Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Thursday, May 21, 2026
·
15 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
So it seems I picked the best and worst week to visit the Faroe Islands. Up until Monday.we had unseasonably warm and sunny weather. Tuesday was rainy, but my friends and I saw it as an excuse to spend a calm day in the boathouse we rented, and just wind down.
We get to the airport Wednesday morning to fog. Enough fog that our flight is delayed twice, and then cancelled. The incoming flight actually did a flyover of the airport and headed back to Iceland! The Bombardier Q400 turboprop apparently doesn’t have the avionics to land in thick fog.
My friend got the same flight today. I’m on an Atlantic Airlines flight tomorrow morning.
Adventure!
Data center resistance is growing nationwide and across the political spectrum:
Sid Miller calls for data center moratorium, deepening GOP divide over construction
More Northeast Ohio communities are blocking data centers. Business leaders are worried.
Seattle leaders’ proposed one-year ban on data centers met with strong support
Data centers loom over Georgia governor race
Nancy Mace pushes for statewide data center moratorium
Will the resistance reach a tipping point?
@Scott: There is even a Data Center Watch organization and Substack.
https://datacenterwatch.substack.com/
Russia trades arms to the Houthis in exchange gets Yemeni cannon fodder for Ukraine war.
“Wajeeh Lion“
Continuing with the never ending AI discussion, Marisa Kabas yesterday wrote a column: Hating AI is Good, Actually.
I’m set for the experiment I described yesterday. It’s a story about two archeologists who discover a perfectly preserved alien ship under layers of volcanic ash.
@Mu Yixiao: What an interesting trip! Best of luck with the weather.
@charontwo: Maybe more accurately drone fodder. I have seen an upsurge in the number of articles about the use of drones mostly in the Ukraine-Russia war but also elsewhere like Iran. I have seen estimates that 80%-90% of casualties are now due to drones in the Ukraine-Russia war. The drones and their usage are becoming more sophisticated. I doubt that the Houthis arrive with much drone training.
This has implications for the US and by my reading the US is accelerating training on the use of drones. However, the prior administration had pushed to invest in battery tech and production, along with solar and wind, but this has all been reduced by Trump et al. China is really on the cutting edge of development now. Our sole remaining advantage would be in better chips but that is narrowing and much of it actually comes from Taiwan. It’s also pretty clear looking at Ukraine that you dont need the most cutting edge chips to develop autonomous drones.
Steve
Adolf’s XspaceS IPO is coming. I’m still going through this piece related to it, but what caught my eye is the first point: XsaceS is loss-making.
More relevant, the higher revenues comes from Xtarlink, which is also the only profitable arm of the frankencompany. and XAI is the lead loser, with -$6.4 billion.
Reminder, the conglomerate includes XpaceS, Xtarlink, XAI, and Xitter.
I wonder if Adolf still intends to launch one million data center satellites.
A federal panel–all the members selected by Trump himself–has approved Trump’s plan for a 250 foot high Arc de Trump in Washington D.C.
@CSK: We have a precedent for just tearing shit down on a random Tuesday, set by Trump and one wing of the White House, so I’m looking forward to the Arc de Trump getting unceremoniously torn down by a Democratic administration.
@CSK: Beg pardon, that’s private donor funded Arc de Trump, if you please.
@DK:
Mais non, mon cher. Fifteen million dollars for the Arc will come from the taxpayer-funded NEH.
Trump says he’ll try to make Don Jr.’s wedding to Bettina Anderson on a private island in the Bahamas this weekend, but he’s got a thing in Iran going on.
@CSK:
He could do much worse than consider the optics of a gathering at a private island in the Caribbean.
He’ll be there.
Xtarship’s latest launch attempt was scrubbed.
Success! In the immortal words of Commander Susan Ivanova: “No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow.”