• AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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    3 months ago

    Given its scarcity, helium should be more expensive, to the point where filling party balloons with it is decadent profligacy.

    • el_abuelo@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      I mean it is expensive, it’s just the amount required for a balloon is insignificant and thus seems cheap.

      As a diver who uses helium I can tell you it is, compared to air, so much more expensive they actually charge me for it (rather than just rolled into the cost of a dive) - to the sum of about $300 a dive - depending on depth.

        • el_abuelo@programming.dev
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          3 months ago

          Reducing the amount of narcotic gases in your mix so you don’t act like a drunk idiot when in a life threatening situation.

          Those narcotic gases are nitrogen and oxygen (although there’s only so little oxygen you can have…and also only so much!)

          Edit: extra info: oxygen and nitrogen are narcotic at depth, nitrogen is better understood and so often we talk about nitrogen narcosis, which tends to start hitting people after about 30m, but each person reacts different and to different degrees at different deaths. I personally notice it at about 50m or so. If I was more relaxed while diving it’d probably hit me sooner.

      • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Privatization seems like a really bad idea to me. Helium is non-renewable resource. Privatization is about being ‘efficient’ at maximising profits. Do you think the people / companies that own the helium reserves are going to be interested in keeping helium available for centuries in the future? I’d say probably not.

        For a profit based company, the only motivation to preserve the helium for future use is that maybe it will be worth a lot more money in the future. But there are two big problems with that. Firstly, the timescale is likely to be too long for the profit to be of interest. And secondly, the main reason the price would go up is scarcity; and that scarcity will come sooner if the helium is wasted in the short term. (Unless one company actually has a monopoly on helium, in which case they can create artificial scarcity by just not selling it. But that would obviously be bad for other reasons.)

        • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The thing with helium though is that it’s already privatized. The geologic formations that trap helium from uranium and thorium decay are the exact formations that trap fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. Whether it’s worth it to capture that helium is purely market driven by private interests. Most of it is just off gassed into space instead of separated. All that government production has amounted to is making helium cheap enough to put in balloons and use on wasteful cryo applications with no recovery mechanism like it was subsidized, making separating it from natural gas uneconomical. Increasing the price would decrease the monumental waste we already do.

          https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/60/12/10/413018/Helium-scarcity-blamed-on-waste

  • julysfire@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    There will absolutely still be a customer that takes a balloon from behind the sign and asks for it to be filled up in the store.

        • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          “I̡̖̝͔̯͌̄̈́ ̧̙̮̈̈́H̥̫̭͈̖̐̆̒̂̓̾A̼͚̘̦̼͂͌̇͒̏̌͝Ṽ̡̡͙͙͌́̽Ȩ̮̝̪̞͖̍͆̋͋̄̒͝ͅ ̳̙͝R̥͕̱̠̱̈̈́͜I͎͒͌̋͗̈̑͜͝S̨͙̻͍̺̟̾Ẹ̳̖̖̼̥̊̓̆Ǹ̡̳͍̏͒͛̉̃̀,̳̅̋͑ ̡̡̠̗͈́͑̌A̡̧̛̦͛̅̎̄͒͂Ṅ̨͕͈͍͎͆̑̕D̻̑̾̔̊̉͊̚ͅ ̧̳̙̳͗̈́͊͊̓͝Ḭ̻̗̻̥̙͉̀̒̂͛̈́ ̢̡̯͖̩̻͍͛D̰͔͇͉̪̆E̛̝̻͇͚̼̤͗̊̑̀͋͜M͕̯̠͎̳͌͛͐͒̋͑Ä̹̺̥̤́̓̾̕N̝͎̓̓̆͋͐D͇̺̮̠̏͊̌͐̍̚͠.͓̼̰̈́͛̈̈͊.̺͎͖̰͔̻̇̂̉̈́̌.̢̮̣͖̳͖̜́͌ ̫̰̗͋P͔͗̑͆O̳͛͌̂̎̀Ṅ̦̣͖̭Ḭ̱̖̊̂Ė̛̠̺̭̓̉Ś̞͔͍̠̟͓̦̿̈́̆

        • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com
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          3 months ago

          The Eldritch God of over eccentric suburban moms is somehow more terrifying than anything Lovecraft came up with.

  • Cagi@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    Mylar balloons should be outlawed. They get sent free and land on power lines WAY too often. Over a thousand mylar balloon caused power outages are recorded in just Southern California alone in a typical year. The cost of repairing the damage might even exceed the revenue of mylar balloon sales.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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    3 months ago

    I really wonder what power plants will do with the helium once they get fusion working. Maybe a balloon business on the side isn’t such a bad idea.

    • subtext@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I mean too much Helium isn’t a problem. It’s one of the few (only?) elements that will just disappear if you don’t do anything with it.

      It’s light enough that it rises to the very tip top of the earth’s atmosphere and is then stripped away by solar radiation. That’s why is a depleting natural resource, not because it’s burned or used or anything, but because it just escapes.

    • saigot@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      In a perfect world stick it in a secondary reactor and make lithium. But that’s obviously even further off than hydrogen fusion.

      • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It takes a lot to get those working and stay running. I am one of the guys that supplies it. Well over 100 liters to even start it.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Dayum. How often do they need refilling? With rebco magnets out there, surprised we’re not using more ln2 instead.

          Maybe just older machines?

          • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I supply a university with many labs. I route 30 trucks a day. Trends are there. But I’m guessing about once a month? Per lab?

    • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The amount of helium produced is truly miniscule, in the order of a few cubic centimeters. They’ll just pump it into the ground somewhere, assuming we ever get fusion working

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        You don’t have to pump it anywhere. Capturing helium is actually the hard part. It’s very adept at sneaking through small cracks and flying off into space. Earth’s gravity cannot contain it(if it could it would be a gas giant) and pretty much all of it comes from primordial uranium decaying and getting caught in geological features by chance.

        • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Yep that’s all true, but they’ll pump it into the ground anyways because “venting nuclear fusion byproducts into the atmosphere” is going to go down really poorly with the “I hate and fear the things I don’t understand” “anti-nuclear” crowd.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    not only are these plastic bags shit and the people finding joy in in imbeciles, but helium doesnt grow on plants. it is limited.

    • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Counterargument: everything is limited, and all joyful people are imbeciles to some extent

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Well, the half lives of the stuff that produces helium are generally above 500 million years so we’ll still be making more of it for a very long time, but the reserves we’ve found trapped in geologic formations certainly are limited. /s