Chad Brigance
Taran RampersadHelium. This I did not see coming.
Helium.
https://www.techspot.com/news/111683-critical-semiconductor-gas-lost-third-global-supply-drone.html
Chip Butty@knowprose I think that high gas/oil prices will also mean we are low on gasses to go into food packaging as well (crisps, lettuce, that kind of thing)
@otfrom yeah, I was looking at what we actually do with helium. This was a pretty big blindspot for me.
The universe, in it's infinite wonders, gave me a lesson in humility. Again. 🤣
Jochen Wettach 💙💛@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.
@jochenwettach @knowprose I was talking about co2 rather than helium https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-58626935
Cadbury Moose@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.
@Cadbury_Moose @jochenwettach @knowprose interesting list of US based producers from the epa here https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/documents/co2_map_050120.pdf
Looks like most produce from ethanol
The Penguin of Evil@otfrom @knowprose most food gas is stuff like CO2. More of a problem unless they change stuff is the single use plastic garbage is essentially only near free because it's made from unwanted oil/gas production outputs.
Bigger problems are fertilizer but there are alternatives, and it's mostly going to burn giant unsustainable industrial farming operations where they put crap like plastic coated fertilizer balls into the soil.
Other big one is the other direction - fresh food into the gulf
schrotthaufen@knowprose @aral Gonna be fun weeks ahead for hospitals, too.
John Ulrik@knowprose Neither did The Grifter In Chief. Probably doesn’t even know what this Hellum thing is.
WideEyedCurious 🇺🇸 💙 🇺🇦 & 🇨🇦@knowprose And guess where a large source of possible helium lies domestically in the U.S.?
Minnesota 😂 oops MAGAs!
Su_G@knowprose
Wow! What a read - dependencies everywhere, who would have thought it. That’s probably what happens when you (we) have a world (theoretically) governed by international rules of law. And who doesn’t get “crankier with sand in their shorts”?
@Su_G yeah.
Clowns to the left, jokers to the right...
lfzz@knowprose so my next ram upgrade is going to cost 2k and a kidney?
DeterioratedStucco@lfzz
Yes. If you get away with one.
BoredomFestival@knowprose Yep. Most of our helium comes from natural gas production.
Rob Landley@knowprose Bill Clinton was a republican in sheep's clothing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_Privatization_Act_of_1996
@landley that's interesting!
RootWyrm 🇺🇦
@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@knowprose when can we finally put a guillotine at the white house and make it work for a couple of weeks?
David Mitchell 
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.
@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....
@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.
///
@knowprose Interesting. I had thought the USA was the main source of helium.
@richardh
I had that impression as well, till I found out better in the early 2000s.
Back in the day (1970s?) the only source was an oil well in Texas.
@knowprose War is Hell...
...aciously Stupid!
oil troubles make sense, but helium sure wasn't on my bingo card either
@blargyblargh yeah. When I saw it, it was just as I wrote it.
@CAWguy has moved@knowprose Finally I’m in on the investment action. I don’t have any precious metals squirrelled away, but I do have a few big tanks of helium for welding here. 🤑
Carolyn@knowprose Sadly, it’s in limited supply. :(
Incident Creator ❎@CStamp
Theoretically it's renewable. Eventually. Takes a while for those disorganized alpha particles to get their shtuff together.
@knowprose
Theoretically it's renewable. Eventually. Takes a while for those disorganized alpha particles to get their shtuff together.
@knowprose
Paladin 
@knowprose Trump is a stable genius!
Jürgen HubertCivilization is a complex beast. Thus, you shouldn't attack it with a chainsaw if you don't know what you are doing.
Lea de Groot TZ+10“I wonder what the middle east will do when we stop using oil?”
Yeah, apparently thats covered
😮
(Edit: thats assuming there is anything left when this is over, of course)
David PThey export a lot of natural gas, which is a feedstock for ammonia production in fertilizer manufacturing.
So the world's fertilizer supply is being impacted as well.
Neko 
@knowprose This is going to make things much harder to manufacture all the RAM chips for the datacentres that don't exist with the money we don't have.
@neko @knowprose that's fine all the investors are pulling out of fantasy league AI and data centre projects as they're going to need a lot of capital to put out the US private credit dumpster fire.
The helium risk was well documented years ago, ditto fertilizer and food into the middle east. There are alternatives but they take time. Perhaps it's time people stopped covering fields in plastic coated gunk to pillage the land to grow stuff China has stopped importing
For I am CJ 
Hey... you know all those "things made with silicon chips" that no one can afford to buy because the tech bros bought up all of them for the next two years?
Well now we're going to be making even less of them
- It's almost like this happens every time a big military country decides to start a war
https://www.techspot.com/news/111683-critical-semiconductor-gas-lost-third-global-supply-drone.html
Emmeline
Q&A Anon@knowprose fertilizers as well. Urea is also produced in the region. And guess how large the national reserves of fertilizers are in comparison to fuel in most countries...
GinevraCat@knowprose @jay_peper A future helium shortage was inevitable (because physics), but I didn't know about the Iran war connection.
Also, this clip with comedian Dara O Briain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt2s9BISO_Q
