Editing 2766: Helium Reserve

{{comic
| number    = 2766
| date      = April 21, 2023
| title     = Helium Reserve
| image     = helium_reserve_2x.png
| imagesize = 347x253px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = The government has been trying to sell off the Federal Helium Reserve for a few years now, but the sale has been on hold while they try to figure out how to explain this situation to buyers.
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|National Helium Reserve}} is a reserve of helium owned by the United States government, which holds over 1 billion cubic meters of helium for a number of critical scientific and industrial applications.

Helium is also used and sold for more frivolous applications. One of the most well-known is to fill party balloons. Since helium is much lighter than air, balloons filled with it will float. Additionally, because sound propagates differently through helium than through air, inhaling some of the gas will cause a person's voice to sound much higher.

[[Cueball]] was hired to manage the Reserve, and apparently inhaled all of the helium to make his voice change, meaning that even answering this officer's question would reveal what he'd been doing.

The notion of one person inhaling the entire helium reserve is, of course, ludicrous (not to mention the fact that inhaling helium deprives a person of oxygen).

Due to rising prices, most helium now sold for balloons is mixed with air.  This lowers cost, but makes balloons less buoyant, and dramatically reduces the impact of the gas on your voice. Since inhaling balloons has become ineffective, when Cueball is given access to a vast supply of undistilled helium, he can no longer help himself.

The title text addresses the real-world privatization of the Reserve, first selling off the helium itself and then the sale of the storage facility. This has been a drawn out process because of political disagreements, and it will now be much more difficult as there is no helium left to sell.

==Transcript==
:[An officer wearing a peaked cap is talking to Cueball. There is a "National Strategic Helium Reserve" building in the background.]
:Officer: You were in charge of guarding the national helium reserve. So where did it go?! 

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Unfortunately, there's no good way for me to answer this question out loud.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]