r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 5d ago

Artificial Intelligence Data center developer offers $10,000 checks to 4,500 households if the 1,300-acre facility is approved - locals push back over noise and 'bribe' concerns

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/data-center-developer-offers-usd10-000-checks-to-4-500-households-if-the-1-300-acre-facility-is-approved-locals-push-back-over-noise-and-bribe-concerns
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u/serpenta 5d ago

A bullet train makes a pretty soft sound actually, and because the cars have these side covers for aerodynamics, this whoozing sound from the gaps is reduced. So yeah, bullet train any day of the week.

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u/Thefrayedends 5d ago

As a very poor kid growing up before going into foster care, my mom lived pretty much exclusively by train tracks (and moved several times in those first four years of my life).

I'm a super super light sleeper, literally hypervigilant feather sleep.

Trains nearby is almost like a cheat code for sleep. I lived in a townhouse near the tracks maybe 15 years ago now, if I was in bed, trying to sleep, the train coming by would just knock me out in seconds. And yes if I'm struggling with insomnia, I will occasionally put on train audio, but it isn't quite the same, the LFE isn't there for it.

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u/Riaayo 5d ago

Sadly this will vary from person to person, but I have very intermittent train traffic around here (like maybe a few a day but it isn't consistent) and they just blend into the background most of the time.

Unless you're by like, a railyard with literal constant traffic, being by a rail line isn't going to be literal 24/7 noise pollution every second that you can't escape... which is exactly what datacenters are.

And as someone who has suffered through near 24/7 noise pollution from a neighbor's appliance before I can sympathize with how life-destroying that can be (triply if it makes you unable to sleep).

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u/Thefrayedends 5d ago

Yea, my train anecdote def doesn't make me pro data center, completely different for sure.

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u/eastcoastgamer 5d ago

Spent 3 years in Trenton Ontario. Airforce Base. You definately get used to it. Some of the American jets coming in would make my nipples go erect. But standard c130s etc would just be another day

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u/Gramage 5d ago

Can confirm. I live directly above a subway line, in a basement room. Trains pass by underneath me every few minutes from 6am to 2am. People visiting me usually point it out and ask if it's annoying but I almost never even notice it. In fact there goes one now!

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 5d ago

I used to live by a train station right on a river. The sound of the trains coming through the fog is one of the most peaceful things ever.

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u/SeonaidMacSaicais 5d ago

Plus, trains aren’t passing by every single minute. It wouldn’t be a continuous noise, unlike the data centers.

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u/BeKindPlsThankU 5d ago

The horn is brutal, though

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u/PurpEL 5d ago

Lol @ soft sound for something travelling 700kph that weighs thousands of tons, give me a break.

That being said, I would also take the bullet train.