The Server Farm Revolt #1883

In this episode, Ray Cochrane leads with the server farm revolt. Voters rejected data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures on November 3, and two days later the Nasdaq had its worst day since April 2025. Additionally, he covers Anthropic’s IPO filing, a made-to-order melanoma vaccine, the finest Mars dust yet, and how voting is like a Klein bottle.

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Full Summary

Ray Cochrane opens with Halloween. On Saturday, he went out in costume with Delaney, Zach, and Monique. Cochrane and Delaney went as a matching pair of Blue Man Group members, with blue face paint and drumsticks. The photos came out pretty hilarious, and he is still debating whether to share them.

He also owns up to the audio on the last episode, which he says was shot. That day, Cochrane spent five or six hours debugging the studio’s audio chain, and he hopes it is finally stable. One big problem was that his headphones didn’t match the exported file. The export came out far quieter than what he heard while recording.

Next, he plans to rewire the whole studio, hopefully this weekend, with masking tape labels on everything. Otherwise, life has settled into a slower pace, and he is loving it so far. Dinner that night was grilled venison, which he calls very tender.

All the audio work has also pulled him into how audio works under the hood. Lately, he has been playing with Rust and audio software while working through Rust in Action. Compared to other Rust books, he likes how well it leads readers along. So he recommends it to anyone curious about Rust.

Voters Turn on Data Centers

The lead story comes from CNBC, where MacKenzie Sigalos reported on November 4. Ballotpedia counted 41 local ballot measures about data centers in 10 states on November 3. In official results, data centers lost 40 of them. All 27 measures that set new limits passed, while voters turned down all 13 that would have approved projects.

Only Harwood, North Dakota went the other way. There, a proposal requiring expert review and a public hearing before big industrial projects failed 325 to 105. Ohio held 21 of the measures, and data centers lost every one. In Piqua, a ban went into the city charter with about 67 percent of the vote.

Piqua voters also recalled three officials who had backed the project. Voter Marty Pollock told Dayton’s WYSO the deal felt like it was done sneakily, under the radar. Cochrane said the voters did well to do their research, especially when leaders seem to work behind their backs with money on the table.

Data Centers in the Big Races

Data centers also came up in some big races. According to AP results, Democrat Gina Hinojosa beat Texas Governor Greg Abbott by about seven points. She had called for freezing new data centers until lawmakers write statewide rules. Meanwhile, in Ohio, S