Helium.

[thepoliticalcat@mastodon.social]

@knowprose It was a rhetorical question, honest. I was expecting the opening shots of WW III. Although I suppose we've already seen those.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@thepoliticalcat Crimea was the first domino.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@i_give_u_worms if it's down for longer than 2 weeks, parties are going to get more expensive. Just think of the party planner for mar--a-lago explaining this slowly.

"Mr. President, we can't have balloons for your 'we are winning ceremony''"...

He'll look for who to tariff...

[schrotthaufen@mastodon.social]

@knowprose @aral Gonna be fun weeks ahead for hospitals, too.

[jochenwettach@social.tchncs.de]

@knowprose @i_give_u_worms Just for party purposes, helium can be replaced easily by hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong...?

e. g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@jochenwettach @i_give_u_worms I wasn't gonna go there.

[jochenwettach@social.tchncs.de]

@knowprose @otfrom Although it is possible and permitted to use helium as a food packaging gas, it is way too expensive. Due to the small size oft helium atoms, it is also too volatile for most packaging purposes.

[ujay68@mastodon.world]

@knowprose Neither did The Grifter In Chief. Probably doesn’t even know what this Hellum thing is.

[wideeyedcurious@mstdn.social]

@knowprose And guess where a large source of possible helium lies domestically in the U.S.?

Minnesota oops MAGAs!

[otfrom@functional.cafe]

@jochenwettach @knowprose I was talking about co2 rather than helium https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-58626935

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@Su_G yeah.

Clowns to the left, jokers to the right...

[lfzz@mastodon.social]

@knowprose so my next ram upgrade is going to cost 2k and a kidney?

[boredomfestival@sfba.social]

@knowprose Yep. Most of our helium comes from natural gas production.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@landley that's interesting!

[rootwyrm@weird.autos]

@knowprose @cstross yeaaaaaah, unfortunately, I did. You learn lots about the helium supply chain (and lack thereof) when you're in storage and HGST just announced their new helium filled drives. And you go "uh, isn't that required for MRIs?"

Another fun fact: the US Federal Helium Reserve was *sold* in 2024 to private equity. Thanks Obama.
(No, seriously. The intentionally misnamed 'Helium Stewardship Act of 2013.')

[assimilateborg@kind.social]

@knowprose when can we finally put a guillotine at the white house and make it work for a couple of weeks?

[davidm_yeg@mstdn.ca]

@knowprose

Not surprising … I recall at least a couple helium crises in the last couple decades, certainly shouldn’t have been a surprise to those who launched the war, but it seems like they didn’t bother to properly think anything through.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@DavidM_yeg 1/ they honestly expected decapitation would be enough.

Interestingly... they did not know that control had been passed to local commanders.

That's a pretty big oversight on intelligence.

But it would not be obvious to those with authoritarian mindsets.

True theological authoritarianism puts the supreme being above all. The late Ayatollah was a true believer, looks like.. I am not saying he was a good guy by any measure....

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@DavidM_yeg but... that level of commitment is...

Well, extreme beyond what we in the West know. And it certainly threw everyone.

So now, it's still not a war, and yet...

Charlie Foxtrot exponential. Hydra.

///

[cadbury_moose@wandering.shop]

@otfrom @jochenwettach @knowprose

I haven't seen "Distillers" tanker trucks around for many years - one source of CO2 was the brewing industry (it's not that difficult to liquefy at atmospheric pressure). Later they got it (and industrial ethanol) from the petrochemical industry.

Helium is from radioactive decay in the earth, and separated out from natural gas wells. It's scarce and any leakage ends up in outer space.