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Comment by arrowsmith | Hacker News Reader

Interesting. So should we really be wasting large quantities of this precious non-renewable resource to fill balloons at children's birthday parties?

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My understanding of this is that there's different qualities and mixtures of helium. When you buy helium from a party store it's a kind of "dirty" helium which is not pure enough for scientific/industrial applications.

The regular helium grade purchased from industrial gas suppliers and typically used for filling party balloons is >99% pure. There are higher grades available for specialized purposes, but using lower grades doesn't save any helium.

https://zephyrsolutions.com/what-are-the-different-grades-of...

Nope! The problem is that Congress chose to liquidate the reserve’s holdings below market cost a decade ago.

Since we elect idiots, we get idiotic laws and actions. And then our children get the problems we deserve.

"The government is inefficient and can't do anything right and if you elect me I can prove it!"

It's auction, what do you mean "below market cost"?

Yes exactly

And why the price to filly party baloons has gone up 10x over the last 10-20 years..

Or consumer-grade old style spinning hard drives.

Old style? What other gases are used?

Regular air I'd say 78%N 21%O + 1% other.

They are saying that the spinning disks with helium are old, which is silly. Flash is fast and convenient but a terrible thing to rely on for data storage.

It's a very common and I think reasonable way to refer to them - for most consumers there are two types of disk to care about, "old = spinning" and "new = flash". Old doesn't mean "and no longer has any use", just that it's the older of the two main options.

It is common, and silly. Also the terms are not neutral and there is no reason to apply those terms in this case other than to indicate the imagined relative worth. IE, helium is not used in old disks, it is used in spinning disks.

Nope! The problem is that Congress chose to liquidate the reserve’s holdings below market cost a few decades ago.

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