'Data Centers'

That those who 'data centers' are designed to fleece PAY for them is OBSCENE.
There are almost 12000 "data centers" (half of them in the USA). Data centers are primarily owned by Big Tech cloud providers and investment firms. Top Owners: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Meta. "Colocation Providers' include Equinix, Digital Realty, and QTS Data Centers. Investment & Private Equity Firms: Because data centers are highly lucrative digital infrastructure, many are owned by major financial players who fund construction and lease the properties to operators.Top Owners: Blackstone, DigitalBridge, and KKR. A newer wave of operators, specialized AI/Neocloud Providers, focuses primarily on providing high-density computing power for AI workloads.Top Owners: CoreWeave, Lambda, and xAI.
Only 32 countries globally host specialized AI computing data centers; nearly 150 nations lack significant domestic AI infrastructure. Major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) have no localized data centers in over 100 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The absence of hyperscale data centers in these regions is due to unreliable electrical grids, lack of local undersea fiber-optic cable landings, and low commercial demand. Countries without major public cloud regions include Ethiopia, Libya, Zimbabwe, Angola, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, Iraq, Yemen, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay.
Even Myanmar has commercial data centers. The market is small but established, with most facilities located near Yangon. Key data center facilities and operators include True IDC Myanmar, established in 2015 as a joint venture providing standard IT managed services and colocation; Myint & Associates (M&A) Data Center; Golden TMH Telecom (GTMH); plus telecom operators like Ooredoo which operate localized data centers and landing stations such as the Campana submarine cable landing station.
A vast majority of Americans oppose their construction. People are pushing back against the complexes for a variety of concrete reasons:
Resource Drain: Data centers demand unprecedented amounts of electricity and water. A single facility can consume as much energy as 100,000 households, straining the power grid and driving up utility bills for everyday consumers. Water supplies are heavily tapped for cooling servers, especially in drought-prone areas.
Low Local Value: Developers often tout job creation and economic growth. However, after the initial construction phase, data centers typically employ only a few dozen staff members, bringing little long-term local economic benefit.
Quality of Life: The facilities are massive, warehouse-style buildings that generate constant 24/7 noise from cooling systems and traffic from construction. Many also rely on dirty backup diesel generators that produce air pollution.
Public Subsidies: Residents are increasingly frustrated that data center developers receive massive tax breaks, meaning local funds are being diverted away from public services to benefit large tech corporations.
Tech Skepticism: Data centers have become the physical, highly visible symbol of AI, fueling broader public anxiety about the pace of the technology, data privacy, and resource allocation.

Germany has 500+ facilities, UK also 500+; China: 360+ facilities, France 340+, Canada and India both 280+; Australia 270, Japan: 250+ and Italy 210 (major hub: Milan). Emerging hotspots for massive data center construction include Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile.

My books

1. A Little Knowledge by Joel Barlow 2008, 2010 - A series of related essays on knowledge and the reality we live in, including a good bit of history, physics, linguistics, anthropology and philosophy.
2. The Road From Kaliyuga to Ragnarök by Joel Barlow 2020 - Essays on mythology, the deification of mortals, reality, fabulous frauds, assertions of superiority, challenges in the world we live in, emotional weather, orders of infinity, ancient history, hoarding compulsion and French poetry, sensibly and rationally adjoined.
3. Dignity, Too by Joel Barlow 2009, 2010 - George wants to beat the system - to exist within it lacks dignity. There MUST be a way. He reads of ancient wisdom, of communes and hippies, of "alternative" this and that... refuses to settle for a drab life with boss, debts, homogenous mimicry of neighbors, a straightjacket of rules, inside all day, everything antiseptically packaged. Bad enough to be a Midwestern nobody, without hope of wealth, fame or glamour. People on the coasts might THINK they were smarter or more talented, than he or his ilk, but they weren't. Well, maybe than his ilk, but not than George himself, who certainly did not consider himself a naif.
4. Enticing Siam by Joel Barlow 2006 - Concise details for navigating the rich culture and society, with sections on pop-culture, folk beliefs, festivals, food, tribes, weather, sports, interesting places, herbal medicines, Siamese cats, fighting fish, orchids, and a concise history with intimate examination of Golden Triangle drug trade, plus background on Chinese immigration.
5. IuMien Tao, Ultima Altai by Joel John Barlow - A treatise on how the world’s arguably oldest still revered belief system relates to early East-West interface, mythology and modern understandings, with information on the Iu-Mien people and their art and beliefs, and a bit of poetry.
6. The Dollshop on Gogo Row - by Joel Barlow 2010 - Might a man who marries a waitress get a cook and maid in the bargain? If he marries an Asian bar-girl, will he retain any friends? And even if he does, will the fun go on? Three men and their bar-girl friends, all out to find fun, insight and the joys of cross-cultural contact, if not love, discover instead magic, new social bonds, secret workings, a dangerous plot protected in high places, in another magical story of the Land-of-Guiles.
7. Dream of Self by Joel John Barlow 1976, 1980. illustrated by Jonathan Lethem - poetic essay of a time when one could still struggle to be easy and free, reveling in faded splendor and grandiosity, self-indulgence and lust for adventure.
8. Lost Lanna Found, by Joel Barlow 2005 - History and some contemporary details of as fine a place as any.
9. Going to Laos, by Gene Ballou (Joel Barlow). A novel of alternative social conventions in the New World we made 10. A Web of Connected Curiosities, 2000, 2020:
“Little Sister™ Corp, the ONLY one owned by all its customers, works for YOU – offering HOPE! Joining costs nothing. Log in & become a member of the largest co-op of all, employed with genuine advancement potential no matter who you are, or what your education.
Little Sister™ & HomefieldAdvantage™ will teach you all you need to advance, while YOU earn where-with-all to pay your way to increasingly valuable positions in its structure. ANYONE can become a member of the assemblage: an editor, analyst, promoter, distributor, supervisor, even an executive.
It’s up to YOU, with a little help from Little Sister™ herself – always a joy to be with, guaranteed.
With sections on
Information & advertising
The history of alcohol
The punch-card loom & reactive systems Ethical Ecological Economics
Programed Instruction
History of Museums
Assassins of the Old Man in the Mountain Emin Pasha; Hsuang-tsang; Vasco de Gama; Ibn Batutah
& Shendi Bazaar.
If interested to receive as an attachment, inquire at jobarlow53 at yahoo.

cartoons

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Aphorisms

Snobby suffers fools like a fish out of water.
the rich are different; they have more money
lie down with dogs wake up with fleas
best way to have a friend is 2b1
to exceed one's level of competence suck up
popularity is but a hairstyle
u can pick your friends' noses but it kills the friendship
judge not but evaluate carefully
a rising tide lifts all boats not ankored too tightly
all are equal in God's eye but money always notes differences
the best deoderant is money

Aladin Sane's genie lamp

Illusion, illusion; all is illusion (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

As so much of our confusion arose due to insufficient mansplaining, I'll attempt to set the record straight (pronouns it, its and it's) regarding matters pertainent and consequential, i.e. how the Mideast has become viewed in the Midwest.
It all started when Richard Burton (1984, Cleopatra, Equus, On the Waterfront, Apocalypse Now), famed fencing duelist fluent in 1000 languages, stole stories of flying Persian carpets from his friend John Payne (author, er, translater of "The Book of a Thousand Knights and One Night"). These stories include Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.
Things got confused as Arabs once conquored Persia and drove out its Zoroastrianist worshipers of the dog (fox) star Sirius (coiners of the phrase "Be Sirius"). The astral plane, er, plain, er zeplin, or what have you, remains far off.
Zoroaster, of ancient Persia about 4000 years ago, spoke of moral dualism between good and evil, his teachings laying a foundation for the 'Abrahamic faiths' whose hatreds yet guide our days (and modern knights). In the 7th century CE, the rise of Islam and the ensuing Muslim conquests caused a decline of Zoroastrianism; many adherents relocated to the Indian subcontinent, where some became progenitors of today's Parsis. Once numbering in the millions, the total Zoroastrian population is now between 110,000 and 120,000, most residing in India (50,000–60,000, most in Mumbai), Iran (15,000–25,000, mostly in remote hamleta), or North America (22,000 in California, New York and Texas).
It was from the great exodus that stateless Aryans (Persians) became brown-skinned people with a red third eye (the blind one) and also that Europeans were able to become more successul barbarians, trading stories and legends and eventually meet the Dogan people of Mali and attribute to them origin on a planet orbiting the Dark Star Sirius B, but that's another story. Like the one about Richard Burton "discovering" Lake Victoria (Ukerewe, Nam Lolwe, 'Nnalubaale or Nyanza to those that led the explorers to their 'discovery')... Let's get back to Iran ("Iran so far away, couldn't get away")...
Some of the refugees from Persia went on further east to manage, as Brahmin Hindus, ritual for Buddhists in Angkor, Ayudhaya and KrunThep. How this relates to Branch Dravidians and the Zorro Ranch remains Classified, but when Heroika Kirk replaces Trusti Scabbord, a Hindu without a third eye, as Adult in the Room, matters may well become more muddied.
In the mid 700s, non-Arab Islamic converts in Persia, resentful over being relegated to lower social standing, replaced the Umayyads with the Abbasids, descendants of Muhammad's Uncle Abbas... these folk hold thr Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as his successor (Imam). Sunnis say it was Abu Bakr... There's a further matter of Hidden Imans, but let's leave it as a split was made, wars were fought, masses died but enduring enmity didn't - Islam is no more united than other religions. Persia became Iran, Semites became confused with Semites, friends became enemies and enemies friends, and fortunately most of us understand that our betters have what the rest of us do not and will do whatever they can with that.

History's fiction, but the discipline of Iranian soldiers (or Cuban ones) is not, and I, for one, am not betting on my "betters"!

Persia is reputed to have been the base for the Grand Exalted Order of Assassins ("Shaken, not stirred") but the tales of Scheherazade hold far more truth than the million or so of Marco Polo. Repression of women, suppression of the Baha'i faith and the mass deaths from wars with Iraq can be held against Iran, but who's been better? Bahama? Cuba? Iceland?

Absurd stereotyping has given us tribes with special powers (a la PK Dick's "Clans of the Alphane Moon): Laurenz van der Post even gave !San Bushmen specially placed cartilege... Margaret Mead managed to turn Samoans into hobits. See also Napoleon Chagnon's Yanamamo, the Inuit of Duncan Pryde, Frank Waters (Hopi), Carlos Castanda (Yaqui) and fantasies of the Sami (Lapp), Cheyene, Shoshone, Seminole, Tarahumara, Scythians, Khazars, the builders of Angkor and Borabadur, and my favorite, the Albigensians (Cathars murdered to a man, woman and child by order of Pope Innocent III). Boaz, Bateson, Colin Trumbell, Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, and even TE Lawrence contributed to this... And let's not forget: Palestineans don't exist. Which could take us where I'm loath to go...

Need & self-sabotage

To blame voters for the deep do-do we're in is absurd. Might as well blame consumers for the deluge of bad, misleading products on offer now. Sure some shop &/or vote better than others, but who's to blame for the housing crisis? Certainly not the general public, regardless of how misled they have been, led being the key term. Socieies have famously overthrown tyrants: the royal "abdolutism" of James I (of Bible fame) led to Oliver Cromwell. Russia, China, France, Haiti, most of "Latin" America and even the USA have all had revolutions, for what they were worth. People tried to check oligarchs through unions but ended up hosting two blood-sucking parasites instead of just one (oh me; I forgot the Church. Make that a Holy Trinity). We need a better re-set button; we had the Courts, but let corrupt political parties appoint the judges. We had a co-op movement but got seduced by paid employees. Other countries have recall mechanisms and often still maintain "cottage industry" - and the US, if it wants to survive, should too. But desire, perhaps even need, to self-sabotage is difficult to overcome.

The Consortium Cartel versus Coastal US West

The Consortiuem Cartel versus Coastal US West

Jeffrey Dalmer, er Epstein, was a post turtle. He couldn't have gotten up there on his own. It's been posited that he worked for Mosad; I'm going out on a limb and positing that Mosad works for whatever Cabal Consortium ("CC") Epstein did.
Wikipedia says Les "Wexner hired Jeffrey Epstein as his financial manager from 1987 to 2007. He was the primary client of Epstein, who claimed to only work with clients with a net worth of one billion USD or greater. Wexner purchased his New York property, the Herbert N. Straus House, in 1989 and sold it to Epstein in the mid-1990s following Wexner's marriage to Abigail. In July 1991, Wexner granted Epstein power of attorney and also instated him as a trustee on the board of the Wexner Foundation.
"Wexner has been accused of failing to take action when complaints were raised against Epstein, after executives of L Brands reported in the mid-1990s that Epstein was abusing his power and connection to Wexner by posing as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret models. Maria Farmer contacted local and federal authorities about an assault she allegedly endured by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell while working as an artist-in-residence on Wexner's Ohio property in 1996. Within a year of Farmer's complaint, actress Alicia Arden filed a police report in Los Angeles detailing that Epstein had misrepresented himself as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret prior to another alleged assault.
"In early 2006, Epstein was charged in Florida with "multiple counts of molestation and unlawful sexual activity with a minor". The New York Times reported that 18 months after the charges were filed, Wexner cut his ties with Epstein.
"In August 2019, following Epstein's second incarceration and prior to his death, Wexner addressed the Wexner Foundation, releasing a written statement that his former financial advisor, Jeffrey Epstein, had "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him and from his family. Wexner retained the services of Debevoise & Plimpton criminal defense attorney and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Mary Jo White.
"Wexner faced additional public scrutiny in late 2019 and early 2020, when a group of wrestlers who are survivors of the Ohio State University abuse scandal publicly called on state and federal officials to conduct further inquiry into Maria Farmer's allegations of sexual assault at the Wexner property. The wrestlers called for accountability for the Wexner family's alleged involvement in Epstein's abuse and raised the issue of the continuing influence of Abigail and Leslie Wexner serving as the "biggest and best-known benefactors" of the university.
"L Brands shareholders filed a complaint in the Court of Chancery of Delaware on January 14, 2021, stating that Wexner, among others, created an "entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment", and was aware of abuses being committed by Jeffrey Epstein, which breached Wexner's fiduciary duty to the company and devalued the brand. The complaint also names Wexner's wife, current chair Sarah E. Nash, and former marketing officer Ed Razek, whose "widely known misconduct" was allegedly allowed at the company.
"He was profiled in New York Magazine in August 1985, where he felt he had a dybbuk, a malevolent spirit from Jewish folklore. He said the spirit continually poked him to succeed, and that it looked like himself."
"Wexner was listed by Forbes in 2017, the wealthiest of seven billionaires from Ohio who made the list. He was a major funder of the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University, which is named in honor of his father."
At the time of Wexner's rise, Columbus was the "test market center of the world,"

Wiki again:
"Jeffrey Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His parents Pauline "Paula" Stolofsky (1918–2004) and Seymour George Epstein (1916–1991) were Jewish and had married in 1952 shortly before his birth. Pauline worked as a school aide and was a homemaker. "Paula was a wonderful mother and homemaker, despite the fact that she had a full-time job", according to a former childhood friend of Epstein's. Seymour worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a groundskeeper and gardener. Jeffrey was the older of two siblings; he and his brother Mark grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Sea Gate, a private gated community in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Epstein was referred to as "Bear" by his parents while Mark was known as "Puggie". Neighbors described the Epstein family as being, "so gentle, the most gentle people".
"Epstein attended local public schools, first attending Public School 188, and then Mark Twain Junior High School nearby and usually earned money by tutoring classmates. Acquaintances considered Epstein "sweet and generous", although "quiet and nerdy", and nicknamed him "Eppy". "He was just an average boy, very smart in math, slightly overweight, freckles, always smiling", a female friend later said.
"In 1967, Epstein attended the National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He began playing the piano when he was five, and was regarded as a talented musician by friends. He graduated in 1969 from Lafayette High School at age 16, having skipped two grades. Later that year, he attended advanced math classes at Cooper Union until he changed colleges in 1971. From September 1971, he attended the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University studying mathematical physiology, but left without receiving a degree in June 1974."
It seems a mystery how "Eppy" got a blanket power of attourney from Les Wexner... i.e., who put the turtle on the post. Whoever and however, there must have been powerful inducements to get him to relocate to New Albany OH ("flyover country").

Found on the net:
There have been debates about whether Russia can be classified as a fascist state, however, Putin’s Russia certainly exhibits characteristics of both an authoritarian state and a kleptocracy. Mafia states feature centralised corruption networks led by a monopolistic political elite that control societal structures. Such a circumstance emerges through a sequence of stages, from basic corruption in a single-party system to oligarchic wealth accumulation during rapid privatisation, and culminates in state capture, where laws are manipulated for the benefit of the ruling elite. These mafia states often thrive due to the collusion between organised crime syndicates, politicians and civil servants, particularly in failing states.

Sure rings a deja-bell reminding one of another Super-power, the USA! Who are these Mafiosos? If I told you I'd have to kill you. Some point to Mosad but that seems to me more of a subset.

"One Nation Under Blackmail" is a scathing indictment of the consequences resulting from the long relationship between the US and Israeli intelligence and the organized criminal networks they represent. The book specifically explores how that nexus between intelligence and organized crime directly developed the sexual blackmail tactics and networks that would later enable the sexual blackmail operation and other crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. It goes into detail of the connections he made and how his wealth seemed to come out of thin air. He seems to have been planted in his position as his academics were forged and he was able to work and teach at some prestigious learning institutions.
For instance (from Hacker News)
‘ Donald Barr, father of two time Attorney General (Bush senior and Trump) William Barr, had deep ties into the intelligence community. As headmaster at the Dalton School he ran a program in the 1970s for the NSA to recruit promising talent for the intelligence community.
The Dalton School is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool.
During his time as Dalton’s headmaster, Barr had a role in hiring future financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a math teacher despite the fact that Eps tein (who graduated from high school at the age of 16 and secured a full scholarship to Cooper Union) had failed to complete his degree and was only 21 years old at the time. [Also,] In 1973, Barr published Space Relations, a science fiction novel about a planet ruled by oligarchs who engage in child sex slavery. It has been noted that the plot of the novel anticipates the crimes of Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell’

from elsewhere:
Epstein's life took a pivotal turn when he met Leslie Wexner, the retail magnate behind The Limited. Introduced by a mutual acquaintance, Epstein quickly gained Wexner's trust and became his financial advisor.
The relationship between Wexner and Epstein was mutually beneficial. Epstein managed Wexner's vast fortune, while Wexner provided Epstein with access to his extensive network and resources, elevating Epstein's status and influence.
The Wexner-Epstein relationship extended beyond finance. Epstein became deeply involved in Wexner's personal life, advising him on various matters and becoming a trusted confidant, blurring the lines between professional and personal relationships.

Now we have a weird war against Democrats, large cities and especially the US West Coast. It can't be only about immigrants, minorities, elections and Donald Trump's weird mind: it surely has more to do with a frustrated desire to control. Especially control where so many young pretty girls go. But I submit that that can no more be controlled than can be many "wild" things, like ginsing, lots of myacellia (mushrooms), octopuses and/or adolescent (or religious) desires.

Good luck Donny, and the CC that owns you!