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Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

reuters.com

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Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#201

Post by whatshisface »

MisterTea wrote: post #185
whatshisface wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a non-issue. You can't extract it from air with tweezers, you need to build a lot of equipment. It takes a long time to build a chemical plant, and if Intel is sitting idle until that plant is built... well, that's an enormous problem.

> you need to build a lot of equipment. Cryogenic distillation of air is a solved problem. There are plenty of plants already in operation all over the globe meaning there only needs to be modification to existing plants to further collect and crack the remaining 0.1% of air. I'm sure this is not hard to do with existing cryoplants. If we already have the capacity then why are we without Neon production is a good que…

>Cryogenic distillation of air is a solved problem. There are plenty of plants already in operation all over the globe meaning there only needs to be modification to existing plants to further collect and crack the remaining 0.1% of air. I'm sure this is not hard to do with existing cryoplants.

It can take months or years to make additions to existing plants, there is an enormous amount of difference between a solved textbook problem and a real problem being solved.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#202

Post by heurist »

atlantas wrote: post #33
livinglist wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as a Chinese raised in China myself, this happens pretty regularly since years ago. I don’t think Winnie the Pooh has big balls to attack Taiwan in recent future. China has too much to lose right now.

Wasn't that what people were saying about Russia's aggression too? Yet here we are.

We've been watching Russia prepare for major war for more than a decade. Anyone who said they wouldn't be willing to enter this war was deluding themselves. It was a matter of when, not if Russia would embark on this path.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#203

Post by dirtyid »

eloff wrote: post #191
ceejayoz wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, though, under international law China has every right to fly in those areas . Just like when we fly/sail 12 miles off Russia, or send ships past the islands China's making in the South China Sea. When we do it, it's a "freedom of navigation" exercise. Yes, it's testing air defenses, but it frustrates me when officials breathlessly act like it's a big deal.

With military aircraft? I don't think that's covered by international law, it doesn't sound right. Any country would object.

International law view Taiwan as province of China. Nevermind the ADIZ / clipping median line drama, PRC can "legally" fly over Taiwan airspace if it wanted to. And vice versa. See ROC Black Cat squadron flying U2s over mainland in the 60s. It would be destabilizing, but legal. Either side can choose to resume Chinese civil war if they wanted to.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#204

Post by roughly »

dkonofalski wrote: post #95
roughly wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there was a definite "Trump said it so it's wrong" zeitgeist among the left that led to some uncomfortable moments. Tribal politics is a hell of a drug.

That was not unique to the left.

Never said it was.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#206

Post by fsckboy »

stingraycharles wrote: post #42
mym1990 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We saved some money" is how economics works in price competitive markets. This is a result of many players doing what keeps each one competitive, but without collaborating on what the large scale effects are down the road.

And most importantly, economics assumes that the market is perfect, which it most certainly is not in practice. What we didn’t do enough is take the geopolitical landscape into this equation (or a potential pandemic, for that matter), which I hope changes after recent developments. I blame the governments mostly for this, I completely understand the businesses needing to do what’s best for business.

> And most importantly, economics assumes that the market is perfect, which it most certainly is not in practice.

do physicists assume frictionless surfaces and perfectly elastic collisions? yes when they're explaining the basics of Newton's Laws, but they also develop theories and models for friction, etc.

Same with economists, they study economies and do their best to come up with complete models. Are they perfect? no. Do they know more about economies than anybody else? yes.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#207

Post by mym1990 »

vanviegen wrote: post #157
pirate787 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States has all kinds of tariff and other subsidies for key industries. Foreign airlines and shipping companies are literally blocked from providing domestic US services. (That's also why all major US cruise ships touch a foreign port in their journey). Steel and autos and much of agriculture are also heavily protected. These are all anti-consumer and bad public policy.

Good info. But why is this bad policy? Is globalization really just better? Because "the consumer" (whom is usually also an employee/business owner and a citizen) may be able to buy stuff for a bit less?

Generally anything that gets in the way of pure competition shifts the incentives that players have to make good products or services. When this happens, the consumer is usually the one that gets the bad end of the stick with faulty goods or services, while the producer still gets to keep the proceeds.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#208

Post by mym1990 »

ghostly_s wrote: post #194
mym1990 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We saved some money" is how economics works in price competitive markets. This is a result of many players doing what keeps each one competitive, but without collaborating on what the large scale effects are down the road.

Gee, one might almost reach the conclusion that unregulated free markets are bad...

It really depends on the market...we have to weigh the risks or worst case scenarios. While economics can be pretty cut and dry, the real world is very messy.

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#209

Post by Dracophoenix »

Terry_Roll wrote: post #125
mym1990 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We saved some money" is how economics works in price competitive markets. This is a result of many players doing what keeps each one competitive, but without collaborating on what the large scale effects are down the road.

Thats what we get told, but there is always strategic reasons with so much stuff which few people get to hear about. On the news a while ago, the news was going on about how the UK is banning dual use goods, so this tells us some Govt dept has audited potentially every business and its goods and compiled a list of devices which can be considered multi use. You see this alot with chemicals, Glycerine, used as a cosmet…

>Glycerine, used as a cosmetic can also be used for bombmaking. I only found this out when I purchased a litre and then some internet forum started going on about how it can be used for bomb making.

It's the chief component in dynamite.

>Kind of explains why I also wasnt allowed an export licence for an app but also highlights who was behind it!

When do you need an export license for an app?

Re: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas, critical for lasers used in chipmaking

#210

Post by mym1990 »

echelon wrote: post #135
mym1990 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We saved some money" is how economics works in price competitive markets. This is a result of many players doing what keeps each one competitive, but without collaborating on what the large scale effects are down the road.

> "We saved some money" is how economics works in price competitive markets. It's also a great optimization criteria to use to position yourself for checkmate. Monopolies, countries...

Every company or government will eventually see itself in checkmate. It is in the best interest of companies to push that as far down the road as possible.
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