Welcome to the Daily Briefing. Start with these stories:
Nicole Fallert here, Happy National Donut Day 🍩 Let’s get into Friday’s news, starting with a growing national debate over data centers and then we meet the “Dungeon Crawler Carl” voice actor capturing American readers.
Data centers are seemingly on everyone’s minds as these enormous resource-intensive computer buildings crop up across the county – sometimes as if out of nowhere. The huge facilities house the physical infrastructure that powers digital services like artificial intelligence. But critics say they drain energy and water sources, pollute air quality, cause noise disruption for nearby residents and create a disproportionate number of temporary jobs. Despite water concerns, Texas is seeing construction ramp up.
They’re unpopular: Gallup survey results released in May found 70% of Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their communities.
What can be done? Some towns are voting to ban them. Some say the companies should take action. And other just want transparency. Environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched a website where American can report issues they encounter with data centers in their communities.
NCAA Softball
The Texas Longhorns defeated No. 11 Texas Tech 4-1 Thursday night in Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the best-of-three series for the program’s second consecutive national championship. See the best photos of the celebration.
Books
The “Dungeon Crawler Carl” series has clocked over 140 million listening hours on Audible. The audiobook is a selling point for many readers because of the range of distinct voices Jeff Hays creates for the eclectic cast of characters, from an AI to an uppity British princess cat. Hays’ voice acting skill has helped catapult the near-perfect-Audible-rated series to the forefront of the LitRPG (literary role-playing game) subgenre.
Have feedback on the Daily Briefing? Shoot Nicole an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.
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