Is the Earth really Running Out of Sand, Dirt and Bacon?

According to Snopes, this Wisconsin congressman, this guy Harold Frolick, and actually realized there was a pulp paper shortage, so he was kind of trying to think down the line, and he issued the statement worrying about the day when the government might have to ration toilet paper. Carson picked up the item, and then for weeks it was really hard to buy toilet paper. In fact, people were so worried that stores not only ran out of toilet paper, they also ran out of paper towels as well. Wow,

that's pretty crazy. And is there any sense of like whether Carson felt bad about this or what. Yeah, I mean, I think he mostly felt bad for himself. He didn't want to be remembered as the guy who caused a toilet paper shortage, which is if you ever saying why we're bringing it up today. But today's show is about some very real things we're running out of, from sand to bacon to precious metals and thankfully no t P Let's dive in. Hey their podcast, Lester is welcome to

Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good friend Man Guesho Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass I can actually hardly see him at this point. This guy has been building this barricade of sandbags for days now. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So I've got to say this might be my fault. Earlier this week I was telling Tristan and how the world's supply of sand is getting low, and ever since he's just been stockpiling this

stuff like there's no tomorrow. Well he must have enough in there to start his own private beach, which I've heard might be his goal as well. So anyway, good luck to Tristan. But though to be fair, humans really are running out of sand from what I've heard of that that's true, right, Yeah, And that's not all either, Like they're actually all kinds of unexpected resources that the world's in short supply of. This includes everything from like

coffee to helium to even dirt. And a big reason for those dwindling supplies is just how much the human population has grown. So if you think about it, like in the two thousands, the population was at six billion worldwide, and today that numbers way closer to seven point six billion, and it's growing fast. And with that kind of unprecedented growth in such a short period of time, it's really easy to see how we might get light on certain resources.

I mean, but sand, that's what's so surprising. And I say this having just been to the beach, you know, not too long ago, so I really wouldn't have thought this was something that we'd ever be running out of. So what is the story on this? Exactly? So weirdly, the blame lies with the const ruction industry, and that's because sand is actually a crucial ingredient for producing concrete. In fact, sand typically makes up about of a wet concrete mixture, and it adds strength to the finished product.

But to loop this back to the population boom, you just have to think about like how much new construction was needed to house and service all these extra people, right, Like you need new apartment buildings, you need skyscrapers, sidewalks, roads, and I guess all sorts of infrastructure to support that sort of growth. Then that means a lot of concrete and by extension, a lot of sand. And that all

that makes sense. But you know, if you think about it, there's sand used in several other things that we make, like glassware, even electronics, and I would think that has to be contributing at least a little bit though, right it is. And actually sand and gravel are so useful in certain industries that they've become the most extracted materials on the planet. Like it even surpasses fossil fuels and

biomass when measured by weight. But even still there there's no question that the bulk of all that extra at sand and gravel is being used for construction. You know, a few years ago, the US Geological Survey estimated that about thirty billion tons of sand and gravel were being used in global construction projects. And this was every year. And by contrast, all of the world's other industry uses

for sand account for about fourteen billion tons annually. Wow, so forty four billion tons per year and you're saying, but that like two thirds of that goes towards construction by itself, right, exactly. But but here's the thing. Forty four billion tons is considered a conservative estimate. There's actually a strong chance that many countries have been under reporting their sand used for years to hide the true extraction rates, and the result of this is that some regions are

now running out of sand altogether. They have also been some straight up sand thefts from beaches, like in the Caribbean. I read the story from two thousand and eight about Jamaica where five truckloads of sand were taken from White Beach overnight and uh, and police were just baffled where they went, Like they went to other resorts, they halted con instruction, but they just couldn't match that sand anywhere else.

Like it's kind of stunning. But um, sand, you know, if you think about it, has always been a local product because just about every country has some of their own. But now that some regions are exhausting their native supply, sand has actually become a globally traded commodity. And it's crazy to see that I mean, sands international trade value has risen about six over the last twenty five years. All right, so the sand business is booming like we've

never seen it before. But I'm curious, like, what what's the downside to all of us? Is it just higher construction cost or what? Well, I mean, the financial expense is definitely a drawback, but it's kind of the least of our concerns. The bigger problem is that sand mining has all these terrible effects on the environment. It causes flooding, It damages infrastructure, plutes rivers, you know, and it ruins beaches.

And that last part is really where a lot of the human cost comes in because beaches and wetlands there's these natural protective barriers for coastal communities. So you know why spread sand mining. Along with all the erosion it causes, it actually exposes people to greater danger from floods and storms. Well, and if you think about other issues, we've got sea levels that are rising all the time, so it's you know,

it's not a great position to be in. I mean, the situation is even worse than developing countries like parts of Asia and Africa, and that's because sand exploitation in these regions has actually led to organized crime groups getting involved. So, uh, they're into like illegal sand mining and trade and it's wild to think about, but they're really these sand mafia's out there, these bribes, threats and violence to control black market sales. Well, I'm curious, like why are countries strip

mining beaches and coastlines at all? I mean, it seems like there's plenty of sand in the earth deserts, so why would we not just be using that? Yeah, I mean it's a great question, but ultimately, desert sand doesn't work. It's it's because it's eroded from wind rather than water, and desert sand ends up being like too fine to be used in construction materials. I mean, concrete made from that kind of sand doesn't hold well together, which you

know makes it much weaker as a result. But traditionally the majority of constructions send was mined from river banks and quarries, but now, with demand at this global height, taking stands from beaches and coastlines has also become common. What's a shame. I'm curious, So, like how desperate is the situation? Like, are we really building that much more

than we used to? Or what so, not all countries are showing this dramatic rise and sand consumption, but the ones that have are really using enough for this to be worrisome. So, for for instance, according to the US Geographical Survey, China, India, Brazil, the US and Turkey, these are the biggest concrete producers in the world with you know, China and India account for two thirds of the total production,

and China is actually the worst defender. Two fourteen report from the UN Environmental Program revealed that over the past twenty years, the countrys cement uses skyrocketed by four seven percent, and if you compare that to the fifty eight percent increase in the rest of the world, you can see why China's considered a sand hog. Oh yeah, definitely. I'm curious, like, what is the solution to all this, because I know we can't exactly ban concrete, right, Yeah, obviously most countries

aren't going to go for that. There's some promising alternatives. For example, engineers in the UK are working on a new kind of concrete that uses not only like a smaller amount of sand, but also makes up the difference with these plastic pellets. Um There's also the option to cut back on concrete usage in favor of more sustainable materials. We're talking about straw here or recycled plastics. Um. Another bet is just to make use of the sand we've

already extracted. So if we got better recycling used concrete and glass bottles, we'd actually put a big dent in the need for fresh construction sand. But probably the best way to prevent a global sand crisis is where countries to come up with an agreement on sand usage. I mean, we already have these international agreements for other natural resources, so why not do the same for sand. Well, what's

a good point? I think we're just so used to having this abundance of sand, and so it never really occurred to us that we, you know, we should be trying to conserve it. So, you know, but most people think about these finite resources, but sand really doesn't tend to come up as one of those, at least when

we're thinking about them or talking about them. Yeah, And and that makes sense on some level, because new sand is continually being produced, right, Like, sand is just bits of rock and shell that have been worn down to their most basic elements, and that process is going on constantly. But what gets overlooked is how incredibly long that timeline is. We've gotten to the point where we're using much more sand than could ever be replaced in a lifetime, where

even in a bunch of lifetimes. Well, that's something we should talk about before we go much further. Is like, what do we really mean when we say the world is running out of a resource? Because you know, it can sound a little alarmist to say we're running out of sand or coffee or whatever, and especially if that resource will never really be exhausted. For example, you know, for all the fuel and energy crisis that the world is known, we won't ever actually run out of oil

or gas. Are these substances, they will continue to accumulate naturally over time. But what will happen eventually is that will deplete all the easy to access fuel deposits. So you know, even though oil will still be there, the cost of getting it is going to skyrocket, and then you know, most people will just be priced out of

using it as a fuel source. Yeah, and aside from certain species of extinct plants or animals, I'm not sure if the planets ever really truly run out of a natural resource, like apparently there's this mineral called cry light, and it's used in pesticides and also in processing aluminum foil, and by most accounts, this is something that we've completely run out of, Like the last cry light mine was closed in the nineteen eighties and we've been using a

synthetic alternative to make bug spray and foil ever since. But that's not to say that the Earth is completely out of cry light, Like they're these rich, deep veins in the mineral that still exists all over the globe. It's just at the going rate for cry light wouldn't

justify the cost of mining it. So from a practical standpoint, we basically run out of cry late, even if there's still a lot out there, right, And you know, none of this should downplay the severity of these situations, and if anything, the idea that we're close to being priced out of all of these useful substances, I would think that should be a wake up call at the very least. Yeah, for sure. I mean, have you heard about China's monopoly

on rare earth metals. The country is said to control more than of the planet's rare earth deposits, and they can actually restrict airports on those supplies any time they want. Like, it's easy to imagine that kind of thing leading to international disputes at some point. Well, I mean, we've already said that China is using the most sands, and now we're seeing that they're also hogging all of the best metals. And you know, I kind of want to be outraged about all of this, but I have to admit I

don't really know anything about rare earth metals. So you tell me, should I be outraged about this? Yeah, Well, gave gave me a primer, and I'm gonna tell you about it because I let you make up your own mind. There are currently seventeen elements classify it as rare earth minerals, and this includes stuff like scandium and terbium, which are used to make everything from circuit boards and smartphones to um missile guidance systems to even magnets used in wind turbines.

And you know, these medals aren't quite as rare as their names suggests, but they are incredibly useful and they aren't easy to source outside of China. And adding to this concern is the fact that China likes to keep

its cars close to its best. I mean, we have no idea exactly how much of these minerals the country still has left in reserve, or how much longer it will be willing to trade them and share them with rival nations, like if and when that supply drives up, we might have to turn to lunar mining to get our rare earth fixts. I mean, what strikes me about this is just how unsexy of our problem it is. I mean, you know, if rare earth elements maybe in short supply, but how many of us even really know

what they are, let alone what they're used for. And so it seems like that's one of the biggest hurdles to bringing awareness to issues, you know, like these dwindling sand resources, or other minerals, or just anything that's like this that we don't really understand. I mean, it is, but we shouldn't little lack of sex of field stop

us from talking about something really boring but also important. Well, you know, let's double down and talk about what has to be one of the least provocative resources in short supply, and that's the very dirt beneath our feet. But before we dig in, let's take a quick break you're listening to part time genius, and we're talking about some unexpected resources that the world is running out of. And speaking of which will you already alluded to our dwindling dirt supply,

But just how bad is this damage? Well, the problem isn't so much a lack of dirt, but the lack of quality dirt. So in particular, we're running out of usable top soil, which is that layer of dirt that contains the most nutrients that allow plant life to grow. And it's frightening, it is to admit by most calculation, and I think we're down to about sixty years worth of top soil on average. So you're saying that in about sixty years we won't be able to grow crops anymore.

I mean, that's the long and short of it. Because at this point, roughly of the world's agricultural soil is classified as either degraded or seriously degraded. And these are the terms that refer to how little top soil an

area of land contains. And when you run the numbers on this, we've actually lost about half the topsail on Earth and just the past hundred and fifty years or so, and so that means that most of the nutrients the dirt once contained are gone now and as a result of this, we're growing a lot less food than we used to. But even beyond that, what we do manage to grow is far less nutritious than it used to be. For instance, modern wheat varieties contain fifty less micronutrients than

the older strains. And it's a similar case with fruits and vegetables. I mean, many of those have lost half their nutritional value or more and that's just in the years since nineteen fifty. So this is actually terrifying to think about, especial since it sounds like the problem will get significantly worse. But what is the problem exactly? Like,

what's degrading the soil so much? Well, a lot of this soul degradation is due to the farming techniques that strip carbon and the nutrients from the soil, and that just makes it weaker and less robust than the process.

So this is stuff like excessive tilling or the overuse of harmful pesticides or fertilizers, and these are all methods that put a lot of strain on the soil and they also up the amounts of salts and acids that the soil contains, and of course, over time this makes the dirt less and less hospitable to the plants that we want to grow there. Okay, so that then you can just reverse those practices, right, like, Uh, couldn't we just do away with synthetic fertilizers and I don't know,

like investing good old fashioned manure. I mean, that would be a great start, no question about that. But there's actually another major issue at play here, and it's, you know, something I haven't thought that much about until I started skimming through this book. And the book is called The Ground Beneath Us and it's by Paul Bogart. And what Paul points out is the sheer speed at which we're paving over some of the most fertile soil that we have. So I'm just going to read a little excerpt from

the book, and so here's what it says. Human settlements have traditionally taken root in fertile areas, and as these increasingly urban areas grow in human numbers, we're developing the ground and thus losing the best soils for growing food. In the United States, the amount of ground being lost to development is stunning more than a million acres per

year as one result. Whereas in nineteen eighty the nation had an average of nearly two acres of crop land for each citizen, thirty years later, and with ninety million people added, that number had fallen to one point two acres per American. All this might not matter so much if we could just find more soil, or just make more soil ourselves, but for all practical purposes, soil is

a non renewable resource. The recipe for soil is incredibly complex, requiring an intricate mix of the right chemistry, biology, and physics, and it simply takes a long time to form the rule of thumb, between five hundred and several thousand years for an inch of top soil, so incredible for just an inch of it. It's kind of like sand, right, Like like the world continues to make new top soil, but not nearly fast enough to keep pace with how

we use it. So it might be time to rethink how we're using it right, and especially the whole paving over huge tracks of it in one go part. And you know that's not a process you can just undo. There's no going back. Once the ground is paved which is why there's this saying among environmentalists that asphalt is the land's last crop and that that's that's clever, but

it's also really chilling. But you know, it says, since we're already on a downbarad spiral here, if you want a truly scary reason to worry about the global food supply, I've got two words for you. Phosphorus shortage. All right, well, you're gonna have to explain why this is scary. Remind us again what what exactly phosphorus is and what it's used for. Well, I mean, phosphorus is a mineral that's used in all kinds of products. It's used in pharmaceuticals, detergents,

building materials, food preservatives. But you know, probably most importantly, it's an active ingredient in most high quality fertilizers. We spread a lot of phosphorus on our crops every year, So if we were to run out of it before sourcing a suitable alternative food, production would actually take a huge hit. So how likely is it that will run out of phosphorus or is it more a question of

win at this point? Yeah, So there's a term called peak phosphorus and it's basically the point in time when humanity will have hit the maximum production rate possible for phosphorus. So the idea is that from that point on the mineral become harder and harder to source. So most researchers seem to think we'll hit peak phosphorus by and then completely wipe out our reserves by But there are rosier

projections as well. They they think we might be able to stretch out our reserves for another couple hundred years. I mean, I actually think it's kind of weird. How two hundred years until famine is really the optimistic take here, And so I don't know, I'm curious what got us in this trouble in the first place. Was there just never that much phosphorus to go around, or are we just blowing through it at this reckless rate or what's

the issue? Yeah, it's a little of both. I Mean, there's lots of phosphorus in the world, but the majority of it is locked up in the Earth's crust or in the bodies of living organisms. So I guess the most cost effective way to source of stuff has always been to mind it in the form of phosphate rock. I mean, the trouble is that only a handful of countries possessed significant deposits of this rock, and you know they aren't always as frugal with it as you might

want to be. I get the feeling we're talking about China again here, though, right. I mean, don't don't tell me they're hogging all the phosphorus in addition to everything else, are they? Yeah? So, historically China has had one of the world's largest reserves of phosphate rock, but even they're running load these days. Not that you'd be able to tell from how the farmers use it. Well, what makes

you say that? So? Back in two thousand nine, China Agricultural University published a study that found that northern Chinese farmers use about five pounds of fertilizer per acre. It sounds like a lot, but then you realize it's actually six times as much fertilizer as the average American farmer uses. And if that's not bad enough, the overuse of phosphorus is compounded by the fact that most of it gets washed down into the ocean by rainwater. I mean, could

this be a blessing in disguise? Like if that much phosphorus is swirling around in the ocean's currents. Because is there a way to start mining it from the ocean somehow and and use it that way? Yeah, I mean in theory, that could really work, and it's a great idea, but again, we'd eventually run into that core problem of

pricing ourselves out. Like a switch from dry mining, the marine mining would likely push the prices so high that most farmers would have to give up on phosphorus fertilizers, and I guess use synthetic ones, which of course wouldn't do our food or soil any favors. Okay, well, that that makes sense. Why you were saying this phosphorus shortages

is pretty scary to think about. But you know, now that we've laid out the bleakest food future imaginable, I feel like we should look at a lighter example of diminishing resources. What do you think? I like the light side of resource scarcity, but I'm not sure how much luck we'll have finding that. But why don't we give it a shot? After the break? Al right? Well, so late on me. What what's your upbeat example of a

resource we're running out of? I didn't say upbeat, I said a lighter example, because there's actually a worldwide helium shortage Mango, you get why I said that, I've been been saving that one up. So anyway, we we know helium best. Is this noble gas that adds lift to our balloons and of course gives us the squeaky voices. And you know, honestly, losing that in itself would probably be enough to fake it feel like a tragedy. But

but there are other things to worry about as well. Yeah, I can't imagine a world without helium balloons, But why are we running out of helium if we can find in that sphere? Well, that's the thing, because helium is super abundant in general, and it's actually the second most abundant element in the universe, and that's after hydrogen. It just so happens there isn't very much of it on Earth, and the helium that is here is constantly escaping through

our atmosphere. And that's what's worrying, because helium actually has all sorts of important applications. For example, Juno in its liquid state, helium has the lowest boiling point of any material on the planet. So not only does that make helium and valuable in cryogenics. It also makes it uniquely suited as a coolant for everything from magnets in an m R I scanner to the l c D screen on your TV or your smartphone. So all these ways that I actually really didn't know that much about before

doing the research for the episode. So what are we doing filling party balloons with helium? I mean, it feels like such a waste. And actually, if if it's so useful and rare, how come you can buy a bundle of helium balloons for like ten bucks? Actually that's a really good question, and there are plenty of experts who argue that we should be charging way higher prices for

he lium. Like I think they said the going rate for a balloon worth of helium should realistically be, you know, something like a hundred bucks, rather than the dollar two that we actually charged for this stuff. That's insane. So it really doesn't make sense, like this price deflation. So

how do we get away with selling it so cheap? Well, I mean, I guess it's partly just because we're used to helium being cheap and plentiful, So there's really this built in resistance to the idea of charging more for it. Then there's also the fact that we won't run out of helium for at least a lifetime at this point, and that makes it easier to shrug off the risk. But probably the biggest reason that we sell helium so cheap is that the US government wants it that way.

You see, in the decades after helium's discovery by this French astronomer back in eighteen sixty eight, officials that began to realize how useful a lighter than air gas could be for these military applications. So with that in mind, the federal government created this Federal Helium Reserve. And this was back in nineteen so I knew of the government had a raisin reserve, but I don't think I realized there was one for helium as well. You love dropping

that raisin reserve fact. I was hoping you would throw that into which has always been weird to me. But we'll have to talk about that in another episode. But yeah, this helium reserve, it's located in this huge, abandoned salt mine somewhere out in Texas, and you know the billion

cubic leaders of gas that stored there. It represents half of the world's helium supplies just unbelievable, and in fact, its peak in two thousand four, the facility was used to satisfy about eighty four percent of the world's helium demands for that year. But nowadays I think the number is something closer to you know, like fort or so. I mean, that's still insane. But why was there such

a drop off? Well, back, Congress passed a law called the Helium Privatization Act, and this effectively marked the end of our country's seventy year experiment in buying and storing, refining, and then selling helium. And I guess the thinking was that helium hadn't turned out to be the wonder gas that we took it for back in the early twentieth century, so we might as well start selling off our massive reserves.

And after all, the projects had incurred about one point four billion dollars in dead and the government wanted to recoup as much of that as it could, so so anyway, the law mandated that all but six hundred million cubic feet of the reserve be sold off by two thousand

and fifteen. But no matter how cheap we sold the helium balloons for we still couldn't manage to unload it all by that deadline, so instead, Congress passed another act establishing an auction system for getting rid of the helium, while also pushing that deadline back to I think it's

one if I'm not mistaken. I mean, that's crazy to me, because it feels like the kind of decision that could come back to Biden is right, Like, I mean, we were burning through the stockpil at bargain basement prices just

because we don't want to hold onto it anymore. But once all that accessible helium has been used up or I don't know, dissipates into space, how are we going to cooler iPads or fill our balloons or freeze aer ted Williams is in the future right, Well, you know, when the reserve is tapped, that's when we'll have no choice but to finally charge what helium is it really worth?

Because once the current store has gone, the only options will be to pull helium straight from the air, and that'll raise the cost by about ten thoour from what I've read, you know, or we could just mind it from the Moon's lunar soil, and of course that's not going to be any cheaper. I mean, I can't believe the Moon's are best option. It feels like we've hitched

the future of all kinds of resources to the Moon's surface. Well, and it's like we've been saying, that's kind of the story behind all the resources that we're quote unquote running out of. Not that we'll mind them all from the Moon necessarily, but that we'll have to turn increasingly to these more expensive options to extract them. And you know, finally we just won't be able to pay the cost anymore and are going to have to look elsewhere for sources of fuel or food or I don't know, even

the funny voices or whatever it might be. But you know, preserving natural resources is always this balancing act and it's one that honestly, our species hasn't quite gotten the hang off so far. So pretty much what you're saying is get used to a hundred dollar balloons. Yeah, I think that's going to be the place at some point. And you know, come to think of it, Tristan might have been better off stockpiling helium instead of all those sandbags.

I hate to say it. And of course, the hope is that humans will come up with some ingenious ideas to replace sand and dirt and whatever else. But you know, while we wait for that to happen, where do you say we get to the fact? Off it sounds good?

In I DA nine, the New York Times did a story on cars in the Soviet Union, and one of the things the writer realized was that part cars rarely had windshield wipers on them, like drivers would take them into the house with them because otherwise they'd actually get stolen. Apparently there was such a car parts shortage in those years,

and windshield wipers were harder and harder to replace. Well, the BBC did a story that there's been a shortage of burial space almost everywhere and it's led to some pretty strange solutions if you just look around the world. So there's some places in Spain and Greece where you rent an above ground crypt and then when the body decomposes,

they'll just move you into this common cemetery. Over in Israel there are some multi story underground tunnels that have been built and they're trying to come up with a workable solution in the meantime. And then in Singapore they have this unique system for ashes where they store the remains in one of fifty thousand urns and you just bring a card to the front desk whenever you want to visit your relative and they bring their urn out to you. That's crazy. Um, did you realize that Norway

went through a butter shortage in two thousand eleven. It was officially called butter panic, or that's how it translated, and it was caused by a heavy rainfall one summer which affected milk production. But apparently a single packet of butter was selling for seventy seven dollars. You know, of all the things we've talked about today, this sounds the scary because I can't imagine life without butter. But all right, well here's something you probably didn't realize. But there's about

to be a bacon shortage. Okay, maybe this is even scarier than the butter shortage. But according to Britain's National Pig Association, apport shortage is quote now unavoidable. And this isn't because we've been feeding too many bacon's trips to our dogs. It's a whole lot of other factors, from the price of grains going up to pig illnesses. And again it doesn't mean we'll run out of bacon. It's just that the price of pork chops and everything else

will likely go up. So, speaking of bacon, I know we've talked about the Lake Cow bacon, which is when Congress tried to import a bunch of hippos to America. In this was to counter a meat shortage, and apparently hippos were also supposed to take care of invasive plants that people were worried about, and the meat supposedly tastes like bacon. But uh I, I didn't realize there were a bunch of other wild meat options on the table to Congress was actually thinking about importing ostriches to start

a bunch of ostrich farms and antelope as well. All right, Well, as a beer drinker, I'm sure you read about the hot shortage back in two thousand eight, and then again there was one back in two thousand twelve. But did you realize that the Sam Adams Brewery actually shared over twenty thousand pounds of hops with hundreds of different craft breweries. So I, I didn't know about the hops shortage. But

what's the advantage to Sam Adams to like share with breweries? Well, basically, stop these other brewers from going out of business, and it wasn't just a gift, and Sam Adams had actually given them at cost. But as the founder of Sam Adams told the Chicago Tribune quote, I don't want to be Goliath. It's a lot more fun if you've got more than one. David Oh, I. I really like that Sam Adams did that to kind of save all these breweries, and it makes me like the Vier a little more.

I think you deserved the win with that fact, So I'm gonna give you the trophy. All right. Well, thanks so much, and thank you guys for listening today. I know there are probably a lot of facts that we forgot to include in today's episodes, so we would love to hear those from you. You can always reach us at part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com or act hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, or you can hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

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