Hacker News Reader

Comment by zionic | Hacker News Reader

I’m just exhausted from arguing with the electrically illiterate.

HVDC makes transmission from state to state trivial at almost no loss. We should have a national HVDC grid so that a breeze in Texas might power a toaster in Connecticut.

Instead we have another $XX Billion for Ukraine. Another $13B here for a new carrier we’ll never need etc etc. So much waste everywhere while fundamental problems go unsolved.

View on HN

Literally the whole West's defense spending for the last 70 years has been to counter Russia. Supporting Ukraine is the single most cost-effective thing any Western government can do right now...

Didn't think about it this way. That's brilliant (and dangerous of course).

The fall of Ukraine will mean the beginning of the new Soviet Union (but even _more_ evil), and most probably a world war, so it should be prevented at all costs possible. Not event to mention that the invasion is plainly evil, and should be repealed.

> new Soviet Union

Any reason to think this? Did Soviet Union form by Russia invading and conquering another country? No, it was a result of fall of the Russian empire and the Russian civil war.

The conditions now are very different. Fall of Ukraine would mean political win for Putin and his acolytes, maybe another invasion later on. But Soviet Union? More like stronger Russia, a revert to the Russian Empire.

Watch Russian state media. Literally stuff they say...

That's possible, but I think they just use the rhetoric to activate old people nostalgia and bring more support for the regime. Soviet union respawning does not seem likely, nobody except Russia wants that.

It's not a matter of cost, there's no political desire for a national HVDC grid so that a breeze in Texas might power a toaster in Connecticut - Texas has explicitly refused connecting to the rest of the country for many years.

Cost is a bit of a problem: each HVDC edge costs a lot, hence why it’s used almost entirely for long distance point to point links.

Maybe that will come down over time?

If you don’t help Ukraine, the reborn Soviet Union would become a valuable asset to China. You probably don’t want to happen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com