In 1999, descendants of a farmer in Taylor, Texas, donated nearly 88 acres of land to the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation for a nominal $10. The deed clearly specified that the property was to be held in trust for future use as parkland by Williamson County. The donation came from a place of community spirit, local families, including longtime Black residents of the area, had used the land for generations for playing baseball, camping, and gathering, and the donor wanted local children to have a proper park. Over the years the land changed hands. It moved between nonprofits and eventually to the City of Taylor, which later transferred it to the Taylor Economic Development Corporation. In 2025 the economic development corporation sold 53 acres of the original parcel to a data center developer called Blueprint Projects for $10 million. The site is now planned for a 135,000-square-foot data center as part of a roughly $1 billion project. The city has described the development as a major economic win, projecting about $30 million in tax revenue over the next decade, much of it going to the local school district. Officials note that data centers bring in substantial money while requiring relatively few city services. Local residents, particularly members of the Griffin family whose ancestors lived nearby, were stunned when they learned of the plans. They filed a lawsuit arguing that selling the land for a data center violated the original deed restriction. A trial court dismissed the case and denied an injunction, and the family is now appealing to the Third Court of Appeals in Austin. Neighbors worry about noise, potential impacts on air and water, strain on the power grid, and declining property values in their working-class area. The city maintains that the property sits in an “Employment Center” zoning district that already allows this type of use, and that it mainly reviews site layout rather than blocking the project outright. Blueprint has promised mitigations such as noise barriers, an earthen berm, and closed-loop cooling to reduce water consumption. The broader context is Texas’s ongoing data center boom fueled by artificial intelligence and cloud computing demand, which often pits economic development goals against community expectations and historical land-use promises. The outcome of the appeal will likely determine whether the 1999 deed restrictions can still be enforced after decades of transfers.

Mike Johnson admits Republicans will cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security next year

Animal of the Day: Sahara Silver Ant! When I think of “extremophiles” I think of iron-clad snails or clams living in near-boiling sulfur-water beside underwater volcanoes. But the SSA shatters my prejudices. Virtually every desert animal hides during the heat…

I’ll never stop reposting this.

This chef went viral after personally serving carbonara pasta at a customer's table in dramatic fashion. [🍝 datonyatrastevere]

Get ready:

States are fiercely competing to become the leading hubs for AI data centers. A new analysis reveals that U.S. states have collectively offered hundreds of millions, and in several cases, billions, of dollars in tax breaks and economic incentives to lure these massive facilities. Washington and Texas dominate the landscape, accounting for the vast majority of subsidized data center projects announced between 2020 and 2026. The single largest known incentive package came from Indiana, which offered Amazon Data Services an estimated $8.2 billion. Other significant deals include nearly $1 billion from Oregon to Amazon, approximately $891 million from North Carolina to Apple, and hundreds of millions awarded to Meta projects in Texas and Georgia. This intense competition is driven by the explosive growth in demand for artificial intelligence. Data centers are the enormous facilities that underpin cloud computing, AI training and inference, internet services, and digital storage. As tech companies race to scale their AI capabilities, they require unprecedented computing power, fueling a nationwide boom in new construction. Local governments see these projects as engines for job creation, capital investment, and long-term economic development. However, the rapid expansion is sparking increasing resistance. Residents and environmental advocates are voicing concerns over soaring electricity and water usage, noise pollution, land consumption, and pressure on local infrastructure. A recent poll shows that about seven in ten Americans oppose the construction of AI data centers in their own communities. The controversy underscores a central tension in the AI era: while demand for advanced artificial intelligence keeps accelerating, so too does public unease about the massive physical footprint needed to sustain it.

RECENT🚨: Study finds just one minute of anger weakens the immune system for 5 hours

By artist Vorja Sánchez.

Remember, if you're cold, they're cold. Wrap them in a tiny shawl

“If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.” — Andy Rooney