Quote
"The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth"
Hyperscale, hypersensitive: US teacher cuffed for applauding datacenter critics
A Kansas physics teacher discovered that in at least one corner of America's AI buildout, applause can apparently earn you a trip to jail. According to local news reports, Lux Claridge, a 37-year-old physics teacher from Emporia, was arrested after applauding a speaker opposing zoning changes for a proposed hyperscale datacenter …
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 00:56 GMT cyberdemon
Re: Quote
Er yes, a lot like the South Sea Company
and the resulting crash when everyone realised that a) it wasn't profitable as slaves still needed feeding so their labour wasn't "free" (and AIs need powering, big time), b) slave labour was a poor substitute for domestic skilled labour, and er, c) the whole idea was a fucking abomination.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 18:33 GMT Philo T Farnsworth
Re: Land of the dollar
True.
But having sharp lawyers and dealing in New York real estate will get you one.
Daddy's money also helps.
But bear in mind that most authoritarianism is authoritarianism for authoritarianism's sake.
It's what the shrinks call "compensation" -- most cops don't make a ton of money, even the chiefs, and most bribery, when it happens, is pretty penny ante. Authority and "command" is where it's at. While the "Stanford Prison Experiment"1 has largely been shown to be bogus, there's a kernel of truth embedded in the myth.
I don't know of many cops with yachts.
__________
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 23:58 GMT Tron
Re: Land of the Free!
Knowing America this will reach the Supreme Court in about 3 years time as Clapgate.
Whilst I'm on the side of the teacher it is unwise to lose your time and money to the sort of people who demanded he be arrested and those who arrested him. Especially in somewhere like Russia, China or Trumpistan. They aren't worth it. Americans are going to have to learn the day-to-day tricks that oppressed people in distant lands have been using to get by, and to push back when they wish, without getting their collars felt.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 13:25 GMT Scotthva5
Re: Supporters argued it would bring jobs and investment to Emporia.
Temporary construction jobs mainly and nothing after that. As far as tax revenue is concerned that is a pipe dream seeing as local governments are falling all over themselves to give massive tax breaks to attract these hyperscalers in the first place.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 06:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Supporters argued it would bring jobs and investment to Emporia.
That has been the pattern for a lot of New Era Booms. Some of them are probably worth it -- e.g. hydroelectric dams, wind farms -- but an huge AI data center with no long term payoff in sight? But it affects the others, the people in small towns far away, so it does not really mattrer, does it? And the locals does not actually get a say in the matter.
[/sarcasm]
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 20:50 GMT DS999
I have relatives in the area
About an hour away. I've even been to Emporia once. It is not a large town, so if that datacenter is very large in scale it could really be a problem for their water system if it uses evaporative cooling.
That whole region of Kansas is pretty rural, so I'm wondering what the power situation is there. Maybe there is already a high voltage line crossing through the area they can tap off of, but that may cause power issues where that power has typically been used i.e. Kansas City or wherever.
Other than owners of small hotels and restaurants, the economic benefits from the construction will go outside out of town. There's no way they have a bunch of electricians, plumbers or HVAC techs who are experienced in the kind of work needed for a hyperscale datacenter, so almost all the new (temporary!) jobs will be created out of town. People who rent might see massive increases in store when their lease is up, to free up the housing for the temporary influx of those outside contractors. I wonder how biased those local officials might be - if they own restaurants or apartments they have significant conflicts of interest and should be forced to recuse.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 21:36 GMT Nate Amsden
Re: I have relatives in the area
Even if it doesn't use evaporative cooling another point has been getting raised recently regarding power usage at the point of generation. So imagine this at multi GW scale as some of these facilities are claimed will be using in the future...
"Natural gas plants withdraw an average of 2,803 gallons per megawatt hour produced whereas coal-fired plants withdraw 19,185 gal/MWh. As the most water-intensive plants make up a smaller portion of the electricity generation mix, water withdrawals will continue to decrease."
https://www.energyindepth.org/natural-gas-reduces-water-consumption-in-power-generation/
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 12:12 GMT Pete 2
Who is the law
> Commissioners [of what?] had repeatedly warned attendees not to clap or otherwise react
The basic issue has nothing to do with clapping. The only question is whether the commissioners have the legal authority to arbitrarily interpret what is lawful.
As for ordering the police chief ... Is this a fundamental flaw with having elected officials?
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 12:24 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Who is the law
While I strongly disagree with the decision to charge him, I can understand how the commissioners may have the right to have someone removed from the public meeting. I've been in situations where the clapping took much longer than the actual presentation; it CAN be disruptive in the sense that it more than doubles the length of the meeting. But criminal charges? No.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 14:14 GMT CoyoteDen
For anyone unfamiliar with how things work in a cop's brain: If he had simply gotten up and left when the officers approached him, he probably wouldn't have been arrested... and you wouldn't have heard of this. He was arrested because he made them drag him out, which was his goal. It's called civil disobedience and you do it to get arrested and make it newsworthy. I really don't like how the headlines for this are all "arrested for clapping" because that deters people from going to these meetings and showing support. If everyone shows up and claps, they can't arrest or even remove everyone.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 14:30 GMT Dan 55
If he had simply gotten up and left when the officers approached him, he probably wouldn't have been arrested... and you wouldn't have heard of this. He was arrested because he made them drag him out, which was his goal.
Seems you appear to have a touching belief that getting up and running away from police won't get you shot in Buttfuck, Kansas.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 16:34 GMT mevets
Cop's brains....
Are quite different in the free world vs a police state.
The role of the police in the free world is to keep the peace; not to serve as a thug security detail for insecure public servants.
The problem here seems to be that the physicist didn't realize he was in a police state.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 23:33 GMT Marty McFly
Why do I care, it is NIMBY!
>"...do it to get arrested and make it newsworthy
And just like that, an otherwise un-newsworthy data center in Kansas is headline news on The Register. Looks like his mission was accomplished.
Judging by the 5-0 Commissioners vote, this was the only play he had to get attention. Lest we forget, the Commissioners represent those who elected them locally. Our far-away opinions of what is good or bad for their community doesn't mean a hill of beans to them. I hope this plays out to be a success for the region.
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Monday 3rd August 2026 03:32 GMT mevets
Mission accomplished?
In what miniature realm of consciousness is `headline new on The Register` a mission accomplished?
No offence to `el reg`, but if I barf up an anecdote about any computer-related fuckup from my career, I can get a headline.
I likely have dozens to offer.
The real headline is that ` dumb fuck locals arrest person for clapping ` doesn't seem to have appeared elsewhere.
That squares a true headline - ` USA is hiding civil rights abuses `.
Because the `USA is committing civil rights abuses` has become as routine as climate change caused another catastrophe.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 00:17 GMT Tron
quote: they can't arrest or even remove everyone
Yes, they can. They'll just ship in more Wiggums from the surrounding area. The more people they arrest, the more cash they can bank in fines. And once you have a criminal record, you become a second class citizen for employment, election and travel. There are plenty of countries that will deport you back home if you fly there for a holiday and have been nicked for anything. And doubly unwise to get arrested by a bunch of male coppers if you are female.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 14:58 GMT steviebuk
Agent Orange
needs to be removed from office! This is why this shit is happening as they are lining his pockets to allow this shit to happen.
You never go full Nazis. Agent Orange hasn't learnt that.
And do all these "cops" and/or "Sheriffs" not know what happened to collaborators after World War 2?
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 15:28 GMT LogicGate
Re: Agent Orange
It was hard to build a society without any card carrying officials, so they (the allies plus what was left of non Nazi Germany) had to limit themselves to trying to get rid of the upper echelon / the worst of the worst. At the same time, in the east, GESTAPO basically morphed directly into the STASI with very few changes in personell.
Note that in order to be able to have any kind of responsible job in Nazi Germany, you had to join the party and get a Parteibuch. Quite a few joined out of convenience.
Hence, an equivalent clean sweep in the US would need not only to toss the whole republican party out of public office, but also toss out EVERY 2020 republican voter.
It must be mentioned that the Trump got a higher percentage of US vots in 2020 than Hitler ever did in Germany, and US Americans have spent the last 85 years bashing all Germans for that event.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 12:39 GMT Cliffwilliams44
Re: Agent Orange
And replace us with who? The actual NAZIs in the Democrat Party?
We are not the ones who trampled on people rights, falsely prosecuted our political enemies, ran a shadow government behind the back of a demented old fool!
The Labor Party in the UK is crushing the freedoms of the people, and you cry about Trump.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 13:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Agent Orange
@cliffwilliams44 - sounds like someone is getting all of their information about what is supposedly happening in the real world from a combination of youtube AI fake videos, fox news and social media echo chambers. The political right have always had an easy time manipulating people who shut out anything that doesn't conform to their existing prejudices.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 10:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Agent Orange
You’ll want to take a look at the Nuremburgvtyials and the post WW2 Nazi purge out of German society that started with high ideals and then was quietly ditched after a couple of years when money, vested interests and it was just too hard took over.
Same will happen with Trump 2.0… with the exception that Trump has immunity from prosecution and also the confetti like gift of pardon for his goons … so they will all literally get away with it.
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 18:44 GMT cmdrklarg
Re: Agent Orange
**** needs to be removed from office!
Will not happen. The two groups that have the power to do so (Congress via impeachment and conviction OR VPOTUS Vance and majority of the cabinet members via the 25th Amendment) won't do it because they are either afraid of the orange guy, or are complicit. There is only one way he leaves office early.
Vance won't initiate Am25, as I think he knows that when the orange guy leaves this house of cards fall down. Vance just does not have the same charisma.
There is a very good chance of the Democrats taking control of the House in the midterms, and if so the orange guy will almost certainly be impeached a 3rd time. It is quite possible that Democrats will control the Senate after the midterms, but his conviction in the Senate is extremely unlikely as they need 67 of them to convict, so there would need to be a good number of GOP senators to go along with it. It is theoretically possible for the Democrats to get 67 seats after the midterms, but for that to happen the GOP would need to lose all 22 of their current seats as well as the Democrats keeping all 13 of their current seats that are contested this year.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 10:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Agent Orange
Misguidedly POTUS was granted immunity in office by Supreme Court.
POTUS can also issue pardons and pre-pardons like a ticker tape parade to his goons.
They will *all* literally get away with it and be laughing their way to a very comfortable life with the money they have grifted along the way.
Laws need changed, constitutional amendments need made when Trump 2.0 wraps up, and also Insurrection 2.0 in Jan 2029. A proper Save America Act indeed needed to walk back this Presidential Expansion of power driven by Project 2025/Heritage Foundation!!
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 16:36 GMT BoHu
Re: What's next...
Yeah, you need to be a licensed biometric permit holder for that ... unlike AR-15s which you're free to purchase and own with no magazine capacity restriction, no license nothing, and both conceal-carry and open-carry at your leisure, as you stand your ground in front of datacenter bulldozers (for example) [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Kansas ] ... just as long as you don't clap or roll your eyes without prior fingerprinting, iris scans, and anal probing! ;(
You're also free to forcefeed holy bibles through elementary school kids' throats 'til their brains and livers explode in agony iiuc ... [ https://kansasreflector.com/2024/08/20/kansas-school-principal-who-helped-hand-out-bibles-to-students-violated-constitution-aclu-says/ ]
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Tuesday 28th July 2026 19:28 GMT Andrew Williams
Follow the money
It's a good bet those with the power to approve or not are going to get a lot richer.
Other than that, those employed will almost certainly be imported. Regular folk will see huge increases in water and power rates. And the likely negative environmental impact will be ignored.
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Wednesday 29th July 2026 12:33 GMT Cliffwilliams44
Stupidity is the most abundant substance in the universe
For a technology forum it amazes me just how utterly stupid the people who post here are! (Especially the Europeans).
1. Public hearings have specific rules for decorum, if you violate those rules, you will be asked to leave, resist and you will be removed, resist the removal and you will be arrested.
2. The person detained will very likely not be charged, or the charges dismissed. The court will look at this as a "lesson learned" experience.
3. Re: Data Centers, this whole controversy is a psyop run primarily by the far Left/EnviroNazis. It is unfortunate that many on the right are falling for it! Yes, there are power concerns but those can be addressed with rate payer protection and self-generation for the Data Centers. Consumable water usage for these Data Centers is around 0.5% of available supply. The majority use surface water for cooling, not ground water.
4. If the majority of the world had not fallen victim to the massive hoax of Climate Change and slashed their power generation capacity we would not in having this discussion!
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Thursday 30th July 2026 12:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Stupidity is the most abundant substance in the universe
"If... we would not in having this discussion"
If the situation were different, you would just be spouting some other QAnon nonsense. Shouting your ill-informed opinions into the void and being mocked doesn't meet the threshold of a 'discussion'.
