Pro-tip – If you ever have to load 9.3 tons of gold, silver and platinum in an airplane, make sure you secure the load. I mean, tie it down good. You know, throw a few bungee chords over it. Or maybe a strap or two. Something. At least some rope. Because here’s a dirty little secret.
Things shift during flight.
Apparently, the guys loading the Russian AN-12 cargo plane in Siberia never read the little warnings on the overhead bins or listened to the flight attendant spiel. They loaded more than 18,000 pounds of gold and other precious metals on the plane and, as a Time Magazine report put it, “didn’t properly stabilize the load” before takeoff.
As you can probably imagine, this didn’t end well.
Imagine the riches you would have if you discovered a way to turn lead, or dirt, or iron into pure gold. Well, people have been trying to figure out how to do this for eons. We have records of people trying to come up with formulas to turn regular old stuff into gold dating back to ancient Egypt, China and India.
In fact, a whole pseudoscience grew up around efforts to change common substances into gold known as alchemy. Well, where man has failed, Mother Nature has prevailed.
Americans can turn pretty much anything into a “holiday.” Even a groundhog.
I guess Groundhog Day isn’t a holiday, strictly speaking. I mean, I don’t get a day off work. And the government doesn’t close. That’s when you know you have a real holiday. Government shuts down and my mailbox isn’t filled with inane fliers and bills. By that measure, Groundhog Day doesn’t qualify as a holiday.
But Americans still make a big deal out of the day. And there is drinking. Everybody knows a real holiday involves getting sloshed. And what better reason is there to drink than fretting over whether a rodent is going to predict 6 more weeks of winter? So, maybe it is a holiday – at least in the vein of St. Patrick’s Day.
So, here’s a little nugget I dug out of the deep, dark depths of the internet this week.
A truck driving along a major highway in South Africa lost its load. This caused a major frenzy, not to mention a horrendous Los Angeles-style traffic jam. And what did this truck dump that resulted in such chaos?
Gold!
There are certain things I see and I automatically think, “That’s a bad plan, dude.”
This hasn’t been a great week in the cryptocurrency world. Facebook announced it is banning all ads that promote cryptos, including Bitcoin. According to Zuck’s people, Facebook has to protect users from “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” By that rationale, Facebook should probably ban all political advertising. At any rate, the announcement sent the price of Bitcoin spiraling downward yet again. It is below $8,000 as I write this.
The Indian government added fuel to the fire, announcing it wants to “stamp out cryptocurrencies.” I say good luck with that. It will never happen. But I’m sure the government will make a lot of people miserable in the process.
So, anyway, a bad week for Bitcoin. And I’ve got some news that’s going to make it even worse for some of you crypto fans out there.
It seems Pres. Trump’s plan to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting to adorn the White House went into the crapper. But it was a solid gold crapper – so the news wasn’t all bad.
The queen is not pleased!
Her golden carriage is uncomfortable.
I’ve got bad news for all you aspiring Olympic champions out there. Your gonna get hosed. Your first-rate effort will win you a second-rate prize.
Get this – the Olympic gold medal is mostly made out of silver. True story. The gold medal is actually formed mostly out of silver coated with about 6 grams of gold plating.
So, gold medal winners – for all practical purposes – you’re getting a silver medal.
Sorry about your luck.
