Never Saw Me Coming

Author: Tanya Smith

This is an unbelievable story of how Tanya Smith defrauded the US Banking System out of millions of dollars. But the story is much more than just a clever bank heist. It starts out with Tanya growing up as a young black girl in a suburb of Minneapolis. Her father was a successful businessman and she was bored with what society had to offer her in terms of education or role models. 

Her first social manipulation was to get an audience with Michael Jackson. She tried to get his phone number and even made a trip to his residence in California without the knowledge of her parents. From there she quickly graduated to deceiving employees of utility companies into altering account information to void utility bills of friends and relatives. She would call the utility company and impersonate a co-worker who was locked out of the system. She would them ask the co-worker to perform the transaction to clear overdue bills and such.

The skills she developed while manipulating utility companies laid the groundwork for her later, more sophisticated frauds against banks, where she would execute wire transfers and siphon off millions. She posed as a colleague and asked bank employees to disclose sensitive information that she could use to execute fraudulent wire transfers. She would wire the money to random individuals who would cash them and share the proceeds with her. She employed a network of “runners” who she maintained a wall of separation from so that even if they were caught, it wouldn’t lead the FBI to her. 

She was in and out of jail a couple of times, and I highly recommend reading her book to learn the details. I couldn’t put the book down and since then have been telling everyone who will listen to read the book!

An Honest Woman

Author: Charlotte Shane

Charlotte Shane is at the very high end of the Sex Work business. In this memoir she offers an intimate look at love, sex work and the complexities of human relationships. She delves into her relationships with clients, friends, and her husband, examining how these connections are influenced by her work as a sex worker. 

As the perpetual “other woman”, she has a unique perspective on conventional narratives on fidelity and desire. She reflects that she “thought about marriage, sort of abstractly, as a concept, because [she] was a satellite of so many others – indirectly, but sometimes directly, too.”

A central part of the narrative is her relationship with Roger, a married client 26 years her senior. He is a regular customer for nearly a decade and they form a complex emotional bond that transcends the typical client-escort dynamic. Her prose is engaging and introspective, combining personal anecdotes with broader reflections on cultural norms. This book will challenge your notions about sex workers and make you reconsider your perceptions of intimacy and fidelity.

The Struggle for Taiwain

Author: Sulmaan Wasif Khan

I work with a lot of engineers from Taiwan and have always been curious about what the fuss about Taiwan and Mainland China is all about. This book seemed like it would be a good place to get some answers. The first thing that caught my attention was the name of the author. Sulmaan Wasif Khan was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan. He is a Professor of History at Tufts University and to the best of my knowledge did not grow up or live in Taiwan. However, from reading the book, it is clear that he has an extensive and deep knowledge of both the history and culture that has shaped present day Taiwan. In this book, he explores the intricate relationship between the United States, China, and Taiwan, highlighting how historical events have shaped this dynamic. It discusses America’s fluctuating commitment to Taiwan's defense, China’s resentment over Taiwan's separation, and Taiwan's evolution into a thriving democracy.

Khan traces Taiwan's history from its time as a Japanese colony to its post-World War II status under the Kuomintang (KMT) after their retreat from mainland China in 1949. This period set the stage for Taiwan's contentious political status. The book details how the U.S. initially supported Taiwan as a bulwark against communism, backing the authoritarian regime of Chiang Kai-shek. However, shifts in U.S. foreign policy, particularly during the Nixon administration, complicated Taiwan's international standing.

In 1987, Chiang lifted martial law, which had been in place since 1949. This pivotal decision allowed for greater political freedoms and set the stage for opposition parties like the Deomcratic Progressive Party (DPP) to emerge.  The DPP mobilized public support for democratic reforms and played a critical role in advocating for elections and civil rights. 

Chiang Kai Shek was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who did in 1988. Following that, Lee Teng-hui became Taiwan’s first native-born president. Under Lee's leadership, Taiwan held its first direct presidential election in 1996, marking a significant milestone in its democratic journey.

Since then, Taiwan has become increasingly democratic and consistently held free and fair elections, allowing for peaceful transition of power. Taiwan has faced increasing pressure from China, which seeks to undermine its democratic processes through intimidation and influence operations. Despite these challenges, Taiwan's commitment to democracy has remained steadfast, as evidenced by public backlash against perceived threats from Beijing.

Night Watch

Author: Jayne Anne Phillips

A lot of novels are inspired by some events and places in history. This one is based on the workings of a genteel lunatic asylum in rural West Virginia that was state of the art in the late nineteenth century. The [Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum](https://trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/) is located in Weston, West Virginia and is famous for being the largest hand-cut stone masonry structure in North America. It was designed to hold 250 patients, but the occupancy grew to ten times that amount in the hundred plus years that it was in operation. Today it is a National Historical Landmark. 

It was designed to be a therapeutic environment and followed the Kirkbride plan advocated by the famous Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride. Ms Jayne Anne Phillips is clearly a huge fan of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride and every chapter has a quotation from his seminal work “The Art of Asylum-Keeping”.

She uses the Civil War as a backdrop for her story and the novel starts out describing the difficult life of poor folks in rural West Virginia where most of the men-folk have disappeared to fight in the civil war. The women and children have to look after the property, raise many little children and put food on the table. They are exposed to all kinds of dangers including roving bandits who loot, rape and terrorize the local population.  From the horrors encountered in their daily lives, it is not hard to see how the lunatic asylum might be a better place.  And indeed, from Ms Jayne’s descriptions the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a wonderful place that took care of upscale citizens.

The story has a few main characters starting with twelve-year-old ConaLee and her mother Eliza, who are dropped off at the asylum to seek refuge there. The novel then starts unraveling their back story by jumping all over the place. There’s Dearbhla who is the old woman that is like a mother to all the main characters in the book. She grinds up roots and herbs that can cure a variety of ills and also has some magical powers that can sense and influence the people around her. There’s a sharp-shooter who you are sure will have some role to play later in the book. Eevry book needs a villain and this one doesn’t even have a name. He is just called “Papa”. There’s a Dr. Story, the principal asylum doctor who’s name is based on the famous Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride who the author has clearly studied very extensively.

Overall, I am very surprised at how this book won the Pulitzer Prize.  The story line is very weak and most of the characters are poorly developed. Apart from learning how an asylum was run in the late nineteenth century, I got very little out of this book.

Why We Die

Author: Venki Ramakrishnan

Venki Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for his work on the structure and function of ribosomes. Ribosomes are a key component of our cells whose primary function is to synthesize proteins based on the genetic code carried in our DNA. Since this is an essential part of living, Venki knows a thing or two — or more accurately thousands of things — about what can go wrong in all the mechanisms that are crucial to sustaining our life. 

He writes very eloquently and quotes Hemingway from the “Sun also Rises” to say that we age “Gradually, then suddenly”. Over the course of our life we have a slow decline due to aging, followed by rapid changes that precede death. The book is filled with interesting little observations like this one about our risk of dying. At 25 years of age,  our risk of dying in the following year is about 0.1%. But then it rises to 1% at age 60 and is 16% by the time we reach the century mark. Co-incidentally I am close to 60 years old and my Mom just turned 100 this year!

Another interesting observation is that while the average age of mammals varies widely, they typically have roughly the same number of hearbeats over their lifetime. The number is about 1.5 billion. Humans had the same number until about a 100 years ago, but in the last century we have almost doubled our life expectancy and are now closer to 3 billion.

Venky has the ability to explain even complex discoveries in relatively simple terms and I learned a lot from reading this book. Here are a few key concepts that I am writing down mainly so I can remember them for later

Telomere shortening:

The DNA replication process is not able to accurately replicate the ends of the chromosomes. To prevent critical genes from being lost in the process, the ends of chromosomes have some genetic “padding” that is referred to as telomeres. These telomeres get gradually shortened as a result of successive DNA replication. It turns out there is an enzyme called Telomerase that can extend these telomeres and prevent them from getting shortened. However, these are limited to germ cells, stem cells and a few others. While it may seem tempting to use Telomerase in our general cell pool to reverse aging, we need to exercise caution as cancer cells often reactivate telomerase to enable continuous division. In fact some of the cancer treatments are to inhibit the telomerase activity in cancer cells to limit their ability to multiply.

Yamanaka factors:

While embryonic stem cells can grow into all the different organs in the body, mature cells become specialized and unable to take on other forms. In 2006, Professor Shinya Yamanaka discovered that mature cells can behave (replicate) like stems cells in the presence of four key protein transcription factors that are now referred to as Yamanaka factors. This groundbreaking discovery allows us to conduct all sorts of research with regular cells that we can now manipulate and even use to clone entirely new living beings.  From an aging perspective, we might be able to use Yamanaka factors to regenerate organs and reset the clock in their aging process. 

TOR (Target of Rapamycin):

Rapamycin was initially discovered by Suren Sehgal during an expedition to Easter Island in the 1960s. Early testing indicated that it was a good immunosuppressant and it had potential uses to improve the success of kidney transplants. mTOR or the mechanistic target of rapamycin is a crucial protein kinase involved in regulating cell growth, cell division and cell survival by integrating signals from nutrients, growth factors and cellular energy status. It’s name is derived from the fact that the drug rapamycin inhibits mTOR activity and thereby has significant implications for extending the lifespan of living beings. Dr. Peter Attia is a big fan of rapamycin and has written a lot about it in his book Outlive. However it’s full effects are not well understood and even he does not recommend taking it indiscriminately as a longevity drug. 

Metformin:

Metformin is a drug that is commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes. Metformin activates AMP-activate protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme that plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular health. It also reduces oxidative stress which is another cause of cellular damage and aging. Metformin also has anti-inflammatory properties that can help mitigate one of the key contributors to age-related diseases. 

Caloric Restriction:

Similar to metformin, CR can lower inflammation and enhance mitochondrial health, contributing to better cellular health. Additionally, studies have shown that CR can influence DNA methylation patterns which are associated with biological aging. Dr. Steve Horvath developed an epigenetic biomarker of aging which is called Horvath’s clock that measures the pace of biological aging and predicts health outcomes for an individual. 

In summary, I learnt a lot but am not likely to do much with it.