While I was growing up, my mother often said to me, "If it's too good to be true, it is."
Devil's Coin is written by Jennifer McAdam, a victim of Ruja While I was growing up, my mother often said to me, "If it's too good to be true, it is."
Devil's Coin is written by Jennifer McAdam, a victim of Ruja Ignatova's massive fraudulent Ponzi scheme, OneCoin. It was the dreamland of cryptocurrency. and many victims felt FOMO (fear of missing out) across all continents. While the real money flowed to Ignatova, her cultish followers preyed on common folk because it offered "little people" a chance to get on the money ladder.
After people began investing, if they raised questions they were told, "When in doubt, invest more." It was forbidden to be negative if you were in the OneCoin family. McAdam describes it as cleverly parlanced nonsense which made you look the other way while daylight robbery was occurring.
What makes McAdam's story fascinating is that she became a champion for victims of OneCoin's fraud, despite continual death threats. McAdam continues to be a fierce advocate for justice, even while plagued with serious health issues. McAdam believes that having health issues earlier in her life taught her how to be a fighter.
"We read books to find out who we are." Ursula K. Le Guin.
While in the UK, I purchased A Bookshop of One’s Own. Jane Cholmeley and her partner, Sue Bu"We read books to find out who we are." Ursula K. Le Guin.
While in the UK, I purchased A Bookshop of One’s Own. Jane Cholmeley and her partner, Sue Butterworth, opened a bookstore focused on women and lesbians. The bookstore was called Silver Moon, and it was located at 68 Charring Cross Road in London. It opened in 1984 and closed in 2001.
A Bookshop of One’s Own is a love letter to Silver Moon, feminists, thinkers, women, writers, authors, publishers, and their customers. The bookshop opened against a backdrop of misogyny and homophobia in Britain.
This book captured my soul because my BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) is to own a bookstore. I was able to live vicariously with Jane and Sue within this book.
Favorite passages include:
* The power of women to change the narrative when they hold the pen.
* Bookshops are always places of power.
* At the time, we didn't think much about legacy; we were more concerned with survival and laughter.
* It was a place of total involvement: heart, soul, and brain.
* Books became my refuge.
* A woman's bookshop could link writers to readers and get our voices heard.
* We combined the mundane with the magnificent.
* Visibility is politics in action.
* Author Rebecca West: I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.
I wish I had known about Silver Moon and been able to visit it when it was opened. Other women owned independent bookstores that I have visited include:
1. Changing Hands (Tempe and Phoenix, AZ): Originally founded in 1974 with Gayle Shanks, Tom Broderson, and Bob Sommer. Gayle Shanks is now the sole owner.
2. Tattered Cover (Denver, CO): Purchased in 1974 by Joyce Meskis. In 2000, a warrant was served to provide a reader's purchasing habits. Meskis refused based on the First Amendment. She took it all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court where she won. In 2024, Tattered Cover was sold to Barnes and Noble.
I am looking forward to reading Bill Gate's memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings. I am in the que for the book on Libby and it is an eleven week wait.
II am looking forward to reading Bill Gate's memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings. I am in the que for the book on Libby and it is an eleven week wait.
In the meantime, one of the available audiobooks on Libby was Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World so I listened to it. The author is Anupreeta Das and the narrator is Ulka Simone Mohanty. Based on the photo of Bill Gates on the cover, I mistakenly assumed it was a biography about Bill Gates from several decades ago.
Right away, I learned my assumptions were wrong. The book starts with Gates' association with Jeffrey Epstein and Gates' divorce from Melinda French Gates. The book really is not about Bill Gates. It is about billionaires in general and how their accumulation of wealth should be used for philanthropy.
Several times the book negatively references the Gates Foundation's efforts around the eradication of polio. I am very familiar with polio and how significantly it has been eradicated, primarily due to the polio vaccine and the global efforts of the Gates Foundation.
The book's bias and slant doesn't feel balanced or well researched....more
The dominant hypothesis that amyloid-beta proteins and tau tangles cause Alzheimer's has been in existence for decades, but little progress has been made to slow, stop or reverse cognitive decline.
In 2023 and 2024, the FDA approved two Alzheimer's drugs, Leqembi and Kisunla. The drugs target beta amyloid plaques and are believed to slow cognitive impairment. This was dramatic, exciting news for doctors, pharma companies, patients, families, and caregivers.
A credible, experienced, humble, neurologist and neuroscientist discovered brain images that had been altered by scientists in order to be published in respected science journals, receive funding from NIH (National Institute of Health) and/or pharma companies, and advance their careers and status.
Not only had this occurred with recent scientific discoveries, but it was also prevalent when Alzheimer's was originally linked to the amyloid hypothesis.
This book reads like a fast-paced thriller with robust character development, but it is not fiction. I kept hoping others would speak up even though it was highly probable it would negatively impact their careers. The depth and breadth of deception is jaw dropping. It's criminal.
Memorable passages include:
* It's zombie science
* Everything is Figureoutable
* Beware of dogma
* Outlandish, revolutionary, or false scientific findings can stand for many years without public efforts to replicate or repudicate them, sometimes leading to catastrophic wastes of time, resources, and even lives.
* Between 1999 and 2015, rates for the top three causes of death in the US fell sharply. Alzheimer's rates and fatalities went in the opposite direction.
* You can't cheat to cure a disease
* The history of whistleblowing is littered with corpses
* An entrenched idea can become difficult to dislodge
* Leqembi shrunk the brain rapidly---more rapidly than Alzheimer's itself
* The FDA provisionally approved Leqembi even before seeing the major trial results
* Later, the FDA required a "black box warning" on Leqembi; denotes the risk of death.
* Some pharma companies are advocating trials targeting amyloid deposits in patients as young as eighteen
* How has a protein associated with Alzheimer's been studied for over thirty-five years, with billions of dollars of research funding and hundreds of scientists dedicated to unraveling its role, has yet to generate a clear answer, or even a consensus?
* Cheaters are always one step ahead of the detectors
* One in fifty scientists admits to having fabricated or falsified experimental data
RelationShift: Revolutionary Fundraising provides key insights about turbocharging your fundraising efforts by focusing on strengthening relationshipsRelationShift: Revolutionary Fundraising provides key insights about turbocharging your fundraising efforts by focusing on strengthening relationships with existing donors and getting them involved with your organization.....through tours, providing information, spending time listening and talking with donors, and sending handwritten Thank You notes.
The introductory quote by William James states, "The deepest principle in human nature if the craving to be appreciated." This is SO true but is often forgotten or overlooked. The book shares 20 myths about fundraising and how to instead focus on appreciating existing donors which will result in additional donations.