Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

cosmosmagazine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 163 posts

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#21

Post by ReptileMan »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #16
ramesh31 wrote: post #2

I can't help but think this olympics will go into the history books with an asterisk. That probably has something to do with Biles stepping down. It just feels weird.

Simon Biles will go down as a hero. Admitting you don't feel well is huge. Her honesty will save countless people. She is my new hero. I probally shouldn't have said "hero". We all don't like word, or label. I just admire her on a lot of levels. Crippling anxiety pretty much ruined me life.

And I admire Kerri Strug. The whole point of the Olympics is to transcend the limitations of your mind and body and not to succumb to them.

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#22

Post by Asymmetryk »

Scea91 wrote: post #5

Small details like this make my day. I also love how it was basically crowdfunded by Japanese people. It quite strenghtens the symbolic value of the medal I think.

when and where from can I get myself a recycled electronics gold watch / earrings for my lady geek? I feel very confident that this is going to happen, now, but I'm fascinated by the economics of the acquisition of the e-waste, in terms of "ore" density : it's a while since I was marvelling at the sight of the gold pad to pin wires in a ceramic package. Where's the highest quality and concentrations now?

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#23

Post by poooogles »

ekianjo wrote: post #8
new299 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like any article on the Olympics should mention that >80% of the Japanese population was against holding the Olympics [1]. And that in most respects it has be a disaster, I've lost count of the number of scandals and resignations... [2] Rather than being good PR for Japan, it feels like it's been overwhelmingly negative. On top of this, COVID19 infections are rapidly increasing (now at their highest level). Wh…

Olympics is such a massive waste of money that nobody except politicians who want to show off with taxpayer money or industrials benefiting from government contracts would be for it.

We benefited from it in London, I think we all wanted it too. Even if it kind of was an austerity Olympics compared to before it and after it? Sure we wasted some money here and there (was who the fuck needs a giant slide) but overall it turned an industrial wasteland into a useful area for East London.

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#24

Post by Asymmetryk »

ekianjo wrote: post #8
new299 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like any article on the Olympics should mention that >80% of the Japanese population was against holding the Olympics [1]. And that in most respects it has be a disaster, I've lost count of the number of scandals and resignations... [2] Rather than being good PR for Japan, it feels like it's been overwhelmingly negative. On top of this, COVID19 infections are rapidly increasing (now at their highest level). Wh…

Olympics is such a massive waste of money that nobody except politicians who want to show off with taxpayer money or industrials benefiting from government contracts would be for it.

The understanding that I think that attentive observers are taking away from this games, is that the Olympics Committee and political cohort bring shame on the host nation, not glory. I hope I'm not being too sensitive, but I really have felt as if the Japanese people have been reacting not merely to the patent illogic and consequently unjustifiable dangers, but I like to think that the Japanese are reacting to the contemptuous and privileged solipsism of those responsible, with a demonstration of regret and protest that's going to make everyone start to see these organisers for who they are.

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#25

Post by darkfirefly »

poooogles wrote: post #23
ekianjo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Olympics is such a massive waste of money that nobody except politicians who want to show off with taxpayer money or industrials benefiting from government contracts would be for it.

We benefited from it in London, I think we all wanted it too. Even if it kind of was an austerity Olympics compared to before it and after it? Sure we wasted some money here and there (was who the fuck needs a giant slide) but overall it turned an industrial wasteland into a useful area for East London.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure how other countries do it, but for the 2000 Olympics (Sydney) they basically renewed this giant landfill site. There's been a bunch of apartments, etc, built around there since then because it basically became a suburb where you could live.

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#26

Post by monkeycantype »

ekianjo wrote: post #8
new299 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like any article on the Olympics should mention that >80% of the Japanese population was against holding the Olympics [1]. And that in most respects it has be a disaster, I've lost count of the number of scandals and resignations... [2] Rather than being good PR for Japan, it feels like it's been overwhelmingly negative. On top of this, COVID19 infections are rapidly increasing (now at their highest level). Wh…

Olympics is such a massive waste of money that nobody except politicians who want to show off with taxpayer money or industrials benefiting from government contracts would be for it.

Watching the soccer made we think maybe we could get used to watching athletes compete in beautiful locations with no stadiums and crowds. Maybe you could do olympics really cheap with no tourists

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#27

Post by numpad0 »

f0xytr0xy wrote: post #18
new299 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like any article on the Olympics should mention that >80% of the Japanese population was against holding the Olympics [1]. And that in most respects it has be a disaster, I've lost count of the number of scandals and resignations... [2] Rather than being good PR for Japan, it feels like it's been overwhelmingly negative. On top of this, COVID19 infections are rapidly increasing (now at their highest level). Wh…

> And that in most respects it has be a disaster, I've lost count of the number of scandals and resignations... [2] Rather than being good PR for Japan, it feels like it's been overwhelmingly negative. You are basically describing every olympics I can remember and most that I’ve read about before my birth. Assassinations, at least 5 decades of doping scandals by East Germany and USSR, ice skaters’ husbands attacking…

WA2000 is also one of the coolest sculptures in the history :p

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#28

Post by Ntrails »

poooogles wrote: post #23
ekianjo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Olympics is such a massive waste of money that nobody except politicians who want to show off with taxpayer money or industrials benefiting from government contracts would be for it.

We benefited from it in London, I think we all wanted it too. Even if it kind of was an austerity Olympics compared to before it and after it? Sure we wasted some money here and there (was who the fuck needs a giant slide) but overall it turned an industrial wasteland into a useful area for East London.

> I think we all wanted it too

Definitely not true. However, post hoc I am forced to admit it was not as colossal a waste of money as I'd expected, and honestly there was an astonishingly positive societal response. So, I was wrong, but I was not alone!

Re: Medals at Tokyo olympics are recycled from discarded electronic equipment

#29

Post by JetSetWilly »

poooogles wrote: post #23
ekianjo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Olympics is such a massive waste of money that nobody except politicians who want to show off with taxpayer money or industrials benefiting from government contracts would be for it.

We benefited from it in London, I think we all wanted it too. Even if it kind of was an austerity Olympics compared to before it and after it? Sure we wasted some money here and there (was who the fuck needs a giant slide) but overall it turned an industrial wasteland into a useful area for East London.

The Olympics in London cost 11.3 Billion and generated revenue of 3.3 billion which doesn't exactly seem hugely beneficial.

Of course in the usual London fashion most of the money came out of UK govt coffers, national lottery funding etc - so it was just a form of London sucking cash out of the rest of the UK to build infra, via the handy "Olympics" excuse, so I can see how a londoner might argue it was good as it was a means of extracting resources from the rest of the country.

In the aggregate, it was just a giant waste of money especially for the 90% of the UK population that isn't in London.

Post reply on HN