this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Want to wade into the snowy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

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If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] NegativeCheese@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Boom Aerospace, not content with attempting the next Concorde, have gotten a little sidetracked. Funnily enough, they didn't show any footage of the engine actually working. Surely it's whisper quiet and won't be a massive pain to live next to.

https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/ai-needs-more-power-than-the-grid-can-deliver-supersonic-tech-can-fix-that

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I would simply not name my airplane company "Boom".

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I regret I have but one upvote to give to this

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The best I ever saw was a reply to a news story to the effect of, "If I were ever invited swimming in the Murderkill River, I would just not go."

(This might be the original. Then again, it might not.)

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/ai-needs-more-power-than-the-grid-can-deliver-supersonic-tech-can-fix-that

okay, that's the missing piece (? not the last): 1GW from GE, 1GW from proenergy, 1.2GW from this fuckass startup that nobody heard of, either missing 1.2GW of gas turbines or 1.2GW grid connection gets almost 4.5GW of power for crusoe

also you don't need supersonic jet engines for that, these will be actively worse in reality for stationary power generation. they do that because you can haul them in a truck

Meanwhile China is adding power capacity at a wartime pace—coal, gas, nuclear, everything—while America struggles to get a single transmission line permitted.

thank Jack Welch for deindustrialization then

we built something no one else has built this century: a brand-new large engine core optimized for continuous, high‑temperature operation.

Lockheed Martin: am i a joke to you? (also, lots of manufacturers for proper CCGT turbines do just that)

[–] istewart@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago

read: "our product development is a black hole of cost, and our big investors are breathing down our necks to grab this cash while it's there"

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is such a pivot, from "you can soon fly between capitals in half the time" to "this screaming jet engine will soon be disturbing your sleep 24/7"

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It never had market. Wait 3h at airport just to get on a 3x, 5x more expensive flight so that instead of 5h you fly 3h - make it make sense. For people that don't wait at airports anyway rental of demilitarised MIG-29s would make more sense

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 4 points 1 week ago

@fullsquare

I assume they're thinking about transcontinental flights most of all. Dubai->LA or whatever.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Honestly you could probably pitch that to the Musk/Thiel set pretty easily by playing up how masculine fighter pilots are and disconnecting but not removing the rear flight controls. Let them push buttons and feel cool.

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

If anyone can figure out how to get exmilitary F15 for joyrides it's them. I guess Thiel would be fine without pretending as passenger, but Musk not, and learning this takes fuckton of effort, something he's allergic to. Either one of them having supersonic chauffeur that has to go everywhere their jet does is exact kind of nonsense i'd expect in this timeline, and i don't think that either is actually healthy enough to become a pilot in the first place

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 4 points 1 week ago

@fullsquare

Larry Ellison has or had a working MiG.