COLD ALBION

Murderbot: no. we fucking hate each other.

on the other hand...

by Wendell Berry

So I've been seeing some posts about how folks "can't get behind the datacentre backlash" because similar things are said against solar, and most US folks can't run a cost-benefit analysis to save their life. Which, OK. Let's ignore the fact that NIMBYism exists across domains, and also that there are many documented cases of fossil fuel companies funding (astroturfing and lobbying) the pushback against wind and solar for a moment. Mate of mine, who some of you may remember as formerly being on here @wolvensnothere, is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Data Science and had a trenchant point over on Bluesky that I think is worth bringing over, re: the whole thing, so here you go (these people, being referenced here are politicians and tech companies):

[ID: A thread of bluesky posts from Damien P. Williams, whose profile pic shows him to be a Black man with glasses and wearing a suit, taken as he is giving a talk while wearing a KN95 black mask:

"Not for nothing, but if these people had read more Frantz Fanon and Paulo Freire, they might've seen the data center backlash coming and taken steps to avoid it.

…But, then, if these people had read more fanon and freire, a whole bunch of shyt would be real different, these days.

Fanon and Freire both focus on the eventual response of the oppressed to their oppression, especially when that oppression is either brutal and long-lasting or quick and all-consuming. Data centers are routinely placed in marginalized & dispossessed communities and their operations are increasingly… …a) demonstrated to rely on the appropriation of resources people need to live, and b) used towards ends which also rely on theft from & the nonconsensual control of the public. As more & more people feel like these things are being shoved down their throats, the more backlash increases, as well as…

…the likelihood of incidences of "violent" backlash (e.g., the recent attempted burnings of data centers).

Fanon also talks specifically about the use of some technologies for control & what happens when the oppressed can subvert that, i.e., wrt radio, but i don't think that as cleanly applies here.

[ID: "

*burning of CEO's houses over data centers.

apparently, cats' kidneys tend to be the thing that takes them down, something about their bodies being unable to self-clean their kidneys, and the vaccine is supposed revitalize the body's ability to do just that. It would be very VERY fucking cool to have cats suddenly reaching 30 years of age be the normal thing.

dude cracked the case about WHY kidneys fail, across the board as far as i can tell. turns out there's a specific molecule whose job it is to attach to waste and signal macrophages to come eat it. it remains inactive in cats for some reason, but the molecule is still there. basically what he's done is found the switch to activate them. this will be profound not only for our domestic babies, but for big cats too - especially cheetahs!

although his research was focused on cats, it's already being used to develop drugs for humans too!

on top of that, since these molecules are tags for waste, this could also dramatically lower the rate of fatty liver disease, liver cancer, urinary crystals, rheumatoid arthritis, and even some neurological cases! like, they're hoping it may have an impact on parkinson's and alzheimers, but it DOES have an impact on stroke recovery. like. holy shit.

furthermore, he's insisting that the feline drug be affordable if and when it rolls out onto the market. he wants this to be something anyone can get for their cat!! idk how much sway he'll have over the human drug, but hopefully enough that it, too, won't be that expensive.

annnnnd in his research that he's still doing for the human side of things, he's found a potential link between this molecule and estrogen. in the 20,000 samples he's tested, women between ages 10 and 29 had the highest amount of this molecule present in their blood (a higher amount means Something Fucky is going on, essentially. There's a higher amount of waste the body is trying to clean out) but it drops down to be almost equal amongst men and women after menopause. it hasn't been looked into yet, but fuck, just the fact it's noted and known and probably WILL be looked into soon??? imagine if this is what leads to figuring out all the various ways the ovaries and uterus fucks with people and how to fix it. or even like, maybe there's something about estrogen that makes it work better. who knows! but it's rad the link is there to be researched :D

As for the study itself, the 360 day follow up on stage 3 kidney failure kitties showed that the control had a survival rate of about 20%, while the test group had a survival rate of 80%

In this case, accurately assessing their comfort levels might feel like underestimating themselves. But it's necessary to not overexert and avoid further burnout.