This is why I've always contended the majority of AI data centers will be located in countries where power is cheap and plentiful. China has a good number of them because they're probably located near one of the many coal-fired powerplants built in the last 35 years.

As such, I expect both Iceland and Norway to be major locations for AI data centers. Iceland because of its vast available geothermal power and Norway because of its vast available hydropower.

...About 14 seconds from pressing the power button to the initial sign-on screen.

I think the augmented reality glasses will likely need a good amount of wireless bandwidth to connect to an iPhone. This explains why the iPhone 17 with the N1 I/O chip supports the new Bluetooth 6.0 standard, which may allow for this higher bandwidth connection.

Except aviation gasoline still uses tetraethyl lead so gasoline-fueled aviation engines can run at much higher compression than automobile engines. Getting rid of tetraethyl lead in aviation gasoline has been a very contentious issue in recent years because many engines on General Aviation airplanes may not be able to properly run even with 99 RON unleaded gasoline.

India needs to start phasing out its coal-fired power plants. That's why China is trying to do, but there are so many coal-fire power plants built in the last 30 years shutting them all down will take many years to complete.

Look, tetraethyl lead was a "cheap" way to get gasoline-fueled engines to run higher compression without pre-detonation (knocking) damaging the engine. The development of electronic fuel injection in the 1970's and 1980's pretty much eliminated the knocking problem by electronically adjusting the timing of spark plug ignition via knock sensors and a small computer, which meant modern gasoline-fueled engines for street-legal vehicles rarely suffer from this issue. Besides, modern refining technology makes it possible for gasoline RON octane ratings as high as 99 (circa 95 pump octane) in unleaded fuel, pretty much eliminating the need for tetraethyl lead.

Correct. What may have been the final nail in the coffin on MTV showing music videos happened in 2012, when PSY's "Gangnam Style" was posted on YouTube and within a few months, it became a gigantic worldwide sensation without needing MTV. That very success using YouTube drove record companies to start posting home videos instead of waiting for MTV. Indeed, you wonder would Beyoncé would have done the "visual album" version of her acclaimed album _Lemonade_ if it weren't for it being able to be posted on YouTube.

Is it people think reading is a vice due to the unfortunate "performative reading" issue, which is described by Google Gemini AI (of all things!) as:

"The act of reading, especially complex or "literary" books in public or online, primarily to project an image of being intellectual, cultured, or deep, rather than for the genuine enjoyment or absorption of the text."

I really wonder why people say if they see someone in public reading a real book on Kindle reader or the Kindle app on their cell phone or small tablet computer? They can't tell if you're reading a "literary" work like _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy or even much shorter novel.

There's also the issue of the software being used by the Chinese EV's. They could be used to spy on people by the Chinese government and the self-driving systems Chinese automakers use are nowhere as refined as what Tesla did with Autopilot and FSD.

I think a reason why AMPAS could do this is because in most of the developed world, over 100 megabits/second download speeds are now easily available over cable TV lines (DOCSIS 3.1 and later), fiber optic line to the home, and now Starlink satellites. As such, everyone can enjoy watching the Oscar ceremonies with at least 720p/1080i resolution with no stuttering nowadays.. Besides, YouTube is ubiquitous almost everywhere, and given Google's server resources, can easily handle all the traffic.

Most of those coal-fired power plants are so old that it's cheaper to dismantle them than upgrade them to meet current EPA emissions standards. The likely exception are power plants that use cleaner-burning Powder River Basin coal, and most of those are in central states in the country (Texas is a major consumer of this coal).

With modern fracking technology, most powerplants are now burning compressed natural gas instead of coal, natural gas from multiple sites all over the USA.

The problem is that due to the power needs and the need to cool all that computing equipment, there is actually not that many places where putting in a large AI datacenter is viable.

I can only think of two places: Iceland with its plentiful untapped geothermal power and Norway with its plentiful hydropower and water supply. Indeed, several companies have already started to build large data centers in these two countries.

Correct. Flawed as that plan is, moving their capital to a totally new location could cut the population of Jakarta by as much as 10 million people. That could make that city far more manageable.

I remember reading that the Finns started playing over radio frequencies the famous polka song "Säkkijärven polkka," which was found to be extremely effective in shutting down remote controlled land mines the Red Army placed on the ground and causing casualties for several months starting around September 1941. So much so that the Finnish Army ended its jamming practice by spring 1942 as the batteries on the Soviet mines lost its charge.

I think the Chinese government needs to severely cull the number of EV manufacturers down to four at most: BYD, SAIC, Geely Group and Chery. And give them unlimited resources to make their EV's truly world-class vehicles that comply even with the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.