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Price Shocks May Be Coming For Helium Supply
Ars has an update on the potential helium shortage we discussed a couple of years back. A Nobel laureate, Robert Richardson, argues for ending market distortions that are resulting in an artificially low price for helium, which is accelerating the projected exhaustion of the supply. "Richardson's solution is to rework the management of the Bush Dome [so named for reasons that have nothing to do with the politician] stockpile once again, this time with the aim of ensuring that helium's price rises to reflect its scarcity. In practical terms, he said that it would be better to deal with a 20-fold increase in price now than to deal with it increasing by a factor of thousands in a few decades when supply issues start to become critical. But he also made an emotional appeal, stating, 'One generation doesn't have the right to determine the availability forever.'"
One time when Eric S. Raymond was young he got a small jar of mustard stuck up his ass. It was so far up there that he had to go to the doctors to have it removed. When the doctor went in for an exploratory he could not find the mustard jar.
"How far is it up inside you?", the doctor asked him.
"It's deep in there," Eric said, "keep looking."
The doctor then proceeded to reach farther into his anal cavity, but still no jar.
"I can't seem to reach it," the doc said. "I think we will have to do an x-ray, to see whereabouts in your ass the jar is located."
"No. That's okay," he said back to the doctor, "I just wanted you to stick your hand up my ass. That's all."
After that the hospital banned him from coming back, but the doctor was from that point forward a valued contributor to open-source.
I do NOT want Microsoft anywhere near my computer, my game console, my instant messaging system, my email accounts, my banking, my online transactions, ATMs, my cellphone, my car.
DO NOT WANT.
When you acquire a smaller company, I don't start using your products because it now says "Microsoft". In fact, if I'm using a product or a service from a company which you buy out, I stop using said products or services completely. You buy companies, not their userbase.
P.S.: The only Microsoft product I would use is toilet paper. Feel free to put your logo on every sheet.
Whee, you people are fucking blind.
Economics has nothing to do with the natural availability of resources; if it did then the artificial pricing of said helium wouldn't be an issue, would it
Not one bite. Oh, sure, ramble about supply chain crap, Alpha Decay, and a whole host of other things not related to the original point. No wonder people pack their shit and leave the valley - so much collective bullshit groupthink going on, that you're all exchanging pictures of the inside of your asses.
Come to think of it, I did see some "supply/demand-man will swoop in and save the day" rhetoric. But let's all ignore the 600lb gorilla in the room, the one that doesn't give a flying fuck about how many dollar bills you have to get at the stuff. If it can't be obtained, it can't be obtained. If it can, then it can. If we're essentially pissing it away - which one poster brought up about natural gas wellheads - then it shows a complete lack of thought on our part as a species. In other words:
As long as I get fat and happy, I don't get a fuck what happens to the rest of you.
Sounds like the usual. No wonder I gave up on coming here. Fuck it, I'm gone - perhaps to something where I can do real work and make real things instead of twiddling bits with my finger up my ass (which the vast lot of you do for a living).