Life takes us in many strange directions and wonderful discoveries. It never turns out the way we thought it would.
Monday, January 30, 2023
Sunday, January 29, 2023
A Mysterious Woman Vanishes After Pulling Off A $4 Billion Dollar Fraud
Greetings Everyone!
Sunday comes and I hope that all of you slept well and are awakening happy! I shall begin today's Op-Ed with a wanted poster as follows:
The FBI says the 'Crypto-queen' scammed investors out of $4 billion and vanished. She's now one of 11 women who have made the agency's most wanted list in its 72-year history.
By Sarah Al-Arshani
Insider
5 days ago
Ruja IgnatovaFBI
- The FBI's recent update to its Most Wanted list features the "Crypto Queen," who tricked investors out of billions.
- The suspect — Ruja Ignatova — was only the 11th woman to make it onto the list in its history.
- The women on the list range from murderers to scammers to anti-war activists.
Ruja IgnatovaFBI
In the FBI's Most Wanted List's 72-year history, only 11 women have made it on it. The women ranged from political activists like Angela Davis to the most recent, Ruja Ignatova.
Ignatova became the 11th woman to make it on the FBI's most-wanted list for allegedly scamming wealthy investors out of $4 billion between the end of 2014 and 2016 in a Ponzi scheme under her company OneCoin. She then boarded a plane and disappeared in 2017 and has not been seen since.
US authorities charged Ignatova with wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering in 2019 in absentia.
The FBI is now offering $100,000 for information on her whereabouts but suspects she may have had plastic surgery or altered how she looks in some ways.
Shanika S. Minor This is a fascinating case. The FBI has maintained The Ten Most Wanted List of fugitives for 72 years. In over 7 decades, only 11 women have hit the list. Ten were captured; some on the day that they hit this infamous list. Ms. Ignatova remains at large over a decade after she made the list.
Her crime involved fraud in the range of $4 billion dollars. Please do not assume that she got to keep all the money. She was running what I would call a Ponzi scheme. This was named after an Italian fraudster who pioneered this crime in the 1920s. Money from new investors is used to pay old investors. An illusion is created that investors are making big profits. Eventually, these schemes become unsustainable and implode when investors stop being paid. My educated guess is that Ms. Ignatova ended up with around $100 million US in her pocket.
Published reports said that she got on a plane and then vanished. It is speculated that she got plastic surgery and her fingerprints burned off. We must assume that she used her money to buy citizenship in a new country under her new identity. She severed all ties with the US including banks. She does not contact old friends and family members. We can imagine that she is, as the old saying goes, "living happily ever after somewhere in the world."
Rest assured that the wealthiest and most powerful government in the world is spending a ton of money to try to find her. The FBI and US Marshal's Service are working in tandem to try to locate her. Interpol has "a red notice" on her. Law enforcement agencies all over the world have been alerted. Airports and hotels all over the world are on alert for her. All she has to do is make one mistake and it is all over. I must say that she is a very clever lady.
Ms. Ignatova no longer exists. The person in the picture is living a new life that only started a few years ago. She has no memories of her parents or her childhood. I shall end this morning with a philosophical concept once presented in a television episode of Star Trek as follows:
"If you don't have a past then you can't have a future."
Give thanks to your higher power for your good fortune in life!
-JackW
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Friday, January 27, 2023
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Class of ’72 celebrates past, present and future at 50th Reunion
Class of ’72 celebrates past, present and future at 50th Reunion: For the members of the A. B. Freeman School of Business MBA Class of 1972, their milestone 50th reunion provided an opportunity to reconnect with friends, spend time in New Orleans and reminisce about everything that Tulane made possible in their lives.
Monday, January 23, 2023
Sunday, January 22, 2023
19 Years Ago Tonight We Moved Into Our Hosue
This night is very special. It marks 19 years that Elena and I have been in this house. Elena came to the house after a grueling day of work as a medical resident. She had a sleeping bag with her. Electricity was on and she had heating from a heater spewing out carbon monoxide. We have not left the house since.
We officially moved into the
house the following Sunday. Our dogs Copernicus and Eloisa joined us on the
Monday after the move-in.
A number of our readers
have lived in this house or visited it. Few of you know the full story of the
battle that we fought to hold onto the house and make it livable.
Right after we moved into the
house, Pacific Gas and Electric came out. They detected high amounts of carbon
monoxide in the house. The heating system was "red lined." We
immediately had to go out and spend $5,000 US for a central heating system. We
found a backyard with no fence. We had to spend $2,500 for a fence that we
hoped would keep the dogs from escaping. At that time, our joint income was
$100,000 US per year. That sounds like a lot of money. It was not a lot of
money in Silicon Valley. We barely afforded these expenditures.
The house was rat infested and
literally falling down. At the same time, the real estate market boomed. The
house went up in value from $525,000 US to $800,000 US. Like many other people,
we used the house like an ATM machine. Debt on the house shot up to $745,000 US.
Then the real estate market crashed. We awakened one morning to find that we
had a property valued at $398,000 with a debt of $745,000. Our house had a
negative value of $345,000 US.
Everyone including
bankruptcy lawyers advised Elena and me to abandon the house. Elena dug her
feet in and refused She pointed out that in her home country of Argentina,
people do not walk away from their homes. I stood at her side although I
believed that she was crazy.
We had the foresight to save a
lot of money from borrowing against the house. A massive remodeling took place.
The modern house that you see came into being. After a long and protracted
court battle costing $14,000 US in legal fees, Wells Fargo bank forgave the $
144,000-second mortgage on the house. Bank of America gave us a loan
modification at a brutally high interest rate of 6 percent. We fought until
2015 to get a loan with a decent interest rate from Sacramento Credit Union. It
was a 15-year loan. We paid it off in 5 years. The generator and solar panels
were added. The battle paid off.
Saturday, January 21, 2023
We Have Been In Our House 19 Years
It was a Wednesday evening 19 years ago. Elena came from her work at the Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco. She had brought a sleeping bag with her. She slept in this house and went to work the next morning. We have been in this house ever since. It has been a wild ride with many ups and downs. It has been many trials. We overcame many obstacles.
Friday, January 20, 2023
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Japan And China Fell Short Before Overtaking The US Economy!
Let us go back to almost 40 years ago. Japan was truly at "the height of its glory." Japanese cars were making it look like Detroit and US automakers would go out of business. Japanese consumer electronics and cameras were putting US and German-made products to shame. Japanese companies were booming and making massive acquisitions in the US. As the US budget deficit shot upward with massive defense expenditures by the late President Ronald Reagan, Japanese investors were buying up massive amounts of US debt. Serious academic think tanks issued detailed studies warning us all that Japan was set to overtake the US and become the most powerful economy and nation in the world. US television shows predicted that the University of Tokyo would soon eclipse US universities and become the number one academic center in the world.
As the old saying goes,
before Japan could score this "final game-winning touchdown," they
figuratively "fell flat on their faces." In the book and movie
"The War Of The Worlds," an invincible invading fleet of
technologically superior Martians was defeated by the microbes we have here on
earth. Japan was defeated by an aging population and a huge budget deficit that
easily exceeds 200% of GDP.
Let us fast forward to the last
three or four years. China became "the ten-foot-tall giant." They
have had economic growth that no country could rival. They have moved to become
the most powerful manufacturing center on earth. Their Navy now rivals the US
Navy. Chinese imports have come to dominate US society. The same learned think
tanks predicting that Japan would overtake the US economy in the decade of the
1980s are now saying that China's economy would overtake the US economy
sometime between 2024 and 2027.
What is unfolding now is a repeat
of Japan's meteoric rise to power. China's population has stopped growing.
There are now more old people than young workers. There is another demographic
problem that I pointed out to Elena yesterday afternoon. With prosperity, the
Chinese population is eating much better and starting to enjoy the good life.
China is afflicted with over 300 million obese people with chronic diseases
like diabetes, heart disease, etc. The Chinese healthcare system is not
prepared to serve all these sick people.
Now Covid-19 has hit the Chines
population with a vengeance. China publicly admitted to 60,000 deaths in the
last month or so. One major and serious US Covid-19 expert speculated that the
actual figure is in the range of 600,000. Matters now get worse. We have the
Chinese New Year's Celebration. This is a time of vacation and holidays. Over a
billion people will be traveling. The number of Covid-19 infections and deaths
that will follow is unimaginable and terrifying. One close Chinese friend here
in the Bay area with relatives back in mainland China made the comment:
"Everyone is infected." One of her aunts had already died of
Covid-19.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Natural Gas Is Booming In The Middle East
Oiling the Hinges
MIDDLE EAST
Natural gas is changing the Eastern Mediterranean. It could also shake up the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.
As the Middle East Institute outlined in a recent report, governments in southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa have been struggling to develop new natural gas fields since long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Since the invasion, however, as Europe has sought alternatives to Russian energy, skyrocketing prices have incentivized leaders to refocus their efforts on drilling and opening wells.
Egypt, for example, recently announced the discovery of massive new natural gas fields off its Mediterranean coast, wrote the Times of Israel. Other large fields have been found off the island of Cyprus, added Euractiv. Cyprus is now considering a pipeline to bring natural gas from Israel. Turkey is also seeking to expand production at its wells in the Black Sea, Bloomberg noted.
One can envision conflicts over these precious resources, of course. A court in Libya, for example, recently invalidated an offshore oil and gas drilling contract struck between Libyan officials and Turkey, finding that Egypt and Greece also had claims to the territory in question, Oilprice.com reported. Considering how Greek and Turkish ships occasionally trade warning shots as they patrol their abutting waters, as the Associated Press wrote, such developments could spark trouble even as they promise economic rewards.
These dynamics could potentially alter the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, too.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started his third stint in office late last year, has pledged to increase natural gas production in 2023, reported Al-Monitor. In addition to exporting energy to Europe, Netanyahu also wants to shift Israel’s power production to gas-fired. Electricity prices spiked eight percent this year in the country. Currently, plants use increasingly expensive coal to provide around 20 percent of the country’s energy.
Palestinians could also benefit.
As the Washington Post explained, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt recently reached a natural gas exploration deal that could provide millions of dollars in revenue for Palestinian services, infrastructure and economic development. While technically Hamas, the militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, wasn’t a party to the deal, they must have tacitly approved it – and Israel, in turn, must have sanctioned this understanding.
The announcement is a big deal, wrote the Middle East Monitor, because it reverses years of delays in developing natural gas in the area due to Israeli fears that Hamas, which the US and Israel designate as a terrorist group, would receive a share of the proceeds.
Not all disruption is bad.
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Romans Were Brilliant Engineers
DISCOVERIES
Made to Last
The Pantheon in Rome has survived nearly intact for almost 2,000 years.
How is that possible, scientists have long wondered.
Recently, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have figured out a few of the ancient tricks the Romans deployed to create structures that last for millennia, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
For their study, researchers took mortar samples from the walls of the ancient city of Privernum, near Rome. The samples had a similar composition to other Roman concrete structures from the same period.
They discovered that the mortar contained small chunks of calcium deposits known as lime clasts.
These deposits formed because Roman engineers used the most reactive form of limestone, called quicklime – instead of or in addition to slaked lime – which is combined with water first. This mixture causes a chemical reaction that results in hot temperatures – known as “hot mixing” – and forms the calcium deposits.
The team suggested that this method was ingenious: When water entered the cracks in concrete, the calcium would dissolve and then recrystallize – or react with other materials – to fill the fissures and strengthen the structure.
They tested this theory by creating concrete using a Roman recipe and a modern recipe. They then broke the concrete and let water pass through for 30 days.
Only the Roman concrete blocked the water flow.
Besides illustrating Rome’s advanced engineering, researchers said, the study could help engineers create more durable modern concrete.
Monday, January 16, 2023
Dinosaurs May Have Been Smarter Than We Think
DISCOVERIES
An Intricate Mind
For years, scientists thought that dinosaurs were big but not brainy.
But now, some researchers believe that some dinosaur brains were so complex and densely packed with neurons that they nearly resembled the noggins of modern primates, according to a new but controversial study.
Neuroanatomist Suzana Herculano-Houzel and her colleagues have even proposed that certain members of the extinct species were smart enough to use tools or form groups, the Washington Post reported.
For their paper, they sought to measure the density of neurons in the dinos’ cortex – the wrinkly area of the outer brain critical to most intelligence-related tasks.
Because dinosaur brains are difficult to get, the team analyzed the brain cases of some of the species – including Tyrannosaurus rex – and compared them with a massive database of bird and reptile brain masses.
They then devised an equation that correlated an animal’s brain mass with the approximate amount of neurons in the cerebrum, which comprises the cortex.
Their findings showed that the brains of theropod dinosaurs – which include T. rexes and velociraptors – nearly follow the same rules as warm-blooded modern birds. Meanwhile, the brains of sauropod dinosaurs, such as gigantic Brachiosaurus, resemble those of modern cold-blooded animals, according to Science magazine.
For example, Herculano-Houzel observed that the T. rex brain had as many as three billion neurons – comparable to a baboon’s brain. Another theropod, the deadly Alioramus, meanwhile, had more than one billion, similar to a capuchin monkey.
“I have a whole newfound respect for T. rex,” Herculano-Houzel told Science. “Something that big with those teeth that had the cognitive capacity, numberwise, of a baboon … that is legit scary.”
While some researchers and paleontologists praised the study for shedding some light on dinosaur smarts, others were careful in suggesting that the extinct creatures were intelligent enough to use tools.
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Kevin Cooper Wasn't Framed For 1983 Murders
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/Death-Row-inmate-Kevin-Cooper-wasn-t-framed-for-17717610.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2NhbGlmb3JuaWEvYXJ0aWNsZS9EZWF0aC1Sb3ctaW5tYXRlLUtldmluLUNvb3Blci13YXNuLXQtZnJhbWVkLWZvci0xNzcxNzYxMC5waHA=&time=MTY3MzczMjIyNTM3MA==&rid=N2IwYjliZGUtYTQwNC00MGU0LWI5ODYtYTRjNzhiNjI4Y2U3&sharecount=MQ==
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
The 25 Eurasia Group Makes Their 2023 Prediction For The World
https://www.eurasiagroup.net/issues/top-risks-2023
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Computers Can Be Taught Ancient Languages
DISCOVERIES
The Secrets of Language
For centuries, philologists and linguists have been racking their brains over a 2,500-year-old Sanskrit grammar puzzle created by “the father of linguistics,” a grammarian and philologist named Panini, who lived in the region of what is now northwest Pakistan and southeastern Afghanistan between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.
Considered the first to organize the structure of language, he created 4,000 grammatical rules to use for his “language machine” that taught the proper pronunciation of words in ancient Sanskrit – the language of Hinduism and India’s greatest works of science, philosophy, poetry, and other literature – and also allowed anyone to deduce or create millions of grammatically correct Sanskrit words from basic root parts.
But the problem has been that previous scholars have struggled because the machine contained so-called “rule conflicts” that affected millions of Sanskrit words: More than one of Panini’s 4,000 grammatical rules would frequently apply to a given word, altering the grammar needed for that word.
Foreseeing that problem, Panini created a metarule, wrote Ancient Origins. Unfortunately, said Rishi Rajpopat, an Indian doctoral student at the University of Cambridge and the first to decode the language machine, linguists following Panini misinterpreted the ancient grammarian’s intent, including creating new rules that further complicated the use of the machine, CTV News reported.
Rajpopat explained in his thesis that Panini’s “language machine” worked by feeding it a combination of a base and a suffix to turn them into grammatically correct words and sentences through a step-by-step process.
Because each word is made up of two components – a base and a suffix – Rajpopat interpreted the answer to suggest that individuals should follow whatever rule pertained to the right side of the word. He discovered that when he applied the solution in this manner, it worked consistently.
That will help scholars to understand what ancient peoples of South Asia discovered.
“Some of the most ancient wisdom of India has been produced in Sanskrit and we still don’t fully understand what our ancestors achieved,” Rajpopat said.
Other researchers noted that the discovery would not only revolutionize the study of Sanskrit but also could have wider implications, such as making it possible for computers to learn the language – itself a major milestone.
San Francisco Area: The Heaviest Rainfall Since Records Started Being Kept In 1850
One and a half inches of rain fell while I was asleep here in Pacifica. Reports are that we are experiencing the worst rainfall in the San Francisco area since records started being kept in 1850. We have had a big limb torn down that fell harmlessly in front of the house. We have had flooding in the backyard that menaced the kitchen door. I put up a $30 rubber barrier that kept the house safe from flood waters.
Other people have
not been so lucky. People in the Santa Cruz mountains, Gilroy, Hollister,
Pachecho, and Montecito are finding their houses underwater. One house on the
beachfront here in Pacifica found its first floor flooded. Heavy rain will
continue until early next week.
I know the insurance
business well. If there is flood damage in a home or apartment and the person
affected does not have flood insurance, the insurance companies might not pay
for their losses. The supreme irony is that many people who flooded were
not in areas previously described as flood-prone.
Monday, January 9, 2023
Saturday, January 7, 2023
The Economist Magazine Cover For 01-07-2022
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