wat3rm370n

wat3rm370n - chloe humbert - pennsylvania usa (subscribe to my newsletter at chloehumbert.substack.com to get some stuff earlier in emails.)

[wat3rm370n]

Robyn Hitchcock - “My Dead Astronaut” (Official Video) Jul 15, 2026

[wat3rm370n]

Orbital Light Pollution Plan: “The mission name comes from a character from Lord of the Rings”

What could possibly go wrong? Because we’ve had such good times from tycoons naming shit after stuff from Lord of the Rings, right?

Universe Today - FCC Approves First Launch for Space Reflector Constellation By David Dickinson - July 17, 2026 11:31 AM UTC | Space Policy Reflect Orbital’s plan is to use on-demand solar for everything from extending working hours to disaster relief and agriculture. Read between the lines, and the U.S. Department of Defense could also potentially be a prime consumer of this technology. Certainly, the ability to generate and sell solar power at peak times has a lucrative appeal to the company. Of course, the push back on the plan extends beyond the astronomical community. Reflect Orbital states that the plan for Eärendil-1 is to show the ability to project the brightness of a Full Moon at magnitude -12.6 magnitude over a 3-mile wide area. But all that brightness would be concentrated in a pinpoint source, rather than a half and degree-wide Moon. Also, the goal of generating solar power from such a source suggests that Reflect Orbital has a much brighter goal in mind. The night sky has been under siege over the past decade, as SpaceX’s Starlink, China’s rival Qianfan ‘Thousand Sails’ mega constellation and AST Space Mobile’s Bluewalker and Bluebird satellites have all taken to the night skies. These were all incidental reflectors, photo-bombing the twilight sky view. What Reflect Orbital envisions seems more like it’s in direct conflict with the nighttime sky.

My letter to reps:

I don’t want this Reflect Orbital solar laser at the earth making bright light at night stuff. I don’t want it because it sounds unhealthy, unnatural, disruptive to nature, disruptive to not just astronomy but having a night sky. And what to have someone make a few extra bucks and extend some work hours. We don’t need this. It’s not natural. It’s possibly disastrous either by making humans ill or Kessler Syndrome which is a very real catastrophe in the waiting. They need to be stopped.

Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.

Here’s what I wrote at the time I wrote a public comment against this project during the FCC’s public comment period.

Dark skies vs space junk. Chloe Humbert Mar 05, 2026 Space debris and low earth orbit clutter is already a public safety threat, and a threat to all the industries that use low earth orbit satellites. The night sky is precious, and an essential part of our interaction with the world as humanity throughout history, with science, culture, and entertainment. Nighttime illumination and light pollution is a known physical health threat for humans, and proposing prolific amounts more of reflective satellites are a step in the wrong direction for public health reasons. Astronomers, both professional scientists and amateur skywatchers provide valuable information to science, and the natural beauty of the night sky as well as astrophotography is deeply well regarded across all walks of life in our societies around the world. We simply don’t need these prolific satellites, as a society, as a civilization, they’re just not necessary. And they could be catastrophic.

[wat3rm370n]

Nobody wants poopy parasites from eating salad. This is what a society is supposed to be for. 

My letter to reps: 

The government needs to get cyclosporiasis under control. This is why we're supposed to have people working to make sure the food is safe. I now can't eat a bunch of things safely that I would like to, because I can't trust it, like berries and raw vegetables and herbs. 

Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.

[wat3rm370n]

The AI data center buildout is a house of cards that not only will collapse, it should.

Let AI Burn Ed Zitron Jul 7, 2026, Where’s Your Ed At No bailouts, no handouts, no special treatment, no tax breaks, no CHIPS act, and no sovereign wealth fund. It is time to tell the AI industry to go fuck itself, because it’s effectively done the same to the rest of society. This industry is unworthy — a sham conjured up by a tech industry that’s run out of ideas, a trillion-dollars’ worth of manufactured consent and entirely-avoidable financial crises — and should not be protected under any circumstance. Every single time you hear somebody discuss “bailout” or “too big to fail” or “sovereign wealth funds,” know that this is the industry, on some level, attempting to create the air that it cannot die, when in fact every one of these companies is just as weak and brittle as any other startup.

My letter to reps:

I agree with this red flag pointed out in an op-ed by tech finance journalist Ed Zitron: “There has never been a tool or product in history sold with such hysteria and aggressive monocultural force that has ever turned out to be anything more than a grift.” It’s because something that’s useful doesn’t need a product cult to sell it. And with all the errors caused by AI automation all over the place, where’s the value I ask you? That politicians seem to like the idea of the whole economy resting on this bs is both disturbing and pathetic. So I will again quote Ed Zitron who puts it best about these weirdo boosters: “Please, people. Nobody in the real world cares about “loops.” Nobody is thinking about tokenization. If you said inference to a guy on the street they’d take you to see a doctor. Nobody gives a shit.” Real people care about healthcare, functional hospitals, workers having bargaining power, the price of groceries, and mitigation of the threats already bearing down on us, in our lived environment. Nobody wants more pollution, water issues, or loud monstrosities in our neighborhoods just to support this crap product from the sketch business models of megalomaniac tycoons, where the taxpayers get left picking up the bill and bailing out more of their golden parachutes. No bailouts. No data centers.

Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.

Many have been warning about how data center buildout need is actually overstated, and others have been repeatedly saying how other avenues of automation and language processing make more sense (and more cents) than these everything bagel chatbots. And data center resistance activists and others have been pointing out how it’s a lot of speculators involved since the get go, and how our communities will be left with deforested land for absolutely nothing to show for it, and the taxpayers will be left holding the bag, while suffering under the enshittification accelerating in all our interactions with business because of this crap technology being shoved everywhere for no good reason.

[wat3rm370n]

Archbald Pennsylvania data center plans are a public safety threat.

Public health expert finds backup generators for data center campus in Archbald could have negative health impacts for residents WVIA | By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published July 8, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT A public health expert testified Monday that the 588 backup diesel generators planned for one data center campus proposed in Archbald could cause between $3 and $124 million in health damages annually.

The threat to public safety is blatantly undeniable.

Chris Kelly Opinion: Actual expert visits Wildcat Ridge | The Times-Tribune PUBLISHED: July 8, 2026 at 12:00 AM EDT | UPDATED: July 8, 2026 at 12:01 AM EDT At previous hearings, the developers’ “experts” downplayed the potential impacts of the generators, insisting they are “backups” that would be in regular use only during testing. Last week’s heatwave burned that unconvincing assurance to ash. The U.S. Department of Energy ordered data centers to operate on backup power to increase grid capacity for domestic air conditioning. It was a sweaty reality check raised by many at Monday’s hearing. From the stage, Cork confirmed the obvious — the longer and more often diesel generators run, the greater the risk to public health and the more money spent on avoidable healthcare costs.

[wat3rm370n]

US Senators should not pass a bill with crypto criminal SBF’s preferred policy.

Back in 2022 this policy plan was actually called “Sam’s Bill” in DC on Capitol Hill because convicted criminal Sam Bankman-Fried was lobbying for it before he got nailed for fraud related to crypto.

The Clarity Act has passed the House and is now in the Senate. Sadly all the Republicans voting and 78 Democrats in the House voted for this crypto criminal preferred bill. Shameful. This is a cryptocurrency policy bill that was championed by “SBF” (Sam Bankman-Fried) in 2022; that’s the convicted financial criminal who’s currently in prison for fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering with a cryptocurrency company.

My letter to my US Senators:

Vote NO on criminal Sam Bankman Fried’s “Clarity Act” because under no circumstances should cryptocurrency regulation be shifted to the CFTC. It should stay in the SEC until such time it is entirely banned. I know that back in 2022 this policy plan was called “Sam’s Bill” in DC on Capitol Hill. Any lawmaker associating themselves with a criminal inspired bill should be ashamed of themselves and maybe investigated for criminal ties.

Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.

How to Fight the Biggest SuperPAC in Politics w/ Ben McKenzie Indivisible Indivisible Jul 10, 2026 Ezra Levin: “Can you shed some light on the Clarity Act? What’s up with it? Does it fix anything that the Genius Act does? Does it include any ethics provision? What are we fighting about right now with this Clarity Act? Ben McKenzie: “Yeah. No, it is it is an attempt by the crypto lobby who that as you have mentioned spent enormous amounts of money buying off politicians and political parties. You know, it was 200 million 220 I think million or 40 million in uh in uh the last cycle um and uh is it 2024? Yeah, in 2024. it has been um I mean if you think of crypto as like not having a product then really it’s just marketing and it’s trying to buy off political influence on the inside so the games can keep being played and the insiders can keep winning and that everyone else keeps losing and so it actually is I hate to say it but an efficient use of their money like the most efficient use of their money is to try to convince uh politicians that they either need to vote for it because they’ll get money from the lobby or they cannot vote against it because money will be dumped on their heads in the next election. They use it as both a carrot and a stick. Um, so the Clarity Act, what it would do is I’m oversimplifying, you know, wildly here, but effectively it’s going to allow the crypto industry to be regulated by the CFTC, the Commodities Future Trading Commission, rather than the SEC. And crypto has long wanted this to be true. Sam Bankman Freed when I was interviewing him in the summer of 2022, he was going around on Capitol Hill and there was a bill that was affectionately known as Sam’s bill that would do the same thing. And the reason the crypto industry wants the CFTC to be in charge is that it’s the smaller, weaker regulatory agency and there just are less rules around commodities. uh there’s fewer rules around commodities as opposed to securities which are publicly traded, anyone can buy them and um you want to have more investor protections for investment vehicles like that. Uh so it’s a giveaway to the industry is the short the short uh shorthand for the content of the legislation and what it’s missing is still any ethics provision whatsoever that would not only stop but even do anything to curtail Donald Trump’s crypto corruption. So the man that has made he and his family have made $1.4 billion via cryptocurrency already in a year and a half, right? We saw this. This was reported in the New York Times, not elsewhere. $1.4 billion. Um, he can just keep doing it. And they cannot pass this bill in the Senate without seven Democratic votes. Right. So, uh, they need seven Democrats to come along with this corruption scheme.” (emphasis added)

And of course many of the Democrats voting for this in Congress were the USUAL SUSPECTS. Just a few of the Democrats who voted Yea are: Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Ro Khanna, Ted Lieu, and Nancy Pelosi of California, Sarah McBride of Delaware, Robert Menendez and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Tom Suozzi and Ritchie Torres of New York, Eugene Vindman of Virginia, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez of Washington.

The crypto industry is burning tires and coal waste in Pennsylvania to print bitcoin. For that and many other reasons, a politician voting for giveaways to the crypto industry is untenable.

[wat3rm370n]

if you have no underlying conditions, wear a mask if you're out in wildfire smoke so you don't become someone with underlying conditions. 💡

https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/underlying-conditions-propaganda

“Underlying conditions” propaganda of the pandemic, but for heat wave deaths and data center pollution harms.

Also... be wary of “closed loop” being trotted out as some tech will save us cure-all for data center water concerns. Because of course it's

[wat3rm370n]

Cancel Elon Musk.

My letter to reps: 

All of Elon Musk's companies' government contracts should be cancelled. No exceptions.

Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.

WIRED - Molly Taft Jun 15, 2026 11:06 PM DOJ Lawyers Argue xAI Is ‘Vital’ for National Security in NAACP Lawsuit In a bid to dismiss a lawsuit over xAI’s polluting gas turbines, the Justice Department claimed the company is integral to military operations—including the Iran War.

[wat3rm370n]

It's not democracy when the government hides materially relevant information from the people it serves. 

And this seems to be a running theme I see repeated in various situations in the U.S., such as with data centers and the associated NDAs, where relevant information that people need to make informed decisions are hidden by government officials. It's not a good sign. 

They Weren’t Convicted of Terrorism, But These Palestine Activists Got Sentenced as Terrorists Anyway The case marks the first time that “criminal damage” convictions in the UK have been classified as terrorism. Natasha Lennard June 13 2026, 1:05 p.m. The Intercept The defendants were not convicted of terrorist offenses — the jury convicted them on charges of criminal damage. It was explicitly hidden from the jurors that, in finding the protesters guilty of specific criminal acts, they also opened them to hefty terror enhancements by the judge at sentencing. Justice Johnson had also set strict restrictions on the trial: the defendants were not permitted to tell the jury that their actions were motivated by a desire to save Palestinian lives and prevent greater crimes of mass slaughter; they could not mention the genocide in Gaza or Elbit’s role in it. “Criminal damage has never been treated as terrorism within the UK justice system before, and it is completely disproportionate to do so because the offence occurred at a protest,” Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said in a statement.

It's not a good practice for people in positions of power to withhold pertinent information deliberately in order to trick people or get people to make decisions that they wouldn't otherwise. 

[wat3rm370n]

Tech alone won't save us from anything. 

It takes some work by some people to make advancements. 

MedPageToday - Perspectives > Second Opinions -  HIV Will End With System Redesign, Not When We Discover Another Drug — We need to make prevention accessible, treatment immediate, and long-term engagement effortless by Scott A. Phillips, DBA, JM, MS, and Joseph Santiago, MA July 6, 2026  The next chapter in HIV prevention should not be written primarily in pharmacology laboratories. It should be written by healthcare managers, implementation scientists, clinicians, public health leaders, and policymakers willing to redesign the systems through which people encounter prevention and care. The central problem is no longer biomedical efficacy. Modern antiretroviral therapy transforms HIV into a manageable chronic condition, while PrEP and PEP dramatically reduce transmission when used appropriately. The persistent challenge is implementation. Biomedical innovation has outpaced health system innovation. Healthcare has traditionally conceptualized HIV through a linear continuum: testing, diagnosis, linkage to care, treatment, retention, and viral suppression. While useful, this framework overlooks a more fundamental reality: every stage represents a decision that patients must navigate inside a healthcare environment. Patients decide whether to be tested, whether to disclose sexual behaviors, whether to trust providers, whether to return for laboratory work, whether to initiate PrEP or ART, and whether to remain engaged in long-term care. These decisions rarely occur in isolation. They are shaped by transportation, clinic hours, insurance, stigma, food security, housing, confidentiality, language, digital access, and trust.

[wat3rm370n]

The institutionalization is the point for eugenicists.

My letter to reps:

Home and community based services are much less costly than institutionalization. Any politician or government official deciding that institutionalization is their preferred option for disabled and elderly is at the baseline being fiscally irresponsible with taxpayer money apparently just to try to stick it to disabled people & seniors.

Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.

Bloomberg Law - Stephen Miller Said to Drive DOJ Memo Eroding Disability Rights June 23, 2026, 4:10 PM EDT Ben Penn, Celine Castronuovo

[wat3rm370n]

Heron along South Branch Tunkhannock Creek at Lackawanna State Park in Pennsylvania. July 13, 2025. Photo by Chloe Kaczenski Humbert.

[wat3rm370n]

Easy way to recognize scams: Real officials from government & banks don't cold call people on Whatsapp or ask people to move money. 

FTC: A real FTC employee won’t text you their photo ID to “verify” their identity By BCP Staff June 3, 2026 A real FTC employee won’t contact you by text message or a messaging app like WhatsApp. A real FTC employee won’t text you a photo of their employee ID to “verify” their identity. A real FTC employee won’t claim to help you recover money you lost in a scam and ask you to pay them, move your money into an account they specify, or give them your financial information.

Remind your loved ones that neither law enforcement nor banks would tell anyone to move money around, so that's an easy way to spot a scammer.

Scammers Encourage Moving Your Money - Putnam County District Library  Apr 17, 2024

[wat3rm370n]

When you hear the word "innovation" you should immediately treat that like it's a red flag for corporate PR because it's a bs marketing buzzword.

[jstor]

Cleansing your feed with a lime pot in the shape of a cat, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

[wat3rm370n]

I can’t believe anyone’s still falling for “underlying conditions” claims anyway but...

CDC: Only 1 in 10 hospital patients early in the West Texas measles outbreak had underlying conditions Laine Bergeson June 5, 2026 CIDRAP A new study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and their state partners analyzes the patients hospitalized during the first two months of the measles outbreak that swept through West Texas in 2025, finding that nearly all were unvaccinated children, only 11% had preexisting conditions, and respiratory complications were common.

People just won’t give up on blaming some almost mythical “vulnerable” people.

“Underlying conditions” propaganda of the pandemic, but for heat wave deaths and data center pollution harms. Also... be wary of “closed loop” being trotted out as some tech will save us cure-all for data center water concerns. Because of course it’s not. Chloe Humbert Jul 07, 2026 Yes, it’s well understood that many harmful things are especially harmful to some people. This isn’t new. And being “already sick” shouldn’t mean we do nothing to stop preventable worsening, or else why does anyone ever go to the doctor ever? Prevention is good. And many of the harms that are especially dangerous to “vulnerable” people, are nevertheless also harming “healthy” people too.

“Underlying conditions” propaganda of the pandemic, but for heat wave deaths and data center pollution harms.

Also... be wary of “closed loop” being trotted out as some tech will save us cure-all for data center water concerns. Because of course it's

[wat3rm370n]

These people were given an inch and now they're going after cancer patients. 

Chair of President’s Cancer Panel Co-Authors Ivermectin Cancer Study Backed By Supplements Company “It’s marketing disguised as science.” Walker Bragman Jun 03, 2026 Important Context The antiparasitic ivermectin was widely promoted amid the pandemic, particularly on the political right, as a possible COVID-19 treatment despite research showing it was not effective against the disease. Over time, advocates have expanded their claims about the drug’s benefits to include treating an array of diseases like cancer despite research not supporting those uses. Dr. Harvey Risch, an emeritus professor of epidemiology at Yale Medical School, was appointed by President Trump late last year to lead the influential panel.