Month: January 2023

23 Tidbits About the Human Operating System

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/23-tidbits-human-operating-system-nate-worrell/

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1- We Aren’t Totally Human – Almost half of the cells in our body don’t come from us. We have a universe of microorganisms, each of which brings their own DNA into the mix. From a BBC report:

“The human genome – the full set of genetic instructions for a human being – is made up of 20,000 instructions called genes.

But add all the genes in our microbiome together and the figure comes out between two and 20 million microbial genes.

Prof Sarkis Mazmanian, a microbiologist from Caltech, argues: “We don’t have just one genome, the genes of our microbiome present essentially a second genome which augment the activity of our own.

“What makes us human is, in my opinion, the combination of our own DNA, plus the DNA of our gut microbes.”

2- We share DNA with Bananas and Copied Viral DNA: Our closest genetic relative is the chimp, but we are connected to dogs and cats and even fruit flies and yes, bananas.

Author(s): Nate Worrell

Publication Date: 1 Jan 2023

Publication Site: Longevity Assistant at LinkedIn

How an insurer in Iowa became the most coveted asset on Wall Street

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.ft.com/content/b4261b75-f0cd-4d23-9253-8c392a5e0ba9

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Excerpt:

American Equity Investment Life last week rebuffed an unsolicited $4bn offer from a rival controlled by Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, capping a tumultuous year during which Bhalla also antagonised his company’s largest shareholder, Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management.

Underpinning the boardroom drama is Bhalla’s determination to keep AEL, one of the few independent annuities operators left, out of the wave of consolidation sweeping through the industry as private equity groups hoover up insurance assets.

The bad blood between Bhalla and Brookfield is a product of a deal that AEL entered into in November with start-up fund manager 26North, founded by the former longtime Apollo Global executive Josh Harris.

Bhalla had first turned to Brookfield in 2020 as it sought a white knight to fend off an earlier hostile bid from Apollo, where Harris worked at the time. Now with the Elliott bid out in the open, AEL and its $70bn of assets are in the crosshairs as a clutch of Wall Street investment titans circle the company.

Apollo, Brookfield, KKR, Carlyle Group, Ares and Sixth Street are among the many groups that could be bidders in a potentially frenzied auction next year.

Author(s): Sujeet Indap and Mark Vandevelde

Publication Date: 29 Dec 2022

Publication Site: Financial Times