[HN Gopher] Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they need... ___________________________________________________________________ Soviet Union sold titanium to US believing they needed it for pizza ovens Author : jerryjerryjerry Score : 45 points Date : 2023-06-18 21:13 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (theaviationgeekclub.com) (TXT) w3m dump (theaviationgeekclub.com) | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: | This is due a miscommunication. The SR-71 was originally | developed for rapid pizza delivery(this was when companies took | their pledge, "It's hot or it's free" seriously). It could | deliver hot pizza to any point in the continental US rapidly | allowing there to be full coverage with only a few actual pizza | baking locations. Unfortunately, the Air Force saw the potential | military implications and repurposed it. | Hikikomori wrote: | The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into | its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt. | Unlike a bimbo box or a Burb beater, the Deliverator's car | unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished | sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit | happens. | | You want to talk contact patches? Your car's tires have tiny | contact patches, talk to the asphalt in four places the size of | your tongue. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with | contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. The | Deliverator is in touch with the road, starts like a bad day, | stops on a peseta. | | Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. | He is a role model. This is America. People do whatever the | fuck they feel like doing, you got a problem with that? Because | they have a right to. And because they have guns and no one can | fucking stop them. As a result, this country has one of the | worst economies in the world. When it gets down to it -- | talking trade balances here -- once we've brain-drained all our | technology into other countries, once things have evened out, | they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in | Tadzhikistan and selling them here -- once our edge in natural | resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and | dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New | Zealand for a nickel -- once the Invisible Hand has taken all | those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad | global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to | be prosperity -- y'know what? There's only four things we do | better than anyone else: * music * movies * microcode | (software) * high-speed pizza delivery | | The Deliverator used to make software. Still does, sometimes. | But if life were a mellow elementary school run by well-meaning | education Ph.D.s, the Deliverator's report card would say: | "Hiro is so bright and creative but needs to work harder on his | cooperation skills." | | So now he has this other job. No brightness or creativity | involved -- but no cooperation either. Just a single principle: | The Deliverator stands tall, your pie in thirty minutes or you | can have it free, shoot the driver, take his car, file a class- | action suit. The Deliverator has been working this job for six | months, a rich and lengthy tenure by his standards, and has | never delivered a pizza in more than twenty-one minutes. | thrill wrote: | If a fella wasn't careful, such a vehicle might crash ... | into snow. | duxup wrote: | Considering a pizza oven doesn't require titanium... that's a | strange cover story. | blihp wrote: | They didn't know that at the time. Not an outrageous story as | hotter is generally better for pizza ovens. | varjag wrote: | You don't quite need 1500C or so Ti alloys can tolerate to | bake a pizza. | duxup wrote: | > They didn't know that at the time. | | Hard to imagine they even tried to find out as the lie would | quickly become obvious with just a little effort. | epmos wrote: | Rutile is used in refractory bricks and the import was of | the ore mineral. So not completely unbelievable. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutile#Application | kevin_thibedeau wrote: | There was no shortage of TiO2 in the US. It's used | everywhere. They were specifically importing the refined | metal because the soviets had the only viable production | capacity. | satiric wrote: | Forget wood fired pizza, titanium fired pizza has a way better | flavor. | | I wonder if they really used the pizza alibi for all the | titanium or if they diversified. Did they really put all their | eggs in one basket? | taf2 wrote: | Can't wait for the YouTube video about this - should be a | good DIY series | atomicnumber3 wrote: | The capitalists are decadent bourgeois pigs, who could fathom | the whims of their lifestyles? | | (this is a joke) | klyrs wrote: | I swear to you, there is an untapped market for titanium | pizza ovens. Maybe for camping gear. Maybe for stationary | ovens. But fire + titanium + father's day? It practically | sells itself. Titanium pizza peels are already on the market. | Who needs this shit? | msla wrote: | So you're saying those uranium-powered baby monitors probably | aren't on the up-and-up? | ezzaf wrote: | Perhaps a more accurate headline would have been this buried | deeper in the article | | "The US worked through Third World countries and fake companies | and finally was able to ship the ore to the US to build the | SR-71." | | And to complete the loop, Russia is now importing sanctioned | American microchips for its missiles via third parties. I wonder | if the order form states they will be used in smart pizzas ovens. | 8note wrote: | > After all, they fraudulently possibly told their comrades that | the United States was a lazy country that probably couldn't even | cook for itself. They need it to go out to buy pizza... | | This is a weird dig at the soviets, who were probs just happy to | to find some customers to justify having already dug up all the | ore. The fraudster seem to be the Americans in this case? | varjag wrote: | Fun fact, pizza was virtually unknown in USSR throughout its | existence. | cpursley wrote: | What you could get was Georgian-style khachapuri which is an | amazing cheesy butter bread thing. | | Now there's a Dodo pizza in every city and pizza-sushi-etc | places kn every corner. | YLYvYkHeB2NRNT wrote: | when is OK to trust a liar? | tedunangst wrote: | But why would a pilot be privy to the materials sourcing | operations? | dharmab wrote: | This information has been declassified for decades. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-06-18 23:00 UTC)