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Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

bbc.com

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Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#11

Post by dcrazy »

userbinator wrote: post #7

More than 20% of Japan's water pipes have passed their legal service life of 40 years, according to local media That is rather low. The US still has some wooden(!) water pipes in use, as well as other plumbing installed in the late 19th/early 20th century.

This is the reason that installing a 2-mile bus lane on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco took several years. They took advantage of the opportunity to replace the hollowed out logs that had served as one of the city’s most critical water mains since the 1906 quake.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#12

Post by bparsons »

userbinator wrote: post #8
schiffern wrote: post #2

I realize there's near zero probability, but the mention of mysterious Japanese gold made my mind immediately go to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashita%27s_gold

My mind went to the founder of Bitcoin.

Not sure why the NSA would pay for a Japanese water system.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#14

Post by idontwantthis »

schiffern wrote: post #2

I realize there's near zero probability, but the mention of mysterious Japanese gold made my mind immediately go to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashita%27s_gold

I didn’t know the gold in cryptomomicon was inspired by a real thing!

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#16

Post by moi2388 »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #3

That is a bad idea. Hydrocarbon polymers like PEX, ferrous alloys, and concrete would be much more practical.

In fairness, after hundreds of years of people trying to turn lead into gold, this might be one of the more practical attempts.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#17

Post by arjie »

It is an outrageously cool thing to give money for an infrastructure project. They must have some faith that the government can deliver on something with $3.5 million.

That would be two public toilets in SF, one toilet of which actually cost $300k in paperwork and so on despite two local businessmen signing up to have the work done.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#18

Post by jogu »

worthless-trash wrote: post #15

I mean, the mitsubishi logo, makes it pretty obvious who the donor is. Edit: i mean, we can't possibly figure out who donated, thank you kind donor.

Mitsubishi Group has a lot of companies, including a bank, so no the logo doesn't say anything about who donated it.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#19

Post by serf »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #3

That is a bad idea. Hydrocarbon polymers like PEX, ferrous alloys, and concrete would be much more practical.

45lbs of gold would get you a ten foot-ish 1 in ID plumbing pipe.

... and we already have a problem with copper theft.

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