Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you get the blimp back?
I think bigger question is, how do you bring the blimp down without dumping out helium?
you could compress the helium into tanks?
Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
481–490 of 675 posts
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#482Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#483> South Korea is among the most exposed countries, which, according to the Korea International Trade Association, imported 64.7% of its helium from Qatar in 2025. The country relies heavily on helium imports to cool silicon wafers during fabrication and is understood to have no viable substitute. I assume the helium is enclosed in a a chip's hermetically sealed package, if it were just for cooling wafers I don't unde…
It's not enclosed in the final product. It is used during manufacturing. For example, you mechanically compress helium to get liquid helium, then when it depressurizes back to ambient pressure, it's -269 C, which is pretty close to "as cold as possible", and colder than any alternatives.
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aluminum smelters use the Hall-Heroult process, where alumina is dissolved in molten cryolite and reduced in massive “pots” which are large electrolytic cells. Each pot contains a carbon cathode lining that must be kept at around 950C during operation. If the pot cools down, the frozen electrolyte and solidified aluminum contract at different rates than the carbon and steel shell, cracking the lining. Once it’s crack…
How much of this process is cleaning up from the previous run and how much is purely for starting up the process again? Does it make sense to clean up the system as soon as you can after shutdown, in preparation for restart, whenever that may be?
It’s one and the same. The sodium and other atoms from the molten cryolite intercalate into the carbon cathode structure and swell it by a few percent. Once in use, a cathode is held together by the steel shell and thermal equilibrium of the running pot. Once it cools the cracking is inevitable.
You also can’t fully drain a pot. You can siphon most of the aluminum and cryolite off but at those temperatures they behave like a proper liquid with surface tension and the metal wicks into the pot like solder instead of flowing with gravity.
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#485In related news, diesel is $7/gallon, and peets coffee is $25/lb, and computers (hardware and cloud) are up 25-50%. The official numbers claim 3% inflation. Does anyone actually believe that? We were seeing 30% YoY before Iran here in California. The discrepancy is so large, I’m wondering if there’s an official explanation or some reasonable explanation, or if they’re just not bothering anymore.
Diesel is $5 in the Southeast, what kind of supply chain issue could cause 40% diff? Should we hire some tanker trucks and arb this?
Check taxes
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#486So turning our backs on globalisation was a mistake after all. Everyone needs everyone to work well together. So much winning.
My PC was due for an upgrade this year (still using a video card from 2019)… so I really hope this keeps working for another … 5 ?! years
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#487So turning our backs on globalisation was a mistake after all. Everyone needs everyone to work well together. So much winning. My PC was due for an upgrade this year (still using a video card from 2019)… so I really hope this keeps working for another … 5 ?! years
My graphics card is from 2016; you'll be fine.
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#488The US just finished divesting itself from its strategic helium reserve in 2024 due to the "Helium Stewardship Act of 2013"[1] But, now we have a strategic bitcoin reserve. [1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/527
You know that it was basically sold to be able to claim a more responsible budget that year? Basically selling off of an asset to record higher revenue. Like selling your building fire extinguishers to claim that you were able to pay off your credit card bill, and who cares what those were originally meant for.
Pay of the credit card bill?
You mean pay the interests on it.
Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#489In related news, diesel is $7/gallon, and peets coffee is $25/lb, and computers (hardware and cloud) are up 25-50%. The official numbers claim 3% inflation. Does anyone actually believe that? We were seeing 30% YoY before Iran here in California. The discrepancy is so large, I’m wondering if there’s an official explanation or some reasonable explanation, or if they’re just not bothering anymore.
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Re: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
Airships have air bags inside. Same deals as submarines. They take in and out ambient stuff into the bags to control buoyancy.
What ambient stuff is available at the altitude where a zeppelin typically flies?
so balloons appear to have negative mass, it's actually just the result of having lower density than the air. the upward force balances out with the gravity where the lbs/in^3 figure of its entirety matches that of ambient air. it's exactly the same as how an empty tank underwater floats, and a water filled tank underwater sinks.
or I guess one could say it's the bottom side getting more compressive load from air than the topside, given the observable effect, whatever floats our zep...