Oscar Awards Incident

Comedian Chris Rock was about to give award for one of the winners. As usual he was making some jovial remarks. 

The winner of this year for Best Actor Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith were in the audience. Jada has a disease called “alopecia areata”. This disease makes her lose all her head hair. 

Award presenter Comedian Chris Rock started to make an insensitive joke about Jada. He said: 

"Jada, I love you— 'G.I. Jane 2', can't wait to see it," 

(Side bar: There was a movie in 1997 called G.I. Jane starring Demi Moore. In the movie, Demi Moore was the first woman to go through the arduous Navy Seal training. During the training, she showed more grit than her male counterparts. In an effort to solidify her status as a Navy Seal, she shaved her head and become the symbol of G.I. Jane.) 

Jada lost her hair because of this disease alopecia areata. Will Smith lost his cool when Chris Rock made fun of his wife’s disease. He went up to the stadium and slapped Chris Rock. This was witnessed live by millions of people around the world.

 

Now there is a debate going on in social media and news papers whether what Will Smith did was right or wrong. 

I fully support Will Smith. At least he was a nice guy and stopped with one slap. If I were in his place, I would have given Chris Rock harsher punishment. Husband should not keep quiet when a stranger publicly humiliates the wife (for her disease) in front of the world audience. 

What do you think? Was Will Smith right?

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is quite an interesting character. 

He was born in South Africa. Lived for a while in Canada. Became a U.S. Citizen. He is only 50 years old. 

He is the CEO of Tesla Motors, the electric car company. 

Musk is also CEO of SpaceX. Founder The Boring Company. Cofounder of Neuralink and OpenAI (Artificial Intelligence). 

His net worth is more than $300 billion. 

Musk said he started SpaceX company to get humanity to Mars. His company sent 4 civilians (not professional astronauts) into space. 

As I said before, he is an interesting guy. He named one of his kids 

 "X AE A-XII" 

I have no idea what is the meaning of this. He says X is the first name, AE A-XII is the middle name and Musk is the surname. (A few years ago an American professional basketball player changed his name to World B. Free.  At that time I thought it was bizarre.  Now I think it is ok after hearing Elon's kid's name.)

Elon Musk is a nightmare to work for. He is very ambitious and puts bizarre restrictions on his employees. For Example (some of them): No employee discount when purchasing Tesla car. No Acronyms or Workplace Jargon Allowed. No perfume or cologne allowed when they meet him. It goes on and on. 

Tesla Motors has no advertising budget. 

World Food Program published a notification that $6 billion would save the world from hunger. Musk challenged that statement and asked them to prove their statement. If they can prove, he said he will send $6 billion from his personal funds. World Food Program is yet to reply.

In this fight between Russia and Ukraine, Musk is a strong supporter of Ukraine. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent more than 5000 Starlink satellite internet terminals to Ukraine after a government official requested them. 

Musk’s latest announcement! 

He has challenged Putin to a one on one wrestling match. Stakes are Ukraine. A Kremlin official fired back and called Musk a “weakling” and “little devil.”

A New Scam

2 months ago I received a message in my WhatsApp from a Hong Kong phone number and it stated: 

“Hello Peter. I have almost finished your project and let us discuss when you have time”. 

I replied: I am not Peter. You must have got the wrong number. 

She replied: I am sorry. My secretary must have written down the wrong phone number. I will correct it. 

This must stop right now if it is legit. No. The next day she continued to message about how things are going, how is the weather in California, etc. I knew this was a scam but I wanted to play in her own game. I replied in a friendly manner. After 2 or 3 messages back and forth, she asked me if I am interested to buy cryptocurrency. I said I am very poor and I do not have money even to buy my food. The message from her stopped. 

In the past 2 months I received 3 more WhatsApp messages bearing Chinese female names asking me how I am doing, I replied fine and you have the wrong number. Same message again – My secretary must have written down the wrong phone number. These 3 times I said I am very poor and can she loan me some money to buy food for my starving children. 

She/they think they are intelligent. Don’t they realize they are contacting the same number with the same modus operandi – my secretary must have written down the wrong phone number. 

Day before yesterday, I got a message. I reproduce the conversation below: 

[10:51 AM, 3/16/2022] +1 (470) 499-4964: Long time no see. How are you? 

[10:51 AM, 3/16/2022] Rajan: I am fine. Can you introduce yourself please? 

[10:52 AM, 3/16/2022] +1 (470) 499-4964: I'm Lin Ziqi, don't you know me? Amir, what else do I need to introduce? 

[10:53 AM, 3/16/2022] Rajan: I am not Amir. You must have the wrong person 

[10:54 AM, 3/16/2022] +1 (470) 499-4964: Ahh it's embarrassing 

[10:54 AM, 3/16/2022] +1 (470) 499-4964: Sorry, I may have added the wrong person, maybe my new assistant did a good job, maybe she saved the wrong number, hope you don't mind 

[10:55 AM, 3/16/2022] Rajan: It is ok. But I want to tell you I am not interested in crypto currencies. 

No more messages from her.