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Why the World Is Running Out of Helium
jamie writes "The US National Helium Reserve stores a billion cubic meters of helium, half the world supply, in an old natural gasfield. The array of pipes and mines runs 200 miles from Texas to Kansas. In the name of deficit reduction, we're selling it all off for cheap. Physics professor and Nobel laureate Robert Richardson says: 'In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015. The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability forever.' Another view is The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve, the government study from 10 years ago that suggested the government's price would end up being over market value by 25% — but cautioned that this was based on the assumption that demand would grow slowly, and urged periodic reviews of the state of the industry."
Then your point was what, exactly? Simple pedantry?
The 1996 Congress was the height of the Republican era controlling the Congress 1994-2006 and aggressively changing longstanding policies. That's who sold off the US strategic helium reserve and encouraged the world to run out of helium.
How many ways did shortsighted Republicans liquidate America's precious assets that were earned over centuries for the minimum prices to be snapped up by crony corporations and foreign competitors? Is everyone who ever failed math or economics given a referral to join the Republican Party?
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make install -not war
Or how about the whales that die every time an apostrophe is abused and shoved into a perfectly good possessive to make a needless contraction? Huh, feeling smug now, Mr. Apostrophes Everywhere?
You got something against Contractions? You must've just popped out a kid or something?
Sersly... The GP even left out an apostrophe from the "ill". He also forgot to capitalize it.
"One generation does not have the right to determine availability forever", um, actually whichever generation or people are alive at the moment pretty much have the right to do whatever the heck they want. Your righteous indignation means exactly squat. I may agree that we should not waste what we have but the current generation has the right to do anything it wants because none of the future generations have a voice or can stop them. Let's refrain from saying idiotic crap and focus on reality. In reality what you mean to say is that, "one generation should not allow itself to determine availability forever." I don't have any Dodo bird meat available but what can I do about it a past generation gave itself the right to determine its availability forever and I'm screwed.