Alex Rough
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alexrough.bsky.social
Alex Rough
@alexrough.bsky.social
55 followers 76 following 36 posts
Virginia Public Servant | Arlington County C2E2 | Systems Engineer
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alexrough.bsky.social
Alex Rough @alexrough.bsky.social · Nov 18
Oh hey, I was in a BBC documentary on data center sustainability. #datacenters #sustainability

youtube.com/watch?v=o9qB...
youtube.com
alexrough.bsky.social
Check out my most recent piece!

warontherocks.com/2025/09/data...
Data Centers on the 21st Century Battlefield
The most decisive infrastructure of the twenty-first century isn’t an aircraft carrier floating in the Pacific or buried in a missile silo. It hums
warontherocks.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:30 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
The demand for data centers is creating an insatiable appetite for energy where we are sacrificing far more than we realize to the AI gods.

insideclimatenews.org/news/0506202...
Data Centers Are Building Their Own Gas Power Plants in Texas - Inside Climate News
Not so long ago, developers of the massive server farms talked about powering them with wind and solar power. But now, with the coming of power-hungry AI platforms, they’re bypassing the grid, buildin...
insideclimatenews.org
June 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Alex Rough
arlnow.bsky.social
Arlington restaurant openings could be slowing down, state data suggests

www.arlnow.com/2025/06/02/s...
Arlington restaurant openings could be slowing down, state data suggests | ARLnow.com
A slowdown in new restaurant openings could be on the horizon in Arlington. While dozens of new eateries remain on track to open over the next few months, one data source suggests that some restaurateurs...
www.arlnow.com
June 2, 2025 at 7:52 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
I’ve left the Virginia @sierraclub.org political committee with my last endorsement being @abigailspanberger.com. Proud of all the work we’ve accomplished over the years.
May 24, 2025 at 4:57 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
I really need to post more here…..
May 21, 2025 at 9:53 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
New newsletter from Gabriel Homes - independent living for special needs adults in Farfax. Proud to have joined the board this past month!

gabrielhomes.org/stories/the-...
The Treehouse: May 2025 Newsletter - Gabriel Homes
Dive into the May 2025 edition of our monthly newsletter, The Treehouse! This month's edition centers on Mother's Day...
gabrielhomes.org
May 7, 2025 at 2:39 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
The environmental Pope.

catholicclimatecovenant.org/encyclical/
Pope Francis Encyclical And Climate Change | Catholic Climate Covenant
We’re All Part of God’s Plan(et) is a national Laudato Si’ awareness and engagement campaign to educate and inspire U.S. Catholics to more fully embrace and act upon the teachings of Laudato Si’.
catholicclimatecovenant.org
April 21, 2025 at 3:09 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Utilities can’t put it on their customers for that much longer.

www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/04/...
Customers could end up paying for data centers' energy costs in the absence of reform: Experts
Regulation in the utilities sector and improved grid infrastructure are needed to address data center energy-related pricing and service delivery concerns.
www.cnbc.com
April 17, 2025 at 10:41 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
apnews.com/article/ovec...
Alex Ovechkin breaks Wayne Gretzky's NHL career goals record by scoring his 895th
Alex Ovechkin has broken Wayne Gretzky’s record for the most goals in NHL history by scoring the 895th of his career.
apnews.com
April 7, 2025 at 1:04 AM
alexrough.bsky.social
Microsoft abandoning data center projects. 👀

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Microsoft Abandons Data Center Projects, TD Cowen Says
Microsoft Corp. has walked away from new data center projects in the US and Europe that would have amounted to a capacity of about 2 gigawatts of electricity, according to TD Cowen analysts, who attri...
www.bloomberg.com
March 28, 2025 at 8:53 AM
alexrough.bsky.social
Data centers narrowly avoid taking down the grid.

https://
www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/virginia-narrowly-avoided-power-cuts-when-60-data-centers-dropped-off-the-grid-at-once/
Virginia narrowly avoided power cuts when 60 data centers dropped off the grid at once
Energy grid regulator reveals near-miss last summer
www.datacenterdynamics.com
March 21, 2025 at 2:53 AM
alexrough.bsky.social
The Commonwealth of Data Centers

www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/amaz...
Amazon aims to develop a data center in "each county between Northern Virginia and Richmond"
Cloud giant planning mass Virginia sprawl?
www.datacenterdynamics.com
February 19, 2025 at 3:42 AM
alexrough.bsky.social
How convenient.

gizmodo.com/oracle-billi...
Oracle Billionaire Encourages World Leaders to Funnel All of Their Data to AI (and Maybe His Data Centers)
The co-founder of Oracle has made it known that he wants to usher in a new era of automated surveillance.
gizmodo.com
February 13, 2025 at 10:01 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Tools to fight back but also increasing compute workload.

www.404media.co/developer-cr...
Developer Creates Infinite Maze That Traps AI Training Bots
"Nepenthes generates random links that always point back to itself - the crawler downloads those new links. Nepenthes happily just returns more and more lists of links pointing back to itself."
www.404media.co
January 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
The secret that isn’t so secret anymore.

www.theregister.com/AMP/2025/01/...
Analysts say real datacenter emissions are a dirty secret
Amazon doesn't break out figures, but then again neither do Microsoft nor Google
www.theregister.com
January 22, 2025 at 7:32 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Should pump the breaks even more.

www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/mi...
Microsoft slams the brakes on $3.3 billion data center — reportedly set to foster development of OpenAI's supercomputer
The company stated the pause might last for months as it evaluates the scope and recent technological changes.
www.windowscentral.com
January 12, 2025 at 9:51 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Unfortunately par for the course for both parties in Virginia. Lucrative are the incentives but at the end of the day it’s Virginians footing the increasing energy bills and our state footing the impacts to our landscape and environment.

wset.com/amp/news/loc...
Virginia's data centers drive investment, boost public services, says Governor Youngkin
wset.com
December 23, 2024 at 6:02 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Citizens United has absolutely destroyed us and whatever future we can carve out
December 20, 2024 at 8:45 PM
alexrough.bsky.social

There comes a point where local officials have to govern and not just take in all the surface benefits these facilities provide

www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/phoe...
Phoenix, Arizona, to clamp down on data centers
Cites constraints on land and power demand, lack of jobs, and noise concerns
www.datacenterdynamics.com
December 20, 2024 at 3:48 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Things are getting rather cartoonish in America
December 14, 2024 at 5:25 PM
alexrough.bsky.social

www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/n...
Virginia can't keep up with unconstrained data center growth, report warns
Data center growth in Virginia could mean billions in energy costs if it isn’t reigned in — and residents would likely pay higher utility bills to meet those power demands, an in-depth report found.
www.nbcwashington.com
December 11, 2024 at 7:47 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
AI and data centers - the beginning of a never ending relationship that will destroy our planet while ironically maybe help save it?

finance.yahoo.com/news/cohere-...
Cohere to build ‘multibillion-dollar’ data centre in Canada
The company will partner with AI cloud platform CoreWeave to advance the AI data centre project.
finance.yahoo.com
December 10, 2024 at 10:13 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Bigger and bigger.

www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/xai-...
xAI targets one million GPUs for Colossus supercomputer in Memphis
Massive expansion of xAI's Memphis data center planned
www.datacenterdynamics.com
December 5, 2024 at 4:38 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
apnews.com/article/chin...
China bans exports to US of gallium, germanium, antimony in response to chip sanctions
China has announced a ban on exports to the United States of gallium, germanium and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications.
apnews.com
December 3, 2024 at 4:05 PM
alexrough.bsky.social
Essential funds going to fighting the prevalence and influence big tech has in our communities instead of going to schools, roads and rail.

www.princewilliamtimes.com/news/county-...
County will spend nearly $500,000 more to fight data center lawsuits
Some of the biggest tech companies in the world — including Microsoft and Amazon — are suing Prince William County over their property tax bills.
www.princewilliamtimes.com
December 3, 2024 at 4:04 PM