this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
348 points (97.5% liked)

News

23311 readers
3950 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] pennomi 160 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

The headline saying “gallons” doesn’t really imply “550 gallons“ which was the actual amount. That’s a lot of pollution.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You know those giant white plastic cube storage tanks that hold 1000L? They dumped the equivalent of two of those full of toxic waste.

[–] MutilationWave 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I wouldn't go so far as to call it toxic waste but fuck anyone pouring industrial chemicals into a storm drain. That's embarrassing for such a wealthy company.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

Well, 12 gallons, contaminating 500 that they pumped out.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The liquid, which the Palo Alto Fire Department has deemed to be a nonhazardous mixture of borax, lye (also called sodium hydroxide) and green dye, spilled out of the Tesla office at 1501 Page Mill Road onto Hanover Street.

[–] [email protected] 194 points 1 week ago (1 children)

“Storage of sodium hydroxide requires a City permit, which Tesla had not obtained.”

[–] FlyingSquid 87 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Elon does not care about laws and it's been shown over and over that he doesn't have to.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

He obviously does, he's not storing it anymore after spilling it out now is he?

[–] Burninator05 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When the penalty is a fine, it isn't a penalty to the rich.

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 1 week ago

"Cost of doing business."

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How is lye nonhazardous? Can't it cause serious chemical burns? Maybe it's just in low enough concentration that that's not a concern.

[–] FlyingSquid 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You don't want concentrated lye, but diluted lye is safe enough to make soap. My question, and I'm not the only one asking in this thread, is- is a mixture of borax and lye a good coolant for a supercomputer?

I guess you could argue that the green is so they would recognize a coolant leak...

[–] ChicoSuave 51 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Borax is used for flushing large coolant systems. The green dye is probably to find leaks or identify when the flush has cleared out any residual coolant.

[–] FlyingSquid 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ah, that makes more sense then.

But lye as well?

Edit: never mind, that discussion says also lye.

[–] kindernacht 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They use this mixture at my work as well. Flushing out large sub freezing cooling systems. We don't dump it out on the street though.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

The lye concentration used to make soap is rather nasty if it gets on your skin and you don't deal with it immediately. Source: I've made a lot of soap from scratch.

[–] saltesc 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Okay, now I have more "why" questions.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The liquid, which the Palo Alto Fire Department has deemed to be a nonhazardous mixture of borax, lye (also called sodium hydroxide) and green dye,

One of the workers told Hedblom that the liquid was a coolant. That’s also what the fire department told the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which wrote in its Oct. 18 spill report that the liquid was “used for the chiller system to cool the Tesla Artificial Intelligence Supercomputer.”

“The Palo Alto Fire Department recovered approximately 550 gallons of the mixture from the storm drain,” the report said. “The incident occurred while Tesla personnel were draining the system.”

That's quite a liquid-cooled computer that they've got going on.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

The article mentions that they said the initial spill was 12 gallons but then mixed with water in the drain, which is where the 550 gallon number comes from. That's coming from Tesla, so it might be them trying to downplay the incident, so take it with a grain of salt. But it does seem to make more sense than a single computer needing 550 gallons of coolant.

[–] billiam0202 11 points 1 week ago

That’s quite a liquid-cooled computer that they’ve got going on.

Well... it's air-cooled now.

[–] Crashumbc 8 points 1 week ago

I suspect it was the entire building's chiller in which that really isn't that much. When you consider the run of pipes depending on where the outdoor tower is.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 week ago

“The Palo Alto Fire Department recovered approximately 550 gallons of the mixture from the storm drain,” the report said. “The incident occurred while Tesla personnel were draining the system.”

Put Lonnie in jail, ffs.

[–] FlyingSquid 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Elon probably told them to dump the coolant in the street because he thought it would be a very funny joke. And probably also told them to put the green dye in first.

Sounds like the sort of thing he would think is hilariously funny.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Is lye a common thing for people to use as coolant? I’m not saying it’s not, I’ve just never heard of it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Borax and lye are both cleaning agents.

[–] FlyingSquid 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

That's what I thought, but Tesla is claiming that it was coolant.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They're cleaning agents individually; I can't speak to what they are when combined.

[–] FlyingSquid 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Looks like they are also a cleaning product when combined.

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/10/04/lye-soap-recipes-and-warnings/

But of course that doesn't necessarily mean it can't also be used as a coolant.

From what I understand, neutrino detectors involve what is essentially a swimming pool full of dish soap.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

That's why Teslas are expensive and shitty. They're diverting effort and funds to neutrino detection.

[–] Cenzorrll 4 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Lye and oil makes soap, not lye and borax. The key in all these recipes is lye and oils, not lye and borax for anyone who isn't going to click on the link and start mixing these chemicals. Lye can be real nasty if you don't know how to handle it. It's one of those chemicals where the safety precautions are there for a reason, not because it's normal practice.

[–] AngryCommieKender 3 points 1 week ago

Lye and rich lady fat if one believes Tyler Durdon

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

mildly concentrated sodium hydroxide solutions would corrode the living fuck out of aluminum pretty quickly (https://www.calpaclab.com/aluminum-chemical-compatibility-chart/), especially when hot and circulating, so no

could have been a kind of additive maybe? but then it won't be a lot of it. borax forms a gel or at least high viscosity solution when mixed with glycols so both can't be used at the same time as a coolant

Dye might be fluorescein, it fluoresces under UV (duh) could be useful in checking what's this thing

[–] FlyingSquid 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It kind of sounds like they told some junior exec to come up with a quick excuse because whatever they were actually doing was a lot worse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i have no idea what they were cooking but it's not coolant, unless temperature there never drops below 0C

[–] FlyingSquid 10 points 1 week ago

I think @ChicoSuave above figured it out. It was used to flush the coolant.

[–] irotsoma 5 points 1 week ago

It's possible they didn't properly treat the liquid they were using as coolant and needed the lye and borax to remove scaling and that it actually wasn't the coolant itself. That would also explain not having the proper permits for storing the chemicals if they were just being used for cleaning. Though wouldn't be surprised if they were then just going to dump it down the drain anyway...

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] WoahWoah 15 points 1 week ago

It continued into a stream where it didn't touch natural areas.

What a bizarre double-think sentence.

"It's beyond the environment. There's nothing out there! All there is sea, and birds, and fish. And 20,000 tons of crude oil. And a fire. And the front of the ship that fell off. But there's nothing else out there. It's a complete void!"

[–] Diplomjodler3 12 points 1 week ago

Musk spewing bile, as usual.

[–] trumpetmouth 12 points 1 week ago

Tesla out here trying to kill the Toons from ToonTown!

[–] StaticFalconar 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is why you dont liquid cool your stuff without proper maintenance

[–] Dainterhawk999 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

𝙇𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙗𝙧𝙪𝙝... 𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙠 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙨 𝙚𝙮𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 „𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚“

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] umbraroze 6 points 1 week ago

"Because at this point, why the hell not"

—Elon Musk, probably

[–] TheTechnician27 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›