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A Real Life Cryptonomicon Gold Stash?
GeHa writes "ABCnews has a story about the possible recovery of a hidden Japanese gold cache. Remember Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon?" A search on google brings up several interesting stories on this Thai gold hunt, including one to a 1996 article which includes a photo allegedly showing the entrance to the cave holding this cache. Now I have to re-read Cryptonomicon;)
Why is this marked up as an insightful comment? It's patently obvious -- to any moderator who did their job and actually *read* the article that was linked -- that the commentator did not read the article.
"Even if this guy does find the treasure, it doesn't even belong to Japan."
Well, no shit, sherlock: it's been found *in Thailand*, by a *Thai senator*, and the *Thai PM* says that, if true, the discovery would sure help Thailand get outta the debt hole.
Not a glimmer of a hint of a whimsy that anyone even remotely Japanese is thinking that they might benefit.
I suggest that the moderator who was responsible for giving points to the comment *quit* being a moderator. If you can't be bothered to make even the teensiest effort to be competent, gracefully bow out.
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
You know, this reminds me a lot about the Yamashita treasure that was supposed to have been hidden in my country. I guess Ferdinand Marcos found it and it's now part of the stash the late dictator's family has in Switzerland. Most likely given the number of military dictators who've held rule in Thailand it's probably long gone by now.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
On Tuesday, Latthasaksiri gave Thailand's finance ministry a document purporting to represent the 25 billion dollars in US bonds supposedly retrieved from the cave.
But a regional US secret service official debunked the document as "fictitious", saying US treasury bonds had never been issued in denominations greater than one million dollars.
"This in no way represents what a genuine US bond would look like," the official told AFP after examining a reproduction of the document.
If I was going to guard 10.5 tons of gold in Lower Manhattan, I'd put it below sea level with a big pipe coming in from the sea and the valve in an undisclosed location.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Are you going to kick the bucket now?
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Read my lips, no new taxes."
Treasure caches are reported to be in the Philipienes, although rumored that Marcos tortured the locations out of some captured japanese and pocketed large amounts. In mainland China, caches are still found, even today, of families or merchants wealth buried in the earth to hide it. Many never returned here's an example of some pieces which have been recovered. I just bought another group, including spanish colonial 8 reales (Pieces of eight.) There had been considerable wealth in southeast asia, due to extensive trade with the old and new world. "Chopmarks" in silver coins were left by merchants and assayers.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
And you'll get truncated by the 120 char sig limit?
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Thats reminscent of Christopher Columbus, and Spain shafting the Native Americans, then claiming fame by so called Discovering America.
How was it discovered when it already existed, and why do history books still not show his true actions during those times
Whatever the claim on this stash, if someone found it, ethically they should return it, but if law allows, they did find it, why shouldn't they also have the option to keep it. Look at what Swiss banks did to the Jews, then again even some American companies.
360 degrees of Karma
Globe & Mail (Canada) has a strangely different story on their website.
thai gold
Even if this guy does find the treasure, it doesn't even belong to Japan. For him, or any Japanese citizen to lay claim to the treasure would be to justify Japan's actions during WWII. I hardly think that ill-gotten booty, obtained while your country was burning women, children, and villages should by kept by the opressors after the war has drawn to the conclusion. If the researcher in the story was to find the buried rail cars, he should take the moral high ground and return the loot to it's rightful Thai owners, and do his part to restore some of Japan's dignity that was shattered after the war.
Slashdot: Open Source, Closed Minds.
Just a couple of weeks ago I submitted a poll suggestion about how long it took people to get through 'Cryptonomicon'.
1) Less than one day.
2) One to two days.
3) Three to seven days.
4) One to two weeks.
5) You mean this thing actually ends?
6) Cryptowhatnow?
'Intellectual Properties' are uncontrollable in the wild. To base an economy on them is just stupid.
The Kanchanaburi area, famous for sapphire and ruby deposits, has been dug up and overturned, and searched in great detail for a very long time. This includes every cave, nook, and crannie. They have been searched even more thoroughly since the existing deposits ran out in the early 90's. I have serious doubts about trainloads of gold in that area. Also, my experience with watching Thai politicians, says the truth is 180 degrees from what they say publicly. for example, in the weeks preceeding the devaluing of the baht, the prime minister publicly proclaimed there would be no devaluing of the baht, and made this claim daily on national TV, right up to the day the devaluation occurred.