this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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TechTakes

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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.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Want to wade into the sandy 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.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

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 so 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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[–] samvines@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This guy introduces himself as the first person who will never die on the conference circuit (because he's super into longevity and anti-aging tech and having young mens blood injected into him and stuff).

I'm not condoning violencr here but rather... consider that even if you never age, you can still get hit by a bus Bryan!

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, he's a tech ceo guy, so he doesn't know that buses or trains exist

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 10 points 20 hours ago

A bus? You mean the Megapod?

Train? You mean the PodChain?

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

wasn't there a case of some supplements that were contaminated with lead? you know, a sneaky neurotoxin with no antidote whose results only show up months later

[–] TrashGoblin@awful.systems 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dimethylmercury is extremely toxic and dangerous to handle. Absorption of doses as low as 0.1 mL can result in severe mercury poisoning.

The symptoms of mercury poisoning may be delayed by months, resulting in cases in which a diagnosis is ultimately discovered, but only at a point in which it is too late or almost too late for an effective treatment regimen to be successful.

  • Wikipedia, "Dimethylmercury"
[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

long term lead exposure will also do that, and neurotoxic part at least appears to be irreversible. can't remember how much of it is more of neurodevelopmental thing tho

[–] cstross@wandering.shop 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

@fullsquare Lead poisoning was *ubiquitous* in the USA until the late 1970s/early 1980s, due to tetraethyl lead in petrol. Everywhere around the world experienced a sharp drop in violent crime 15-20 years after it was phased out.

But mercury poisoning is more visibly lethal: see also Karen Wetterhahn:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen/_Wetterhahn

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

i'm aware, last year i've been tasked to use a certain process but refused and instead modified it in such a way as to get rid of mercury salt used; it was dissolved in DMF, so (regular nitrile) gloves won't even help. worse than that, it took me only 2-3 weeks start to finish to figure it out, meaning that anyone else could do that earlier and handful of people were put at risk for no reason. aggression as a result of lead toxicity is probably a bit more complex story and looks like it might have a developmental part, judging by delay and how kids are more susceptible to lead toxicity in general; meaning that presumably mostly adults won't be affected to the same degree. another big nope on my list would be thallium and cadmium compounds, and while i'd only use sub-g amount at most, there are places where all of these metals are mined, and at one point are in form of fine dust fortunately these are so obscure that i've never came across these