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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

#71

Post by sidewndr46 »

mhitza wrote: post #64
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.

Is that why the American tourists in Europe always ask if tap water is drinkable?

I'm American and noticed a trend in a subset of Americans that believe only their drinking water is potable. In some cases this applies even when they travel to other portions of the US.

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

#72

Post by mhitza »

relaxing wrote: post #69
mhitza wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that why the American tourists in Europe always ask if tap water is drinkable?

I got a nasty stomach bug from drinking the tap water in Sicily. And then I told the rest of America to watch out for the water in Europe. So it’s me; I’m the reason.

Your messaging must have incredible reach!

I've had my fair share of stomach discomforts while travelling, but I'm very unlikely to associate it with tap water unless I do a controlled self-study.

More often its clearly from food prepared in unhygienic conditions, because that's the only variable during my travels and tap water is the norm for me.

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

#73

Post by fuzzfactor »

cyode wrote: post #37
arjie wrote: post #17

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.

The lone ranger donor route feels severely suboptimal, unless perhaps if the donor is a .001%er pledging a large share of their net worth. Imagine if this anonymous person worked with a foundation pledging to match $3.5M if said amount was raise via crowdfund. Even if say $1M goes to the campaign and NGO bloat, that’s still way more pipe money.

>a .001%er pledging a large share of their net worth.

Not exactly, $3.5M would be a very small share of their net worth . . .

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

#74

Post by rester324 »

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #28
rester324 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"would put it to good use - including tackling the deterioration of water pipes" There is your faith in action. Zero concrete promise, no accountability.

* In the culture that also produced this comment. This is not a universal problem, just a societies unable to produce a high trust environment problem.

[flagged]

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

#75

Post by Throaway1982 »

mhitza wrote: post #64
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.

Is that why the American tourists in Europe always ask if tap water is drinkable?

No, its cause a lot of American tap water isn't drinkable lol

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

#76

Post by dpkirchner »

Pay08 wrote: post #60
sharkjacobs wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urban trees in Montreal (and presumably other cities) only survive through the summer because of the water they get from leaky pipes. > Maple trees drink about 50 litres of water every day, and it seems some of their hydration is coming from Montreal’s crumbling infrastructure. https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/montreals-leaky-pipe...

I just realised I've never actually thought about how urban trees get water. I never see them get watered and I assume that would be an incredibly inefficient way to do it.

In Austin we saw water trucks roll up and water em with hoses out the back. It was weird to see after having lived in a wet climate my whole life.

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

#77

Post by tmaly »

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

There is a great book on this topic. My in-laws gave me a sword that supposedly had a map to one the gold locations. But today it is quite a bit of myth. I do believe the explorer did find a gold statue as there were pictures. But the rest of the claims of gold I am skeptical about.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson does a good fictional take on it.

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

#78

Post by zulban »

Pay08 wrote: post #61
Animats wrote: post #4

And that's Osaka. Osaka's population peaked around 2017.[1] The only major city in Japan not on a downtrend is Yokohama, which is in the Greater Tokyo area. Keeping up all the infrastructure as the population declines is tough. That's one of the challenges of this century for the developed world. [1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/cities/japan/osaka

Why is it difficult? I assume the proportion of infrastructure experts would stay the same.

If your roommates leave your rent doesn't go down. Infrastructure can't be trivially cut in half.

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

#79

Post by pjc50 »

simianparrot wrote: post #70
ArnoVW wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a pattern where criminal organizations fill governance gaps rather than starting as genuine governments. The Yakuza did this opportunistically at certain historical moments. Hamas is a similar example (not a criminal organisation, but..) , allthough they are more of a institution-building than the Yakuza ever was.

[flagged]

Hamas and also Isis performed the functions of local government in their controlled areas.

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

#80

Post by prewett »

A pile of gold always reminds me of an Asimov short story, which began by a guy offering 100k credits of gold bars to a respected movie producer to make a film of questionable artist merit. "He didn't need the credits. He wasn't sure he didn't need the gold."
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