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Whether it's the can't make this up moments or the hard truths hitting our streets in our state,
we're finding the signal in all that noise. No spin, no nonsense, just the facts, the fallout,
and the truth, and the truth. And a little bit of humor. And a little bit of humor. Grab your coffee. It's time for the morning drip on WRTO.FM, Radio Free Georgia.
Hey, good morning and welcome to the morning drip. Today is Thursday, June the 11th, 2026. I am Donovan. Glad you could be here on this fine, fine Thursday morning.
Oh, I'm just waiting for the weekend. Of course, my weekend, I don't know about yours, but my weekend is going to be full of yard work.
I'm just going to be good. I'm just going to be good. I'm not going to be good. I'm just going to be good. I'm going to be good. I'm going to be good for the night, but I'm not going to be good for the night, but I'm just going to be good for you and I'm just going to be good for you.
And I normally mulch my yard, but over the last couple of cuttings, I've had the normal shoot on it. We'll see. I mean, I love cutting the yards. I love mowing the lawn because I get out there. I've got to put my earbuds in and I just listen to music or podcast or something.
But the temperatures, man, temperatures. I think the high today is supposed to be like 92 with a real feel of 99. Partly cloudy. Expect mist and reduce visibility at times early.
Then tonight we start seeing showers, extended forecast. Looks like rain Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. And, you know, once you get about about four days out, it's just not just not reliable.
Just not reliable. All right. Enough about the weather. Of course, today's Thursday. So we're going to sort of take a laid back approach.
Because, well, it's Thursday. All right. Phone lines are open. 229-520-5957. Again, that's 229-520-5957.
You can also text that number 24-7. Again, 229-520-5957. Or drop us an email, morningdrip at wrto.fm.
So we're going to start off this morning talking about, once again, data centers, Google, and Georgia.
So Georgia has announced a $1 million, $1 million investment in wetland restoration right here in South Georgia as part of a broader $17 million national water conservation initiative.
The funding will go to Ducks Unlimited to restore 35 acres of wetlands within the Flint River Wildlife Management Area.
The project is located near one of Google's Georgia data centers and is intended to improve water resources and watershed health.
This announcement comes at a time when, of course, data centers are facing growing scrutiny over their water and energy consumption.
And while Google says its nearby data center uses recycled wastewater and notes that U.S. data centers consume less than 1% of the water used to irrigate residential lawns, critics argue, and I find that claim dubious,
but critics argue that the rapid growth of data centers could strain local water supplies and increase utility costs.
Google says it aims to replenish more water than it uses by 2030, has pledged greater transparency regarding its water usage, and the issue has become increasingly political in Georgia
Because we've got expansion of data centers has sparked debates over tax incentives, electricity demand, of course, water consumption, utility rates.
And some of the candidates running for statewide office have called for tighter regulations or even moratoriums on new data centers,
while others support continued growth with stronger protection for rate payers.
Google's wetland investment appears aimed at demonstrating environmental stewardship as concerns about the industry's impact continue to grow.
Now, back in the early days of Google, before it became basically a business up under the umbrella of Alphabet,
that's the same company, same company that owns YouTube and what have you.
Back in the early days, when their motto was do no evil, I would have trust them.
Today, this is just CYA.
Now, the things that we need to keep in mind is even pre-AI, we needed data centers.
And I've talked about this on this show before.
Pre-AI, we needed data centers.
Because when you log into your Gmail account or you use Docs or Sheets or whatever,
anything that you use that is Google-centric, even YouTube,
all require servers sitting in a cold-ass building with high-speed connections.
And the more data centers that are available, the more that workload can be distributed.
And the closer a data center is to you, there's a higher chance that that is the one that you'll be using to get your email or the YouTube video coming to you.
Same thing with Netflix and all the streaming services and what have you.
Because if you don't understand how the internet works, if I am here on the East Coast and I am connecting to something on the West Coast,
and even though it's pretty much all done over fiber, which is fast as hell, there is going to be higher latency than if I connect to something, say, like right here in Georgia or down in Florida, Alabama, you know, the regional area.
And that's because the way the networks are designed, you may go through what's called a hop, but multiple, you will go through multiple hops because there's all these interconnects and the way the traffic is routed.
And I'm not going to get into a real technical description of how all of this actually works.
But just keep this in mind.
Every time there's a hop, it adds a little bit of latency.
Now, for the average person, you're probably not even going to notice it.
But for us IT nerds, we notice.
All right.
My son lives in Seattle.
We have a what's called a virtual private network, a VPN between my network here at home and his network in Seattle.
And if I remember correctly, I think the average latency between us is about 65 to 70 millisecond.
Whereas if I ping, which, again, that's a technical term, but if I ping, say, Google's DNS, which one of their DNS servers is 8.8.8.8, it's six milliseconds.
That's because they're pretty sure, and I mean, well, I can trace route it and see how many hops it takes for me to get to their DNS server at 8.8.8.8, also known as quad 8.
All right.
So it's 10 hops.
You know, I have my firewall.
Then I have my next gateway.
And then the one that introduced, there was a 10 millisecond bump around the fifth hop.
But overall, it averages about six milliseconds.
Whereas if I try to ping my son, say, something on his network, let me see.
Can I remember what his, yeah, his firewall IP is?
It's 69, 65, 67, 66.
Now, the question is, how many hops does it take to get to that?
All right.
Well, we're going to, we're going to, well, that's not a very good, that's because it's a VPN.
Never mind.
I'd have to know what his public IP is, and I don't know it right off the top of my head.
Anyway, I know I kind of got in the weeds there as far as the tech, how the internet works.
So like I said, pre-AI, we already needed data centers.
But now the problem is current and post-AI, if you will, now that we're in the thick of it, artificial intelligence, these large language models, also known as LLMs, requires a crap ton of memory.
And a crap ton of processing power.
That is one of the reasons why memory costs have gone through the damn roof.
I mean, memory that I used to could buy, I think it's a 16 gig stick for about 18 bucks is now over 100.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
64 gigs might cost you five or $600.
It's ridiculous.
Even storage prices have gone up because of AI, because all of the, all of the tech companies that manufacture memory, because basically an SSD or an NVMe, these are the solid state, not the mechanical hard drives of old, which we still need those.
We still use those, those work wonders in network attached storage devices, but they all use memory chips as well because they don't have any moving parts.
And so, of course, as memory production is now strained because all of the memory manufacturers are out here fulfilling orders years in advance.
They're, they're already locked in for several years for data centers that need it for AI.
Well, those same types of chips are used in our solid state storage devices.
So they've gone through the damn roof as well.
A four terabyte external drive that used to cost around three, I think 400 bucks is now over 900 to give you an idea.
Now, I know I've kind of veered off the path here, but what I'm telling you is these, unfortunately, these are necessary evil to a point we may need them, but we need to approach this in a very pragmatic way that it doesn't increase our utility rates.
It doesn't put a strain on our water resources because these companies can find better alternative ways to cool those data centers because that's what the water is used for.
You have to keep those data centers cool because those servers kick out a crap ton of heat.
And when it comes to computer equipment, if they get too hot, they start either throttling or they just shut down completely.
And that's, you don't need that, right?
You don't want that.
And so you have to keep, and we're talking thousands and thousands and thousands of servers in these data centers, a lot of heat.
So I like to think that what Google is doing here is being a good corporate citizen, but I think it's just CYA.
I'm fine with them doing it, but I think them and anybody else, Microsoft, Amazon, all of the big tech giants that are investing billions, almost into the trillions of dollars for these data centers, need to always keep in mind of the impact that it's going to have in the area that they put these damn things in.
I don't want one here in Tiff County.
I've mentioned it before.
I don't know what the status is.
But they were looking at putting one, and I think it's Google related, over in Irwin County.
And of course, your local elected officials look at it as a win-win because they're being sold a lie most of the time about how many jobs these things create.
They don't.
I have mentioned this to you before, and I'll say it again.
Based on the information that I had available at the time, the size of data center that was proposed to go in in Irwin County at best might have 25 people on staff after it's built, after it's up and running.
Now, there will be a crap ton, several hundred, if not more, people working to get it built and up and running.
But once these things are up and running, they're pretty much automated.
So 15 to 25 people for the size that was proposed, again, based on the information that I had available at the time,
is about all you would see as far as, you know, increased employment in Irwin County.
So don't be fooled when a company comes in and says, look, you know, we're going to start adding to your tax base.
We're going to increase employment in the area.
No, you're not.
It doesn't work that way.
It just really, really doesn't work that way.
Okay, guys, we're going to take a break, see what else we got on the docket this morning, and we'll be back.
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The Morning Drip.
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Hey, and welcome back to The Morning Drip.
It is The Morning Drip for Thursday.
It is the 11th of June.
Again, heading on into the weekend.
The weekend starts at 12 o'clock on Friday, right?
Oh, hey, before we get started into the next segment, I want to let you know that this segment is brought to you by Visible.
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There are a limited number of spots for this promotion.
So, go ahead and switch today.
And I'd like to thank Visible for being affiliated with the MorningDrip.
All right.
What do we got on tap here?
So, we got a new study from the University of Georgia.
Suggests, and this is something that, you know, I think we all kind of, it's just one of those things that's like, well, it's there.
It always works, right?
We're talking about GPS.
You know, the thing that lets our phones tell us to turn down the wrong road when we're trying to get directions to a place we've never been.
I joke, but sometimes that does happen.
GPS was originally, if I remember the story correctly, it was originally created for the military.
And I believe the version that the military actually uses is different than the one that the general public uses.
I could be wrong.
I'm pulling from some really old data in my brain.
So, if I'm incorrect, my apologies.
If you know the answer to it, you want to shoot me a text, 229-520-5957.
You can call in on the same number during the live broadcast or anytime, send me an email, morningdrip at wrto.fm.
But, a new study from the University of Georgia suggests that solar storms disrupting GPS signals could pose a serious threat to Georgia's peanut industry,
potentially costing farmers millions of dollars.
modern peanut farming increasingly relies on what's known as real-time, oh boy, I should have looked this up, kinematic.
It's K-I-N-E-M-A-T-I-C.
It's RTK for short.
And I've got a client of mine that does land surveying that knows about this stuff.
And we're actually looking at a cool little project coming up, hopefully, sometime later this year or first of next year.
But, RTK GPS technology, this technology guides equipment with inch-level precision during planting and harvest.
And because peanuts grow underground, I mean, shocker, right?
Farmers must return months later, dig along those exact same rows where the crops were planted.
And if solar activity interferes with GPS accuracy, equipment can drift off course, leaving valuable peanuts buried in the field.
South Georgia farmer Mason Roberts said the uncertainty creates enormous financial pressure,
especially during the narrow planting windows when delays can affect yields.
This research, which is led by precision agriculture specialist Dr. Wes Porter,
found that providing farmers with real-time forecasts of GPS disruptions
could help protect an estimated $10 million to $20 million in Georgia peanut production.
And since Georgia produces roughly half of the nation's peanuts,
little factoid if you didn't know,
we produce roughly half of the nation's peanuts right here in the great state of Georgia
researchers say, quote,
space weather forecast may soon become as important to farmers as traditional weather reports.
So now in the morning times, not only do you need to get the standard weather report,
but you got to get space weather.
In other words, South Georgia peanut growers aren't just watching the clouds anymore.
They may also need to keep an eye on the fricking sun.
That's awesome.
That is awesome.
I tell you, man, there are days, there are days I love technology.
There are days I can't stand technology.
But can you imagine?
I mean, my dad, my dad was a farmer for a little while before he gave it up and wound up going to work for General Motors and then retired from there.
But can you imagine plucking a farmer from the 60s and 70s and putting him in 2026 and go, this is how we farm now.
He would think that we're we've lost our minds.
We're off our rocker, that this is all voodoo and black magic.
I remember early days of CityNet.
I forget what year.
CityNet started.
Technically, it was being built in 98.
We started servicing customers, I think, October of 99.
I hired in in September of 99 and somewhere around the early aughts, there was a there was a gentleman who was working with ABAC, which is a local college here in Tifton.
And you got to keep in mind now, Wi-Fi at the time was kind of a nascent technology.
We only had 802.11b.
And honest to goodness, I cannot even remember what the maximum throughput was on that.
But if I remember correctly, he was developing using off the shelf, off the shelf technology, Wi-Fi access points and stuff like that, putting all of that on a sprayer to try to automate the sprayer, try to control the sprayer.
It was it was the early days of this type of GPS, RTK transmission type stuff.
And at the time, I thought it was so damn cool.
And we even went out there and looked at what he was putting together.
And, you know, we were helping him.
We were trying to.
You know, we were spitballing ideas.
We were we were putting up.
We were brainstorming.
How can we make this happen?
How can we make it work?
And again, you got to remember the tech, the Wi-Fi that you enjoy today stands on the shoulders of that original Wi-Fi that really started coming into its own in the early aughts to the mid aughts.
I think it was 54 megabit, maybe.
Like I said, it's hard to remember.
It's been a long time.
And now we're, you know, your standard Wi-Fi in your house does several hundred to a gig.
You know, we've got all kinds of standards now.
I mean, the big upgrade was 802.11n, I believe.
Now we've got AC and I can't even keep up with the acronyms anymore.
Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 8.
You know, it's like, it's like cell phone technology.
You know, we went from analog to digital.
Then most people don't realize, but we had 2G.
Then we had 3G, 4G, and then 5G.
And they're working on 6G.
Pretty sure in the back room somewhere, they're looking at 7 and 8G.
So technology doesn't slow down.
It just keeps marching, man.
It just keeps marching.
But I do find this funny that now farmers who use this technology not only have to be aware of the weather,
you know, is it raining?
Is it going to be super hot?
Which the answer to your question is for the next several weeks, yes.
Down here in South Georgia is going to be super hot.
But now they got to look at space weather.
That's freaking hilarious, man.
That is hilarious.
Well, let me toss it off to you.
If you are a farmer, number one, why are you listening to this?
Because you probably should be out farming.
Because it's a little after 8 o'clock on Thursday morning, the 11th of June.
But, I mean, you can email me any time of the day or night.
You can text any time of the day or night.
The email address is morningdrip at wrto.fm.
The text number and call-in number is 229-520-5957.
And, again, the text, you can text me 24-7.
The phone lines are only open generally from 7.30 to 8.30, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings.
Let me know.
I'm curious.
Are you using this kind of technology now?
And are you concerned about these solar storms?
All right.
We're going to take another short break.
We'll be back.
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Stop the snooze.
Start the brew.
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Weekdays, only on Radio Free Georgia.
Hey, welcome back.
I am Donovan, and this is The Morning Drip for Thursday, June the 11th, 2026.
Glad you could join me.
All right.
Let's talk about a couple of things in our last segment, and then I'll get you on your way so that you can get going with your day and start heading toward the weekend.
This one is probably going to have some folks divided, I imagine.
I know how I fall, which side of this I fall on, but a federal lawsuit is seeking to block a proposed UFC event at the White House that has been discussed as part of celebrations surrounding America's 250th anniversary, and of course, it's also President Donald Trump's 80th birthday.
Side note, if you're 80, you should not be president.
All right, moving on.
The lawsuit filed by the Public Integrity Project argues that staging a professional mixed martial arts event on White House grounds would violate federal laws governing the use of public property and could improperly benefit Trump financially or politically.
That's the thing that people need to keep in mind.
That is the people's house.
That does not, that building, that entire, that does not belong to the president.
I don't care who, it didn't belong to Barack Obama, it did not belong to Bill Clinton, it did not belong to Ronald Reagan, it did not belong to Joe Biden, and it certainly does not belong to Donald Trump.
Though he thinks, unfortunately it does, where he can just go willy-nilly and start tearing down shit and building some gaudy-ass looking buildings on the property.
Okay, I'll get off my high horse here.
According to the suit, organizers have allegedly failed to complete required environmental reviews, shocking, and obtained proper authorization for the use of federal parkland and White House grounds, shocking.
The plaintiffs also contend that using government property for a commercial sporting event raises ethical and legal concerns, particularly if private entities or individuals stand to profit from the event.
Don't fool yourselves.
The Trump family will benefit from this financially.
Supporters of the proposed argument that a UFC event would be a unique way to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary and showcase a popular American sport.
However, unless the legal challenge is resolved, the proposed, quote, fight night could face significant hurdles before any fighters step into an octagon on White House property.
And for now, the case adds another round to what is already shaping up to be a highly unusual political and legal fight before any actual punches are thrown.
That spider cage looking thing is, it's an embarrassment.
It's an embarrassment to America.
I mean, contrary to popular rhetoric that a certain president loves to spew about how we're more respected now, we're the hottest country in the world.
No, we are not.
Other countries, our allies look at us and feel sadness and sympathy for our loss in standing, if you will.
Our allies know they can't count on us anymore.
And that's a shame.
That is, that is, that is a shame.
And it's embarrassing that what this country is going through, that dumbass looking UFC fight cage on the White House ground is an embarrassment.
To have a UFC fight to celebrate America's 250th birthday is moronic.
That's not, that's not the way you celebrate this.
And that was not the original plan either.
When Trump came in, he basically created this, this other entity.
There was already a thing out there called, I think it was Freedom 250, or I may be getting them confused.
One is America's, America 250.
The other one's Freedom 250.
One of them is Trump's organization.
The other one is, was actually put together by Congress that was supposed to be spearheading this.
And as Trump normally does, he usurped all of it, made it about himself instead of about America and the great people of America.
He made it all about himself.
So yeah, we're the laughingstock of the world right now.
And I mean, if you believe differently, that's your opinion, that you're right.
I hate to tell you that you're wrong because whatever information you're basing that on is incorrect.
You need to stop listening to Fox News.
You don't even have to listen to me, but stop listening to Fox News.
Go outside the country.
Listen to other news organizations that are not affiliated with the United States of America.
And get, and you can see their perspective.
You can see the viewpoint of how we are viewed as America is viewed now around the world.
It's not favorably at all.
Unless you happen to be some right-wing dictator.
I mean, Putin probably looks at us favorably because, I mean, he's got a puppet in the White House right now.
That's my opinion.
And as I've told you before, this is an opinion show.
I provide you with news and information that I try my best to verify as fact.
And then I give you my opinion.
So, there you go.
All right.
One last little fun tidbit.
And this would be great if I had not already passed three years of alcohol retirement.
I have not had a drink of alcohol in over three years.
But to mark America's 250th anniversary, the New York Public Library has partnered with, I think you pronounce this, Talia.
It's T-A-L-E-A beer company to create Liberty Lager, which is a limited edition beer inspired by a 1757 recipe handwritten by none other than George Washington in a military notebook preserved in the library's archives.
The beer is based on Washington's, quote, small beer recipe, which is a common colonial era beverage and is being sold at Talia or Talia's tap rooms and select New York retailers.
The beer launch is part of the library's broader 250 years, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness initiative commemorating the nation's founding.
Other activities include a limited edition library card featuring a handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence, a Reading America 250 years, 250 books reading list, thousands of free book giveaways and free digital access to selected titles through July.
The library will also display its rare handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence created by none other than Thomas Jefferson from July 1st through the 7th with free public reservations.
Library officials say the goal is to help people engage with American history in new ways, including apparently by raising a glass brewed from a recipe scribbled down by George Washington nearly 270 years ago.
So if I still drink, so if I still drink, that would be cool, that would be cool, but I don't, so I'm going to have to live vicariously through somebody else that actually gets to sample that brewski.
All right, well, that is the end of this show for Thursday, June 11th, 2026.
I hope you were here listening live, but if not, keep in mind that this live broadcast gets turned into a podcast.
After the fact, and where can you find the podcast, you may be asking?
Well, all you got to do is go to morningdrip.show, and you can find all the previous episodes, and here's the way that works, is I put them up for free for seven days, and after seven days, if you haven't already listened to it, all you need to pay is a measly $7 per month.
Become a member, you know, become a member.
I was having a little technical difficulty there, sorry.
I hit the wrong button, you know what happens.
Anyway, I'm not even going to cut this out, because I like authenticity.
So, yeah, if you want to listen to the previous episodes of The Morning Drip, all you have to do is go to morningdrip.show, and like I say, for seven days, like this episode right here, when it gets published later today, it'll be freely available for seven days.
But after seven days, if you haven't listened to it, then all you need to pay is $7 a month, become a member, and listen to The Morning Drip.
All right.
Thank you for joining me.
Again, if you want to contact the show 24-7, you can text us at 229-520-5957, or you can email, and that email address is morningdrip at wrto.fm.
Everybody have a fantastic Thursday, a fantastic Friday.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Looks like it might be a wet one, so if you need to get out and do some yard work, you may have to do it Friday, but we need the rain.
All right.
Until next week, take care, everybody, and good morning.
We'll see you next week.