Astro Hacker News - Texas community votes no on incorporating to fight Bitcoin mine

kacesensitive |next [-]

Plenty of quotes from anti-mine residents. Not one from a pro-mine voter.

These are from the company.

“We're pleased that Hood County voters saw through the sham incorporation effort and rejected it at the ballot box,” a spokesperson for MARA said.

“As we've said from the start, this was an unlawful attempt to weaponize municipal incorporation against law-abiding businesses like MARA.”

“We remain focused on creating jobs, supporting local communities, and being a responsible neighbor.”

The story otherwise paraphrases general sentiment (e.g., people moved there to avoid city regulations)

DoctorOetker |next |previous [-]

I don't get it, he could provide free water heating to the neighborhood and get rid of active ventilation noise. Every joule accepted to heat cold water is a joule less to get rid off with fans.

duskwuff |root |parent [-]

Do you really think the Bitcoin mining firm would pay to retrofit all of their equipment for water cooling, and to install a massive hot water network, out of the goodness of their own hearts? I find that really unlikely.

(Plus: does the town even need the hot water? It's Texas, after all. During most of the year, residents need air conditioning much more than hot water...)

DoctorOetker |root |parent [-]

when I look at todays temperatures it was a maximum of 12 deg C and a minimum of 2 deg C. Yes I think the neighborhood may prefer hot water over noise right now. Every single degree centrigrade warmer the water arrives, thats a calorie of energy per liter water saved on the energy bills.

kilobaud |root |parent [-]

Your observation has an N of 1… Texas is almost never as cold as today, even in December. Most of the year is 35 C to 40 C and the cold water supply is warm to the touch.

AndrewKemendo |next |previous [-]

If anyone wants to know why the human race is doomed it’s because of precisely what this article describes:

Individual property owners having no desire to be part of a unified community in order to address an externality caused by a corporation exporting pollution.

That’s it. You can’t fix that which means independent human organizations can’t form that aren’t focused around direct financial benefit to the individual.

TimorousBestie |root |parent [-]

Not to be unnecessarily mean to Texans, but I think this is more of a Texas problem than a humanity problem.

WarOnPrivacy |root |parent |next [-]

    "Texas counties lack authority to enforce noise limits"

This seems to be the core of the issue.

Perhaps Texas idealism means The Profits of the One outweigh Welfare of the Many.

Another possible interpretation is that: Profit alone makes the unethical, ethical.

AndrewKemendo |root |parent |previous [-]

A glib comment but the reality is that Texas is not that far off of the global mean

rayiner |root |parent |next [-]

Texas is what the global mean aspires to be. My mom visited my extended family in Australia and Canada (we’re originally from a third world country) and came back ranting about how “poor” those countries were and how “nobody can get rich.” What she meant was that they don’t have big mcmansions on two acres everywhere and a doctor or lawyer or engineer only makes a comfortable salary instead of a $500k+.

cwillu |root |parent [-]

“Texas is what the global mean aspires to be” huh?

rayiner |root |parent [-]

Yes. Your average Bangladeshi would rather live in a McMansion in texas driving an SUV than in a cramped apartment in NYC. More of my cousins live in Texas now than in Queens, which is the “first hop” for many immigrants.

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milowata |next |previous [-]

I wish the article had a quote from a resident who voted against it, saying why they did so.

Ekaros |root |parent |next [-]

Probably group of people who purposefully chose to live in such area. Some people think that less government is better.

peyton |root |parent [-]

Or that government isn’t a weapon to be used against one’s neighbor.

shawn_w |root |parent |previous [-]

Probably worried their taxes would go up.

nunobrito |previous [-]

Another reason to use Monero.