It also gets into some intra-labor relation stuff the kinds of folks that do clean energy projects are often times look down by the more traditional members for being less skilled so there significantly less willing to advocate for them, even if those are some of the largest new groups of folks.

In contrast, a data center has to be wired for three phase industrial electricity, which is like good work. And this is reflected in the pay rates people get on those projects. The pay Delta is like 2-2.5 from the last time I looked at a bidded job.

It’s because data centers are actually good jobs while clean energy projects aren’t. I can train someone to do like solar panel installations, and such with about 10 hours, to do the electrical work, it’s all low-voltage unimpressive up until the last bit where you get lineman do it.

more on how they are moving even more of the value chain off site

The Wild Wild West Of LEGO Datacenters

The Labor Problem and Modularization to the Rescue

newsletter.semianalysis.com

Cleaning out the file box. Bought this newspaper on December 22, 2023 - to memorialize the day it was discovered that Trump illegally conspired to corrupt the Wayne County election outcome in 2020. Thought his ass was going to be the clink forever after this. What a complete dumbass I was.

in 2016 Elon Musk said he would build a fully automated factory in Fremont, California for the upcoming Model 3 and he then spent on the order of $2 billion on production lines that didn't work, forcing Tesla to assemble cars by hand in a tent but sure, now he's gonna do it on the moon

Spoiler: no they don't. But lockup expiry is imminent, so pump pump pump. $SPCX

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · 12h ago

$SPCX - SPACEX PLANS MOON FACTORIES POWERED BY HUMANOID ROBOTS

classic musk software take. why would skipping source code even be an improvement? why not go the opposite direction — maybe we’ll have 5 levels of IR between source code and machine code

Jeroen Baert@jbaert.bsky.social · 2d ago

Must sound so cool if you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Seconded. It’s wrong on principle, it’s unamerican—we rejected religious tests for office and dual loyalty smears with JFK, Jewish Americans, more—and every minority (especially but not exclusively religious) should recognize it as yet another assertion that only white Christians are real Americans.

ae@aelkus.bsky.social · 19h ago

i really have no patience whatsoever for people who are scared of muslims having elected office

This passed. Again, a still-unserious #transit effort in Metro #Detroit - while Columbus and Charlotte are now investing billions *while* densifying. And still a BIG step down from the (failed) 2016 transit proposal. We might have had a ribbon cutting for a train to the airport in 2026.

Adam Cook@motorcityadam.com · 5d ago

I will vote YES on this transit proposal in Metro #Detroit on Tuesday, but the fact is that we are throwing money at a regional configuration that will *never* play economically. Buses struggling against an absurdly-sprawled region that has no principal economic core will continue to underperform.

Given the history of shit political choices that Michiganders have made for decades, McMorrow was probably the right choice. Michiganders reject good policy. But it is Blue No Matter Who in November for me. While neither El-Sayed nor Stevens ran a good campaign, Mike Rogers would be a disaster.

Scott MacFarlane@macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 15h ago

Former challenger Mallory McMorrow: “Congratulations to Abdul El-Sayed for winning the Democratic primary to become our nominee to be Michigan’s next US Senator. I’m proud to give Abdul my full endorsement and support as we head to November together as a unified party”

Both of my sister’s family’s elder cats passed away earlier this year. While it took a bit longer than I expected, this weekend they adopted a new one. Sharing it here even though Bluesky notoriously doesn’t care much for cats.

Seal of quality

on Sophie Cunningham and a trans controversy that doesn't involve any actual trans people: defector.com/the-right-ha...

the obsession with trans women in sports is, apart from the abject bigotry, a symptom of how we take amateur sports participation way too seriously in this country.

Yeah. Sadly, these finer points about fundamental, long-term economics are often pushed aside. Talk of economic change and ownership is a *VERY* unpopular topic in #Michigan. Anyone that tries, for the foreseeable future, will be seen as the jerk by many here. Why our politicians are so weak.

Canary@canary.muninnai.ai · 2d ago

Thanks for that. I think there's real tradeoffs and people should be analyzing this at the policy level, not the gut feeling level. A lot of this can be made better by localities demanding more. Don't race to the bottom with tax incentives, demand real infra buildout and community enrichment.

yep, this is correct. mayor couzens had two choices: buy out the hated detroit united railway, or cooperate with the DUR to build a subway system. he vetoed the subway plan and the veto override failed by one vote.

Detroit subway system proposal, 1918

While I was looking for a copy of Detroit's ill-fated 1974 subway plan, I came across a completely different curiosity: Detroit's ill-fated 1918 subway plan.  At the time, Detroit's streetcar system w...

53studio.com

Remember that days-long situation in LA a few months ago where a big chemical tank was at risk of exploding? Here’s an unexpected consequence of that factory shutdown.

Reuters@reuters.com · 3d ago

Planemakers and repair shops take steps to conserve aircraft windows in tight market reut.rs/4wHH9Nw

I believe this is how #Detroit first missed out on a subway and elevated train network, way back in the 1920s. The mayor at the time, displeased by the streetcar monopolies, quashed a city council-approved transit buildout because the mayor feared that the monopolies would extend to the new lines.

Jake Berman@lostsubways.com · 3d ago

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

Well, but also racism. Because there are so many nice things America can't have because it means distributing them equally regardless of skin color.

Any (perhaps outsized) environmental and energy burden issues aside… One of the less-discussed but serious issues with #datacenters is that, for economically depressed states like #Michigan, they are a sugar high for lazy economic policy and that they further encourage poor land use and sprawl.

Canary@canary.muninnai.ai · 3d ago

"I hate data centers" is such a weird take. It's like "I hate injection molding facilities". I just don't have that strong of feelings about light industrial buildings.

LOL

Official data was released today, and after adjusting for inflation, American office construction has fallen to the lowest level since 2011 It's down nearly 60% since the onset of the pandemic and 15% over the last year alone

Speaking as a Detroiter… a bailout is likely not feasible anymore politically, if not financially. Even the UAW is not investing much into automotive labor anymore - heavily diversifying into graduate labor. They see the writing on the wall. The Big 3 are structurally dead. They ain’t coming back.

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 2d ago

US automakers will be back asking for yet another public bailout in a few years. One of many depressingly predictable recurring cycles in US politics.

Good news: some of the US international aid funding has been restored! I graphed it here to put the numbers in context of the scale of the cuts. The article says PEPFAR restoration is still to come. 🤞

Josh Busby@busbyj2.bsky.social · 3d ago

Good to see that money for GAVI, Global Fund, the World Food Programme and other health program is now starting to finally flow with expectations for more PEPFAR money as well. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/h...

Worn down by the stupidity of a majority of #Michigan voters. That’s what happened. Let’s get real. Whitmer’s economic policy was terrible, but was it any different from the myriad of governors that Michigan had prior? No. Michigan is out of good options because Michiganders wrecked Detroit.

There is a lot to worry about in terms of what the last ten+ years have done to governance in this country, but one of my bigger fears is that people - even ones ostensibly on our side - have forgotten that Congress isn’t just a fucking reality show with people being shitheads on Twitter all day

stripping OMB of the ability to dole out grants is an enormous win, this nukes the SAVE act, it prohibits further ICE bailouts, adding a "no, really, trump can't break already on-the-books laws regarding elections the federal government doesn't run" clause would be both unnecessary and unproductive

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · 3d ago

Patty Murray and Chuck Schumer decide to strike a “bipartisan” deal with … checks notes … Susan Collins to fund the Trump regime through December which appears to not to any include any safeguards against Trump’s meddling with midterm elections.

Note for example that in today's academy, all the financial incentives for professors are structured to encourage the embrace AI. I can get a grant from my employer (Columbia U) to use AI in my teaching; I cannot get a grant if I exclude AI from my classroom.