May 2026

Hey all,

I’ll be attending the FinOps X conference in San Diego next month, where I’m presenting AI for FinOps: From Hype to Helpful on Tuesday, June 9th at 5pm local time. If you’re attending the conference, you should come say hi!

This will be my first time presenting since 2022, and I forgot just how much fun the entire process is. I’m feeling good about how the presentation turned out. I’ve got a few dry runs scheduled for this week. And before I know it, it’ll be showtime.

Sometimes, we forget to prioritize the things we enjoy. I should apply to talk at more conferences. I wonder what I could book for 2027.

-Dann

🔌 The datacenter red herring

You may have heard of Knoll’s Law of Media Accuracy:

Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge.

Recently, outrage over datacenters has been boiling over, spurred at least in part by coverage in The Guardian and others of a proposed new datacenter in Utah called Stratos (backed by Kevin O’Leary).

I mean, how scary does this sound?

The Stratos artificial intelligence datacenter footprint will cover more than 40,000 acres (62 sq miles) over three sites in Box Elder county in north-western Utah. The facility will require about 9GW of power, which is more than the entire state of Utah currently consumes, and suck up a significant amount of water in an area that has been hit by severe drought in recent years.

I’m not going to argue that these datacenters are good for the environment or local economies. But all the headlines and talking points are exaggerated in an effort to turn public opinion against the datacenters for the wrong reasons.

This TikTok video by Quick Thoughts addresses some of these anti-datacenter arguments in a thoughtful way. The problem is that many of these concerns are valid, but they’re either 1) not catastrophic, 2) not unique to datacenters but instead any new construction, or 3) totally solvable.

Take, for example, the water required for this new project. The reason that the footprint is so large is mainly to acquire water rights, not to build a 62-square-mile facility. That water is currently being used for agriculture, so it’s not net-new water use for the datacenter.

The water use then hinges on a key concept (and it’s still an important one): consumptive use vs. return flows. Is the datacenter being designed in a way that will be comparable to current use? This is the question we need to be asking, and not defaulting to datacenter water use = bad.

Likewise, the facility requiring more power than the entire state of Utah sounds scary until you realize 1) the datacenter is building a power plant to supply all the energy needed, meaning no additional strain on the system, and 2) total power is still lower than many other states.

To be clear, I’m not trying to argue that we need more datacenters. I think there’s a decent chance that artificial intelligence will kill us all, and we should be pushing for an international agreement to pause AI. I’ve contacted my representatives, and you should, too.

But I don’t think the danger comes from the construction itself. Fighting against new datacenter development projects, and even winning some of those fights, is missing the forest for the trees. We need to be targeting our activism toward stopping the Superintelligence threat that we’re barreling toward at full speed.

📹 Underground Guerrilla Comedy

As a kid in the 90s and early 2000s, I had an appreciation for Saturday Night Live despite not being a regular viewer. It aired way past my bedtime, yet certain sketches seemed to permeate the culture in a way that made me aware of its king-maker influence without needing to be an SNL superfan.

I think that’s why I’ve been enjoying the recent rise of SNL history-telling media. I caught the movie Saturday Night (2024) and the documentary Lorne (2026) in theaters, and (belatedly) enjoyed the four specials released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SNL.

As a casual and occasional viewer of SNL, it’s been particularly interesting to think about the history and context of the beginnings of the show, most of which happened before I was born and never interested me enough to dig into myself.

Growing up, SNL was a cultural staple and always had been, as far as I was concerned. It’s easy to miss how subversive it was. Just six years after Woodstock ‘69, industry execs handed over this late-night timeslot to some kids to just experiment with, and they created this novel alternative comedy that spoke to the younger generation in a new way.

That alternative-comedy-that-captivated-the-youth wave happened again for Millennials, ushered in by Adult Swim. Shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Too Many Cooks showed the power of handing creative control to young people who had something new (and often surreal) to say.

The same thing is happening today, but I think most people are missing it. That’s because it’s not happening on traditional broadcasts, streaming platforms, or even Youtube, but instead with small groups of young people with cameras and an aptitude for editing, posting to Instagram and TikTok.

In many ways, it’s an evolution of traditional sketch comedy, with lower budgets but ambitions just as high. Some of the key players are starting to break into the mainstream (Jane Wickline and Veronika Slowikowska are now SNL cast members, and Curry Barker of That’s a Bad Idea with his first feature film Obsession). But if you want to experience the Gen Z equivalent to early-SNL energy, you’ll need to go to the original short-form videos.

My personal shortlist, in no particular order, is Tiny Idea, Devon Palmer, Montessori Boy, Forever Zone, Dax Flame, That’s a Bad Idea, and Grant Beans.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, were recently on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. They reminisced about all being outsiders early in their careers and how they’re now the very definition of mainstream. Watching that interview, I couldn’t help but wonder which of these independent creators will be having similar conversations in twenty years.

📁 Not-quite Disclosure Day

The government has been releasing more declassified UFO/UAP files, which is certainly not meant to be a distraction from the lack of Epstein-related arrests nor the fact that there are still millions of Epstein documents unreleased…right?

Anyway, I’ve been following the UAP story since the explosive 2017 New York Times article (gift) and covered the topic a few times in this newsletter. It still blows my mind that there’s any portion of this story that’s not simply conspiracy theory. And that’s what makes it so hard to parse authentic information from tall tales.

I understand the journalistic standards followed before a story like the 2017 piece was published. I trust the authority of the whistleblowers before Congress. That’s exactly what made those stories so fascinating.

These newly released files are a treasure trove of primary documents related to UAPs. There are documents from 1949 all the way up to 2026. That’s unprecedented.

While individual cases can be interesting, this assemblage is more useful for understanding the breadth of unexplained phenomena encountered by the military than for providing definitive answers.

An independent data scientist analyzed 79,621 declassified UFO reports with AI and put together this site to help explore these sightings in more detail. That website is open source, and you can explore the methodology and key findings in more detail on the Github page.

On the one hand, I’m always excited when there’s a new high-authority piece of UAP information available. On the other, it constantly feels like we’re dancing around the topic, rather than addressing it head-on.

Luis Elizondo, former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and author of Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs, was unimpressed with the first tranche but is warming up to the second:

I think it’s fantastic that the administration is delivering on this promise. I think you have in this second tranche a treasure trove of data.

I guess we’ll have to just (continue to) wait and see.

🧅 A dollop of schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a German word describing the satisfaction or joy felt toward others’ misfortunes. Usually, it’s a pretty bad look. But you’ll be forgiven for any schadenfreude felt toward Alex Jones and Infowars since it’s being taken over by The Onion.

For those out of the loop, Alex Jones was sued by the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary victims for years of lies, harassment, and claiming it was all a hoax. In the end, the combined judgments against Jones came to around $1.48 billion in damages. As of today (more than three years later), he hasn’t made a single payment.

Which brings us to the latest update: satirical news site The Onion has reached a new agreement, backed by the Sandy Hook families, to take over Infowars via a monthly licensing arrangement. It puts Tim Heidecker (of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) at the helm. The plan isn’t yet fully realized, but all proceeds will go to the families of the Sandy Hook victims.

In a rare and serious interview, Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, talks a bit about the experience of facing Alex Jones and his own motivations for taking over Infowars:

There is a moment in your life where you see a bunch of evil happening. And you have a chance to stop something that is particularly egregious. And if you walk away from it, I just don’t know why you’re alive, you know?

With a news cycle that seems to be a constant barrage of negativity, it’s nice to have a feel-good story.

🏗️ Progress, onward

This newsletter has touched on both datacenters and The Onion, so I’m just going to leave you with this:

▶️ (01:46) OpenAI Announces Construction Of New Data Center On Top Of Sick Child

End note

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I send these newsletters once per month, and I’m happy you’re along for the ride. I’m trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.

Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, Dann