Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
As heat waves become more common and extreme due to the effects of climate change, the data centres that provide the backbone for the online services the public relies on are at risk of overheating.
"(Data centres) are responsible for running many of the services that you use. If you have Gmail, your Gmail is stored somewhere. If you have pictures on Instagram, your Instagram photos are stored in a data centre," said Clifford Stein, director of Columbia University's Data Science Institute, in an interview with CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday.
A data centre can have thousands of computers in one room, generating a considerable amount of heat. These computers have to be cooled in order for them to avoid malfunctioning -- a task that becomes far more challenging during extreme heat events, Stein says.
"As the climate heats up, it becomes harder and harder to keep data centres cool," Stein said. "They're constantly generating heat and they're generating it everywhere."
During July’s heat waves in the U.K., where temperatures topped 40 C, Google Cloud reported "cooling related failures" at one of the buildings that houses its data centres in London. Oracle Cloud also blamed "unseasonably high temperatures" after cooling units failed at a data centre in London, resulting in some service outages.
Some companies are opting to set up data centres in colder environments to avoid issues with overheating. Iceland's chamber of commerce is encouraging tech companies to set up more data centres in the country, touting "virtually free cooling all year round" thanks to their cold climate.
In 2020, Microsoft even experimented with storing data centres below the sea off the coast of Scotland, saying underwater data centres are "reliable, practical and use energy sustainably."
However, Stein says these solutions could also result in slower data speeds for users.
"The problem is that you also want your data centre to be near the users," he said. "When you want to get your data, you want to get it fast. So if you put all the data centres in Iceland, it would be easier to cool them, but your data would come much slower."
Watch the full interview about the potential of data centres overheating with Stein at the top of this article.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
Premier Wab Kinew and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre met at the Manitoba legislature Thursday afternoon.
A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.