Markets "Whipsawed By War Shifts?' When Will They Learn They Can't Trust Trump's Trash Social Blabber?

 The introductory paragraph of the WSJ piece, ‘War Shifts Whipsaw Markets’ (April 13, Markets & Finance p, C3) tells you all you need to know on how Trump has been playing the markets for his own ends since he sprang the Iran war on an unprepared world.

"Trump has repeatedly whipsawed markets during the Iran war, most recently by announcing a cease-fire only to declare a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz a few days later. The changing pronouncements have spurred market volatility since the early days of his first term. There are some signs that subsequent market swings are diminishing. But the past few weeks have nonetheless exhausted even seasoned investors."

The accompanying graphs show the whipsaws and frequency thereof better than any words:

The above graphs also telegraph Trump's motives better than any words. We know he sees the markets as the primary gauges of any success - especially when he's started a totally unnecessary conflict in the Middle East against Iran.  Hence, each jump in the markets he can instigate is seen as a 'win' and we know he loves wins. 

 But get beyond the predictable jerking of the markets' chains, say to sober assessments of his Iran fiasco, and you get the real picture. Say columnist Gerard Baker's latest effort (WSJ, April 11-12, p. A15, 'For Now The Iran War Seems to be Failing'), writing:

"It isn't too soon to offer a tentative judgment on the president's biggest foreign policy action to date: ill-conceived, ill-planned, ill-executed and so far failing"

Which hits the mark on every point.  This farce was never planned, it was started on a freaking whim, a bet he could take down Iran and its regime as easily as he did the Maduro regime in Venezuela. It was a wild, cockeyed shot in the dark that had the marks of loss tattooed on it from the get go, (Recall here Sun Tzu's words in 'The Art Of War',  Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought" 

Meaning, the outcome is inevitably determined by preparation, strategy and understanding of the situation before ever being fought. All of which are more critical than the actual fight. In this sense, Trump and the Trumpers lost the first and major battle even after taking out the top leaders of Iran's regime. They lost because they failed to factor in  how Iran - even after losing its main leaders- could still control the Strait of Hormuz and the flow of oil,  hence upending the global economy. So we see a major Trump miscalculation because he's been unable to face reality, i.e.

Trump Can't Even Surrender Right

WSJ's Baker again:

"For those who dispute this and prefer to buy the administration's protestations of victory I'd suggest you listen to his own voice and that of his supporters. Especially the things you don't say when you are winning a war.  You typically don't threaten to wipe out the other side's civilization.  You don't threaten such villainy if you don't need to. You make that kind of desperate, deranged threat only if things aren't going your way.

And winning doesn't typically require a scapegoat, let alone a herd of scapegoats grazing in the hyperbolic pastures of presidential rhetoric. Only losers look for people and things to blame.... like the Europeans.  The same Europeans you said two weeks ago were unfit for combat."

Baker is basically spelling out in black and white why no one, no entity (including the markets) should believe a single word Trump spouts. He is just yanking the media and market chains to get his way. His "hyperbolic rhetoric" is sowing investors' irrational exuberance and certain grief - and losses - down the line.

As the main WSJ piece (about the whipsaws from Trump) goes on to note:

"The changing terms of Trump's ultimatums to Iran have also sparked sharp swings in the price of oil, which has rippled through other markets. Oil producers and energy-hungry industrials have even moved in opposite directions.

The markets had a particularly wild ride during a three-day period from March 7-9 when the president declared that Iran would no longer attack its regional neighbors, that the country was being considered for 'complete destruction' and that the U.S. might opt to take control of the Strait of Hormuz."

All bunkum, bombast and BS, but which had the markets hanging on every word despite the words being those of a desperate hack and liar, already aware of a war and economy he could not control.  Think of the old saw "the dog that caught the car".  That is where Trump is and has been since Iran sealed off the Strait of Hormuz. T0 put it bluntly, the stock market had no business rallying given Trump's bogus "ceasefire".

Will the markets finally halt Trump's jerking them around? Maybe, IF they can stop hanging on every syllable from his piehole.  Taking as 'gospel'  every piece of BS he puts up on his Trash Social - which itself isn't even an official venue a sober leader would use.

See Also:

Iran claims ‘strict control’ of Strait of Hormuz and says it will not be fully reopened

And:

Trump’s statements on Iran increasingly contradict each other - The Washington Post

Excerpt:

Appearing on Sunday morning news shows, top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration confirmed the plan for the next round of diplomatic talks in Islamabad, Pakistan: Vice President JD Vance, whom Trump had tapped earlier this month to lead the U.S. negotiations, would be there again.

Even as United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright were confirming Vance’s participation, however, Trump was telling the networks the opposite. Vance wouldn’t be traveling to Pakistan because of security concerns, the president told journalists from ABC and MS NOW in separate phone calls Sunday morning.

Trump’s remarks set off a scramble within the White House as officials worked to correct the commander in chief’s claims, telling reporters privately that Vance would, in fact, be leading the delegation to Islamabad.

The contradictory remarks highlighted a continuing challenge for the administration: On information as basic as who would attend high-stakes peace talks, as well as on broader questions of whether Iran has agreed to terms for a deal, Trump’s oscillating claims have led to confusion and required cleanup by his staff.

And:

For Iran, Flexing Control Over Waterway Is New Deterrent - The New York Times

Excerpt:

The United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on the argument that if Iran one day got a nuclear weapon, it would have the ultimate deterrent against future attacks.

It turns out that Iran already has a deterrent: its own geography.

Iran’s decision to flex its control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows, has brought global economic pain in the form of higher prices for gasoline, fertilizer and other staples. It has upended war planning in the United States and Israel, where officials have had to devise military options to wrest the strait from Iranian control.

The U.S.-Israeli war has significantly damaged Iran’s leadership structure, larger naval vessels and missile production facilities, but it has done little to restrict Iran’s ability to control the strait.

Iran could thus emerge from the conflict with a blueprint for its hard-line theocratic government to keep its adversaries at bay, regardless of any restrictions on its nuclear program.

And:

Experts question the U.S. stock market rally over Iran war ceasefire - The Washington Post

Excerpt:

As stocks soared this week and oil prices dropped amid an apparent cooling of tensions between the United States and Iran, it may have left the impression that the energy shock that rattled the world would quickly fade, along with the risk of sending the global economy into recession.

The optimism may have been short-lived. On Saturday, Iran’s military announced it would reimpose restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, throwing the critical waterway’s status into doubt.

The uncertainty highlights that beneath that surface, a starkly different reality is unfolding. It is defined by disrupted supply lines and damaged infrastructure, sparking increased concern among the people who produce, transport and depend on energy.

“The people closest to the industry are far more concerned about these disruptions and recognize the length of time it will take for things to return to normal — if they ever do,” said Gerry Morton, oil and gas co-chair at the law firm Baker Botts. “The further away you get from actually being involved in producing oil, the less you seem to be concerned about the physical reality and problems that are there.”

Even investors rushing to tap into market optimism warned in interviews that it masks deep, underlying problems that threaten a reckoning in the not too distant future.

That disconnect between what the market is signaling and what is actually happening is increasingly shaping the global economy. As investors and the trading algorithms they rely on react to headlines and hints of diplomatic progress, analysts warn they are overlooking red flags around what is coming in the weeks and months ahead. It has led some of the world’s leading economic voices to warn that complacency is misplaced, including the head of the International Energy Agency and officials at the International Monetary Fund.

And:

Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again over US blockade and fires on ships - YouTube

And:

'Trump's Iran plan unravels in real time' | Simon Marks' American Week

And:

They’re calling it a PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY

And:

Solutions To Prime Modulus - Congruence Problems

 1)  Write four additional equivalences for the mod 7 residues (2 already shown)

Solution:

Already given:

1   ÷  2 = 4(mod 7) 

And:

1   ÷   4 = 2 (mod 7) 

So we add:

1   ÷   3 = 5 (mod 7) 

1   ÷   5 = 3 (mod 7) 

1   ÷   6 = 6 (mod 7) 

1   ÷   7 =0 (mod 7)   (Impossible)

2)  Consider the p = 5 prime modulus portrayed as shown below in clock form:

Write four equivalences for the mod 5 residues. Can these be written in the form for the mod 7 cases in Problem 1? Why or why not?

Solution:

Four equivalences from the table:

1   ÷   2 = 1· 3  ≡ 3 (mod 5)

1   ÷   3 = 1 ·2  ≡ 2 (mod 5)

1   ÷   4 = 1 · 4  ≡ 4 (mod 5)   

2   ÷   3 = 2 ·2  ≡ 4 (mod 5) 

 These cannot be written in the same form (as Littlewood's) for the mod 7 cases given there is no counterpart for 4 x 2 = 8 ≡ 1 (mod 7).   I.e. from the mod 5 multiplication table we see no entry: 3 x 2 = 6   ≡ 1 (mod 5)

This is because the commutative and distributive laws are not consistently obeyed by groups.

Why Trump Is Batting On A Losing Moral Wicket In His Battle With Pope Leo

                       It's no contest between Pope Leo and a proven traitor and amoral madman

“Jesus said 'blessed are the peacemakers but Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”- Pope Leo Thursday

"The argument Leo is making is not based on a tactical foreign policy disagreement. Rather it is a moral argument he is making against Donald Trump and Trump is going to lose a moral argument every time." - Alex Wagner, on Deadline Whitehouse, MSNOW, Thursday, April 15)

" A man who has lived a completely amoral life, who lacks even basic decency and integrity, and revels in cruelty. He has not the intellect or temperament to be President and is a genuine threat to our democracy. The cowardice of Republicans in not constraining him is unforgivable." - NY T comment

The self-idolatry of Trump  - either depicting himself as Christ or claiming "divinely ordained power"   - has been supercharged since being compared to Jesus Christ by an evangelical minister named Paula White. White, who also heads the 'White House Faith Office', famously described Trump as a latter-day Jesus - using a batch of analogies - at a WH Easter luncheon.  She actually said:

 “Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. 

A further WSJ article ('Christians Stunned By Pope Slam', 4/14) noted:

"Other spiritual advisors like Paula White publicly framed the president's authority as divinely ordained."

The blasphemous comparisons and attributions began soon after the attempted assassination of Trump back in July, 2025. Indeed, as soon as Trump did his fist pump, e.g.

It became emblematic for his presumed "godhood". Thereby a freak happenstance (a lucky last minute head turn) transmuted into his firm belief that "divine providence" rendered him beyond criticism and above the law. Solidifying this lunacy in the brains of his followers and especially the White Nationalist Christian theocrats salivating at making him their new god. In the words of one Reep Rep stooge (Pete Sessions (TX)) who spouted in a CNN interview last Thursday: "He is as close to the Second Coming as one could want!"

 The adoration swiftly went to Trump's mangled brain whereupon his god complex was hatched and has metastasized like a tumor.  Only a few days after Paula White confirmed he was like Jesus, he vowed - like the god of the Old Testament - he could incinerate Iranian civilization. A couple more days and his AI image of himself as Christ went up (which he tried to fob off as being a "doctor" -believing we're all as dumb as his supporters). Then a couple more days he attacked Pope Leo after the Pontiff earlier made gospel-based remarks about the folly and ungodliness of the Iran war - especially attempts to invoke divine will for the cause of bloodshed, i.e.

"God will not listen to prayers from those whose hands are full of blood."

The pope did not name specific political leaders but  steadily sharpened his criticism of Trump's war in ensuing weeks, repeatedly calling for an immediate ceasefire.  Leo especially enraged the Trumper war criminals when he said:

Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

All this has led up to the current bitter divide which has seen Trump, the reincarnated 'father of lies' issuing a stream of them such as:

"Pope Leo wants Iran to have nuclear weapons".

See the video:   Trump claims Pope Leo says Iran can have a nuclear weapon

Which Lawrence O'Donnell - on his Thursday night show - condemned as one of the vilest.

NY Times WH reporter Katie Rogers further described Trump's reactions:

"In a 12-hour span this week, President Trump promised that the war with Iran was ending soon. He picked a fight with the pope on social media. He posted an illustration of himself receiving an encouraging hug from Jesus Christ.  Now, Mr. Trump is showering Truth Social with Jesus memes and threats and endorsements."

Of course he is, because he needs to deflect - to spin that he is not truly a vile, tyrant traitor madman but actually a 'friend' of Jesus. In his demented mind. He is no friend of Jesu no matter how many times he spurts out babble and memes, because as Leo proclaimed, Christ never slaughtered innocents - such as Trump has done, whether blowing up fishing boats off the coast of South America, or school children outside Tehran.

What makes this altercation with the Pope different from all the other Trump fights is that he cannot post or bully his way out of it.  This is because the maniac is not going up against a person but an institution.  As Katie Rogers wrote:

"Isn’t getting into a fight with the Vatican during the middle of a war — and during a midterm election year when the main topic of discussion is the high cost of living — a little extreme, even for Mr. Trump?"

Indeed it is, but when a psychopath acquires a good complex, this is what happens. He then is convinced he can outright challenge the leader of Christendom's largest religion. (Probably also because 55% of deluded Roman Catholics voted for him in 2024).

But soon after his inauguration and the first felon president began mass deportations with  ICE raids on immigrants, the fracture with the Church began.  This was after Pope Leo XIV questioned whether the “inhuman treatment of immigrants” is consistent with being pro-life. Then this year, on Easter, he said, “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” 

Then on Friday 2 weeks ago Leo posted a message that anyone who is a disciple of Jesus Christ “is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

By Sunday, wannabe "Jesus" Trump apparently heard enough and  unleashed a lengthy post accusing the pope of being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.” The orange fungus also posted a picture of himself as a Christ-like figure, though that was taken down after it generated a backlash.  But Trump in his papal obsessions has not let up, even blabbering that "Leo was elected only because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

But the infernal sociopathic fool is still missing the point. Right after Leo was elected, seven cardinals — six Americans and Cardinal Christophe Pierre,  were asked if he had been selected to serve as “a counterweight” to Trump. While Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark noted that Leo “is not one to back down if the cause is just,” the group said no: 

In choosing the new pope, their conclave was thinking about the future in terms of the unity and strength of the Roman Catholic Church, not designating a foil for Trump.  But since Trump's psychotic universe is limited only to his own ego and grievances, he measures all comments, events and actions as referred to himself. We call it a psychotic embolism, e.g.

Donald Trump

Urgent Warning to Congressional Leaders: Trump is Psychologically Unstable and Dangerous

by Bandy X. Lee | April 15, 2026 - 5:19am | permalink

As James Grimaldi of The National Catholic Reporter put it in his NY Times piece 'Trump Has Pope Derangement Syndrome'.

"Pope Leo’s statements aren’t partisan barbs; they are expressions of his understanding of the Gospel and Catholic social teaching."

Or as Alex Wagner framed it last week Thursday on Deadline Whitehouse:

"Trump thinks he is at war with a person, but it's actually an unshakeable faith. He thinks he's in a food fight with a guy from Chicago, but that's not how millions of Roman Catholics are seeing it. U.S. Catholic Bishops spent the last three election cycles trying to move voters to Trump, and now they are taking Leo's side against him."

But given Trump is no gospel or theology specialist he reduces all gospel remarks to personal attacks, especially given he already likely feels a sense of guilt for all the lives he's butchered indiscriminately Hence, Trump’s maggot brain flared up after Pope Leo – speaking in Cameroon- said the world is  “being ravaged by tyrants”.

Meanwhile, Trumper buffoons like Pete Hegseth have tried to summon the troops to war using fake bible quotes taken from the script of the Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction, e.g.

Did Pete Hegseth Quote FAKE 'Pulp Fiction' Bible Verse At Prayer Service?

Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction | Trump administration | The Guardian

Citing this idiocy on Deadline Whitehouse last Friday, Anthea Butler - Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennslyvania- observed that it's reduced our nation to laughing stocks around the world. This is given that Hegseth and Trump's crusade is now apparent as a "myth making exercise based on cultural wars fomented mainly by the Religious Right,"  Basically, using fake quotes, movie lines and myths to wage a war that makes them all look stupid."

Alex Wagner put it more brutally on the same program:

"This gang of clowns is going up against a thousand year old line of theological discourse and thought."

And no match for the Pope who speaks actual biblical verses not fake ones from movie scripts. This is why Prof. Butler believes it will cost Trump the Catholic vote in the midterms, with the rank and file of those misled 2024 Trump voters now saying:

"This is not what I voted for."

Meanwhile the rest of the word is wondering how a country that talks so much religion can actually know so little about the actual bible. Or as Prof. Butler noted:

"I just hope all those soldiers and others with heads bowed during Hegseth's fake bible reading didn't seriously believe it was real, or they were really praying."

But they may well have, given Hegseth at least knows how to make a big act out of whatever he says or does.  A performative puppet of Trump's. But he chose the wrong person to go up against in Pope Leo XIV.  So did buttbrain DJT.

It was Prof. Anthea Butler, indeed, who first pointed out that Pope Leo's articulation of the gospel truths from his readings were not directed at Trump personally, but for the laity's benefit. But Trump took them personally because: a) He take everything personally as an attack given his sociopathy, and b) knows next to nothing of the gospels himself.

See Also:

Donald Trump | Pope Leo

Why a President Should Never Pick a Fight with a Pope

by Robert Reich | April 17, 2026 - 5:36am | permalink

— from Robert Reich's Substack

You’ve got to hand it to Pope Leo, who used a speech today in Cameroon to express “woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

I can’t imagine who Leo was talking about, can you?

In case there was any doubt, the pope added: “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.”

The tyrant in the Oval Office has been trying to portray his war in Iran as a “just war” backed by the will of God and Jesus Christ. Pope Leo disagrees. Jesus, he says, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

» article continues...

And:

Opinion | The Pope Bedevils Trump - The New York Times

Excerpt:

President Trump has been rampaging around the globe like Grendel at dinner time, a rapacious, feral creature. Who could stand up to him?

The soft-spoken, humble Leo, who strives to unify, squared off against the bombastic, solipsistic Trump, who strives to divide. And watching the saintly pope school the amoral president is a blessed sight.

On Easter Sunday, Trump blasted out one of his assorted threats to destroy Iranian civilization, crudely appending the phrase “Praise be to Allah.” Leo called the existential extortion “truly unacceptable,” a transgression against moral law.

Trump escalated. He posted a meme of himself as a Jesus-like figure healing a sick man and he attacked the Holy Father on social media with sinful aspersions, saying the pope is “WEAK on crime” and “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

Leo, who’s Chicago-tough, hasn’t backed down. On X, he said: “God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

He reminded the authoritarian, Strangelovian president that he should be promoting peace through dialogue and multilateralism.

“Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent people have been killed,” Leo told reporters, “and I believe someone must stand up and say that there is a better way.”

In a puerile fit of apparent retribution on Thursday, Trump canceled an $11 million federal contract with Catholic Charities in Miami to house and feed migrant children coming to America alone. (Even my Trump-indulging sister found that disgusting.)

It’s hard for the president to give the pope the respect that he deserves because Trump clearly thinks that he’s the Messiah.

And:

Pope Leo Continues Feud with Trump: 'World Being Ravaged by Tyrants'

And:

Opinion | Trump Needs to Get Over the Pope - The New York Times

And:

YouTube videos:

‘He thinks he's smarter than the POPE?: Nicolle and Tim Miller ROAST JD Vance over Vatican beef

Pressure Builds as Trump Doubles Down Against the Pope

FURIOUS Pope STRIKES BACK at Trump after DEATH THREATS!!!

Springs Residents Raise Alarm At Prospect Of AI Data Center While Mainers Take Matters Into Their Own Hands

 

    Line outside venue to learn details of AI data center bound for Springs

                       Info shown on white board noting potential sound effects

Word of building a new AI data center here in Colorado Springs has triggered  a firestorm reaction. The planned data center is being touted to be a chip manufacturer's plant off of Garden of the Gods Road.

The center, proposed by Raeden, a real estate data center company, would be located at 1565 High Tech Way. It's been given the moniker "Project Taurus" as part of the development proposal.

However, word of the proposal has been met with fierce backlash by neighbors adjacent to the proposed center. Residents are calling for transparency and sustainable solutions to mitigate potential disruptions. The facility is expected to use between 50 and 55 megawatts, and almost certain to raise electricity costs for locals.

According to an April 7 Colorado Springs Gazette story:

Colorado Springs residents fired up over proposed AI data center

"Residents of the area were fired up as they met face-to-face with a developer who wants to bring a data center into their backyards. So many wanted to speak that the line stretched from the lobby to the parking lot of the Hyatt Place hotel at 503 W. Garden of the Gods Road."

Adding:

"Those who made it in mainly expressed concerns about the data center’s water use, noise pollution and power requirements. One man, a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who has lived in Colorado Springs for 30 years worried about the cascading effects the data center will have. He said:

“The impact on us will be more than significant … the noise levels, impact on the electrical grid, utilities continue to crank up our rates, and we are in a drought,” he said. “The last thing we need is something sucking up our precious resources.”  

He's not wrong, nor is he 'hysterical".  While the development is claimed to focus on a "brownfield" approach, which involves retrofitting the existing structure to utilize its established electrical infrastructure, the residents aren't convinced this will relieve them of unaffordable electric bills. Not to mention a host of other negative impacts - which have hit other regions, towns, cities. (Interestingly, Raeden’s founder, Jason Green, said he could not disclose the name of the company that will occupy the new data center.)

Let's be clear that the rapid expansion of AI data centers has introduced significant environmental and community impacts, particularly concerning intense water consumption and persistent noise pollution. These facilities, often designed to support high-density computing, require vast amounts of water for cooling and create significant sound due to 24/7 operations, diesel generators, and heavy-duty HVAC systems. 

Legislators in Maine on Tuesday were already acting. They passed the nation’s first statewide ban on large data centers, part of a growing backlash to the energy-intensive facilities that fuel the rise of artificial intelligence.

The measure would block the creation of new data centers that draw more than 20 megawatts of power until the fall of 2027 and establish a mechanism to study their impact on the electrical grid.

Maine’s moratorium was approved in final votes Tuesday by both houses of the state legislature. The bill will now go to Gov. Janet Mills (D) for signature.

A spokesman for Mills did not immediately respond to a query about whether she plans to approve the legislation. Mills has said she wants an exception for a data center on the site of a defunct paper mill, but legislators earlier rejected such an amendment.

Battles over data centers have erupted across the country, from small towns to big cities, emerging as a rare source of bipartisan alarm. At least 12 other states led by both Democrats and Republicans are considering their own temporary bans.

Data centers house computer servers crucial to the internet, cloud computing and more recently AI. The average newly planned data center uses as much electricity as a city of 500,000, according to a Washington Post analysis, and some supersized facilities now under construction use far more.

A broad range of communities are voicing concern over how data centers consume electricity, water and farmland. Maine’s bill pausing new data centers was introduced in February. The state has some of the highest electricity prices in the country, and lawmakers say the moratorium is necessary to study how data centers fit into Maine’s larger energy picture.

Last year, local resistance stymied proposed data centers representing $152 billion in potential investment, according to Data Center Watch, a research project by an AI security firm.

Proponents, meanwhile, say the centers create jobs, fulfill consumer demand for online services and are critical to the next wave of technological progress.

Those advocating temporary bans say they’re not standing in the way of progress but taking the time to implement the proper regulatory framework for large projects with potentially wide-ranging impacts.

For example, a single large hyperscale data center can consume between 1 to 5 million gallons of water per day, comparable to the water usage of a small town of 30,000–50,000 people.  This is simply inadequate here in the mountain West where already our snowpack (which feed the river, lakes) is already down to 20% or less.  Roughly 40% of U.S. data centers are located in areas of high or extreme water stress. By 2028, it is projected that AI-related data centers in the U.S. could require up to 32 billion gallons of water annually. Where is all of this water going to come from?   

Then there is the pollution. Discharged water, or "blowdown," from cooling towers can contain high levels of dissolved solids and treatment chemicals, which, if not managed, can affect local waterways and strain municipal treatment systems. 

Now add to the above all the sound pollution. Large-scale HVAC units and fans produce a constant (24/7), low-frequency hum that can be audible to residents hundreds of feet away with dire effects.

At the Colorado Springs information meeting, developer Jason Green put up a white board showing specific decibel (dB(A) limits (see lower top image). The presentation attempted to defuse the issue by focusing only on the design parameter of a 60-70 dBA maximum output. 

But this is not an effective measure by itself because it filters out the low frequency/infrasonic range, focusing on sound sensitivity detectable by the human ear.  There are numerous health and other environmental impacts of this low frequency attenuation that weren't addressed. There are studies indicating long term exposure to this low frequency range can result in cognitive impairment and hearing loss.  A better measure of design safety requirements is dB(C).

 Second is the heat island effect.  Jason Green informed Springs' attendees of a power consumption between 50 and 55 megawatts.  But a Cambridge study of 6000 data centers found nearby temperatures were raised by up to 16.4 degrees F, with effects felt up to 6.2 miles away.  The study found the math involved to calculate for this particular center that would require knowing the cooling system design's Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).  But it cannot be lower than 1, meaning a 50MW data center operating a capacity could be discharging 60MW of heat into the atmosphere. (Note: 1 Megawatt is equal to approximately 3,412,142 BTU/hr.

 See Also:

7 Ways Data Centers Affect US Communities | World Resources Institute

And:

Data centers are fueling the lobbying industry, not just the growth of AI - Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

And:

Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply - Houston Advanced Research Center : Houston Advanced Research Center

Looking at D.E. Littlewood's Congruences and Prime Modulus

 

As I noted in my March 13 post, math legend D.E. Littlewood also treated congruences via the Euclidean Algorithm in his timeless monograph 'The Skeleton Key Of Mathematics.

In this post we want to see how Littlewood arrives at congruences. We consider moving around the clock face with the hour hand going beyond the 12.  It is clear looking at the clock that to go forward four hours or to go forward sixteen hours amounts to the same thing, in so far as the final position of the clock's hands are concerned.  We can say, after Littlewood (p. 30):

"Four is congruent to sixteen to modulus twelve"

Which is written:

   4   ≡   16 (mod 12)

As Littlewood puts it:  

"In general p is congruent to q (mod n) if and only if  (p - q) is divisible by n"

So we check to see for this case, given p = 4, q = 12 so that (p - q) = 4 - 12 = -8

Then (p - q)/ n =  -8/ 12 =  - 2/3

Thus, Littlewood concludes:

"Every integer p is congruent (mod n) to one of the numbers: 0, 1, 2,...., (n- 1). The particular number is found by dividing p by n until the reminder is less than n and considering this remainder, which is called the residue  (mod n)."

Adding: "The most interesting case is when the modulus is a prime number."

He calls this number a "prime modulus"

Littlewood goes on to elaborate the number system he is proposing:

"We define the product and the sum of two residues (mod p) to be the residue to which the product or sum of the numbers is congruent. In this way we obtain a number system which has many of the properties of the ordinary integers.  Thus addition and multiplication are defined and these obey the commutative, associative and distributive laws."

One analogous (not exactly alike) simple system I showed in a 2010 post to do with group theory. This specifically applied to 'clock groups' which bear a similarity to Littlewood's modular 12-hour clock. One example is the clock group defined in the image below:

 As we can see there are four members, 0, 1, 2, and 3. The process of addition is defined by adding elements – starting with 0- in a clockwise sense. Doing this we should be able to find a complete closed set of addition operations for all the elements. For example, we find 0 + 1 =1, and 0 + 2 = 2 and so forth. Similarly, we find 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 3 = 0, 2 + 3 = 1 and so on. Each result obtained by adding the portion of the cycle from the starting element. From here, we may set out the group under addition (+) (Fig. 1- right top).

In the case of multiplication we can write, for example:

1 x 2 = 2 (mod 4)  or:   2 x 2 = 0 (mod 4)  or: 3 x 2 = 2 (mod 4)

Note, however, this system is not the same as the one Littlewood is proposing. This is because the commutative and distributive laws are not consistently obeyed by groups.

Note also the examples given above are nothing to do with Littlewood's prime modulus case because n = 4 is not a prime number.

Littlewood makes the case that in one respect the residues to a prime modulus resemble the rational numbers rather than the integers (i.e. division is always possible except by zero.).

Consider Littlewood's example (to modulus 7):

Since: 4 x 2 = 8  ≡ 1 (mod 7)

Then we can also write:

1   ÷  2 = 4 (mod 7) 

And:

1   ÷   4 = 2 (mod 7) 

Division by 7 is obviously impossible since 7  ≡   0  (mod 7) which is equivalent to division by zero.

For the general prime modulus p, Littlewood notes:

"Division is accomplished by the use of Euclid's Algorithm, which suffices to prove that division except by 0 is always possible."

Suggested Problems:

1)  Write four additional equivalences for the mod 7 residues (2 already shown)

2)  Consider the p = 5 prime modulus portrayed as shown below in clock form:

Write four equivalences for the mod 5 residues. Can these be written in the form for the mod 7 cases in Problem 1? Why or why not?