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FRESH WATER FROM SEAWATER WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY!

Instead of pumping seawater onto land, why not take advantage of the ocean’s extreme natural pressure?

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image_2The world’s largest desalination plant, in Ras al-Khair, Saudi Arabia, uses older desalination technology which requires large amounts of energy.

With the world running out of clean water, deep-sea salination is on the cusp of offering a solution from the Caribbean to the Emirates

Half of all people on earth experience severe water scarcity at least one month out of the year, according to the UN. A radical new kind of desalination technology is finally on the cusp of helping to slake the world’s thirst. The pitch: Put desalination plants on the ocean floor.

First proposed in the early 1960s, this deep-sea process would benefit from both the crushing water pressure and relatively pure seawater more than 1,000 feet down. It has been unworkable until now. Only the recent commercialization of enabling innovations— including deep-sea robots from the oil-and-gas industry, and advanced reverse-osmosis filters now standard in terrestrial desalination— make it viable.

Water scarcity is projected to become much more acute in the coming decades, owing to more extreme weather patterns, the decimation of the world’s aquifers, saltwater incursion, and growing urban populations. This threatens humanity at a fundamental level— not just because we need water to drink, but because without it there’s no food or manufacturing, and precious little electricity.

Last resort

For decades, desalination has been the only reason that many places, from the Caribbean to the Emirates, have been habitable. But it’s always been a solution of last resort, for one big reason.

“Desalination is the most expensive way to make water, and there’s no getting around it,” says Tom Pankratz, who has been in the industry for 45 years, and has consulted on many of the world’s biggest desalination projects.

Up on land, engineers would literally boil the ocean, creating steam that would become drinking water and, on its way, drive some power-generating turbines to pay back a bit of its cost. It was so energy intensive that in the 1960s, some proposed using nuclear power to do it. The world’s largest desalination plant, in Ras al-Khair, Saudi Arabia, produces much of its water through evaporation.

Around the year 2000, reverseosmosis changed everything, says Pankratz. In this process, water is forced across a plastic membrane with holes so tiny only water molecules fit through, leaving behind salt and other impurities. This process requires about half the energy, making it a credible option for Trinidad, which in 2002 got a plant that now produces 40 million gallons of water a day, and Israel, which got one in 2005 that now produces 85 million gallons of water daily. Many more plants followed, and this is now the standard way to desalinate water.

That said, it is still expensive compared with traditional water sources like reservoirs and aquifers— between about $2 and $6 per 1,000 gallons, says Pankratz. A lot of that cost depends on the price of electricity, says Eric Hoek, a professor of engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, who advises OceanWell, a desalination tech company.

There are other costs to keeping desalination plants at the ocean’s edge. Intakes can suck up marine life; outflow pipes can dump a concentrated brine hazardous to that same marine life back into the sea. These issues led California to reject in 2022 a decades- in-the-works desalination plant for water-starved Hunting–ton Beach.

Down where it’s wetter

Oslo-based Flocean, Nether–lands- based Waterise and Bay Area-based OceanWell are among the companies that seized on this idea—then submerged it to a depth of at least 400 meters.

The principle is easy to grasp: Instead of expending huge amounts of energy to pump seawater onto land, and then pressurize it inside a plant, why not take advantage of the ocean’s extreme natural pressure? At depth, seawater naturally wants to cross a desalination membrane, so long as the fresh water on the other side of it is being pumped to the surface. The result is a net energy savings of up to 40%.

There are other big advantages: These facilities can be far from shore and out of sight, so there’s no competition for beachfront property. Once in place, the systems can be scaled up without having to negotiate over real estate.

Because the process happens down so deep, the saltier brine byproduct is quickly dispersed by the ocean without harming aquatic plants or animals. And at that depth, the ocean is cleaner— free of the microorganisms, fish poop and other debris that can quickly foul a reverse-osmosis membrane.

There’s no fundamental scientific breakthrough enabling these systems, say the CEOs of all three companies, just the wider availability, lower prices and increasing functionality of deep-sea robots, undersea power cables and other technologies.

Actual customers

Despite the technology’s promise, these three companies have so far only built modest facilities to prove their value to potential customers. The deals they’re all seeking are multidecade contracts with governments. While they don’t come easily, they are the kind of customers that are necessary to turn these tech demos into actual businesses.

Both Flocean and Waterise put their pilot plants on the seabed just offshore of Norway, not far from all the North Sea drilling that produces energy for the region. Flocean is already producing ultrapure water for a local company that makes high-end cocktail ice.

OceanWell has its demo facility at a reservoir in California’s Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, not far inland from Malibu.

Flocean’s first customer will be a large offshore industrial facility

in Norway called Mongstad, which is expected to initially produce about 264,000 gallons of water a day from a single, 40-ton unit. Expected to come online in the second half of 2026, it will be the world’s first large-scale deep-sea desalination plant, says Alex Fuglesang, CEO of the company.

Waterise has announced a deal with an industrial customer, Jordan Phosphates Mines Co., to provide 6.6 million gallons of water a day desalinated deep in the Gulf of Aqaba. The company plans to begin construction later this year on its first plant capable of producing between 7.9 million and 13 million gallons a day.

That’s the goal, at least. Until some of these are actually operating at the bottom of the ocean, for years if not decades, it will be hard to know if they can make good on their promises, says UCLA’s Hoek. It’s unclear how much maintenance they’ll require, and how fluctuations in salinity and temperature might affect their performance.

History is full of ideas that worked in principle, from nuclearpowered cargo ships to solar-thermal power generators in the deep desert. Pankratz, the saltiest of industry veterans, thinks at least one of these companies will be able to set up shop in the down deep. “How close that is, and how many of these things there eventually are, is another question,” he says.

An OceanWell desalination pod. The company has a demo facility not far inland from Malibu, Calif.

FBI LIES AND LIES AND HIDES FACTS ABOUT OKLAHOMA BOMBING TRAGEDY, BIGGEST DOMESTIC TERRORIST ATTACK BEFORE 9/11

30-Year Cover-Up: Newly Unearthed Records Confirm FBI Lied about OKC Bomb Footage

‘These same RTA videotapes would show John Doe 2, the accomplice that 24-witnesses have said was in the truck with McVeigh that morning…’

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) There was a lot of news last week about the FBI suppressing evidence: Sen. Chuck Grassley alleged Thursday that the bureau has a “Prohibited Access” label to hide damning documents, while Director Kash Patel was widely criticized a day later for his dubious claims that the FBI doesn’t have footage of sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s associates abusing girls.

To top it off, an attorney suing the FBI in federal court filed a motion Friday afternoon, accusing the bureau of lying about footage in another scandalous case: the Oklahoma City bombing, which remains the deadliest domestic terrorism attack in American history.

The late-Friday motion comes from Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue, who’s been suing the FBI for records on the OKC bombing for decades. Trentadue said in his motion that a researcher he works with recently uncovered previously hidden FBI records about the bombing. Those records, unearthed by OKC bomb researcher Richard Booth, show that an agent falsely testified in court that the bureau didn’t have surveillance footage of OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh and his mystery accomplice “John Doe 2.”

“Booth did a text based search of those FBI records and discovered therein four documents proving that the Bureau is in possession of videotapes from security cameras at the Regency Towers Apartments (“RTA”) that show the destruction of the Murrah Federal Building, and Timothy McVeigh actually arming the truck bomb at approximately 8:57 am on the morning of [April] 19, 1995, when the Ryder Truck that was carrying the bomb was parked in front of the RTA,” Trentadue’s motion states.

“More importantly, these same RTA videotapes would show John Doe 2, the accomplice that 24-witnesses have said was in the truck with McVeigh that morning, but who the FBI insists never existed.”

Trentadue’s filing comes some 17 years after he initially sued the FBI for surveillance footage of the OKC bombing in 2008. His lawsuit went to trial in 2014, and the FBI vociferously argued that no footage from the RTA buildings exists. The presiding judge has yet to issue a final judgment, in large part due to allegations that the FBI tampered with one of Trentadue’s witnesses (that wild saga can be read here).

While the court continues to investigate the witness-tampering allegations, Trentadue now also wants the presiding judge to reopen his original case that went to trial, and to consider the new evidence uncovered by Booth.

According to Trentadue, the existence of new records gives him an even stronger case for the presiding judge to rule in his favor. Moreover, Trentadue said the new OKC records support Sen. Grassley’s allegations that the FBI intentionally hides FBI records by filing them under “Prohibited Access” status—meaning that they don’t appear in the bureau’s general records-keeping system.

The FBI has declined to comment on Trentadue’s case.

New Records: What do They Say?

Just eight days after the Oklahoma City bombing, an FBI agent named Jon Hersley testified in court that security footage from the top of a nearby apartment complex showed the bombers’ Ryder Truck heading towards the Murrah building minutes before the explosion.

“I believe that particular camera was located on the apartment building there,” Hersley said on the stand during McVeigh’s April 27, 1995, preliminary hearing—referring to the Regency Tower Apartments, or RTA. “I don’t know the exact location of the camera, but it kind of scans that whole area there … It scans in front of the Tower building and also over towards the parking lot.”

But when Trentadue sued for the footage nearly 20 years later, Hersley suddenly changed his tune. At Trentadue’s 2014 trial, he testified that he was mistaken in his 1995 testimony, and that the RTA camera he described didn’t exist. Instead, Hersley testified he had only seen pictures from an ATM machine’s camera that was inside of the Regency Tower Apartments.

At the time, Trentadue expressed skepticism over Hersley’s contradictory testimony.

“The testimony about this videotape given by Mr. Hersley 20 years ago just after the bombing conflicts with the testimony that he gave at this trial,” Trentadue said in a December 2014 proposed findings of facts, which he filed after the trial concluded. “The testimony given by Mr. Hersley at the [April 1995] Preliminary Hearing is the more credible.”

Fast forward another 10-plus years: OKC bombing researcher Booth has apparently proven that Trentadue was correct.

In a sworn declaration accompanying Trentadue’s Friday motion, Booth said he was tasked to search through a trove of some 1.5 million pages of documents from the FBI case file of Terry Nichols—one of McVeigh’s accomplices who helped him build a bomb, but who wasn’t in Oklahoma on the day of the attack. Booth said he found records about the Regency Tower Apartments’ security footage—records that were hidden from Trentadue and the public for decades.

The first record Booth found is an FBI report detailing an interview agents conducted with Wesley Edward Bogie, who worked security at the Regency Tower Apartments. According to the FBI report, agents showed Bogie “three still photographs taken from the RTA security camera,” which depicted McVeigh’s Ryder Truck and two individuals nearby. The significance of this report is that the footage it describes couldn’t have been from the ATM machine inside the apartment complex—it must’ve been from another camera, according to Booth.

Another record Booth found describes footage clear enough that the Regency Tower Apartment’s assistant manager was able to identify a tenant that was pictured. Again, this indicates that the footage came from a camera other than the ATM inside of the building, Booth said in his declaration.

A third record Booth found is from the FBI’s June 1996 interview of Oklahoma City Police Department Sgt. Ritchie Willis, who told agents that he recovered film from a Regency Towers security camera that “was still recording” at the time it was removed. Willis said he provided that film to FBI agent Lou Ann Sandstrom about eight hours after the bombing.

“This document is highly significant because it establishes as a fact that the tape obtained by Sgt. Willis was still recording when it was taken into custody, that the recording came from one of the RTA security cameras, that the camera depicted 5th Street, and that it was removed from a VCR,” Booth said in his declaration.

The fourth record states that the private firm ADT Security serviced the external security cameras at the Regency Tower Apartments—another indication that such footage exists, but is being suppressed by the FBI.

“More importantly, the obvious conclusion one can draw from these documents is that the RTA videotapes contain material that the Bureau does not want people to see, namely, the still-unidentified John Doe #2,” Booth added—referring to McVeigh’s accomplice, whom the FBI initially launched a massive manhunt for, only to later claim that he never actually existed.

What Now?

In his Friday motion, Trentadue asked for the judge to reopen his case to consider the new records unearthed by Booth.

“This newly discovered evidence consists of the Bureau’s own records that were deliberately withheld from both the Court and Plaintiff,” Trentadue said.

“This evidence is also very important because it shows that the FBI did not conduct a good faith reasonable search for responsive records and, in all fairness, the Court should receive and consider this evidence especially given the FBI’s attempts to mislead the Court about the ‘search’ that was actually done in response to Plaintiff’s FOIA Request and the results of that search,” he added.

The Justice Department must now respond to Trentadue’s motion. What happens next is unclear, as Trentadue’s case is already in uncharted territory—this writer is unaware of any other FOIA case in history to go to trial, and the transparency group Judicial Watch has described the lawsuit as one of the most extraordinary FOIA cases in American history.

“We’re one of the largest FOIA litigants in this country, and we’ve never been involved in anything that involves that degree of alleged misconduct by the [FBI]. It’s astounding,” Judicial Watch investigator Sean Dunagan told this reporter in 2022.

If the judge rules in his favor, Trentadue seeks to depose FBI agents and search their physical archives to see what they did with the missing surveillance footage. But the FBI has said in court briefings that the court doesn’t have the power to let Trentadue do that—suggesting that the bureau would appeal any judgment against it.

Such an appeal could extend the litigation for years. Meanwhile, Trentadue still awaits a separate judgment in the same case, over the witness tampering allegations he made a decade ago.

HOW DO HEDGE FUNDS ACTUALLY WORK, AD HOW INVESTORS TYPICALLY JUST HAVE LACKLUSTER RETURNS

HOW TO HEDGE FUNDS ACTUALLY WORK???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtO5hg69ZUs

 

Secrets of Hedge Funds: How Billionaires Gamble Without Losing

Today’s billionaires have a private playground for investing—and it’s not the stock market you know. Hedge funds have become the go-to tool for the world’s elite to seek big returns, explore secret deals, and enjoy a level of freedom rarely seen anywhere else in finance. But hedge funds weren’t always this secretive, exclusive, or even risky. To understand how hedge funds work and why the rich love them, you need to know where it all started, who gets in, and how the money is really made.

Video summary generated with artificial intelligence.

Back in the 1950s, Alfred Winslow Jones—a sociologist, not a Wall Street banker—changed investing forever. He created the first hedge fund. The word hedge simply means protection. Think of buying travel insurance for a flight: if your flight’s canceled, you lose the ticket price, but the insurance gives some money back. Jones applied this concept to investing by betting on winners and against losers in the market. This clever mix aimed to balance risk no matter which way stocks moved. At the time, this was a game-changing idea.

Jones’s original hedge fund idea focused on reducing risk, but today hedge funds are almost the opposite: high-risk, secretive, and closed off to most people. Instead of safety, modern hedge funds have earned a reputation for exclusivity and aggressive bets. How did things shift so much?

The 1920s was a wild party for the economy. Companies like Ford made goods cheaper and life more modern. Almost everyone tried their luck in the stock market, hoping to get rich overnight. But there were no rules to keep things honest.

Popular but fake investments included:

  • Gold mines that didn’t exist
  • Airline companies with no planes
  • Cactus farms in New Jersey

This fantasy crashed in October 1929. Stocks tanked, banks failed, millions lost their savings, and the U.S. sank into the Great Depression.

To fix the chaos, Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933, forcing companies to honestly report their finances when selling stock. In 1934, the Securities Exchange Act created the SEC, a watchdog over markets. These actions gave public investors two important things: real data and a fair shot. Today, you can see real company reports before you put your money at risk.

Unlike mutual funds, hedge funds don’t need to cater to the public. They only accept money from “accredited investors”—typically people with over $1 million net worth (not counting their home) or earning above $200,000 a year. Because they’re private, hedge funds skip most of the safety rules that protect regular investors. The logic: if you’re that rich, you can afford to risk it.

In a typical hedge fund, a group of wealthy people pools their money and trusts a fund manager to invest it. The approach is simple: “Trust me.” There’s hardly any day-to-day reporting, and managers don’t have to share their moves. Investors let the manager “cook” their strategy with little oversight and hope for bigger returns.

Hedge funds can invest in anything—Japanese interest rates, collapsing Chinese real estate, rare paintings, natural gas futures, or even the fate of entire economies. They use strategies most public funds aren’t allowed to touch, such as aggressive short selling, complex derivatives, and heavy borrowing. The rich look for new hunting grounds, and hedge funds let them in.

Imagine public investing as fishing from a crowded dock. It’s safe and transparent, but you only catch what’s already close by. Hedge funds are submarines: small, expert crews with hidden tools dive deep for treasures no one else can see. That secrecy gives them an edge—at least in theory.

Hedge funds don’t broadcast what they own or trade. If rivals saw their strategies, they could simply copy them or drive up prices mid-trade. Even investors rarely get frequent updates. With no public oversight, trust is key, and managers guard their bets jealously.

Once you’re in, you often can’t get out quickly. Most hedge funds have lock-up periods—six months, a year, or more. This helps managers avoid selling assets in a panic and lets their long-term bets mature.

Hedge fund managers use a famous pay model: the 2% management fee and 20% performance fee.

Fund Size Annual 2% Fee 20% Performance Fee (on $100M gain)
$1B $20M $20M

Managers get 2% of the fund’s assets every year, win or lose. If returns are good, they collect 20% of profits as well. There’s a “high water mark” rule that stops repeated performance fees unless the fund recovers any losses—but that 2% rolls in no matter what.

Investors question the high fees, lack of transparency, and mixed results—especially when simple index funds often perform just as well or better after fees. Many wonder: why pay big for mystery deals? For those curious about long-term market returns, watch Will The Stock Market Always Go Up?.

Despite doubts, hedge funds pull in billions. The lure isn’t just big profits. It’s access to unique deals and strategies you simply can’t get elsewhere. For the ultra wealthy, it’s about being in the right rooms and not missing out on private opportunities.

Hedge funds offer plays regular investors can’t find. These include:

  • High-frequency trading
  • Global macroeconomic bets
  • Political and regulatory bets
  • Complex derivatives
  • Private loans and rare asset deals

These go way beyond standard stocks and index funds.

Managing complex portfolios full-time is a headache. Hedge funds act like private chefs—they do the heavy lifting, let the client enjoy results, and save time along the way.

Hedge funds operate like private clubs. Joining means access to strategic relationships, insider deals, and social status. Being a limited partner signals you belong to an influential financial circle.

The wealthy lean on hedge funds for strategies that don’t move with the rest of their portfolio. Even if returns lag, they can reduce risk by spreading bets across different investments.

Hedge funds carry a mystique. They’re seen as the secret weapon of the rich—fuel for headlines, movies, and envy. For many, being “in” gives hope of catching the next big winner and the social status that comes with it.

What started as a tool for risk control has become an exclusive club for chasing big wins. Hedge funds now mean access, secrecy, and high stakes in a world few ever see.

For most investors, public markets offer safety and fairness. Hedge funds sit behind closed doors, trading higher risk for a chance at higher rewards. Know how these worlds differ before venturing in.

Conclusion

Hedge funds began as a clever way to protect against loss but have grown into something far more complex. They aren’t just about chasing returns—they offer access, connections, and status. Most people will never set foot in that world, but understanding hedge funds helps explain how the rich invest and why those rooms remain the most exclusive in finance.

 

MAKING GASOLINE FROM THE AIR!!! IT IS HERE!

In 2022, transportation was responsible for an estimated 28 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The majority of those emissions came from everyday gas-powered cars. And while electric vehicles have been heralded as a greener alternative, decades of advocacy and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment have yielded meager results.

Today, electric cars make up just around 8 percent of all vehicles on U.S. roads. (Roughly 90 person of vehicles globally still run on fossil fuels.) Most EVs remain prohibitively expensive for the majority of Americans, and they require enormous amounts of critical minerals—resources that, when extracted at scale, pose their own environmental dilemmas. Most Americans also still just aren’t interested in ditching their gas guzzlers to save the planet.

But what if they didn’t have to?

That’s the alluring—if wildly ambitious—vision being presented by New York–based fuels startup Aircela. Earlier this month, the company announced it had created the world’s first functional machine capable of generating real, usable car gasoline “directly from the air.” Aircela’s new device, roughly the size of a commercial refrigerator, combines direct air capture (DAC) with on-site fuel synthesis to create gasoline using just air, water, and renewable energy. No fossil fuels, they say, are required.

The product their device produces can be poured directly into the tank of any standard gas-powered car. Aircela demonstrated the process, making gasoline directly from air, in front of a live audience in New York. Though most would describe this proof of concept as a “prototype,” company co-founder and CEO Eric Dahlgren takes some umbrage with that label.

“We didn’t build a prototype. We built a working machine,” Dahlgren said in a statement. “We want people to walk away knowing this isn’t too good to be true—it actually works.”

How an at-home carbon capture facility would work

Aircela’s device essentially functions as a compact, portable direct carbon capture facility (DAC) unit. Carbon capture generally refers to the practice of removing carbon dioxide from sources like smokestacks or fossil fuel power plants. Direct air capture, the approach used by Aircela, pulls CO₂ directly from the atmosphere. Europe currently has more than a dozen DAC facilities in operation, and the U.S. federal government is also investing in the technology. Some facilities, such as those run by Climeworks, use large fan-like machines to filter carbon dioxide from the air. Others, like those developed by Carbon Engineering, use chemical mists that bind with CO₂ to extract it. Some researchers are even exploring methods to capture carbon dioxide from the oceans. In most of these cases, the aim is to capture and store the harmful greenhouse gas. Aircela wants to recycle it into cars.

Aircela claims its device captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and then converts it into gasoline. The resulting fuel doesn’t contain sulfur, ethanol, or heavy metals. Photos of the machine shared by the company show a device composed of three large blue hexagonal units—two side by side on the bottom and one stacked on top. These separate sections handle the stages of air capture and fuel synthesis. On the back of the machine is a standard-looking gasoline nozzle, similar to what you’d find at a gas station. In theory, someone could install one of these units outside their home and use it to refuel their vehicle before heading out for the day. More importantly, it suggests drivers could potentially reduce their environmental impact without needing to change their daily habits.

A spokesperson from Aircela told Popular Science that their machine is designed to capture 10 kgs of CO₂ each day. From that, it can produce 1 gallon of gasoline. The machine can store up to 17 gallons of fuel in its tank. For context, a Toyota Tacoma’s fuel tank has a capacity of 21.1 gallons. In other words, at least in its current form, the device wouldn’t be capable of filling up a car’s tank with gas overnight. The spokesperson didn’t comment on the device’s precise cost but noted that “affordability is essential” to the company’s mission. Aircela is designing the device for mass production, which they believe will drive down costs over time.

The company reportedly wants to start manufacturing the machine by the fall with an interest in targeting a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

Related: [The truth about carbon capture technology]

The age old question: will it scale?

The most obvious downside to an approach like this compared to a larger, industrial-scale DAC facility, is sheer impact. A single device, on its own, won’t make a meaningful dent in reducing carbon emissions. But Aircela believes its relatively small size actually makes it less costly and faster to deploy at scale. CEO Eric Dahlgren says the compact form factor gives the technology the flexibility to scale down for individual car owners or scale up for larger clients, such as gas stations or even cargo shipping containers.

“We truly believe that our approach is the fastest way to bring carbon neutral fuels to as many people as possible, to as many places as possible, as soon as possible,” Dahlgren said in a statement.

illustration of a man standing next to device that's three hexagons stacked
Aircela hopes to start manufacturing the device in fall 2025. Image: Aircela Image: Aircela

Of course, that vision also depends entirely on the continued expansion and viability of renewable energy sources. If an Aircela machine uses electricity from a grid powered by natural gas, then not much has really been achieved in terms of carbon reduction. In the U.S., the trend toward renewable energy is strong, though notably less so under the current presidential administration, which has openly embraced the motto“drill baby drill.” Still, Dahlgren says it’s important to approach carbon reduction and environmentalism with a broad perspective and a sense of urgency.

“We cannot wait decades,” Dahlgren added “we need to do something about it right now.”

AMERICANS ARE FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE!

One in Four Americans Financially Illiterate

Financial literacy is steadily declining in America. The percentage of US adults demonstrating a very low level of financial literacy increased from 20% in 2017 to 25% in 2023.

Around 58% of Americans know about debt and borrowing. Over half (55%) understand saving, and 50% understand consumption. About 42% understand insurance, 44% know about investing, and only 35% know about risk comprehension.

Financial literacy is declining with every generation. Around 53% of the Silent Generation understood finance, followed by 52% of Boomers, 50% of Gen, 45% of Millennials, and 38% of Gen Z. Around 74% of teens admitted that they do not feel confident in their personal finance knowledge, but the good news is that that 73% would like to learn.

There is a drastic difference in knowledge across socio-economic classes, as 75% of American teens are learning about personal finance through their family, with 52% learning a bit at school. An alarming 88% of Americans reported that high school public education did not prepare them for managing their finances. Interestingly, 48% said that they learned about personal finance through social media, which may not be the best reference.

Around 62% of teens said that they learned about savings, 50% were taught about earning, and 44% had some prior information on banking. Only 23% of teens in the US know how to make a budget, but 42% said they were taught how to do so.

This is why we see such a significant difference in financial literacy across socio-economic classes. Only 28% of people earning under $25,000 understand personal finance. That figure rises to 38% for those earning between $25,000 and $49,000, rising once more to 47% for those earning between $50,000 and $99,000. Over 58% of those earning six figures understand personal finance.

The National Financial Educators Council believes that financial illiteracy cost the American public $388 billion in 2023. Americans are facing a private debt crisis. Credit card and household debt have reached record highs and continue to rise. The majority of American households have insufficient emergency savings. The same survey found that 74% of Americans believe they would have made fewer money mistakes if they were properly educated on the subject matter in high school, and 80% believe they would have been more successful if they had that knowledge earlier in life. Politicians believe we should implement countless social programs and simply pay people to exist. America should focus on educating future generations on personal finance as it is perhaps one of the most essential life skills.

ZOMBIE TANKERS, TAKE ON IDENTITY OF OLD USA SHIPS TO ALLOW IRAN AND CHINA OIL TRADE!

US-Sanctioned Zombie Tanker Exposes Dark Trade Between Tehran and Beijing

Just over a week after Bloomberg exposed the rise of “zombie” or “phantom” oil tankers—cargo ships that hijack the identities of scrapped ships to evade U.S. sanctions—another clandestine maritime supply chain has emerged, this time revealing how Iranian crude continues flowing into China despite mounting pressure from the Trump administration.

Bloomberg reports that a U.S.-sanctioned “zombie” tanker—Gather View, disguised as a scrapped vessel named Global—delivered 2 million barrels of Iranian oil to a government-run port in Shandong despite a provincial ban on sanctioned ships. Ship tracking data showed the zombie tanker’s port call occurred in late April.

The clandestine maritime supply chain reveals an increasingly desperate Tehran and China’s “teapot” refiners, defying U.S. sanctions and allowing the Iranian oil trade to remain alive.

In a separate report, Reuters reported that U.S. sanctions on two small Chinese teapots have created difficult operating conditions for those refineries.

President Trump has been seeking “maximum pressure” on Iran by disrupting Tehran’s crude export operations with sanctions over its nuclear program.

In March, the U.S. sanctioned Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical and Shandong Shengxing Chemical in April.

Beijing has previously rejected unilateral sanctions and defends legitimate trade with Iran. China has become Iran’s largest crude buyer.

“Iran needs to be creative because the pace for them to find new tankers cannot really match the pace of US sanctions,” Muyu Xu, senior crude oil analyst at analytics firm Kpler in Singapore, told Bloomberg, adding, “So that’s why we’re seeing them come up with this tactic.”

Last month, Bloomberg identified zombie tankers hauling Venezuelan crude as these new tactics to operate dark fleet operations become more prevalent with foreign adversaries of the U.S.

WARREN BUFFETT CLAIMS TO BE AGNOSTIC, NOT JEWISH

Warren Buffett is not a Jew; in fact, he describes himself as an agnostic.

Still, the billionaire investment guru, who made big news in May when his Berkshire Hathaway corporation bought an 80 percent share in the Israeli metalworks conglomerate, Iscar, for $4 billion, for years has been making his mark on the U.S. Jewish community back home — although sometimes in a roundabout way.

“Proportionally, if you look at the number of Jews in this country and in the world, I’m associated with a hugely disproportionate number,” said Buffett, the second-richest man in the world. His life, he added, “has been blessed by friendship with many Jews.”

The Israeli government stands to reap about $1 billion in taxes on Buffett’s purchase of Iscar. Shortly after announcing the deal, Buffett said he was surprised to learn that a Berkshire subsidiary, CTB International, was purchasing a controlling interest in another Israeli company, AgroLogic.

In Israel — which Buffett plans to visit in the fall — the hope is that the deals will have longer legs: Buffett himself has not ruled out future purchases there and, considering his status as a leading investor, observers say others also may take a look at Israeli companies now that Buffett has done so.

“You won’t find in the world a better-run operation than Iscar,” Buffett says. “I don’t think it’s an accident that it’s run by Israelis.”

Among the first companies Buffett acquired after launching Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha-based investment and insurance giant, was The Sun Newspapers of Omaha, then owned by Stan Lipsey, one-time chairman of The Jewish Press, Omaha’s Jewish newspaper.

“At the time, the Omaha Club did not take Jewish members, and the Highland Country Club, a golf club, didn’t have any [non-Jewish] members,” Lipsey recalled. “Warren volunteered to join the Highland” — rather than the Omaha — “to set an example of nondiscrimination.”

Buffett happily recalls the fallout from his application.

“It created this big rhubarb,” he said. “All of the rabbis appeared on my behalf, the [Anti-Defamation League] guy appeared on my behalf. Finally they voted to let me in.”

But that wasn’t the end of the story, Buffett said. The Highland had a rule requiring members to donate a certain amount of money to their synagogues. Buffett, of course, wasn’t a synagogue member, so the club changed its policy: Members now would be expected to give to their synagogues, temples or churches.

But that still didn’t quite work, Buffett recalls with a laugh, because of his agnosticism.

In the end, the rule was amended to ask simply that members make some sort of charitable donation, and the path to Buffet’s membership was clear.

“He’s an incredible guy,” said Lipsey, today the publisher of the Buffalo News. In 1973, The Sun won a Pulitzer Prize in local investigative specialized reporting for an expose on financial impropriety at Boys Town, Neb.

“Warren came up with the key source for us knowing what was going on out there,” Lipsey said.

Buffett himself researched Boys Town’s stocks to bolster the story, Lipsey added.

In the 1960s, Omaha Rabbi Myer Kripke decided to invest in his friend Buffett’s new business venture. Their wives had become friendly, he said, and the foursome enjoyed playing the occasional game of bridge together.

“My wife had no card sense and I was certainly no competition to Warren, who is a very good bridge player and a lover of the game,” said Kripke, rabbi emeritus of Omaha’s Conservative Beth El Synagogue. “He’s very bright and very personable and very decent. He is a rich man who is as clean as can be.”

Kripke, father of the noted philosopher Saul Kripke, bought a few shares in Berkshire Hathaway and quickly sold them, doubling his money, he said.

Recognizing a good thing when he saw it, he bought a bunch more shares in his friend’s company, shares that by the 1990s had made Kripke — who says he never earned more than $30,000 a year as a rabbi — a millionaire.

Asked if he credits Buffett with his financial success, he didn’t hesitate.

“Entirely, yes,” he said. “I never had much of an income.”

The Sun newspaper group was not Buffett’s only early purchase of a Jewish-owned company. In 1983, sealing the deal with a handshake, Buffett bought 90 percent of the Nebraska Furniture Mart from Rose Blumkin, a Russian-born Jew who moved to the United States in 1917.

In 1989, he purchased a majority of the stock in Borsheim’s Fine Jewelry and Gifts, a phenomenally successful jewelry store, from the Friedman family.

“He has many friends in the Jewish community,” said Forrest Krutter, secretary of Berkshire Hathaway and a former president of the Jewish Federation of Omaha.

Buffett’s former son-in-law, Allen Greenberg, is a Jew, and now runs the Buffett Foundation, much of whose work has dealt with reproductive rights and family-planning issues. Buffett’s personal assistant is Ian Jacobs, who goes by his Hebrew name, Shami.

Buffett himself counts the late Nebraska businessman Howard “Micky” Newman and philanthropist Jack Skirball as among his “very closest friends.”

Further, Buffett said his “hero and the man who made me an investment success” was Ben Graham. Graham, along with Newman’s father, Jerry, ran a New York fund called Graham-Newman Corp.

“After besieging Ben for the three years after I received my degree from Columbia, Ben and Jerry finally hired me,” Buffett said. “I was the first gentile ever employed by the firm — including secretaries — in its 18 years of existence. My first son bears the middle name Graham after Ben.”

10 MOST DANGEROUS STATES TO LIVE IN THE USA

American Crime

Both violent crime and property crime declined in the U.S. in 2023, according to estimates from the FBI, with the rate of murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropping by about 12% and the burglary rate down by roughly 8% year over year. The rate of vehicle theft, meanwhile, rose by 12%.

But the prevalence of crime – along with the perceptions and rhetoric surrounding it – can vary from state to state, shaping residents’ quality of life along with the futures of politicians and other officials charged with ensuring public safety.

As part of the 2025 Best States rankings, U.S. News factored in the violent crime rate and property crime rate of each state to assess their overall public safety, based on FBI estimates. That assessment informs the best states for crime and corrections rankings and the overall Best States rankings.

Places at the bottom of the public safety ranking form this list of the country’s most dangerous states. Within the contiguous U.S., they range from the West Coast and the Mountain West to the South, and all but two of the 10 land in the lower half of the broader Best States rankings for 2025. Four of the states rank in the bottom 10 overall.

These are the 10 most dangerous states in the U.S., according to the Best States analysis. The FBI stresses that numerous factors can affect the amount and type of crime occurring in different areas, including climate, economic conditions, law enforcement priorities and population density. Many crimes also go unreported and would not be included in this type of data.

You can learn more about how states are assessed for the Best States rankings in our methodology.

Drone Aerial View of Downtown Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
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10. South Carolina

Violent Crime Rate: 471 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,193 per 100,000

Learn more about South Carolina.

Las vegas skyline looking from local park
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9. Nevada

Violent Crime Rate: 417 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,517 per 100,000

Learn more about Nevada.

A visitor takes in a view of the downtown district from Twin Peaks on Friday, Jan. 9, 2015, in San Francisco.
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8. California

Violent Crime Rate: 508 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,326 per 100,000

Learn more about California.

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7. Washington

Violent Crime Rate: 357 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,887 per 100,000

Learn more about Washington.

Grizzly Bear Feeds on a Jumping Salmon, Alaska
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6. Alaska

Violent Crime Rate: 726 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 1,877 per 100,000

Learn more about Alaska.

Riverboat on the Arkansas River docked at Little Rock. Shot with High Dynamic Range technique.
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5. Arkansas

Violent Crime Rate: 620 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,229 per 100,000

Learn more about Arkansas.

USA, Tennessee, Memphis, people walking on Beale Street at dusk, rear view
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4. Tennessee

Violent Crime Rate: 628 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,362 per 100,000

Learn more about Tennessee.

Pedestrian friendly Bourbon Street is lined with clubs and bars in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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3. Louisiana

Violent Crime Rate: 548 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,630 per 100,000

Learn more about Louisiana.

March 20, 2019 | Lone Tree, Colo. |  A view of houses in Douglas County as the Spring Equinox supermoon sets behind the mountains. 

https://www.9news.com/video/weather/weather-colorado/raw-sky9-captures-spring-equinox-supermoon-setting-over-colorados-mountains/73-ef959705-a1bf-4c95-bf14-22f817937c8b
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2. Colorado

Violent Crime Rate: 474 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,879 per 100,000

Learn more about Colorado.

Prayer flags at the Lama Foundation in New Mexico.
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1. New Mexico

Violent Crime Rate: 749 per 100,000

Property Crime Rate: 2,887 per 100,000

Learn more about New Mexico.

These Are the 10 Most Dangerous States in the U.S.

ALCATRAZ ISLAND FEDERAL PRISON TO BE RE-OPENED ?

Alcatraz island  was known“The Rock” closed 62 years ago, and San Francisco has channeled the public’s macabre fascination with life inside the notorious prison to turn it into one of the city’s top tourist attractions.

Visitors can wander through the Gardens of Alcatraz, peruse the Big Lockup Exhibit, or take a night tour where one can “enjoy the beauty of a sunset silhouetting the Golden Gate Bridge” as well as “experience a cell door demonstration.” Over the years, Boy Scouts have clamored to hold overnight campouts in the infamous isolation cells of D Block. Athletes compete in prison-themed events, including a canoe race circling the island and the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.

Calling the prison a “symbol of law and order,” Trump on Sunday said he is directing the Bureau of Prisons and other federal agencies to rebuild Alcatraz to house “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.” San Francisco boosters aren’t keen on the idea and visitors aren’t so sure, either.

On Monday, National Park Ranger Matthew Connelly welcomed a crowd of more than 100 tourists and said he’d take questions. Just not all. When the subject of Trump’s proposal came up, he looked concerned and directed a reporter to call public affairs.

Those on the packed tour had plenty of thoughts after trudging from a ferryboat up a steep, quarter-mile walkway to the imposing fortress. Before entering the main gate, an Australian visitor jokingly suggested Trump lock himself into a new prison there. “He should lead by example,” the man said with a laugh. He and his wife declined to give their names. “No thanks mate, we want to get home.”

Taking selfies with his wife in one of the windowless cells on a prison corridor called Broadway, John La Pierre, a 62-year-old tourist from the Netherlands, was supportive of Trump’s plan.

Chris Manikowski and Naomi Alexandra at Alcatraz's chow hall.

Naomi Alexandra and Chris Manikowski in the former chow hall. Photo: JIM CARLTON for WSJ

“I think the idea itself to put people on a certain island where they have no comfort, especially for those high delinquents, that’s a good idea,” La Pierre said. But he was wary of whether such a historic site could again be made into a modern prison complex.

Sitting in what had been the chow hall, Londoners Chris Manikowski and Naomi Alexandra said that instead of doubling down on a prison with such stark conditions, Trump should take a page from Norway, which treats prisoners well and has low recidivism rates.

“I think the times have changed, and for prisoners to spend a week without showering in those dark cells, it’s too much,” Manikowski, 28, said.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco agreed, calling the president’s idea “unhinged and terrifying.” Trump wants to turn Alcatraz “into a domestic gulag in the middle of San Francisco Bay,” Wiener wrote on social media.

Trump said reopening Alcatraz ties to his campaign promise to lower violent crime. His pitch harks back to the prison’s 1930s origins, when it opened to deal with “the most incorrigible inmates in federal prisons,” according to a government history. It operated as a maximum-security facility for nearly three decades, closing in 1963 because of millions of dollars in needed repairs and the expense of hauling all supplies, including fresh water, to the facility by boat.

Alcatraz was tiny by the standards of most federal facilities, never housing more than around 275 prisoners. Its shadow is huge.

The prison has graced the silver screen in such films as Michael Bay’s 1996 action thriller “The Rock” and 1979’s “Escape from Alcatraz,” starring Clint Eastwood. It housed famous criminals including mobster Al Capone and George “Machine-Gun” Kelly.

At times, Alcatraz was almost as famous for those who tried to escape as it was for those who were inside. Contrary to myth, cold temperatures and strong currents—not sharks—were the biggest obstacles to making it the mile-plus to shore. Trained swimmers as young as age 9 have successfully made the journey that so many prisoners failed.

A visitor in a solitary confinement cell at Alcatraz.

Visitors Monday had mixed views on Trump’s plans for Alcatraz, one of the most storied prisons in American history. Photo: Ethan Swope/Bloomberg

In one unsuccessful escape in 1941, a prisoner who gave up after hitting the Bay’s cold water later tried to escape again from a San Francisco federal courtroom. Another man attempted to leave by stealing an Army uniform and calmly walking aboard an Army launch. He was promptly returned to Alcatraz when the boat landed at nearby Angel Island.

Today, more than a million visitors each year travel to the island, according to the National Park Service. In peak season, tourists book tickets weeks in advance.

Not everyone in San Francisco has understood why a sinister prison is such a draw. “It’s heinous,” declared one writer on “Broke-ass Stuart,” a local alternative website, noting the irony of a progressive city touting a museum of human suffering. “I don’t think moms from Minnesota should be allowed to take selfies in rooms where men pushed past the point of no return hung themselves.”

For those looking to bring a dose of reality back home from the prison tour, visitors can buy rectangular magnets reminding them of Alcatraz’s central tenets. Like Regulation #5: “You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. ANYTHING ELSE YOU GET IS A PRIVILEGE.”

Parents seeking some tough-love discipline can slap Regulation #23 on the fridge: “If you make GROUNDLESS COMPLAINTS for the purpose of…STIRRING UP TROUBLE…you will be subject to DISCIPLINARY ACTION.”

President Trump said he directed the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI and Homeland Security to reopen and expand the historical prison. Photo: Fred Greaves/Reuters; Leah Millis/Reuters

For $13.95, tourists can also take home a replica tin inmate cup, which had the advantage back in the day of not being able to be broken into shards that could become a weapon.

Carson Brock, a 24-year-old from Cincinnati who voted for Trump, said from the prison’s gift shop that he favors preserving Alcatraz’s history over reopening. “But if that’s what he wants to do, then I guess so be it,” he said.

One Alberta resident touring the island was reticent to share her views, but concluded: “We’re Canadian, we don’t really care.”

Visitor Mike Neville, another Trump supporter, said he thinks turning Alcatraz back into a prison would be cost-prohibitive. The 61-year-old, visiting from Colorado Springs, Colo., has a better plan: “I always liked the idea of turning it into a casino.”