

Entrepreneur sells bottled New York City tap water - Erf
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-tapwater25-2009feb25,0,6720560,full.story

======
cellis
_At 16, Zucker started a business enticing people to pay $1 to take a swing at
a golf ball. The prize for a hole in one from 150 yards: $1 million. He rented
space from a driving range and persuaded an insurance company to allow him to
pay a premium for a million-dollar policy. No one made it, but Zucker made
some extra cash._

This is one of the best ideas i've ever heard.

~~~
mynameishere
Clearly it hedged on finding a stupid-enough insurance company.

[I then go to google up some statistics...]

<http://www.golftournamenthio.com/>

Yep. AIG.

~~~
cellis
US Hole In One, too. [http://www.prlog.org/10092942-hole-in-one-insurance-
odds-gol...](http://www.prlog.org/10092942-hole-in-one-insurance-odds-golfs-
rare-feat.html) :The "average" golfer's chances of making a hole in one from
165 yards out are 1:12500. Heres a question for probability geeks: are the
chances of anyone out of 12,500 people, each trying once, higher than for 1
person trying 12,500 times?

~~~
aneesh
Well, if you assume all 12,500 people are of the same ability as the one
person (perhaps it is sufficient for their abilities to be randomly drawn from
the same population distribution, but I'm not sure of this), then you're
taking independent observations from the same distribution, and both
situations are essentially identical. However, you'd probably learn something
after a couple thousand shots, so I'd give the 1 person a better chance.

------
DannoHung
I'm gonna start selling sealed, empty plastic bottles!

I'll call it: "Make your own bottled water"

~~~
Hexstream
"Bonus: Comes with FREE fresh air inside!"

~~~
patio11
You clearly fail at marketing bottled water:

"Bottled Air: Pure, fresh air from only organic sources."

------
abstractbill
_It is, after all, one of the nation's healthiest water supplies -- so fresh
that in 2007 the Environmental Protection Agency said it did not need
filtration._

Shouldn't _all_ tap water not need filtration? Have I been assuming too much?

~~~
ibsulon
Go to Phoenix. It may or may not be safe, but it tastes quite foul.

~~~
RK
Like ibsulon said it's all a matter of taste. When I was very young, we lived
on a farm and had well water. I would go to school in the city and I hated the
taste of the water there. Later we moved to the city and I remember how I then
hated the taste of the water at my relatives' farm house.

If given the choice between a bottle of "spring" water and filtered water, I
always go with the filtered one, because I think it generally tastes better
(and more like the water I drink at home). I always find the "bottled water is
just tap water" meme annoying, because it generally isn't "just tap water".
It's usually water that's been through reverse osmosis filtration and had
added salts. That's like saying that spring water is just rain water found in
your local puddle.

------
barryfandango
Aquafina and Dasani, bottled water from the Coke and Pepsi companies, are made
with municipal source water that is filtered to improve the taste. Dasani here
in the Toronto area comes from Brampton, Ontario tap water, and there is
nothing special about Brampton tap water.

------
wallflower
Then there is Fiji water... Probably the most egregious bottled water (in
terms of energy costs to transport)

<http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/askpablo-exotic-1.php>

~~~
mark_h
Try this one, from even further afield (not to mention the hype around how it
is collected!): <http://tasmanianrain.com/>

(I'm from Tasmania, and I've never seen it -- I suspect you can only buy it in
L.A.)

------
lacker
Someone should start doing this in San Francisco.

People shouldn't be surprised by the bottled water phenomenon. You are buying
the bottle, not the water, and a bottle is often worth $1.

~~~
Ras_
You're buying easy access to the water.

~~~
nostrademons
You could just buy a Nalgene and fill it up with tap water. Or if you're
really cheap, buy _one_ bottle of bottled water, save it, and fill it up again
with tap water later. I do that all the time.

~~~
kajecounterhack
Isn't nalgene that kind of plastic they're talking about? BPA? Cancer...?

~~~
Zev
Nalgene doesn't use BPA's. They've been focused on a few times specifically
because of this. See <http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/technical/bpaInfo.html>

~~~
kajecounterhack
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24200402/>

------
djahng
I thought the reason Chez Panisse, Seattle, and SF stopped buying bottled
water was not because of the quality of the water, but rather the wastefulness
of the bottles themselves...

------
gsiener
This really bothers me. California banned bottles for a reason, and now he's
introducing more in NYC. If people want tap water on the go, buy a reusable
bottle!

~~~
anamax
> California banned bottles for a reason

When did CA ban bottles?

~~~
madh
Don't know about the state of CA, but the city of SF banned water bottles and
water coolers (favoring tap water) within city government buildings. Makes
sense plus SF water is great.

~~~
anamax
"banned" in what sense? If I walk into city hall carrying a bottle of water,
can I be arrested?

Or, did they just take water out of the vending machines and cancel water
cooler contracts for the peons?

~~~
madh
The latter. The gov't will no longer provide water coolers or bottled water as
tap water is acceptable and available.

------
releasedatez
I remember when I was very young, I was able to drink off of tap water in CA.

------
partoa
It's bottled water!

------
chiffonade
He'd make a killing in LA selling NY water.

~~~
owkaye
But since he won't a competitor could make that killing.

------
stuntgoat


