
The Intercept - After Spying on Standing Rock, TigerSwan Shopped Anti-Protest “Counterinsurgency” to Other Oil Companies. More than 50,000 pages of documents were recently made public after the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline lost a court case to keep them secret. by Alleen Brown, Naveena Sadasivam, April 13 2023
Grist - After infiltrating Standing Rock, TigerSwan pitched its ‘counterinsurgency’ playbook to other oil companies. More than 50,000 pages of newly released documents detail how the security firm targeted pipeline opponents and tried to profit off its surveillance tactics. Alleen Brown & Naveena Sadasivam Published - Apr 13, 2023
Panama Papers From Wikipedia
Bresnahan urges against public utility rate increases Posted Sunday, March 23, 2025 4:33 pm RIVER REPORTER
How AI is Ruining the Electric Grid Wendover Productions Jun 19, 2025
Monstrosity data center power plant polluting Memphis to power a nerd reich chatbot. No, I don't want this in Pennsylvania, I don't want it in Memphis and I've never even been to Memphis, but the situation sounds terrible. Chloe Humbert Jul 24, 2025
Times Leader - Room To Grow Corporate Express Call Center Is Now Ready, Willing And Open To New Businesses, Employees - March 28, 1999
Times Leader - Call Center Controversy Report Sees W-b Tax Jump A Panel Delivers A Scathing Indictment Of Mayor Mcgroarty’s Handling Of A Business Project And Predicts Trouble For Taxpayers. The Mayor Calls The Conclusions Biased And Political. October 6, 2002
Truthdig - It’s Been 10 Years Since Banks Were Bailed Out and People Were Sold Out - The economic collapse that struck panic into the heart of U.S. political and financial institutions gave birth to a popular movement that continues to this day. Sep 3, 2018 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers / Popular Resistance
The Hill - 'Unfortunate and wrong’: Angry taxpayers respond to latest bank bailouts by Tobias Burns - 03/15/23 5:15 PM ET
Attorney for a developer threatens end to democracy if the people of Covington Township don’t allow their property values to zero out. Aug 1st, 2025
Covington Twp. supervisors hear residents' concerns, vote to add data centers to its zoning WVIA | By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published July 25, 2025 at 1:30 AM EDT
Gift Bans: Everyone knows "there's no such thing as a free lunch." PA Governor missteps to the right at lunchtime Chloe Humbert Feb 18, 2023
Inequality.org - Wealth Concentration Public Companies Should Serve the Public Articles December 18, 2012 by Salvatore Babones
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute - Consolidation is a Bad Idea John T. Wenders 4.9.2003
Othering and Belonging Institute - The Era of Corporate Consolidation and the End of Competition - Bayer-Monsanto, Dow-DuPont, and ChemChina-Syngenta Publication October 10, 2018
ProMarket - Competition, Not Consolidation, Is the Key to a Resilient and Innovative Europe By Max von Thun June 5, 2024
Brookings - The consequences of increasing concentration and decreasing competition—and how to remedy them William A. Galston and Clara Hendrickson January 5, 2018
Diagnosing the Problem: Exploring the Effects of Consolidation and Anticompetitive Conduct in Health Care Markets Statement before the Committee on the Judiciary Subcomittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law U.S. House of Representatives by Martin Gaynor E.J. Barone University Professor of Economics and Public Policy Heinz College Carnegie Mellon University Washington, D.C. March 7, 2019
Harvard Business Review - The Growing Conflict-of-Interest Problem in the U.S. Congress by Aaron D. Hill, Jason W. Ridge and Amy Ingram February 24, 2017
Conflict of interest in government: Avoiding ethical and conceptual mistakes Archon Fung, Dennis Thompson First published: 03 June 2024 https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12870
Brennan Center for Justice - Uncovering Conflicts of Interest and Self-Dealing in the Executive Branch The new administration could use federal contracts, tariffs, regulations, taxes, and other levers of government to benefit campaign donors, high-level officials, and the president himself. Eric Petry Last Updated: February 21, 2025 Published: February 19, 2025
katie couric media What are Conflicts of Interest and What Can Be Done About Them? An expert explains how they jeopardize our quality of government. By Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School National News Published: May 1, 2025
Five Common Conflicts of Interest in Government and How to Prevent Them John Pelissero, PhD Nov 6, 2023 Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University
Rep. Robert Bresnahan, Jr. Purchases Shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) Written by MarketBeat Updated July 25, 2025
Business Insider - He said he'd ban stock trading in Congress. He's made more than 530 trades since taking office. By Bryan Metzger Jun 2, 2025
Pew - Pennsylvania’s Lack of Building Has Contributed to Housing Shortage, Hurt Affordability - Elsewhere, reforms have added homes, improved affordability Issue Brief March 12, 2025
Data Centre Dynamics - The Data Center Construction Channel - $2.1bn data center campus proposed in Archbald, Pennsylvania Not set to be approved until late 2025, but will feature 14 data centers if given the go-ahead March 08, 2025 By Niva Yadav
From Wikipedia Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber
You’ll be shocked to hear ‘prompt engineer’ is not a real job Pivot to AI May 9, 2025
American Farmland Trust - une 29, 2022 by Lori Sallet NEW REPORT: Smarter Land Use Planning is Urgently Needed to Safeguard the Land That Grows Our Food
Farmland Partners - 21 – Mar – 2024 Looming Challenge: Feeding the World Amidst Farmland Scarcity The much-anticipated Ag Census, which was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in February, contained a statistic at the top of the very first table that likely caught the eye of most farmland investors. Total land in farms in 2022 fell to 880.1 million acres, down from 900.2 million acres in the last Census
Fortune Tech billionaire who spends $2 million a year to look young is now swapping blood with his 17-year-old son and 70-year-old father Orianna Rosa Royle May 23, 2023
Aeon - Against longtermism - It started as a fringe philosophical theory about humanity’s future. It’s now richly funded and increasingly dangerous. By Émile P Torres
Longtermism and Eugenics: A Primer. The intellectual lineage of Nick Bostrom’s retrograde futurism. Feb 4, 2023 by Émile P. Torres / Truthdig Contributor
Dave Troy Presents - Against Longtermism with Émile Torres - August 22, 2022
Robin Hanson’s 2020 Viral Valentine Tweet Chloe Humbert 14 min read · Feb 29, 2024
Tech tycoon guru reveals the Accusation in a Mirror of conservative pandemic rhetoric. Curtis Yarvin is reportedly a guru to tech tycoons and their acolytes like JD Vance, and he articulated that the aristocrat revolution should involve pandemic-type measures. Chloe Humbert Oct 21, 2024
News 18 WQOW Menomonie city council votes to adopt proposed land annexation and rezoning - Katie Phernetton Aug 4, 2025 Updated Aug 6, 2025
News 18 WQOWWhat are the next steps for Menomonie's proposed data center after council vote? Sam Fristed Aug 5, 2025 Updated Aug 6, 2025
Claims about pivoting from crypto to AI may actually be false promises too. Is it even possible for Panther Creek to just "pivot" to anything else? Chloe Humbert Apr 27, 2025
HEATED AI is guzzling gas Big Tech is paying for gas plants and pipelines to directly power data centers, threatening global climate goals. Arielle Samuelson Dec 19, 2024
Three Mile Island accident From Wikipedia
Pennsylvania Capital-Star - Nuclear regulators hear concerns about plan to restart Three Mile Island reactor The Constellation energy plant will generate electricity exclusively for a Microsoft artificial intelligence data center By: Peter Hall - March 20, 2025 8:26 pm
PA DEP under Dem Governor Josh Shapiro approves Trump admin official to burn tires to print cryptocurrency. There is NO other purpose for this power plant whatsoever than to make "alternative" currency. It provides no power to the grid, and exists only to print bitcoin. Chloe Humbert May 17, 2025
Tennessee Lookout - A billionaire, an AI supercomputer, toxic emissions and a Memphis community that did nothing wrong Memphis’s dealings with Elon Musk provide a textbook example of how the people who contribute the least to environmental harm often suffer the most from it. Ren Brabenec July 7, 2025
NPR - Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, started calling itself 'MechaHitler' July 9, 20253:12 PM ET By Lisa Hagen, Huo Jingnan, Audrey Nguyen
Tech tycoons want to hog the power of dedicated power plants from the communities impacted by them. Chloe Humbert Feb 14th, 2025
AI Is Coming For Your Children Con-men are flooding kindle with AI children's books. They could do permanent damage to childhood literacy. The Only Robert Evans Jun 20, 2023
Children's Books To Really Avoid Peter Greene Aug 12, 2023
Cryptocurrency is bad - it's a vehicle for hurting people. It's bad for the environment and the society where all us people have to live. Chloe Humbert Feb 25, 2025
Pivot to AI - You can’t feed generative AI on ‘bad’ data then filter it for only ‘good’ data David Gerard 22 May 2025 (youtube video version)
Financial Times - AI keeps going wrong. What if it can’t be fixed? Pessimists warn it could wipe out humanity. Optimists hail a medical revolution. Henry Mance meets the sceptics who argue that the technology is simply flawed Henry Mance Published Apr 6 2024
FORTUNE - Tech experts are starting to doubt that ChatGPT and A.I. ‘hallucinations’ will ever go away: ‘This isn’t fixable’ By Matt O'Brien By The Associated Press August 1, 2023 at 12:54 PM EDT
TECH TIMES - Hallucination in AI Chatbots: Can It Really Be Fixed? The concern persists as the technology advances. By Quincy Jon Published: Aug 01 2023, 15:30 PM EDT
Lying AI should not be doing the people's business or science. Lives are at stake and the U.S. government and scientific scholars are buying into tech hype boondoggles. Is it corruption, incompetence, or sabotage? Chloe Humbert Mar 22, 2024
Walters, W.H., Wilder, E.I. Fabrication and errors in the bibliographic citations generated by ChatGPT. Sci Rep 13, 14045 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41032-5
Fake AI generated crochet patterns Aug 26th, 2024
Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI This article is more than 1 year old Sample of books scored 100% on AI detection test as experts warn they contain dangerous advice Dan Milmo Global technology editor Fri 1 Sep 2023 12.32 EDT
Business Insider - Investors love layoffs Employees are getting crushed by layoffs. But they're fueling big gains for Wall Street. Emily Stewart Feb 22, 2024, 10:27 AM UTC
Data & Society - Policy Brief ⋅ July 22 2025 Data Centers Aren’t the Future of American Prosperity
Newsday - Coal-fired power plant, now retired, to become massive gas-powered campus for AI, data centers By The Associated Press Updated April 2, 2025
AP Coal-fired power plant, now retired, to become massive gas-powered campus for AI, data centers By MARC LEVY Updated 5:00 PM EDT, April 2, 2025
Former site of Springdale power plant could become high-tech AI data center pittsburgh By Ricky Sayer Updated on: August 7, 2025 / 12:04 AM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh
PhillyVoice August 05, 2025 After Pennsylvania coal plant closed, ER visits for childhood asthma dropped by 41% A new study adds to evidence suggesting that the reduction of fossil fuel emissions pays immediate health benefits. By Michael Tanenbaum
Bitcoin operation ignites debate around the waste from coal mining in Pennsylvania Climate activists worry about the high-energy demand for bitcoin mining. ByStephanie Ebbs and Elizabeth Schulze January 25, 2022, 6:03 AM
US Considers Emergency Powers to Restart Closed Coal Plants By Ari Natter March 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM UTC Updated on March 10, 2025 at 8:54 PM UTC The US is eyeing emergency authority to bring back coal-fired plants that have closed and stop others from shutting, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday.
Blood In The Machine - AI disagreements Inside a closed-door AI doomer conference with rationalists, tech executives, and the acolytes of Silicon Valley's "new religion" Brian Merchant Aug 07, 2025
Gil Duran on Trump, Tech, and “The Nerd Reich” Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California Jul 16, 2025
The world’s biggest problem? Powerful psychopaths. | Brian Klaas - Big Think Jul 12, 2023
The Newnan Times-Herald - Commissioners approve rezoning for Project Peach data center - Jeffrey Cullen-Dean Apr 16, 2025
Here's a short timeline of Foxconn's plans and development in Wisconsin - Steven Martinez Milwaukee Journal Sentinel November 10, 2023
NOTE: I'm not sure what "Business Weekly" the speaker was referring to, so I couldn't confirm the statement that the article reported electric bills went up 20-24% in 10 states that have AI centers, but this seems consistent with the latest news articles I've found on this.
Fortune - States are taking action as electric bills rise amid data-center boom. ‘There’s a massive outcry’ By Marc Levy By The Associated Press August 9, 2025 at 10:18 AM EDT
