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Cicadas & Prime Numbers
By Shlomo Maital
Cicadas and prime numbers! What is the connection?
In the US, people are flocking to Illinois, where two ‘broods’ of cicadas are about to emerge. Cicadas are quite amazing. They emerge from underground, when the temperature of the oil at a depth of six inches reaches 64 degrees F. They emerge almost all at once, climb into the trees, and the males ‘sing’, to attract females. After mating, the cicadas die and fall to the ground. The females first lay their eggs in cracks in the trees. Nymphs emerge (hatch), fall to the ground, burrow underground, and spend 17 years, or 13 years, munching on tree roots…only to emerge, together, and repeat the cycle.
Cicadas are harmless. They don’t bite. They just sing. And the chorus of cicadas all singing together can be deafening.
Cicada tourists are converging on Illinois, because two separate ‘broods’ of cicadas are about to emerge: the ’13-year’ brood and the ’17-year’ brood. Why are they emerging together? Herein lies the link with prime numbers.
The last time the two broods emerged together was in 1803. Thomas Jefferson was in the third year of his Presidency (1801-1809). That was 221 years ago.
So, the number 221 is formed by multiplying two prime numbers, 13 and 17. Since 1803, the ’13 year’ cicadas have emerged 17 times. Since 1803, the ’17 year’ cicadas have emerged 13 times. This IS THE FIRST TIME THEY ARE EMERGING TOGETHER SINCE 1803. 17×13=221.
And it won’t happen again until….2021 + 221 = the year 2242.
Now, you ask – how do they KNOW that 13 years, or 17 years, have passed? And why do they spend so long underground? And isn’t it sad that they live in darkness, underground, for so long, just to have a few short days or weeks above ground, to mate..and die?
We don’t know. Evolution, it seems, has taught them that if they emerge all together, trillions of them, the birds, racoons and other creatures will have a once-in-a-lifetime feast…but there are so many cicadas, most will live to mate and reproduce.
Where does the word cicada come from? It is Latin, meaning tree cricket.
In Jewish tradition, males become ‘bar mitzvah’ (those eligible for and worthy of fulfilling the Jewish precepts, or ‘mitzvahs’) at age 13. I like to think of the 13-year cicadas as celebrating their bar mitzvahs, and fulfilling the key Jewish commandment known in Hebrew as ‘pru u’rvu’ (be fruitful and multiply).
And the 17-year cicadas? Well, they’re almost old enough to vote. Maybe it’s best they don’t stick around, to see the elections in half the world this year, 2024 — we are going to have to hold our noses.
A Battle of Ideas Around the Family Dinner Table
By Shlomo Maital
Consider the sad case of Britain. In the 20th C., it had Conservative governments for 65 (non-consecutive) years, or two-thirds of the time – and Tories have ruled UK since 2010. They have slashed public spending, ruined the National Health Service, botched privatization – and are deeply unpopular at the moment, doomed to lose in the upcoming election. Schools in Britain have closed, because roofs have literally fallen in. Not to mention David Cameron’s disastrous referendum on leaving the EU. (After his enormous success, he’s back as Foreign Minister — call him Sir).
A voice of reason is being heard, at University College, London; Mariana Mazzucato, Italian born, US educated, and a UK economist for the last 20 years. Her book The Entrepreneurial State explains how historically, governments and government investment have spurred innovation, and how they still can and do. Public infrastructure investment pays itself back in four to five years, according to dozens of research studies. How many private investments can say that?
But my blog this time is not about this. It’s about Mazzucato’s family life. Our kids have long ago flown the coop. But from time to time, we still have fascinating discussions around the dinner table, mostly on Shabbat (Sabbath), with guests.
Here is what the Mazzucato’s do: (from a magazine piece):
“Even around the dinner table, economist Mariana Mazzucato deployed her extraordinary skills as a communicator to keep her family engaged during the pandemic lockdown in London. She and her husband, Italian filmmaker Carlo Cresto-Dina, insist on a sit-down family meal each evening in their London home, and everyone speaks a mix of Italian and English. They discuss school, work, movies, and economics.
“We talk about a theme, so every night is a massive debate between the teenagers and us,” Cresto-Dina says. The four kids are ages 20, 17, and 14 (twins). “During lockdown she also assigned the twins a research project on the digital divide.” There was, he says, “lots of yelling.”
. . . . . .
I love this idea. I think that families that argue are families with our-glue. Help your kids learn to become excited about ideas, to have their own, and to defend them and think about them critically, in the face of critique.
Jonathan Haight’s book The Coddling of the American Mind claims we are failing our kids, in not helping them learn to think critically. A nightly family dinner, where thinking (and not just French fries) are crisp, can help.
How Isaac Newton Changed the World
By Shlomo Maital
James Gleick’s 2007 biography of Isaac Newton is a masterpiece. Not only does Gleick document the life and innovations of Newton, he provides a clear explanation of the physics Newton pioneered, in understanding momentum, force, velocity, light, color, gravity, tides – and many other phenomenon – all, by a person born into poverty, orphaned by his father at an early age, rejected by his remarried mother, and who never married or even had a single girlfriend.
What was Newton’s secret? He saw things others did not, and constantly experimented, using crude devices that he improved – for example, a telescope based not on refracting lenses but on a highly polished mirror (precisely what is done today – a billion or trillion times more complex and costly).
Newton had a method that each of us can use in our daily life. I do, often.
Here is how it works. According to Newton’s own diary.
He ponders a problem that deeply interests him. He thinks about it sufficiently to let it sink deep into his brain – to signal his brain that he wants to crack it. Then he sets it aside, using the mantra used by Napa Valley vinier Robert Mondavi “we shall sell no wine before its time”… translated to, “we shall broach no solution (to the problem) before its time”.
Begin by, say, making a tentative decision. Think about it. Then, file it. Set it aside. Do not act on it at once. Let it age, like wine. Do not ‘sell it’ before its time. After a time, take it out of short term memory and bring it into focus. Ask yourself, your brain, how does this feel? Imagine you are implementing the decision. How does it feel? Does it feel right? Or, somehow – not quite right? Your brain will tell you. Note – this is not based on mathematics or statistics or risk evaluation. It is based on what your deep recesses of your brain are telling you – at an emotional level, at an intuiative level.
If after a time, the decision feels right, then, proceed. Implement it.
But if it does not feel right — set it aside, and either reject it, or file it for future examination, once again. Either reject outright, or offer a second chance.
If it fails twice, dump it. Your brain will eventually do better.
Newton did this with many of his scientific laws. With a keen eye, he read what other scientists claimed – mainly, Decartes in France and Robert Boyle in England – and then pondered whether what they claimed matched what he observed.
This led him to frame many of his famous laws, that clashed with the conventional wisdom of the time. He did not do this in haste, but deliberately, letting his ‘laws’ be born, and ferment or age in his brain, until he had a deep innate sense that they were true, correct, based on what he observed.
All this, by a person who probably (according to Gleick) never actually saw the sea, mostly lived in his room at the University of Cambridge, travelled very little, and had few friends.
So, what is the Newtonian method? Choose a meaningful problem or decision to be made. Think of a solution, or an action plan. Do not implement it or publicize it. File it away. Extract it after a time, after it has ‘aged’. Ponder on it. See how it feels, as you consider implementing it. Listen closely to your intuition, to the quiet, very quiet messages your brain sends you. Sometimes, they are barely audible.
This doesn’t have to take weeks or months. Maybe days, or even hours. But give your intuitive brain time to work on it, in ways that you are not fully conscious of.
Isaac Newton changed the world in this manner. We use his laws to this day. You need not change the world – but you can make choices that you feel good about, as time passes.
Daniel Kahneman wrote of his, in his book about slow and fast thinking. There is something in between. Fast thinking – that has a small time-delay. That time delay can be crucial.
Try it.
p.s. The story about how he discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head and bonked him? Not true. Not even close. He did contemplate falling bodies…..
AI Can Detect Heart Disease – From X-Rays
By Shlomo Maital
The latest segment of the Science Friday podcast, with Ira Flatow, featured Dr. Eric Topol, Scripps Research Translational Institute, professor of molecular medicine, based in La Jolla, California. [Translational research seeks to translate basic science discoveries more quickly and efficiently into practice].
He recounted how AI has used chest X-Rays for a surprising purpose for which they were not intended – to detect early signs of heart disease.
“The fact that there are over 70 million chest X-rays in the United States each year alone– it’s incredible,” Dr. Topol said. “So there’s all this free added information in those chest X-rays that could help us because most people don’t know their cardiovascular risk. And that’s important, especially for determining whether a person should take a statin, and whether it should be an intensive statin type of medication and dosage.”
Topol recounted: “…we can tell from other studies using the chest X-ray for this opportunistic detection that it can pick up the calcium score– what people can undergo a CT scan to see how much calcium they have in their coronary arteries. But that can also be derived from a chest X-ray, and that is an indicator of risk. Also, the chest X-ray can through AI determine the heart strength– the so-called ejection fraction. So it’s picking up a bunch of things, as seen in other studies, that are very predictive of a person’s risk. And it must be the composite of these things. But we really don’t know because, although the study really was extraordinary, it didn’t do enough as far as the explainability side of things.”
AI also proved able to diagnose diabetes from X-Rays. How? “It basically did this so-called occlusion, or masking, where it would look at the chest X-ray and block out various regions to find out what was the source of the information that we can’t see. And it turned out it picked up the fat pads in the chest that was providing this diabetes possible diagnosis.”
AI is exceptionally good at processing a huge mass of data, e.g. 70 million X-Rays, scanning every small detail in each, and then reaching conclusions that human eyes miss. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the world. Perhaps some of those 70 million people X-rayed in the US will owe their lives and their health to Dr. AI.
How China Bought Tesla Lunch – Then Ate It
By Shlomo Maital
Consider Tesla, Elon Musk’s electric-car baby. In 2010 the market value of its shares was a paltry $2.52 billion. On November 6, 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, Tesla’s shares were worth a staggering $1.23 trillion, at their peak. Today? Tesla is worth less than half that: $554 b.
Before we discuss the key role China has played in Tesla’s growth, here are a few more numbers. Despite the sharp fall in value, Tesla is today worth more than the shares of Ford ($54 b.), GM ($51 b.), Toyota ($332 b.), and Build Your Dream ($81.6 b.). taken together.
In the New York Times “The Daily” podcast, Tesla’s romance with China is told in detail. Here is the story.
In 2017 Tesla was in trouble. Its factory in Fremont, CA., was struggling to produce cars. Musk mounted a massive lobbying campaign, that got a key piece of legislation through the California legislature, under then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Gas-guzzling car makers in California had to pay billions of dollars to Tesla’s “green” cars, based on environmental ‘credits’. Tesla got billions, at a time when Tesla was desperately starved for cash.
But that was just a Band Aid on a deep wound.
China to the rescue. Musk negotiated a deal with China, to build a huge car plant in Shanghai. (The then-mayor of Shanghai is now China’s #2, after Xi Jin Ping). That plant is a paragon of Chinese efficiency. Working 24/7, three shifts daily, it makes a million cars a year. But better than that – Musk persuaded the Chinese government to pay Tesla ‘credits’ from conventional Chinese car makers, just like in California! The State of California closed Tesla’s Fremont plant for two months during the pandemic. China? Tesla’s Shanghai plant closed for two weeks only, even when China locked down huge cities for long months.
China saved Tesla.
Why? Why would China rescue Tesla?
So, here are a few more numbers. Bear with me.
China produces yearly 6 million electric vehicles, soon to rise to 8.77 million. Its EV’s are not quite as sleek and sophisticated as Tesla’s, but they have longer battery range and are much cheaper. BYD has adopted a model pioneered by Henry Ford – vertical integration. BYD produces lithium from mines, electric batteries, basically everything their cars need. BYD swallows every renminbi of profit generated by EV’s and so, can charge much less.
Many of the workers and managers who cut their teeth on the Tesla Shanghai plant now work for Chinese EV makers. In short – China used Tesla to shortcut its EV industry development, leaping ahead while using the California credit system to incentivize its gasoline-car makers to make the shift to EV’s.
And Tesla? The mercuric Elon Musk dabbles in social media, space rockets, colonizing Mars — and supports free-market conservative politics, even though his business is alive because of Calfornia state govt. money. It appears that he has lost interest in Tesla.
In my country, Israel, Chinese EV’s have surged. Press reports note: “Chinese automakers, particularly BYD and Geely, have made remarkable strides in Israel’s automotive market. BYD’s surge from fourth place in 2022 to the top in 2023 indicates the growing acceptance of Chinese brands.”
Look for the same to happen elsewhere.
The Sun, The Moon, and a Coincidence
By Shlomo Maital
How’s this for a coincidence?
The sun is 400 times larger than the moon (in terms of the size of the sun’s and moon’s circles).
The sun is nearly exactly 400 times farther away from Earth than the moon. Moon: 238,855 miles, sun 93,000,000 miles.
Because of this ‘400’ coincidence: The moon almost perfectly blots out the sun during an eclipse. 400 times bigger but 400 times farther away.
Coincidence?
Exercise Helps Your Brain
By Shlomo Maital
My mother, Sally Malt, lived to 105. She was sound of mind to the end. She had an exercise machine that she used without fail every day — a treadmill with handles for upper body exercise.
When I used to visit her, I would watch her work out – and then do my own workout. And I follow her model. I work out in the Technion fitness room, focusing on abs and upper body and legs, and do a 3 km. walk regularly down and up a steep hill.
Dana Smith, writing in the New York Times, explains why exercise for seniors can be important for the health of their brains. Here is what she writes: *
* NYT. How Exercise Strengthens Your Brain. April 2, 2024.
“Physical activity improves cognitive and mental health in all sorts of ways. Here’s why, and how to reap the benefits.
“Exercise offers short-term boosts in cognition. Studies show that immediately after a bout of physical activity, people perform better on tests of working memory and other executive functions. This may be in part because movement increases the release of neurotransmitters in the brain, most notably epinephrine and norepinephrine.
The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin are also released with exercise, which is thought to be a main reason people often feel so good after going for a run or a long bike ride.
“The brain benefits really start to emerge, though, when we work out consistently over time. Studies show that people who work out several times a week have higher cognitive test scores, on average, than people who are more sedentary. Other research has found that a person’s cognition tends to improve after participating in a new aerobic exercise program for several months.
“Perhaps most remarkable, exercise offers protection against neurodegenerative diseases. “Physical activity is one of the health behaviors that’s shown to be the most beneficial for cognitive function and reducing risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia,” said Michelle Voss, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Iowa.
“How does exercise do all that?
“It starts with the muscles. When we work out, they release molecules that travel through the blood up to the brain. Some, like a hormone called irisin, have “neuroprotective” qualities and have been shown to be linked to the cognitive health benefits of exercise, said Christiane Wrann, an associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School who studies irisin. (Dr. Wrann is also a consultant for a pharmaceutical company, Aevum Therapeutics, hoping to harness irisin’s effects into a drug.)
“Good blood flow is essential to obtain the benefits of physical activity. And conveniently, exercise improves circulation and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in the brain. “It’s not just that there’s increased blood flow,” Dr. Voss said. “It’s that there’s a greater chance, then, for signaling molecules that are coming from the muscle to get delivered to the brain.”
“ Once these signals are in the brain, other chemicals are released locally. The star of the show is a hormone called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or B.D.N.F., that is essential for neuron health and creating new connections — called synapses — between neurons. “It’s like a fertilizer for brain cells to recover from damage,” Dr. Voss said. “And also for synapses on nerve cells to connect with each other and sustain those connections.”
“A greater number of blood vessels and connections between neurons can actually increase the size of different brain areas. This effect is especially noticeable in older adults because it can offset the loss of brain volume that happens with age. The hippocampus, an area important for memory and mood, is particularly affected. “We know that it shrinks with age,” Dr. Roig said. “And we know that if we exercise regularly, we can prevent this decline.”
“Exercise’s effect on the hippocampus may be one way it helps protect against Alzheimer’s disease, which is associated with significant changes to that part of the brain. The same goes for depression; the hippocampus is smaller in people who are depressed, and effective treatments for depression, including medications and exercise, increase the size of the region.”
Putin & Russia: Big Time Losers
By Shlomo Maital
It is a rare event when the head of the CIA publishes a long article. When it happens – it is worth paying close attention. Because as head of the CIA, he knows a great deal more than you and I.
William Burns has published a long thoughtful article in the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs.* It is about how he is shifting the CIA’s abilities and activities, to meet the challenge of the Russia-China-Iran axis of evil. But it is also about Russia’s massive failure in Ukraine.
Here is the essence, paraphrased.
The extensive casualties and material losses suffered by the Russian military are a testament to the miscalculations that underpinned the invasion. Putin’s initial strategy, predicated on a quick and decisive victory, has unraveled, revealing the limitations of Russian military power and the effectiveness of Ukrainian tactics, supported by Western military aid. The destruction of a significant portion of Russia’s pre-war tank inventory and the exposure of its flawed military modernization efforts underscore the strategic and tactical failures of the Russian command.
Economically, Russia faces a dire future, with long-term repercussions from the war exacerbating its status as a subordinate economic partner to China. The strategic blunders of Putin have not only inflicted immediate economic damage but have also compelled Russia into a dependent relationship with China, undermining its global standing. The strengthening of NATO, contrary to Putin’s intentions, marks another strategic miscalculation, as the alliance has emerged more cohesive and determined in the face of Russian aggression.
Internally, the war has eroded Putin’s authority, with the rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin exposing the cracks within the Russian political facade. This internal turmoil raises questions about Putin’s grip on power and the sustainability of his authoritarian regime. The challenges facing Putin domestically are compounded by the resilience of the Ukrainian people and the international community’s support for Ukraine, challenging the narrative of Russian invincibility.
In this context, Putin’s reliance on defense production and alliances with China, Iran, and North Korea reflects a desperate bid to regain the initiative. However, this strategy overlooks the enduring resolve of Ukraine and its allies, underestimating the costs of continued aggression and the international resolve to support Ukraine’s sovereignty.
– – – – – – –
A New York Times report states that Russia has received crucial supplies of weapons from North Korea. Add to this the Iranian drones. Russia is now a vassal state of China, crucially dependent on China’s purchase of Russian oil.
Would you invest in a country whose future is crucially dependent on China, North Korea and Iran? Putin has no future. Russia’s future is bleak.
* William Burns. Spycraft and Statecraft: Transforming the CIA for an age of competition. Foreign Affairs March-April 2024.
Daniel Kahneman 1934-2024
By Shlomo Maital
Daniel Kahneman passed away in Princeton, NJ, yesterday (Wednesday), three weeks after his birthday. He was 90 years old. In 2002 Kahneman, an Israeli psychologist, won the Nobel Prize for Economics, together with Vernon Smith.
And therein, lies a story. How in the world can a psychologist win a Nobel Prize in a discipline distant from his own, as day is distant from night?
In 2003, I wrote a review article on Kahneman (and his sidekick Amos Tversky, who died of cancer in 1995 – otherwise, he would have shared the Nobel with Kahneman).
I wrote: “There are two ways to research how people make judgments under uncertainty. One is mathematics. Define a minimum set of axioms necessary to obtain analytical solutions for equilibrium. Examine that equilibrium’s efficiency, optimality, stability and uniqueness.” For 150 years, this is how economists did research, largely, creating La-La Land theories and ‘verifying’ them by crunching numbers.
But there is another way. “A second approach is behavioral. Offer people (surgeons, statisticians, psychologists, ordinary people) a series of pair choices. Would you prefer—
A. 50% chance to win a 3-week tour of England, France, and Italy or B. (100% certain) 1-week tour of England. Observe their behavior carefully and generalize.”
Surprise! Turns out that people are more complex in their behavior (toward risk, toward EVERYthing!) than economists’ math models. It took two Israeli psychologists, who amazingly published their keystone 1979 paper in the leading theoretical, mathematical journal, Econometrica AND SPOKE TO ECONOMISTS IN THEIR LANGUAGE, BUT SINGING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TUNE! They presented their psychological theory of behavior toward risk, “Prospect Theory”, as a mathematical model – with behavioral evidence.
Perhaps Kahneman’s most influential book is 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow. The book’s main thesis is that we have two modes of thought: “System 1”, fast, instinctive and emotional; “System 2”, slower, more deliberative, and more logical. A lot of what we do is driven by System 1 and the emotional, limbic part of our brain. (That’s how I chose, at age 18, to study Economics. System 1. Bad move! ) .
Economics today has changed its DNA, from mathematics to behavior. In large part, thanks to Kahneman.
If you have patience for a few hundred more words, read below how Kahneman gained crucial insights about behavior, from Israeli pilots:
Daniel Kahneman gave a lecture to Israeli fighter pilots about effective training practices. During his talk, Kahneman discussed the well-supported concept that rewarding good performance is more effective than punishing poor performance. An incredulous senior Air Force instructor confronted Kahneman and said that criticising his trainee pilots for poor execution of aerial manoeuvers worked. How did he know? The instructor had noticed that when he criticized trainees after they poorly executed a manoeuver, they almost always improved on their next attempt. Sharp criticism works.
Kahneman drew a chalk target on the floor, had the officers turn their backs to the target and try to hit the target with two no-look coin throws. Officers who were far from the target on their first throw improved on the second throw; officers who were close to the target on their first throw did worse on their second throw.
Kahneman showed how we conflate ‘effective feedback’—either positive or negative—with regression to the mean. Did poorly on the maneuver? Chances are, the next try will be better. Did great? Maybe next time will be less great. Behavior tends to the mean.
I often wonder how different the world might be today, if economists had not taken a wrong turn, from Adam Smith in 1776, through Afred Marshall in 1880, to large-scale black-box econometric models in the 1960s. And just did a simple pivot, as Kahneman and Tversky did — get out of your office and study real people.
Rest in peace, Daniel Kahneman. You can say what few others can – as a researcher, your work really did change the world and changed the way we think and act and choose. For the better.
What Happens to Billionaires?
By Shlomo Maital
What in the world happens to billionaires, after they begin as entrepreneurs out to change the world for the better, and end up ruining the world, for the worse?
Mark Zuckerberg started at Harvard, with an idea to produce an online class yearbook, in place of the old-fashioned print book. It was a success – other universities wanted to copy it..and the result was Facebook (Meta), market cap $1.26 trillion! Zuckerberg is worth $177 billion.
According to a lawsuit filed by New York State, and other state governments: “Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health, and social media companies like Meta are to blame. Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem.”
The worst part is, Facebook insider whistleblowers say Facebook has research that shows they know they are deeply harming kids. But – hey, bottom line, fellas. Capitalism. We have shareholders, you know.
Zuckerberg?
Elon Musk, against the odds, built a massive global electric car company, now worth $556 billion. His personal wealth: $194 billion. Musk has pioneered SpaceX, and brain implants for paraplegics. News reports now claim: Long considered non-identifiable ideologically, Musk’s politics are now hardline right wing as he uses his platform (now called X) to stoke the themes cherished by Fox News, conservative talk radio and far right movements across the West.
Jeff Yass, a pauper, worth only $27.5 billion, is a cofounder of Susquehanna, a huge global Wall St. trading firm. He first became a pro gambler, then began trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1981 backed by billionaire Israel Englander. In 1987, he cofounded Susquehanna with a handful of partners; it’s now a giant in options trading and making markets, with 2,000 employees worldwide.
Yass funded an Israeli right-wing think tank, Kohelet, which powered and funded the far-right Netanyahu government’s anti-democratic initiative, causing 10 months of wild street protests, culminating in the October 7 massacre by Hamas, perhaps tempted by fractious Israeli politics. Yass was an early investor in TikTok, a social medium that originated in China, that has caused Israel massive harm and damaged the lives of young people in the US and elsewhere. (Trump originally supported Biden Administration efforts to make Bytedance divest TikTok – then did a sharp U-turn when Yass, a big Trump supporter and donor, whispered in his ear).
The list is endless. Massive wealth seems to push good people to the right and far right, where they use their billions to do huge damage.
We need an inheritance tax, so that the billionaires do not bequeath their malice and money to the young generation. Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ widow, told NPR she intends to give away her wealth, rather than bequeath it, and already has donated billions.
Power corrupts, the saying goes. Money corrupts even more. Warren Buffett organized a large group of billionaires who committed to giving away their wealth. Buffett, the Omaha wizard, never lost his folksy demeanor or common-people values. But many other billionaires have lost their way.
Shame.
TIMnovate 