Helium. This I did not see coming.

[thepoliticalcat@mastodon.social]

@knowprose OMG, what NOW?

[carstenfranke@mastodon.social]

@knowprose Helium also is used in medical imaging, to cool the magnets in MRI machines.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@carstenfranke Yeah. I was just reading that. And hard drives, and...

Wow. I feel like a part of my life has been missing.

[carstenfranke@mastodon.social]

@knowprose the other detail is that a lot of plastics manufacturing has been moved near the refineries and natural gas supplies in the Gulf region. They will be impacted as well. I think the world only slowly realizes what a choke point the Strait of Hormuz is.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@carstenfranke yeah. And the data centers. A lot of big tech infrastructure out there.

The billionaires are probably privately cranky. Which will have an effect on the administration. BUT...

Iran gets a vote in the war. As does Hesbollah, and whoever else gets upset that they lost someone that they cared about.

I knew it was a charlie foxtrot, but I didn't realize it was all caps (I spared everyone all caps. You're welcome).

[carstenfranke@mastodon.social]

@knowprose the data centers surprised me, that was not on my radar. It will be a stressful year, fixing all the fallout from this.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@carstenfranke I don't think it will happen this year.

Or next year. Or the year after. Maybe the year after that. Maybe.

The things set in motion in that region are not going to go away. If Israel takes part of Lebanon, I expect Hesbollah will show up somewhere else, and if Israel takes part of Lebanon (which I expect), everyone around will get antsy.

U.S. leverage in the region I expect will decrement accordingly.

They have sewn the wind. I expect a whirlwind.

Ain't I cheerful? 🙃

[carstenfranke@mastodon.social]

@knowprose oh I agree with you. With the US busy and depleting weapons stocks more wars might start in other regions. It is a hot mess.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@thepoliticalcat So much. Just do a search on what helium is used for.

typing it all in here is nuts.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@carstenfranke Yeah. And Marines on the way on the Tripoli.

As a former Combat Corpsman, I just rolled my eyes heavily because sending a ship full of Marines over there is a concern.

The Marine Corps, my beloved Jarheads, are not known for diplomacy.

And they get crankier with sand in their shorts.

[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