this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
17 points (100.0% liked)

TechTakes

2343 readers
34 users here now

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

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

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 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.

(Last substack for 2025 - may 2026 bring better tidings. Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

CW: Slop, body humor, Minions

So my boys recieved Minion Fart Rifles for Christmas from people who should have known better. The toys are made up of a compact fog machine combined with a vortex gun and a speaker. The fog machine component is fueled by a mixture of glycerin and distilled water that comes in two scented varieties: banana and farts. The guns make tidy little smoke rings that can stably deliver a payload tens of feet in still air.

Anyway, as soon as they were fired up, Ammo Anxiety reared its ugly head, so I went in search of a refill recipe. (Note: I searched "Minions Vortex Gun Refill Recipe") and goog returned this fartifact*:

194 dB, you say? Alvin Meshits? The rabbit hole beckoned.

The "source links" were mostly unrelated except one, which was a reddit thread that lazily cited ChatGPT generating the same text almost verbatim in response to the question, "What was the loudest ever fart?"

Luckily, a bit of detectoring turned up the true source, an ancient Uncyclopedia article's "Fun Facts" section:

https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Fartium

The loudest fart ever recorded occurred on May 16, 1972 in Madeline, Texas by Alvin Meshits. The blast maintained a level of 194 decibels for one third of a second. Mr. Meshits now has recurring back pain as a result of this feat.

Welcome to the future!

  • yeah I took the bait/I dont know what I expected
[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That toy sounds like someone took a vape and turned it into a smoke ring launcher. Have you tried filling it with vape juice?

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

right? lol but I cant it's too popular with the kiddos

[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago

Wouldn't that be the refill recipe you where looking for? Vape juice is just a mix of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine. I think its the glycerine that is responsible for the "smoke".

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

I want a vortex ring gun.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago

Maybe if we're lucky, Alvin Meshits can team up wtih https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bum_Farto for the feel-good buddy comedy of the summer. Remember, the more you toot, the better you feel!

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Somewhat interestingly, 194 decibels is the loudest that a sound can be physically sustained in the Earth's atmosphere. At that point the "bottom" of the pressure wave is a vacuum. Some enormous blast such as a huge meteor impact, a supervolcano eruption or a very large nuclear weapon can exceed that limit but only for the initial pulse.

[–] jonhendry@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I suspect a 194 dB fart would blow the person in half.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago

Vacuum-driven total intestinal eversion, nobody's ever seen anything like it

[–] jonhendry@awful.systems 8 points 2 days ago

Apparently there's another brand that describes its scents as "(rich durian & mellow cheese)"

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago

upvoted for "fartifact"