We already have a Bill Gates flair, but do we remember Paul Allen?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen

Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which helped spark the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Microsoft became the world's largest personal computer software company.[1] Allen was ranked as the 44th-wealthiest person in the world by Forbes in 2018, with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death.[2][3]
Allen left regular work at Microsoft in early 1983 after a Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis, remaining on its board as vice-chairman. He and his sister, Jody Allen, founded Vulcan Inc. in 1986,[4] a privately held company that managed his business and philanthropic efforts. He had a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio, including technology and media companies, scientific research, real estate holdings, private space flight ventures, and stakes in other sectors. He owned the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League [5] and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association,[6] and was part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer.[7] In 2000 he resigned from his position on Microsoft's board and assumed the post of senior strategy advisor to the company's management team.
Allen founded the Allen Institutes for Brain Science,[8] Artificial Intelligence,[9] and Cell Science,[10] as well as companies like Stratolaunch Systems [11] and Apex Learning.[12] He gave more than $2 billion to causes such as education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare, and community services.[13] In 2004, he funded the first crewed private spaceplane with SpaceShipOne.[14][15] He received numerous awards and honors, and was listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2007 and 2008.[16]
Allen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009. He died of septic shock related to cancer on October 15, 2018, at the age of 65.[17]

Mr. Allen was an exceptional person, however I'll focus on his philanthropic efforts only.

Philanthropy
Allen gave more than $2 billion towards the advancement of science, technology, education, wildlife conservation, the arts, and community services in his lifetime.[13] The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which he founded with his sister Jody, was established to administer a portion of Allen's philanthropic contributions. Since its formation, the foundation has given more than $494 million to over 1,500 nonprofits; and,[111] in 2010, Allen became a signatory of The Giving Pledge, promising to give at least half of his fortune to philanthropic causes.[112] Allen received commendations for his philanthropic commitments including the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy [113] and Inside Philanthropy*'*s "Philanthropist of the Year".[114]
Science and research
📷 Allen (right) studies a brain sample with Allan Jones, CEO of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, in 2011.
In September 2003, Allen launched the Allen Institute for Brain Science with a $100 million contribution dedicated to understanding how the human brain works. In total, Allen donated $500 million to the institute, making it his single largest philanthropic recipient. Since its launch, the Allen Institute for Brain Science has taken a Big Science and open science approach to tackle projects. The institute makes research tools available to the scientific community using an open data model.[115] Some of the institute's projects include the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, Allen Human Brain Atlas and the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas. The Allen Institute is also helping to advance and shape the White House's BRAIN Initiative as well as the Human Brain Project.[116]
Founded in 2014, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2)'s main focus is to research and engineer artificial intelligence.[117] The institute is modeled after the Allen Institute for Brain Science and led by researcher and professor, Dr. Oren Etzioni. AI2 has undertaken four main projects, Aristo, Semantic Scholar, Euclid, and Plato. As of 2015 Project Aristo is working to build an AI system capable of passing an 8th-grade science exam.[118]
In December 2014, Allen committed $100 million to create the Allen Institute for Cell Science in Seattle. The institute is investigating and creating a virtual model of cells in the hope of bringing forth treatment of different diseases.[119] Like the institutes before it, all data generated and tools developed will be made publicly available online.[120]
Launched in 2016 with a $100 million commitment, The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group aims to discover and support ideas at the frontier of bioscience in an effort to accelerate the pace of discovery.[121] The group will target scientists and research areas that "some might consider out-of-the-box at the very edges of knowledge".[122]
Allen launched the Allen Distinguished Investigators Awards (ADI) in 2010 to support scientists pursuing early-stage research projects who often have difficulty securing funding from traditional sources.[123]
Allen donated the seed money to build SETI's Allen Telescope Array, eventually contributing $30 million to the project.[124]
The Paul Allen's flower fly was named in recognition of his contributions to Dipterology.[125]
Environment and conservation
Allen provided more than $7 million to fund a census of elephant populations in Africa, the largest such endeavour since the 1970s. The Great Elephant Census team flew over 20 countries to survey African savannah elephants. The survey results were published in 2015 and showed rapid rates of decline which were accelerating.[126]
He began supporting the University of British Columbia's Sea Around Us) Project in 2014 to improve data on global fisheries as a way to fight illegal fishing. Part of his $2.6 million in funding went towards the creation of FishBase,[127] an online database about adult finfish.[128] Allen funded the Global FinPrint initiative, launched in July 2015, a three-year survey of sharks and rays in coral reef areas. The survey is the largest of its kind and designed to provide data to help conservation programs.[129][130]
Allen backed Washington state initiative 1401 to prohibit the purchase, sale and distribution of products made from 10 endangered species including elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, marine turtles, pangolins, sharks and rays. The initiative gained enough signatures to be on the state's ballot on November 3, 2015, and passed.[131]
Alongside the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), Allen and Vulcan Inc. launched the Smart City Challenge,[132] a contest inviting American cities to transform their transportation systems. Created in 2015 with the USDOT's $40 million commitment as well as $10 million from Allen's Vulcan Inc., the challenge aims to create a first-of-its-kind modern city that will demonstrate how cities can improve quality of life while lowering greenhouse gas emissions.[133] The winning city was Columbus, Ohio.[134]
As a founding member of the International SeaKeepers Society, Allen hosted its proprietary SeaKeeper 1000TM oceanographic and atmospheric monitoring system on all three of his megayachts.[135]
Allen funded the building of microgrids, which are small-scale power grids that can operate independently, in Kenya, to help promote reusable energy and empower its businesses and residents.[136] He was an early investor in the Mawingu Networks, a wireless and solar-powered Internet provider which aims to connect rural Africa with the world, and Off Grid Electric, a company focused on providing solar energy to people in emerging nations.[137]
Ebola
In 2014, Allen pledged at least $100 million toward the fight to end the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa,[138] making him the largest private donor in the Ebola crisis. He also created a website called TackleEbola.org[139] as a way to spread awareness and serve as a vehicle for donors to fund projects in need. The site highlighted organizations working to stop Ebola that Allen supported, such as International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Médecins Sans Frontières, Partners in Health, UNICEF and World Food Program USA. On April 21, 2015, Allen brought together key leaders in the Ebola fight at the Ebola Innovation Summit in San Francisco. The summit aimed to share key learnings and reinforce the need for continued action and support to reduce the number of Ebola cases to zero, which was achieved in January 2016.[140]
In October 2015, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation announced it would award seven new grants totaling $11 million to prevent future widespread outbreaks of the virus.[141]
Exploration
📷 RV Petrel arriving at Surigao City in 2018
In 2012, along with his research team and the Royal Navy, Allen attempted to retrieve the ship's bell from HMS Hood), which sank in the Denmark Strait during World War II, but the attempt failed due to poor weather. On August 7, 2015, they tried again and recovered the bell in very good condition.[142] It was restored and put on display in May 2016 in the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, in remembrance of the 1,415 crewmen lost.[143]
Since 2015, Allen funded the research ship RV Petrel, which he purchased in 2016. The project team aboard Petrel was responsible for locating the Japanese battleship Musashi in 2015.[144] In 2017, at Allen's direction, Petrel found USS Indianapolis), USS Ward), the wrecks of the Battle of Surigao Strait and the Battle of Ormoc Bay. In 2018, Petrel found a lost US Navy C-2A Greyhound aircraft in the Philippine Sea, USS Lexington) in the Coral Sea and the USS Juneau) off the coast of the Solomon Islands.[145][146][147]
Museums and community institutions
Allen established non-profit community institutions to display his collections of historic artifacts. These include:
Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP, is a nonprofit museum, dedicated to contemporary popular culture inside a Frank Gehry–designed building at Seattle Center, established in 2000.[148]
Flying Heritage Collection, which showcases restored vintage military aircraft and armaments primarily from the World War II era, established in 2004.[149]
STARTUP Gallery, a permanent exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque dedicated to the history of the microcomputer, established in 2007.[150]
Living Computer: Museum + Labs, a collection of vintage computers in working order and available for interactive sessions on-site or through networked access, opened to the public in 2012.[151][152]
Art
An active art collector, Allen gifted more than $100 million to support the arts.[153] On October 15, 2012, the Americans for the Arts gave Allen the Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts.[154] Allen loaned out more than 300 pieces from his private art collection to 47 different venues. The original 541-page typescript of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was in his collection at one point.[155] In 2013, Allen sold Barnett Newman's Onement VI (1953) at Sotheby's in New York for $43.8 million, then the record for a work by the abstract artist.[156][157]
In 2015, Allen founded the Seattle Art Fair, a four-day event with 60-plus galleries from around the world including the participation of the Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner. The event drew thousands and inspired other satellite fairs throughout the city.[158]
In August 2016, Allen announced the launch of Upstream Music Fest + Summit,[159] an annual festival fashioned after South by Southwest.[160] Held in Pioneer Square, the first festival took place in May 2017.[161] It was cancelled in 2019 following Allen's death in 2018.[162]
In November 2022, Allen's art collection was auctioned at Chrsitie's New York.[163] It was the biggest sale in art auction history, surpassing $1.5 billion in sales. Six works sold for more than $100 million: Seurat’s Les Poseuses Ensemble (Petite version), ($149 million, with fees); Paul Cézanne’s 1888-90 La Montagne Sainte-Victoire ($138 million); van Gogh’s Verger avec cyprès ($117 million); and Gustav Klimt’s 1903 Birch Forest ($105 million). The auction also included paintings by Botticelli, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Jan Brueghel the Younger. Proceeds from the auction benefitted undisclosed philanthropies. [164][165][166]
Education
📷 Allen and Steve Wozniak at the Living Computer Museum in 2017
In 1989, Allen donated $2 million to the University of Washington to construct the Allen Library, which was named after his father Kenneth S. Allen, a former associate director of the University of Washington library system.[167] In the same year, Allen donated an additional $8 million to establish the Kenneth S. Allen Library Endowment.[168] In 2012, the endowment was renamed the Kenneth S. and Faye G. Allen Library Endowment after Allen's mother (a noted bibliophile) died.[169]
In 2002, Allen donated $14 million to the University of Washington to construct the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering.[170] The building was dedicated in October 2003.[171]
In 2010, Allen announced a gift of $26 million to build the Paul G. Allen School of Global Animal Health at Washington State University, his alma mater. The gift was the largest private donation in the university's history.[172]
In 2016, Allen pledged a $10 million donation over four years for the creation of the Allen Discovery Centers at Tufts University and Stanford University. The centers would fund research that would read and write the morphogenetic code. Over eight years the donation could be as much as $20 million.[173]
In 2017, Allen donated $40 million (with an additional $10 million from Microsoft) to reorganize the University of Washington's Computer Science and Engineering department into the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.[174]

Because of my field of study, I appreciate him mostly for his contributions to brain sciences in terms of donations and investments. Mr. Allen was alive when his endowments already had helped researchers usher a new age in neuroscience.
Hence, he's someone everyone can find something to be impressed by. Paul Allen as an industrial pioneer and a philanthropist would be a flair this subreddit should be proud to have along with his childhood friend Bill Gates.

The relationship between Allen and Gates became strained as they argued even over small things.[24] Allen effectively left Microsoft in 1982 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, though he remained on the board of directors as vice chairman.[22][35] Gates reportedly asked Allen to give him some of his shares to compensate for the higher amount of work that Gates was doing.[36][37] According to Allen, Gates said that he "did almost everything on BASIC" and the company should be split 60–40 in his favor. Allen agreed to this arrangement, which Gates later renegotiated to 64–36.[38] In 1983, Gates tried to buy Allen out at $5 per share, but Allen refused and left the company with his shares intact; this made him a billionaire when Microsoft went public.[38][39] Gates later repaired his relationship with Allen, and the two men donated $2.2 million to their childhood school Lakeside in 1986.[24] They remained friends for the rest of Allen's life.[40]

PuroVerse - NJPW Presents Tokyo Summit 2015 *CARD*

Ceph at the OpenStack Summit Tokyo 2015

[Opera] 'So adventurous a tale, Which may rank with most romances' – Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, comic opera's biggest and most controversial hit

CW: Racism, misogyny, violence
William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Seymour Sullivan are names that are inextricable from the history of musical theatre in the Anglophone world. Arguably, they are the only creators of English-language opera with any public recognition today. With Gilbert as librettist and Sullivan as composer, the duo wrote 14 shows between 1871 and 1896, 10 of them on a near-annual basis between 1877 and 1889. Historically, the most famous of these was, far and away, The Mikado, which ran for a nigh-unprecedented 672 performances from 14 March 1885 to 19 January 1887. This was the second-longest initial run of any opera in history up to that point, although it would soon be bumped down to third place thanks to the over 900-performance run of Alfred Cellier and B.C. Stephenson’s Dorothy, which opened in 1886. It is testament to the sheer cultural cachet of Gilbert and Sullivan, however, that even their weakest shows such as The Grand Duke are probably better remembered than Dorothy is. But The Mikado is not without its controversies. Indeed, it is likely uncontroversial to call it Gilbert and Sullivan’s most controversial piece, a reputation that grows with every passing year. I am not about to trace every year of that history, but there have been a number of interesting episodes related to various productions over the years as well as an intense modern debate. What this post will be, then, is somewhat of an anthology of sub-histories, beginning with that of how The Mikado came to be.

Tracing One's Ancestry to a Protoplasmal Atomic Globule: Gilbert and Sullivan before The Mikado

The partnership between Gilbert and Sullivan very nearly never happened. The duo had been united by chance in 1871 when they penned a Christmas piece, Thespis, for the Gaiety Theatre, which only ran for the Christmas season. Neither felt the pressing need to collaborate again, and each continued his own separate involvement with the theatre: Gilbert had been the librettist for several of the shows in Thomas German Reed’s Gallery of Illustration and continued in this role, while Sullivan wrote incidental scores for Shakespeare plays.
In 1875, however, fate brought the two together again. Richard D’Oyly Carte, manager of the Royalty Theatre, needed an after-piece for Jacques Offenbach’s La Périchole, and suggested that Sullivan write the score for Trial by Jury, a libretto satirising the British legal system which Gilbert had been floating since two years earlier. Unexpectedly, Trial managed to outlast La Périchole on the stage of the Royalty, going on for 131 performances. This suggested to D’Oyly Carte that he had found a winning formula, and led to him establishing the Comedy Opera Company in 1877 with the specific aim of producing works by the duo. The Sorcerer, in which a rural community is turned upside-down by the distribution of a love potion at the village fête, was a hit by contemporary standards, lasting 178 performances, but their next show, H.M.S. Pinafore, which poked fun at the class system and the Royal Navy, was an absolute knockout success, with its 571-performance run being the second-longest for an opera in history at that point.
1879’s The Pirates of Penzance, one of their less satirical works, was a more modest success, running for a year at the Opera Comique. This was followed by Patience, a satire of aesthetic movements, in 1881, which ran for 578 performances, dethroning Pinafore as the second-longest-running opera. 1882’s Iolanthe, which pivots rather dramatically from a story about fairies in the countryside to a biting satire of the House of Lords and the British political process, ran for 398 shows, and showcased some of the finest of Sullivan’s composition.
But then there started to be trouble. 1884’s Princess Ida, an unusual three-act show which was about, er, women’s education and the theory of evolution, was their least successful since The Sorcerer. Its principal obstacle was not so much its content as a spot of bad weather, with its run being cut short in October thanks to a heatwave that had slashed viewership over the summer, limiting the show to 246 performances – a number that would have marked an unthinkable success when they first started, but a flop by the standards they had now set. And, for the first time since Trial, there was no show to replace it. The company returned to the old classics, reviving The Sorcerer and Trial by Jury as well as holding children's matinée performances of Pirates, waiting with bated breath for the next show, that would hopefully revive the company's fortunes.
But this would take time, as Gilbert and Sullivan had been falling out over content: Gilbert wanted to write a plot involving a magic lozenge causing people to fall in love against their will, but Sullivan, who had been trying to establish his reputation as a serious composer, categorically refused to set it to music, demanding a story of ‘human interest and probability’. The traditional narrative, dramatised in Mike Leigh’s film Topsy-Turvy, has it that Gilbert had travelled to Knightsbridge, where a travelling Japanese exhibition had set up long-term, and was inspired to write The Mikado when a souvenir sword fell off his mantlepiece one evening. This is, however, untrue. Gilbert had, after some seven months of work, just about finished Act I when the Knightsbridge exhibition opened, although Gilbert would visit and even take some photographs in the run-up to the show’s opening. No specific incident led to the show's genesis, beyond a general air of Japanophilia in Britain at the time.

Virtue is Triumphant Only in Theatrical Performances: A Synopsis

The Mikado was written at an interesting time in Japan’s history. In the wake of Japan’s forcible opening to foreign trade in 1854, a variety of dissident movements emerged which, over the course of the 1860s, eventually coalesced into a movement to oust the Tokugawa Shogunate and restore the authority of the emperor – known to Europeans as the Mikado – that culminated in a civil war in 1868-9. But a number of Japan’s samurai – many of whom had sided with the restorationists in 1868 – opposed what seemed to be an increasing erosion of their societal privileges, and launched a series of uprisings in the 1870s that culminated in the extremely bloody Satsuma Rebellion of 1877-8. Japan in 1885 was a country in a state of profound transition, struggling over how much of itself to preserve, and how far it was to remodel itself in the image of the leading powers of the day.
Yet despite the context, the title, and the ostensible setting, The Mikado is not really about Japan as such. Its characters are, if anything, exaggerated versions of decidedly British archetypes, and the exotic setting is very much delivered with a sort of wink and nod to the audience. The entire show is suffused with an exaggerated Englishness: death and executions are often treated as unfortunate inconveniences, and characters act like members of London high society who pay, at most, lip service to the notional setting.
Set in the town of Titipu, the protagonist of Act I is a young wandering minstrel, Nanki-Poo, who has returned after an earlier visit seeking the hand of Yum-Yum, a local girl who has just graduated school. Nanki-Poo is informed by a nobleman, Pish-Tush, about local politics: flirting had been made a capital crime by the Mikado, but the townspeople came up with a plan – the first person on death row was given the job of Lord High Executioner, and since he’d have to cut off his own head first, all executions would cease! Another nobleman, Pooh-Bah, then delivers Nanki-Poo the news that Yum-Yum has already been engaged to her ward, Ko-Ko, who is, by unfortunate coincidence, the Lord High Executioner in question. Nanki-Poo does manage to briefly meet Yum-Yum, in whom he confides his secret: he is in fact the Mikado’s son and heir apparent, and disguised himself to flee an arranged marriage with the elderly Katisha. Nevertheless, Yum-Yum regrets that she cannot break off her engagement to Ko-Ko, and Nanki-Poo leaves, dejected. Meanwhile, although initially elated in his new position, Ko-Ko is soon confronted with the unfortunate news that unless he does actually execute someone – or indeed himself – within a month, the post of Lord High Executioner will be abolished and the town demoted to a village. Neither Pooh-Bah nor Pish-Tush volunteer for the dubious honour, and Ko-Ko himself would rather like to avoid cutting off his own head. His lucky break comes, however, when Nanki-Poo passes by and prepares to hang himself because he cannot marry Yum-Yum. After being stopped by Ko-Ko, Nanki-Poo proposes that he be allowed to marry Yum-Yum immediately, and in exchange he will allow himself to be executed for flirting on the eve of the one-month deadline such that Ko-Ko can marry her afterward, to which he reluctantly agrees. The engagement celebration is gatecrashed by Katisha, who is driven off, but not before threatening to return with the Mikado in retribution. So ends Act I.
Act II begins with the preparation for Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum’s wedding, which is interrupted by Ko-Ko and Pooh-Bah, bearing the unexpected and unwelcome revelation that if a married man is beheaded for flirting, his wife must be buried alive. Too timid to actually carry out the deed, Ko-Ko tells the pair to flee abroad, while he and the others will lie to the Mikado about the execution if and when he comes. This turns out to be straight away, and Ko-Ko spins his tale, only to be informed that the Mikado is not here for news of the execution, but rather, thanks to Katisha’s tip-off, is in search of his son… whom Ko-Ko has just claimed to have executed. With Ko-Ko back on the chopping block, he stops Nanki-Poo before he leaves to try to convince him to reveal himself, but Nanki-Poo proposes an alternative plan: Ko-Ko must convince Katisha to marry him instead, thus giving up her claim on Nanki-Poo. Despite his reservations, Ko-Ko pulls it off, and with Katisha thus duped, Nanki-Poo reconciles with his father, and the show ends with everyone some shade of happy.
The Mikado is arguably the best work in the G&S canon: its libretto is perhaps the tightest, and the score is one of Sullivan’s finest, with highlights such as the layered trio ‘I am so proud’, the iconic aria ‘The sun whose rays are all ablaze’, and the country madrigal ‘Brightly dawns our wedding day’. It has also had a not inconsiderable influence on popular culture more generally: ‘Pooh-Bah’ entered the lexicon as a term for a person with inflated sense of importance, and the phrases ‘short, sharp shock’ and ‘let the punishment fit the crime’ were popularised – though not coined – by Gilbert’s libretto. The ‘little list’ song in which Ko-Ko lists off the people he might like to execute has also served as a means for keeping the show up to date, as it is just about the only song in the canon where rewriting for a modern audience is not only tolerated but expected in order to keep references topical.

Life's Eventime Comes Much Too Soon: Gilbert and Sullivan after The Mikado

The Mikado’s enormous contemporary success was not a particular surprise, and the working relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan was reinvigorated for the next few years. Granted, their next show, Ruddigore, a parody of melodramas, was only a modest success at 288 performances, and remains a divisive part of the canon among modern performers. But Yeomen of the Guard, the darkest of the Savoy Operas and taking place in the Tower of London in a vaguely 16th/17th century setting, proved considerably more successful at 423 showings following its 1888 premiere. 1889’s The Gondoliers, a tale of Venetian republicans who find themselves in possession of a kingdom, is a very close contender with The Mikado in terms of quality, and fell just shy of Pinafore’s success with 554 performances.
However, an unexpected event would bring a sudden end to the partnership. In 1890, the so-called ‘Carpet Quarrel’ saw Gilbert attempt to sue Carte for charging some of the Savoy Theatre’s expenses – including at least £500 for a new carpet and £1000 in electricity bills – to himself and Sullivan rather than to his company, and he broke off his partnerships with both men after Sullivan sided with Carte. Why Sullivan chose Carte over Gilbert once differences became irreconcilable is an unanswered question, but a reasonably strong suggestion is because the two had become entangled through the production of a grand opera adaptation of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, which ran for a (by grand opera standards) impressive 139 performances after it opened in 1891.
Carte had hoped Ivanhoe would kick off a British grand opera tradition the way that Pinafore had done for comic opera, but Ivanhoe’s success would not be replicated. However, Carte did at least manage to sustain the British comic opera scene past The Gondoliers. Until 1910, the D’Oyly Carte Company produced new shows at the Savoy with a host of other librettists and composers such as Sydney Grundy, Basil Hood, and Edward German, and occasionally brought in the odd big name, including – as if to bring things back full circle – Jacques Offenbach. Sullivan would write a few more scores, and Gilbert a few libretti after a certain degree of reconciliation; the two would reunite on occasion, but not to enormous contemporary success: Utopia, Limited, a satire on joint stock companies and British imperialism, ran for 245 performances after premiering in 1893, but it has been reassessed in later decades as a strong, but not quite stand-out piece in the canon. The largely-reviled The Grand Duke ran for a mere 123 nights in 1896, their worst performance since Thespis, and indeed their final one. Nevertheless, the two would be recognised in their own lifetimes for their artistic merit: Sullivan was knighted in 1883 for his contributions to music, while Gilbert would, in 1907, be the first playwright to be knighted specifically for his dramatic work.
Sullivan died of heart failure after a bout of bronchitis in 1900, while Gilbert, who had taken to giving swimming lessons to young women in his retirement, died of a heart attack in 1911 trying to save one of his students from drowning. Richard D’Oyly Carte died in 1901, also of heart disease, but his family and descendants continued to run the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. After the copyright on Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas expired in 1961, the company downsized and went defunct in 1982, although Bridget D’Oyly Carte’s legacy has been used to revive the name on occasion since 1988. Today, the Gilbert and Sullivan canon is kept alive by both amateur and professional troupes the world over, and is a regular fixture of community theatres, university student groups, and major companies like Opera Australia and the English National Opera.

Here's a How-De-Do: A Troubled Production

The original production of The Mikado in 1885 was far from sunshine and roses behind the scenes. Aside from creative tensions between Gilbert and Sullivan and the creative accounting by Carte, the actors, too, went through a number of issues. The 1999 film Topsy-Turvy by Mike Leigh is mostly faithful on this count, with virtually all of the cast having some of their less fortunate sides shown. With forewarning that these are almost all quite heavy in parts:
Leonora Braham, the soprano who played Yum-Yum, struggled with alcoholism throughout her life, and was a single mother at the time of The Mikado’s production, having had a son with her first husband, who had taken his own life in 1880. She was later effectively fired from the D’Oyly Carte company during Ruddigore’s run, after she secretly married one of the other actors and became pregnant with her second child.
George Grossmith, the Savoy’s principal ‘funny man’ from HMS Pinafore to Yeomen, is alleged to have developed some form of drug addiction to deal with his stage fright, which may have reached an acute stage by the time of The Mikado’s run. Topsy-Turvy depicts this as being morphine, though Grossmith’s biographers never specified what substance he may have taken. On 29 January 1887, ten days after the last performance of The Mikado and a week into Ruddigore’s run, Grossmith became seriously ill with some form of inflammation, though it is very unclear if this was connected with his substance abuse. Ironically, unlike Sullivan Grossmith seems to have had friction with Gilbert because the latter was too serious, and unwilling to indulge his more slapstick sensibilities. While he took on the role of the jester Jack Point in Yeomen, he chose not to get involved for The Gondoliers or Utopia, and had departed the company outright by the time The Grand Duke began production in 1896.
Then there was the mezzo-soprano Jessie Bond, Gilbert’s long-term protégée. Her first marriage, which concluded in 1874, was to an abuser, and her first and only child died at six weeks old. Leigh’s film has it that Bond had contracted syphilis from him, which, although not definitively confirmed, is tragically quite probable: syphilis was listed as her son’s cause of death, and her divorce petition was filed on the grounds of having been knowingly infected with an unspecified disease by her husband. During The Mikado’s production, she met Lewis Ransome, whom she married in 1897, but her professional life also became more difficult thanks to the opera. Bond pushed hard for fame and recognition, convincing the costumier to give her costume an extra-large bow in order to stand out from the other two sisters; she also pushed hard for higher pay, which she consistently got, but this eventually, as many things did, brought her into tension with Gilbert. By the time of The Gondoliers, in which she played the co-leading role of Tessa, Gilbert barely acknowledged her existence during rehearsals, except for occasionally calling her the ‘High-Salaried Artiste’. Bond arguably got the last laugh though, as, when Queen Victoria herself called for a performance of The Gondoliers at Windsor Castle, the only encore was for Bond’s number, ‘When a Merry Maiden Marries’. While she remained with the D’Oyly Carte in a limited capacity for revivals of earlier G&S shows, she would not appear in either Utopia or The Grand Duke.
But the near-drama that was most directly connected with The Mikado’s production involved the titular Mikado himself, or rather his actor, Richard Temple. While Topsy-Turvy sees him portrayed by Timothy Spall as an actor specialising in buffoonish supporting roles, including the dimwitted knight Arac in Princess Ida, Temple’s acting range was quite considerable. He was the comported Sir Marmaduke in The Sorcerer, the villainous Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore, the flamboyant Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, and the romantic lead Strephon in Iolanthe. Temple had thus been a fixture of the D’Oyly Carte cast since its inception, which made it all the more galling when Gilbert and Sullivan decided to cut his only solo song, ‘A More Humane Mikado’, after the first dress rehearsal. Gilbert’s recollection of the events was that he and Sullivan were never fully satisfied with the song, which they thought was too reminiscent of Ko-Ko’s ‘little list’ song in Act I, and that the quality of Temple’s performance inadvertently drew attention to the flaws in the song. Temple himself was apparently happy to concede, but members of the press who were in attendance begged for it to be reinstated. When the two agreed, cheers rang out from the cast’s dressing rooms. Like Grossmith, Temple remained for the next two shows, playing Sir Roderic Murgatroyd in Ruddigore and Sergeant Meryll in Yeomen, but declined the role of secondary romantic lead Luiz in The Gondoliers, nor appeared in Utopia; dissatisfied with the general state of the D’Oyly Carte company, he joined Grossmith in departing the company altogether by the time The Grand Duke began rehearsing.

Let the Performance Fit The Times: The Problem of Staging

Okay so let’s be real here, The Mikado absolutely has a yellowface problem. Its characters’ names are literally based on baby-talk, for one. And the setting is entirely incidental – ‘Japanese’ can consistently be read for ‘high-society British’. Its origins in a time when Japanese tradition was a curiosity to be gawped at by the Global North gives the whole thing a certain air of iffiness. While the original Savoy production hired on the Knightsbridge performers as consultants to ensure that their portrayal was as accurate as possible for the time, that also meant full on yellowface makeup, squinty eyes and all. For decades, modern performers have had cause to try to work with or around the problem; I would categorise these into a few broad approaches:

1: Ignore/Dismiss

While The Mikado sometimes gets lumped in with Puccini’s Turandot or Madame Butterfly in the archetypal ‘yellowface operas’, it arguably differs in one key respect: the notion that it depicts actual Japanese people is entirely tongue-in-cheek. Whereas Turandot depicts problematic stereotypes of effeminate Chinese men, The Mikado presents caricatures of stereotypical British people, who happen to wear Japanese costumes to highlight the absurdity through distance. Moreover, the show’s tone, in which the characters refuse to acknowledge the situation’s fundamental absurdity, lends itself to this kind of disconnected-from-reality portrayal. For some, this is sufficient to justify performing the show as originally staged, with full Japanese aesthetics played straight. How far you play it straight, though, can be open to question. Many productions historically have leaned on full-throated yellowface makeup, such as the 1966 D’Oyly Carte filmed version, and to a considerable extent the 1982 Stratford Festival production; this 2007 New Zealand production seems to be limited solely by budget in terms of how far its cast adopt ‘authentic’ Japanese guise, with slanted eyebrows still on display. Needless to say, this particular approach has fallen largely out of vogue except among comparatively more conservative companies (either in the aesthetic or the political sense, or both).
That said, some productions have attempted to retain the costuming while toning down or even excising the makeup, and at least from a visual perspective that may be sufficient for some. Take for instance he 1939 D’Oyly Carte film with Martyn Green as Ko-Ko, (although that said, it messes with the songs a little including the rather bizarre decision to give Yum-Yum’s Act II aria to Nanki-Poo). Quite possibly it’s mainly down to the less exaggerated hairstyles, the more naturalistic makeup work, and the at least reasonably sincere attempt at some flavour of authentic set design. The 1973 BBC production is similar in this regard. But if even retaining the setting crosses the line, then there’s very little that can be done while still playing the setting straight.

2: Restage

If The Mikado isn’t actually set in Japan, then it doesn’t strictly need to be set in Japan. Why grapple with troublesome racial insensitivity when you can simply transpose the piece to a European or American setting? After all, it’s ultimately Victorian high society being critiqued, and so chronological distance can make up for geographical distance, as we are no longer required to couch the critique in wryly suggesting a Japanese setting for this ultimately British story.
Arguably the most well-known modern production of The Mikado is that of the English National Opera (ENO), first performed in 1987 with Eric Idle as Ko-Ko and Lesley Garrett as Yum-Yum, and revived relatively regularly. The ENO version of The Mikado moves the setting from an ageless Japan to a seaside resort in interwar Britain, with the chorus being guests and staff, the various well-to-do Japanese aristocrats becoming, well, well-to-do British aristocrats, and the titular Mikado portrayed as a sort of mob boss. Unfortunately, the 1987 version still thinks squinty eyes is a funny joke, but later revivals have thankfully omitted this particular sight-gag, and have retained the tradition of rewriting the list song for the modern day, as in this 2015 revival. This 2016 production in California reworked the libretto to set the opera in Milan rather than Japan, while this 2020 production in New York opts for what I can only term a Victorian fever dream. All of these are pretty valid approaches that get around the potential iffiness around the staging side, although it can still be asked whether the underlying text may remain too problematic to be salvageable for some.

3: Synthesise

What if there were a way to strike a balance? Can The Mikado’s proxy critique of British society be brought more to the fore, while retaining its notional setting? In essence, can you set it both in Japan and in Victorian Britain, at the same time?
There have been some pretty convincing attempts, in my view, and indeed possibly my favourite production, staging-wise, is one that does this exact thing: the 1987 Opera Australia production features a fascinating hybrid of Edo and Victorian aesthetics: to just discuss the men’s chorus, they wear bowler hats with tweed-patterned kimonos, sport ludicrously Victorian moustaches over kabuki-esque white makeup, and their fans double as copies of The Times. It’s an aesthetic fever dream, but in all the best ways. The 1992 D’Oyly Carte Buxton production is a somewhat lower-values attempt at a similar half-and-half approach.

4: Experiment

Sometimes, you have to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. The Pacific Opera Project opts for a bit of an aesthetic mélange that is half-Edo/Meiji Japan, half… anything at all, from top hats and epaulettes to Prince t-shirts to anime hair. Every once in a while an anime-inspired production crops up, though rarely seems to be recorded; on occasion one also sees the show simply staged in modern Japan, though not without controversy, as will be noted below.

A Fascination Frantic in a Ruin That's Romantic: Reckoning With and Reclaiming The Mikado in America

All of the above approaches are premised on the notion that the text can and should be rescued from the production: that The Mikado is a piece of theatre that deserves to be performed, despite its origins and its performance history. But what if you don’t make that case? Because there is an argument to be made either that the text itself is simply too offensive for portrayal, and/or that the show’s history inherently taints any subsequent performance.
Take, for instance, this 2015 article criticising a played-straight production in New York, which was actually cancelled outright, or this critique of a 2014 show in Seattle. Nor is there criticism solely in the US: this article and this one discuss a problematic production in New Zealand in 2017. Literary scholar Josephine Lee, in her 2010 book The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, is generally critical of both text and performance, and makes a not-undeserved comparison to minstrel shows, arguing that the show commodifies a comic exaggeration of racial imagery. A perhaps more digestible version can be found in this blog post by The Fairy Princess Diaries.
That is not to say that there have not been attempts at diaspora reclaiming of the work. For instance, Lee cites the case of David Furumoto in 2003, who directed a university production in Wisconsin that sought to target what he saw as the principal issue, that being a certain Sino-Japanese ethnic confusion. The set and costume design and choreography was thus intentionally focussed on to only employ Japanese influences, with especial focus on Kabuki motifs. Henry Akina in 2004 directed a relatively ‘played-straight’ production in 2004 for a Japanese-Hawaiian audience that deliberately overplayed the show’s Japaneseness to highlight its incongruities, but also had a certain local character as well in poking at Hawaiian political issues. These productions take somewhat different approaches to the issue: Furumoto’s tries to keep The Mikado accessible to a general audience while rooting it more firmly in an authentic Japanese setting and stripping out inauthentic influences; Akina’s involves specifically reorienting the show to a local context and highlighting the inauthenticities as a point of humour, through which the audience can laugh with the show rather than at it.
One of the most controversial recent performances of the show, already alluded to earlier, was a planned 2015 production by NYGASP (the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players) which was cancelled after protest. The show would open the next year, having been reworked with significant input from Asian-Americans, including appointing an Asian-American actor as co-director. The 2016 NYGASP production inserts a prologue with Gilbert and Sullivan viewing a Japanese painting, in order to emphasise the idea that The Mikado is the product of a Victorian imagining, and replacing a few lines. You can read a bit more detail in this New Yorker piece.
Lee’s book does not, however, cite Furumoto’s and Akina’s productions as wholly successful, unproblematic attempts at reclaiming, and we could apply similar critiques to the 2016 NYGASP performance. One suggestion she makes is that there is a fundamental Catch-22 to a Furumoto or NYGASP situation involving a mostly non-Asian production. A production that does not allow creative agency to Asian voices is problematic in itself, but when Asian voices are involved, their involvement becomes instrumentalised to justify the production, and a huge amount of onus is also dumped on them in regards to the show’s authenticity and sensitivity. The Akina case is different in that this was a more or less exclusively Japanese-American production team principally targeting a Japanese-American audience, but she argues this is a relatively unique case given the much more secure position of Japanese-Hawaiians within society in Hawaii, and that the show still ends up perpetuating what she considers a commodification of racial imagery, and simply changes the consumer.
A limitation of the above critiques, however, are that they originate almost exclusively either from white people or from Asian-Americans. Why exactly there aren’t more visible critiques coming from people of East Asian descent in other parts of the Anglosphere is a question to which there seems to be no clear answer, but probably boils down to a combination of four factors:

The context of race relations in America is quite different in general: subtler, more implicit forms of racism are much more overtly discussed compared to most other parts of the Western world.
The historical Asian-American experience has been especially traumatic and compounds the above: while anti-Asian discrimination is not unique to the US, arguably nowhere else has it been so prevalent as to be institutionalised in the form of the Chinese Exclusion Acts and Japanese-American internment camps. That kind of context likely creates a heightened sensitivity among members of the community.
The Asian-American community is much more coherent as an overarching group transcending boundaries of national origin compared to what tend to be much more mono-national communities in other countries, and so more issues affect it on the one hand, and on the other hand it is more active in advocating its interests.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s oeuvre occupies a different cultural niche in the US versus the Commonwealth: in America it is an import consumed largely by an Anglophilic, white-skewing segment of the middle class, whereas it is much more intimately tied in with the cultural landscape of the former British Empire.

But it is also notable that there is very little critique emerging from Japan itself, and so we ought, as a coda, to consider the history of The Mikado in relation to non-diasporic audiences.

If Patriotic Sentiment is Wanted, I've Patriotic Ballads Cut and Dry: The Mikado in Japan

There can be a somewhat self-congratulatory narrative among G&S aficionados that The Mikado has always been warmly received by Japanese audiences. This is… a rather romantic view, to say the least.
The stories generally told are of two imperial princes who visited Britain – Komatsu Akihito, who attended one of the original run of performances in 1886, and Fushimi Sadanaru, whose visit in 1907 occasioned a six-week ban on The Mikado within the British isles to avoid causing offence. As the story goes, Komatsu found the show inoffensive when he saw it, while Fushimi was in fact disappointed and had hoped to see the show while he was there. The latter seems to be sourced only to hearsay reported in a contemporary New York Times article; the former seems to have no corroboration at all. So, did imperial princes like, or at least not dislike, the show? Maybe? I guess?
But The Mikado would not enter Japan itself until after the Second World War. The first performance was essentially an exercise in cultural hegemony: in 1946, a three-performance run was put on with American-British-Canadian leads and a Japanese chorus, with costumes hired from the imperial house’s coronation tailors, attended almost entirely by G.I.s (although some reported that a Japanese audience attended one of the previews). 1948 saw a production by the Nagato Miho company at the Tokyo Theatre with an all-Japanese cast and a more mixed audience. These performances were, however, also specifically spurred on by an American policy of theatre censorship aimed at suppressing what were asserted to be anti-democratic, militarist values inherent in traditional performing arts like Kabuki. Reception of The Mikado was, frankly, mixed. Contemporary American newspaper reports give conflicting reports on public opinion over the opera’s believability and entertainment value, with especial focus being placed on its portrayal of a buffoonish emperor.
But a frosty initial reception gradually turned into a bit of a cult following, as local production companies began to stage it more actively, finding ways of using the show to situate Japan within the modern international community. By the 1970s, the Nagato Miho company had staged over 1000 performances, including a televised production over NHK. Fujiwara Opera attempted a US tour of The Mikado in 1956, but unfortunately reviews were mixed thanks to perceived linguistic problems. The audiences were largely sympathetic, it seems, but there was a sense from the reviews that clarity had been impeded. There was also some disagreement over the cutting of the ‘little list’ song and a few lyrical changes and updates, although the latter is generally much more tolerated these days, especially since the end of the D’Oyly Carte company’s effective monopoly on the canon.
This culminated over the course of the 1990s and 2000s with the rise of more overtly ‘reclaimed’ versions of The Mikado. One such example examined in Josephine Lee’s book is that of the Super Ichiza production in 1992, a production which blended Super Ichiza’s own style of ‘rock Kabuki’ with the stylings of Asakusa Opera, Japan’s highly flamboyant operetta scene of the 1910s-20s. The libretto and music were preserved (albeit rearranged for a more rock-heavy instrumentation), and the show was deliberately presented as being a comical, entertaining experience and an alternative to stuffy grand operas.
But perhaps the most famous Japanese production is from 2001, when a production company in the city of Chichibu staged a Japanese translation of the show. Its origins are… interesting, to say the least. A local radio host, Ei Rokusuke, had become convinced that ‘Titipu’ was in fact Chichibu (which makes a little more sense when you consider Japanese orthography: ち sounds like chi but is Romanised as ti in some systems, as it is grouped in with the other t- syllables; ぶ bu and ぷ pu are distinguished only by a diacritic.) According to Ei in a 1991 broadcast, Gilbert had set The Mikado in the town of ‘Titipu’ because he had been made aware of protests against tax policy that were suppressed by force in 1884. This has no real corroboration, but it led to a move by listeners to form a group to stage the show in 2001 to mark the 50-year anniversary of Chichibu’s incorporation in 1951.
Drawing in volunteers from all over the city, the production became a vehicle for civic pride, and its promotion received global attention, especially as alternative views of how Gilbert allegedly came to hear of Chichibu (particularly the idea that he may have come across Chichibu silk at Knightsbridge) also started to circulate. The show would be revived in Tokyo in 2003, and would be the highlight of the 2006 International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, where it received the rare distinction of a standing ovation (after all, Buxton attendees would have lived and breathed G&S, and most would have seen dozens of productions over the years).
It’s hard not to write about the Mikado’s performance history without repeatedly falling back on Josephine Lee’s book, but if I may be permitted one last paraphrase, there is no one Japanese response to The Mikado, and the show’s meaning morphs with each performance – sometimes symbolic of postwar realignment, sometimes a callback to Japan’s earlier flirtations with operetta, and – for one particular city – a unique point of local pride.

There's Yet a Month of Afternoon: Conclusions

So what have we all learned today? In the simplest terms, The Mikado is a show with a text that is at least mildly problematic and whose performance history is most certainly more so, but it has also managed an enduring legacy. There is, no doubt, a case for relegating it to the dustbin of theatre history, but its continued staging, especially by both Japanese and Asian-American companies and groups, suggests that many still recognise something in the text that is worth keeping alive. Perhaps some day it comes to be seen that the contradictions are too much to bear, but to quote Pooh-Bah in the Act I finale, ‘This toast with three times three we’ll give, "Long life to you – till then!”’

An analysis of crime statistics in London, or why this city isn't as dangerous as comments would have you believe

Every now and again we get a spate of crime-related posts on this subreddit.
It’s awful that people have to go through something as traumatic as being a victim of crime and my heart goes out to them.
However, often these posts descend into a series of outbursts about how unsafe London is and how dangerous it has become. Often these are brigaded by people with an agenda to push, or who don't even live in London.
Then we often see as a result people asking about safety or becoming worried and stressed based on anecdotal comments and posts.
This is despite the subreddit wiki going over the fact that London is very safe.
So, I decided to do some comparative analysis of crime data to check those statements and posts out.
Disclaimer: I am an early-30s white man who has lived in London since 2015. Though I’m trying not to be biased, I can only view crime in London through my own experiences. This is why I will try to use data throughout, and not my personal opinions.
I also do not intend to downplay the experiences of those who have been victims of crime in London. It’s a horrible experience, especially when seeking justice alongside an underfunded and overworked police force.

Source:

I am using data from the open-source intelligence website CrimeRate. Its data is based on sources including Police Force incident reports, FOI requests, social media signals, and first-party data collection operations.
CrimeRate offers both total crimes in the last 12 months, and data on a crime per population basis.
I will be linking all its data in the post and encourage people to explore the data themselves to correct or challenge anything I say. Please do so as I’m by no means a data analyst.
(I also use the word “dangerous” in this post but only as a shorthand for “likelihood to be a victim of crime”.)
Limitations:
Data is not always the answer, and data like this does not discriminate. Males, females, and non binary people are more likely to be victims of different types of crime, which isn’t shown in these figures.
Similarly, some people are more likely to report crime than others due to levels of mistrust in police or other government institutions.
We will use crime per population for this analysis. This naturally means that dangerous crimes like violent assault are lumped in with smaller offences.
–

Is London the most dangerous city in the UK?

Short (and unhelpful) answer: no.
Long answer: In terms of reported crimes, London dwarfs all other locations in the UK.
This is due to its size. London has a population of 9 million people. A few million more commute into the city every day.
London is almost ten times larger in population than our next biggest city in this set, Birmingham (unless you want to count metro areas, which this data set doesn't).
Population sizes mean comparing crime data by number of crimes reported is misleading, as naturally more people = more overall crime.
Breaking those numbers down by population, and rate per 1,000 people, as CrimeRate does, gives a better picture.
London has a crime rate of 87 per 1,000 people. Let’s compare that to other cities in the UK:

Leeds - 153 per 1,000
Birmingham - 137 per 1,000
Liverpool - 128 per 1,000
Newcastle - 114 per 1,000
Bristol - 94 per 1,000

(I am using these cities as comparatives, they are not used as examples of the most dangerous - though Leeds is up there).

Is London the most violent city in the UK?

As mentioned, crime rate per population groups together car theft and drugs with murder and violent assault. This can skew the stats somewhat if a place has lots of cars nicked but no violent crime.
Let’s drill down into violent assault and sexual offences:

London - 27 per 1,000
Birmingham - 67 per 1,000
Leeds - 66 per 1,000
Liverpool - 53 per 1,000
Newcastle - 44 per 1,000
Bristol - 36 per 1,000

In 2021 there were 127 homicides in London. The current homicide rate per 100,000 is half (1.4) of what it was at its highest in 2003 (3.0).
The homicide rate in regions of the UK per million people in 2021:

London - 13.1
North West - 15.3
West Midlands - 15.2
Northern Island - 11.6
Scotland - 10.6
East Midlands - 10.4

Am I more likely to be mugged in London than anywhere else in the UK?

Theft is difficult to define. There are categories for robbery, breaking and entering, car and bike theft etc.
Theft from a person is when someone takes something from a person’s hands (like a guy on a bike snatching a phone) or pickpocketing:

London - 4.4 per 1,000
Liverpool - 2.3 per 1,000
Leeds - 2 per 1,000
Birmingham - 1.5 per 1,000
Newcastle - 1.5 per 1,000
Bristol - 0.9 per 1,000

Robbery often involves the threat of violence to force a person to hand something over:

London - 2.2 per 1,000
Birmingham - 3.5 per 1,000
Leeds - 1.8 per 1,000
Liverpool - 1.7 per 1,000
Bristol - 1.6 per 1,000
Newcastle - 1.0 per 1,000

So it seems that yes, in fact you are more likely to be mugged or pickpocketed by someone in London than in other UK cities.
The borough of Westminster leads these rankings, where theft from a person sits at 29 per 1,000 and robbery at 8.9 per 1,000 due to it being packed with people and tourists most times of the day.
In fact, in boroughs usually populated heavily by tourists, or heavily populated in general by commuters (Camden, Hackney, Kensington, Westminster) you are on average at greater risk of theft or robbery.
Only in Birmingham were crime rates for theft and robbery roughly equivalent.
That brings us onto an important clarification.

London is more than just London

London is split into 32 boroughs. Each has a population of between 150,000 and 400,000.
14 of the 32 boroughs have populations over 300,000. This makes them more or equally as populous as Newcastle, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, or Brighton.
These are the five most populous boroughs (from 2021):

Croydon - 390,000
Barnet - 389,000
Ealing - 367,000
Newham - 351,000
Brent - 339,000

Here are their crime rates per 1,000:

Croydon - 82
Barnet - 67
Ealing - 82
Newham - 93
Brent - 82

Newham, which has the highest crime rate of the five (93) is still safer on average than Bristol (94).
Here are their violent crime or sexual offences rates per 1,000:

Croydon - 30
Barnet - 21
Ealing - 28
Newham - 30
Brent - 28

What about the most dangerous boroughs?

Excluding the City of London, here are the seven boroughs with the highest crime rates per 1,000:

Westminster - 189
Kensington and Chelsea - 115
Camden - 107
Haringey - 106
Hackney - 105
Hammersmith & Fulham - 102
Islington - 103

As mentioned above, Westminster has a disproportionately high rate of crime for things like robbery (8.9) and theft from a person (29) as well as other theft (38) and shoplifting (9).
In Westminster you are 572% more likely to be pickpocketed, 227% more likely to be mugged, and 120% more likely to have your bike stolen. If you are in Westminster you are on average 118% more likely to be a victim of crime.
What if we compare the most dangerous boroughs to the seven most dangerous cities in terms of crime rate per 1,000:

Leeds - 153
Bradford - 145
Birmingham - 137
Liverpool - 127
Leicester - 111
Coventry - 102
Bristol - 94

(Manchester, which CrimeRate appears not to have stats on, has a rate of 169 per 1,000 according to Police UK)

London compared to cities worldwide?

As an addendum, let’s compare London to other major global cities. Crime rates are harder to come by for these, and I would have to scrape multiple government databases, which even I don’t have the spare time to do.
So we will use the crime index instead.
A crime index is created by dividing the total number of index crimes submitted by police agencies in each city by the population, and then multiplying it by 100,000.
Numbeo, the source I’m using for this, applies survey data to its crime index results as well. This means it has asked respondents how safe they feel in their cities. This adds subjectivity to the results, so keep that in mind.
Compared among the four “global cities”:

London - 53
Paris - 56
New York - 48
Tokyo - 23

Compared to other European capital cities:

London - 53
Athens - 56
Rome - 53
Istanbul - 47
Moscow - 37
Madrid - 30
Warsaw - 27

Compared to major US cities:

London - 53
Baltimore - 75
Detroit - 74
New Orleans - 67
Philadelphia - 63
Atlanta - 62
Los Angeles - 50

It is worth noting that using this index Bradford (71), Coventry (68), Birmingham (62) and Manchester (55) have higher results than London.
Homicide rates between European cities (per 100,000, data from 2018):

London - 1.3
Berlin - 2.6
Madrid - 1.2
Rome - 0.6
Amsterdam - 2.3

[Note: this section was added after posting]

Conclusions:

According to these sets of data, not only is London not the most dangerous city in the UK, a lot of its most notorious boroughs have less crime on average than equally populous areas of the country. This includes violent and sexual offences.
However the rates for pickpocketing and robbery are high in London and its boroughs, and often times much higher than equivalent cities. This could be down to the much higher levels of tourism, but it's not for me to draw that as a definite conclusion.
The data here has been picked out of multiple dozens of comparatives. My natural bias will mean I will have focused on areas you might not find causative, or missed trends that change the story entirely.
As mentioned above I encourage people to look at the sources linked and draw their own conclusions as well. After all, interpretation is everything.
Cheers

The top 10 games from each year from the past 100 years, according to BGG rankings

only games that have a ranking were included. some years do not have ranked games.

1920

17222 - Pogs

1921

4869 - Tipp-Kick

1922

1923

1924

1925

719 - Bridge
12102 - Tri-Tactics
20632 - Elfer raus!

1926

1927

20670 - Trap the Cap
20880 - Cootie

1928

1929

15204 - Escalado
20883 - Sorry!

1930

2186 - Oh Hell!
5658 - Nertz
5996 - Camelot
6233 - Belote
7787 - Barbu
7939 - Contract Rummy
14130 - Klabberjass
16107 - Tangrams Competitive Party Game
18924 - Wahoo
20038 - Weltreise

1931

20593 - Battleships
20877 - Battleship

1932

3718 - Rod Hockey
19382 - Finance
19824 - The Laughing Pig

1933

17104 - Lexicon
20111 - Tell Me: The Grand Quiz Game
20890 - Monopoly

1934

19551 - Kan-U-Go
20825 - Slap Jack

1935

18189 - Whot
18688 - El Palé
19539 - Capitaly
19990 - Magic Robot Quiz Game
20053 - Touring England
20447 - Easy Money
20691 - Deutschlandreise

1936

15478 - Hexagonal Chess
20225 - Das kaufmännishe Talent
20752 - Go to the Head of the Class

1937

8517 - American Mah Jongg
15345 - Stock Ticker
17191 - Tripoley
17722 - Mr.Ree!: The Fireside Detective
17833 - Star Reporter

1938

1738 - Spades
6769 - Totopoly
8859 - Buccaneer
17644 - Autobridge
17773 - Speed
18274 - BAS-KET

1939

3342 - Canasta
15744 - Michigan Rummy
18170 - Contack

1940

11476 - Rummoli
16461 - Machiavelli
18153 - Conflict
20595 - Game of the States
20677 - Spare Time Bowling
20847 - Labyrinth

1941

11946 - All-Star Baseball
16978 - Foto-Electric Football

1942

3446 - Hex
12019 - Nok-Hockey
19207 - Estanciero

1943

8949 - Super Farmer
20719 - Tjuv och polis

1944

1945

12204 - Jägerso

1946

2605 - Stratego
17499 - Rich Uncle

1947

1763 - Subbuteo
18876 - Qubic

1948

1852 - Scrabble
20636 - Electric Football

1949

8730 - Clue
13822 - Subbuteo Cricket
20411 - Finans
20895 - Candy Land

1950

10369 - Flutter
11404 - Contraband
18351 - Park and Shop
18392 - Stap op

1951

5094 - APBA Pro Baseball
20853 - Afrikan tähti

1952

12214 - Wembley
15835 - Stadium Checkers
19202 - Blockhead!
19874 - The Merry Game of Floundering

1953

7187 - The Game of Y
16704 - Skunk
17318 - Scoop
20527 - 3D Tic Tac Toe
20779 - Bondespelet

1954

7322 - Mille Bornes
8177 - Bali
9042 - Rome & Carthage
12526 - Astron
17709 - Das Jagdspiel
18037 - Monopoly: Popular Edition
20638 - Explore Europe

1955

5815 - Careers
10207 - Carla Cat
13637 - Bantu
17933 - Sjörövarön
19554 - Test Match

1956

5027 - Eleusis
6257 - Rack-O
10209 - Perquackey
10704 - Jotto
14848 - Troke
16765 - Wide World
19166 - Wangaratta
19336 - Spill and Spell
20709 - Yahtzee

1957

20127 - Curious George Match-a-Balloon Game
20812 - Don't Spill the Beans

1958

7169 - 5ive Straight
10683 - APBA Pro Football
14936 - Gettysburg
14975 - Why
15925 - Dispatcher
18196 - RSVP
19582 - Concentration
20388 - Tactics II
20798 - Scrabble Junior

1959

628 - Diplomacy
4745 - Piratenbillard
5401 - Football Strategy
12407 - Royalty
17011 - U-Boat
17895 - Die grosse Auktion
18785 - Yum
18862 - Long Cours
19334 - The Rolling Moon
20022 - Risk

1960

1871 - Dutch Blitz
3571 - Bughouse Chess
7239 - Yacht Race
10628 - Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations
13427 - Baseball Strategy
13731 - Trade Winds
13864 - Kimbo
14495 - Lie Detector
15534 - Gazza! The Game
15541 - Squatter
notable misses: Hi Ho! Cherry-O, The Game of Life

1961

10750 - Broker
11600 - Le Mans
11733 - D-Day
15109 - Battle-Cry
15637 - Summit
15880 - Civil War Game 1863
16154 - Air Empire
16359 - Chancellorville
16633 - Civil War
18065 - Go: The International Travel Game

1962

1467 - Strat-O-Matic Baseball
2003 - Twixt
4072 - Formula-1
4807 - Password
5456 - Harry's Grand Slam Baseball
5542 - Dogfight
6178 - Bismarck
6921 - Broadside
9344 - Waterloo
9388 - Square Mile
notable misses: Aggravation

1963

3795 - Focus
4685 - Breakaway Rider
6206 - Scarabeo
8245 - Stock Market Game
9200 - Stalingrad
11895 - Krypto
12069 - Haggle
13854 - What's That on My Head?
15281 - Equations
15396 - The Match Game
notable misses: Kismet, Mouse Trap

1964

280 - Acquire
3478 - Midway
4672 - Afrika Korps
5106 - Facts in Five
8675 - Probe
10054 - Quinto
11113 - Oh-Wah-Ree
11453 - So Long Sucker
11672 - Stocks & Bonds
14282 - Phalanx
notable misses: Pie Face

1965

2973 - Nuclear War
6935 - The Battle of the Bulge
7659 - Blitzkrieg
10779 - Breakthru
10880 - The Business Game
11050 - High-Bid
11909 - Kaiser
12353 - Call My Bluff
12965 - Avalanche
17261 - James Bond 007
notable misses: Mystery Date, Operation, Trouble

1966

3081 - Win, Place & Show
8612 - Coup d'État
9531 - Thinking Man's Golf
10806 - Fight in the Skies
13023 - Guadalcanal
15470 - Switchboard
15828 - Magellan
18154 - Thinking Man's Football
20093 - The Game of Shakespeare
20875 - Twister

1967

2409 - Bazaar
4518 - Jutland
4658 - Feudal
4814 - Regatta
6009 - Mr. President
6720 - Score Four
13190 - Sprouts
14283 - Monkey Auto Races
15132 - Ratrace
15136 - Nile
notable misses: Skip-Bo, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Ker Plunk

1968

3940 - Strat-O-Matic Pro Football
7027 - Battling Tops
7984 - Situation 4
9533 - Kaliko
10407 - Sherco's Grand Slam Baseball Game
10503 - Djambi
10941 - International Movie Maker
11463 - MeM
12681 - The Battle of Britain
13750 - RisiKo!
notable misses: Don't Break the Ice

1969

3351 - Lines of Action
3752 - Anzio
3804 - Venture
5258 - Bowling Solitaire
5666 - Monad
10183 - Playboss
11010 - Barbarossa: The Russo-German War 1941-45
11200 - Wu Hsing
13545 - Origins of World War I
14129 - Hang on Harvey!
notable misses: Ants in the Pants

1970

2568 - PanzerBlitz
3872 - Paydirt
6210 - NFL Strategy
6599 - Ploy
8330 - Bridgette
9768 - Masterpiece
10460 - The Flight of the Goeben
11048 - Mini Shogi
12808 - Joker Marbles
12967 - Quandary

1971

1255 - Sleuth
2294 - Speed Circuit
3601 - Statis Pro Baseball
4271 - Napoleon at Waterloo
6310 - Alexander the Great
7234 - Executive Decision
7327 - Trireme
8081 - Origins of World War II
9329 - Landslide
10713 - Strategy I: Strategic Warfare 350BC to 1984
notable misses: Mastermind, Crossfire, UNO

1972

2339 - Boggle
2910 - Quebec 1759
3882 - What's My Word?
4847 - Statis Pro Basketball
5594 - Winter War: The Russo-Finnish Conflict
5869 - Sports Illustrated Baseball
5891 - Richthofen's War
6458 - Ultimate Mastermind
7390 - Soldiers: Tactical Combat in 1914-15
7728- The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon in Russia 1812
notable misses: Escape from Colditz Castle, Spoons

1973

1432 - Hare & Tortoise
1752 - Escape from Colditz
2868 - War of 1812
3049 - Tally Ho!
4955 - Conspiracy
5147 - Montage
5480 - Statis Pro Football
5771 - Bowl Bound
6139 - Jockey
6140 - Cartel
notable misses: Perfection, Anti-Monopoly

1974

1446 - Wooden Ships & Iron Men
1475 - The Russian Campaign
1481 - Napoleon: The Waterloo Campaign, 1815
1841 - Rise and Decline of the Third Reich
2173 - Kingmaker
2435 - Panzer Leader: Game of Tactical Warfare on the Western Front
2510 - Crude: The Oil Game
3457 - 1776: The Game of the American Revolutionary War
3463 - Ninety-Nine
4403 - Mahé
notable misses: Hotel Tycoon, Connect Four

1975

2981 - Battle for Germany
3884 - Frederick the Great: The Campaigns of The Soldier King
4106 - Dungeon!
4457 - World War I: 1914-1918
4463 - 221B Baker Street: The Master Detective Game
4483 - Stellar Conquest
4873 - Torbuk: Tank Battles in North Africa 1942
5755 - Cosmic Wimpout
6147 - La Bataille de la Moscowa
6315 - Epaminondas
notable misses: Pay Day

1976

2384 - Panzerguppe Guderian
2889 - Caesar: Epic Battle of Alesia
2952 - Starship Troopers
3218 - War at Sea (Second Edition)
3471 - Terrible Swift Sword: Battle of Gettysburg Game
4090 - Air Force
4127 - Conquistador: The Age of Exploration
4569 - Wellington's Victory: Battle of Waterloo Game - June 18th, 1815
4701 - Submarine
4917 - A Bridge Too Far: Arnhem

1977

665 - Squad Leader
1152 - Cosmic Encounter
1336 - Ogre
1635 - Rummikub
1718 - Victory in the Pacific
1825 - Pente
2088 - Flat Top
2144 - Machiavelli
2585 - Rail Baron
3030 - War of the Ring
notable misses: Pass the Pigs

1978

1294 - Junta
1920 - Cathedral
2558 - G.E.V.
3645 - Wizard
4037 - Source of the Nile
4049 - Fortress Europa
4109 - Battles for the Ardennes
4385 - Strat-O-Matic Hockey
4795 - The Next War: Modern Conflict in Europe
5381 - Napolean at Bay: The Campaign in France, 1814
notable misses: Simon, Hungry Hungry Hippos

1979

324 - Dune
1293 - Magic Realm
1584 - Um Reifenbreite
2087 - Big Boggle
2111 - The Awful Green Things From Outer Space
2126 - Circus Maximus
2241 - Star Fleet Battles
3386 - Divine Right
3536 - Freedom in the Galaxy: The Star Rebellions, 5764 AD
3663 - The Longest Day
notable misses: Guess Who?, Stop Thief, The Campaign for North Africa: The Desert War 1940-43

1980

325 - Civilization
750 - Can't Stop
1108 - Titan
2094 - Ace of Aces: Handy Rotary Series
2793 - War and Peace
3006 - Good & Bad Ghosts
3497 - Empires of the Middle Ages
3586 - Samarkand
4099 - Dragon Pass
4318 - Trax

1981

1354 - A House Divided: War Between the States 1861-65
1456 - Axis & Allies
1563 - B-17: Queen of the Skies
2188 - Storm over Arnhem
2586 - Dark Tower
2621 - Car Wars
3067 - Ace of Aces: Powerhouse Series
3103 - Cry Havoc
3849 - Dragonmaster
4444 - Black Spy
notable misses: Trivial Pursuit

1982

103 - Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
288 - Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
1281 - Empire Builder
1562 - Rommel in the Desert
2093 - Gunslinger
3140 - Illuminati
3160 - Sequence
3168 - Family Business
3433 - Mhing
3820 - Slapshot
notable misses: Phase 10, Upwords

1983

588 - Up Front
920 - Ambush!
1288 - Scotland Yard
1307 - The Civil War 1861-1865
1376 - Empires in Arms
1749 - Take it Easy!
1931 - Wiz-War
1964 - Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy Roleplaying Game (1st Edition)
2292 - Talisman
2424 - Blue Max
notable misses: Jenga, LCR

1984

773 - Wizard
1768 - Balderdash
1959 - Heimlich & Co.
2330 - Vietnam 1965-1975
2684 - The Third World War: Battle for Germany
3066 - British Rails
4053 - Fire in the East
4190 - Conquest of the Empire
4526 - Southern Front: Race for the Turkish Straits
5581 - Metropolis

1985

329 - Advanced Squad Leader
1071 - BattleTech
1337 - World in Flames
1671 - You're Bluffing!
1723 - DungeonQuest
1831 - Code 777
2376 - Pacific War: The Struggles Against Japan 1941-45
2433 - Tales of the Arabian Nights
2747 - Russian Front
3272 - Pax Britannica: The Colonial Era 1880 to the Great War
notable misses: Pictionary

1986

203 - 1830: Railways & Robber Barons
297 - Die Macher
766 - Britannia
914 - Ikusa
1220 - Kremlin
1620 - The aMAZEing Labyrinth
1710 - Werewolf
1839 - Fortress America
2377 - Escape from Atlantis
2430 - RAF
notables misses: Thunder Road, Castle Risk, Fireball Island, Polarity

1987

1195 - Bausack
1663 - Abalone Classic
1869 - Illuminati
2204 - The Fury of Dracula
2349 - Raid on St. Nazaire
2544 - Shark
3223 - Auf Achse
3417 - Black Vienna
3641 - Patton's Best
3693 - 7th Fleet: Modern Naval Combat in the Far East
notable misses: Arkham Horror

1988

1053 - Merchant of Venus
1449 - SET
1755 - Inkognito
2142 - Full Metal Planète
2171 - Blood Bowl (Second Edition)
2252 - Angola
2303 - What the Heck?
2348 - Scattergories
2688 - Clue Master Detective
2506 - Ligretto
notable misses: Girl Talk

1989

584- HeroQuest
597 - Space Hulk
1420 - Ave Caesar
1965 - Taboo
1982 - A la carte
2458 - Turning Point: Stalingrad
2561 - Aliens
2564 - Advanced Heroquest
2784 - Café International
2791 - Escape from the Hidden Castle
notables misses: Electronic Mall Madness, True Colors, Tribond

1990

514 - The Republic of Rome
1302 - Space Crusade
1500 - Eurorails
1564 - Hoity Toity
1624 - HeroQuest Advanced Quest
2001 - Gang of Four
2015 - Daytona 500
2491 - De Bellis Antiquitatis: Quick Play Wargame Rules with Army Lists for Ancient and Medieval Battles
2691 - 1835
2892 - Star Fleet Battles: Captain's Edition Basic Set
notable misses: Halli Galli, Key to the Kingdom

1991

178 - Tichu
820 - History of the World
972 - Quarto
1955 - Cosmic Encounter
1999 - Silverton
2034 - EastFront
2148 - Clue: The Great Museum Caper
2223 - Outpost
2259 - Quo Vadis?
2700 - Master Labyrinth
notable misses: Advanced Civilization, Nightmare, Dark World

1992

222 - Modern Art
948 - Loopin' Louie
1311 - The Rose King
1441 - Breakout: Normandy
1650 - Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War
1705 - 1870: Railroading across the Trans Mississippi from 1870
2026 - Loot
2650 - Nobody is Perfect
2683 - Billabong
2330 - SPQR
notable misses: Don't Wake Daddy

1993

158 - Magic: The Gathering
1048 - Stick 'Em
1374 - Beyond Balderdash
1642 - We the People
1652 - Lifeboats
1686 - Once Upon a Time: The Storytelling Card Game
2047 - Timbuktu
2338 - Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel
2497 - Man O' War
2895 - Was sticht?
notable misses: 13 Dead End Drive, Europa Universalis

1994

391 - Blood Bowl (Third Edition)
458 - RoboRally
600 - 6 nimmt!
1183 - Manhattan
1209 - Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
1287 - I'm the Boss!
1377 - Kingdoms
1646 - Wildlife Safari
1777 - Iron Dragon
2328 - Intrigue
notable misses: Catch Phrase!, Talisman (Third Edition)

1995

82 - El Grande
401 - PitchCar
410 - Catan
552 - Medici
560 - High Society
867 - Condottiere
926 - Warhammer Quest
1215 - Necromunda
1239 - 1856: Railroading in Upper Canada from 1856
1246 - Middle-earth
notable misses: Jumanji, The Great Dalmuti

1996

254 - Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage
860 - Netrunner
985 - Catan Card Game
1014 - GIPF
1303 - Age of Renaissance
1544 - Show Manager
1571 - Serenissima
2233 - Top Race
2316 - Expedition
2395 - Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix
notable misses: Kill Doctor Lucky

1997

95 - Tigris & Euphrates
302 - For Sale
463 - Bohnanza
946 - Primordial Soup
1005 - Colossal Arena
1199 - Löwenherz
1218 - Turn the Tide
1235 - Quoridor
1412 - Jungle Speed
1530 - Nyet!
notable misses: Chicken Cha Cha Cha, Metro, Mississippi Queen, Fluxx, Twilight Imperium, Fresh Fish

1998

217 - Samurai
512 - Through the Desert
955 - For the People
1042 - Liberté
1081 - Elfenland
1118 - Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper
1163 - Kahuna
1208 - Guillotine
1611 - Mamma Mia!
1694 - 1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways
notable misses: Cranium

1999

167 - Paths of Glory
181 - Ra
272 - Tikal
323 - Lost Cities
371 - Chinatown
405 - Schotten Totten
431 - Roads & Boats
536 - Time's Up!
556 - Torres
682 - ZÈRTZ
notable misses: Ricochet Robots, Vinci, The Starfarers of Catan, Bus, Roads & Boats, Apples to Apples, Stephenson's Rocket

2000

183 - Carcassonne
188 - The Princes of Florence
232 - Battle Line
248 - Hive
417 - Citadels
462 - Taj Mahal
663 - Blokus
764 - Web of Power
775 - Dream Factory
802 - La Città
notable misses: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit

2001

490 - DVONN
717 - San Marco
721 - Genoa
862 - Winner's Circle
862 - Wilderness War
880 - Zendo
1055 - The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow
1070 - Medina
1074 - EVO
1114 - Starship Catan
notable misses: Risk 2210 A.D., Munchkin

2002

29 - Puerto Rico
123 - Age of Steam
471 - Hammer of the Scots
506 - Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers
547 - Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
567 - Wallenstein
610 - Mexica
1023 - Keythedral
1187 - Star Wars: Epic Duels
1296 - BANG!

2003

192 - YINSH
387 - Amun-Re
479 - Alhambra
491 - A Game of Thrones
559 - Coloretto
617 - Carcassonne: The Castle
716 - Santiago
774 - Attika
879 - Hey, That's My Fish!
936 - Domaine
notable misses: Ubongo, Fearsome Floors

2004

44 - Power Grid
132 - War of the Ring
145 - Memoir '44
180 - Ticket to Ride
187 - Goa
251 - Antiquity
298 - San Juan
311 - Saint Petersburg
346 - Blood Bowl: Living Rulebook
370 - Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie
notable misses: Ingenious, No Thanks!, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Fairy Tale, Tsuro, Cockroach Poker, Niagara, Saboteur, Dungeon Twister, Friedrich, Cockroach Poker

2005

11 - Twilight Struggle
80 - Caylus
83 - Twilight Imperium: Third Edition
126 - Ticket to Ride: Europe
138 - Railways of the World
209 - Glory to Rome
242 - Indonesia
335 - Arkham Horror
383 - Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
392 - Descent: Journeys in the Dark
notable misses: Nexus Ops, Wits & Wagers, Antike, Animal Upon Animal

2006

55 - Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
152 - Commands & Colors: Ancients
163 - Combat Commander: Europe
201 - Shogun
219 - Imperial
285 - Neuroshima Hex! 3.0
290 - Here I Stand
305 - The Pillars of the Earth
317 - Ticket to Ride: Märklin
380 - BattleLore
notable misses: Thurn and Taxis, Taluva, Mr. Jack, Yspahan, Qwirkle, Warrior Knights

2007

19 - Brass: Lancashire
32 - Agricola
65 - Race of the Galaxy
162 - Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
198 - Galaxy Trucker
210 - 1960: The Making of the President
228 - Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
299 - Notre Dame
308 - In the Year of the Dragon
369 - Kingsburg
notable misses: Colosseum, Chicago Express, Thebes, Jamaica, Container, Tammany Hall, Biblios

2008

52 - Le Havre
85 - Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
101 - Dominion
104 - Pandemic
118 - Stone Age
149 - Cosmic Encounter
230 - Space Alert
279 - Ghost Stories
282 - Dixit
436 - Time's Up! Title Recall!
notable misses: Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition, Formula D

2009

90 - Dominion: Intrigue
131 - Chaos in the Old World
134 - Hansa Teutonica
137 - Jaipur
186 - Cyclades
197 - Steam
246 - Imperial 2030
264 - Small World
265 - Dungeon Lords
266 - Telestrations
notable misses: The Resistance, Claustrophobia, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Carson City, Tobago, Summoner Wars, Cards Against Humanity, Maria, Ugg-Tect

2010

71 - 7 Wonders
74 - Dominant Species
88 - Troyes
240 - Navegador
241 - Runewars
245 - Alien Frontiers
271 - Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game
277 - Merchants & Marauders
330 - Innovation
341 - Fresco
notable misses: Hanabi, Labyrinth: The War on Terror 2001-?, Forbidden Island, High Frontier, Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space, Glen More, Vinhos

2011

15 - The Castles of Burgundy
27 - Mage Knight Board Game
54 - Eclipse
100 - Trajan
133 - The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
143 - A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition)
146 - Ora et Labora
166 - Village
168 - Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan
221 - Dixit: Odyssey
notable misses: Letters from Whitechapel, Takenoko, King of Tokyo, Risk Legacy, Skull, Star Trek: Fleet Captains, Kingdom Builder, Dungeon Petz, Space Empires 4X

2012

13 - War of the Ring: Second Edition
16 - Terra Mystica
42 - Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
59 - Android: Netrunner
60 - Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
75 - Lords of Waterdeep
78 - Keyflower
109 - Kemet
115 - Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game
122 - Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition)
notable misses: The Resistance: Avalon, Targi, Love Letter, Clash of Cultures, Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery, Tokaido, Coup

2013

18 - Concordia
23 - Caverna: The Cave Farmers
87 - Eldritch Horror
94 - Russian Railroads
161 - Nations
196 - Viticulture
208 - Lewis & Clark: The Expedition
211 - Hanamikoji
214 - Bora Bora
231 - Rococo
notable misses: BattleCON: Devastation of Indines, Forbidden Desert, Sushi Go!, Quantum

2014

25 - Orléans
48 - Star Wars: Imperial Assault
64 - Fields of Arle
73 - Five Tribes
93 - Patchwork
99 - Roll for the Galaxy
116 - Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
117 - Alchemists
121 - Star Realms
128 - Istanbul
notable misses: Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, Splendor, Xia: Legends of a Drift System, Camel Up

2015

2 - Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
8 - Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
17 - 7 Wonders Duel
24 - Viticulture Essential Edition
31 - Food Chain Magnate
33 - Blood Rage
43 - Kingdom Death: Monster
57 - The Gallerist
63 - The Voyages of Marco Polo
84 - Grand Austria Hotel
notable misses: Codenames, Forbidden Stars, Trickerion: Legends of Illusion, Fury of Dracula (Third/Fourth edition), The Grizzled, Baseball Highlights: 2045, Cthulu Wars

2016

4 - Terraforming Mars
9 - Star Wars: Rebellion
10 - Great Western Trail
14 - Scythe
21 - A Feast for Odin
23 - Arkham Horror: The Card Game
34 - Mansions of Madness: Second Edition
47 - Mechs vs. Minions
61 - Aeon's End
72 - Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure
notable misses: Agricola (Revised Edition), Santorini, Inis, Vinhos Deluxe Edition, Secret Hitler, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Inis, Captain Sonar

2017

1 - Gloomhaven
5 - Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition
7 - Gaia Project
12 - Spirit Island
35 - Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
37 - The 7th Continent
40 - Too Many Bones
45 - Anachrony
49 - Clans of Caledonia
53 - Azul
notable misses: Lisboa, Ethnos, The Quest for El Dorado, Photosynthesis

2018

3 - Brass: Birmingham
22 - Nemesis
26 - Root
28 - Everdell
41 - Underwater Cities
66 - The Quacks of Quedlinburg
69 - Teotihuacan: City of Gods
81 - Architects of the West Kingdom
86 - Rising Sun
102 - Decrypto
notable misses: Welcome To..., That's Pretty Clever, Keyforge: Call of the Archons

2019

20 - Wingspan
36 - Maracaibo
38 - Marvel Champions: The Card Game
39 - The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
46 - Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated
50 - Barrage
58 - Pax Pamir: Second Edition
70 - Paladins of the West Kingdom
79 - Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
89 - The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth
notable misses: Res Arcana, Undaunted: Normandy, Dune, Wavelength, The King's Dilemma

2020

6 - Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
51 - Dune: Imperium
56 - On Mars
67 - Lost Ruins of Arnak
76 - Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy
165 - Pandemic Legacy: Season 0
200 - Viscounts of the West Kingdom
218 - Calico
262 - Kanban EV
286 - Praga Caput Regni
notable misses: My City, MicroMacro: Crime City, Marvel United, Imperial Struggle

How to Trade Gold: Top Gold Trading Strategies and Tips

« L’élève sera le client » : aux Etats-Unis, l’école selon Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg et Elon Musk

Who Is Johnny FD? A deep dive expose into the man, the pick up artist, the fraudster & the compulsive liar.

Double posted here since the initial post I started has been getting reported, I guess Johnny discovered it.
** WORK IN PROGRESS.. ADDING TO IT SLOWLY WHEN I HAVE TIME **
Intro / Summary
You may know Johnny FD from Youtube, you may know him from the digital nomad community, or even the pick up artist community.. (maybe even the scuba diving or muay thai community). You may naively consider him a successful entrepreneur, investor, businessman, world traveler etc.. after all, he's traveling the world with a big bank balance right? He invested well and was a highly successful entrepreneur building businesses right? Right..?
Nope. The truth is that JohnnyFD is a documented fraud, with a history of lies and scams. The most successful being the 'dropshipping scam' in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is where he made his fortune.
Johnny has bounced from niche to niche, lying consistently, pretending to be an expert and trying to milk each community for as much as he can before jumping into the next when people start calling him out and when the heat gets too much. In short, it's a pattern of targeting an insecurity or desire (money, women, fitness etc.), completely faking knowledge and/or a lifestyle supposedly as a result of a course/bootcamp/product etc, and endlessly promoting said course/bootcamp/product anywhere and everywhere.
This is not unique to Johnny, it's the 'fake-guru' Tim Ferris 4 Hour Work Week trend, made famous by people like Tai Lopez etc. They've been ten-a-penny over the last few years in whatever niche: crypto, stocks, travel etc. but Johnny was an early starter and managed to time it right at the start of the big digital nomad movement around 10 years ago, all the stars were aligned for him, and he hit the lottery (a lottery played by people without morals).
Fortunately for the wider world and as many of you might have realised, Johnny is not too bright. If he was he'd be far more dangerous and have far more elaborate hustles, but as it is he just coasts by with blatant bullshit, targeting people even stupider than he is. That said, it's baffling how he has constantly managed to fall upwards and continue with his schemes - I put it down to a combination of airheads in various communities and fellow fraudsters out to get cash teaming up and helping promote his brand and theirs. Hell, this is a guy who was promoting his book about how to fall in love and get a six pack (seriously..) when he was single and morbidly obese, and still you had people following the guy and buying the shit.. it's nuts.
Regardless, over the next few days or however long it takes I will lay out his history of lies, fraudulent actions and more, with receipts below, short and long versions.
SHORT VERSION
SHORT VERSION
SHORT VERSION
Quoted from elsewhere:

He was a pick up artist called Johnny Wolf selling courses and stuff to dumb young men.
An idea of his shit - He created his own colognes called 'Attraction Spell' and 'Seduction Spell' that supposedly contained scent anchors and pheromones or whatever to attract women and came up with such gems as this all over his old sites to try and sell the crap (almost all sites are scrubbed now but if you search Johnny Wolf in Google and whatever other terms you'll get some bits he couldn't get rid of)
"Honestly, I'm surprised how many guys have came back to me saying that they get conversationally opened by women just from wearing my cologne. I was even more surprised when a famous tv actor ordered a bottle after approaching a friend that was wearing Seduction Spell and asked what it was."
Lol.
Then while hosting pick up artist bootcamps in Thailand at Full Moon Partys he randomly met another scammer called Anton Kraly who had a dropshipping course called Four Hour Millionaire (which became DropshipLifestyle). Anton was offering 50-70% commission to anyone who could get signups, so Johnny started posting obviously fake screenshots of sales and income reports saying the course is teaching him how to make bank (sales dashboards had numbers in the wrong place etc.. his excuse was it must have been a 'Shopify bug' lol) and provided his affiliate link for others to signup. Some people bought into it, bought the course through Johnny's link, ka-ching! So eventually he realised this was easy money for someone without morals, and he pivoted into the digital nomad stuff and scammed people with fake income reports and a bunch of lies for a few years, even used a fake name for a while in the community. Got caught, his gf left him as she didn't even know his name wasn't his real name (he'd even lied to her), eventually he saw the writing was on the wall and left Thailand and the digital nomad scene there, pivoting into being a Youtuber.
This is where his money came from - he ran this scam for a few years and took advantage of the trend of digital nomad stuff rising at the same time and managed to become one of the gurus people would first find when googling about the life. He was getting $1000+ per signup to Antons course which 'if you put the effort in, would make you rich with passive income easily!' If it didn't work, it was just because you were lazy, naturally.
It did make people rich though tbh - Anton & Johnny.. Johnny 'made it' becaus the digital nomad scene blew up and he'd managed to position himself as one of the first things you'd find when searching the lifestyle.
Search Johnny fd on Reddit and check out old threads
https://www.reddit.com/digitalnomad/comments/5u41df/_/ddrwtvn
https://www.reddit.com/digitalnomad/comments/3g7xuq/_/
He's a meme in the digital nomad community now, anyone who's been in that world for more than a few years knows his history, he just preys on newcomers. He's banned from co-working places in some areas and shunned in most circles.
His whole life is a lie and is built on scamming other people.

.. .. ..
LONG VERSION
LONG VERSION
LONG VERSION
..
PERSONA 1 - JOHNNY WOLF
Johnny's first venture into internet marketing and sales, course selling and basically just bullshitting people to try and get money was as Johnny Wolf, the Pick Up Artist.
So as people noted elsewhere, being a PUA in itself is not necessarily a terrible thing by terrible people, it's cringe and a bit sad, but I imagine many of them are just lost and lacking confidence and buy into the whole schtick, maybe it was a 'thing' 10-20 years ago, whatever.. it's Johnny's actions as Johnny Wolf the PUA that are the important thing and you will see him use the same guru/fraudulent tactics in other niches in future.
There's actually a super cringe video of Johnny as Johnny Wolf that was popular on reddit around 8 years ago here, check it out : https://www.reddit.com/cringe/comments/2o3xtp/pickup_artists_try_to_seduce_anchor_on_ktla/
Some example comments from there about Johnny :

I live in a city in northern Thailand and quite often see him hangs around at this bar in the weekends. He's kind of a cringe material among the girls and one of them shared with me his youtube channel where he post mostly videos of him working out. I guess it's a small world after all.
https://old.reddit.com/cringe/comments/2o3xtp/pickup_artists_try_to_seduce_anchor_on_ktla/cmjx0c0/

Couple of things to note here:
1/ Johnny is promoting the 'Pick Up Artist Summit', of which he is the founder. Remember this.
2/ This is a video he hasn't managed to wipe or get taken down - as he became a popular digital nomad guru he tried to delete everything after it was being found, so now only a handful of videos/articles exist, although references to things before deletion can still be found in reddit threads etc as we'll cover in future.
..
So Johnny founded and was promoting the Pick Up Artist Summit, basically a conference where people pay to listen to him and his buddies give advice on how to pick up and be attractive to women.
If you can handle the cringe, there are still some videos floating around, e.g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnUqv-ISiAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK8IMh2YHL8
& more if you search youtube.
He had his website (now deleted) - www.thesocialsecrets.com
He also had his own line of women-attracting cologne with great names like 'Attraction Spell' and 'Seduction Spell'. He tried to sell these with some obvious bullshit like :

"Honestly, I'm surprised how many guys have came back to me saying that they get conversationally opened by women just from wearing my cologne. I was even more surprised when a famous tv actor ordered a bottle after approaching a friend that was wearing Seduction Spell and asked what it was."

You can view an archived version of the site here : https://web.archive.org/web/20090721155811/http://www.attractionspell.com/
So he had cologne, the website and the summit right? Well, he also had a 'bootcamp'. Remember this also.
https://patch.com/california/southsanfrancisco/ev--johnny-wolfs-limited-edition-bootcamp
You can find references to this around the internet, I won't go into it to much, but is was basically a bootcamp for picking up women, mentoring a bunch of guys who pay him however many thousands of dollars for a week or two or however long it was.
In every niche/community that Johnny is a part of, there comes a time where the community starts to get tired of Johnny and his shameless money grabbing and tall tales, and so Johnny makes moves to exit - in this case he went to Thailand for a while and semi-'retired' from PUA stuff, while making posts to defend his actions, basically saying that ultimately he is helping people and that is what matters most. That is archived here : https://kennyspuathoughts.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/the-real-deal-truth-about-pua-bootcamps-the-pua-summit-and-ktla-news-fail-article-by-johnny-wolf/
A few choice quotes from Johnny :

Pick Up has become a business for many people, including myself for a number of years, it was my full time job.

He'll say the opposite many years later.

sometimes people need to be tricked into buying something they really need and will benefit from

Lol. Seriously. Johnny justifies lying/making things up to get people to buy what he's selling by saying that ultimately it will benefit them and sometimes they just need to be tricked for their own benefit. You'll hear this in future worded a million different ways btw.
Later turns out, he wasn't fully retired, he just started doing bootcamps in Thailand at Full Moon Partys.
https://www.abcsofattraction.com/blog/seduction-bootcamp-reviews-in-thailand
PERSONA 2 - JOHNNY THE 'PROFESSIONAL MUAY THAI FIGHTER'
So now Johnny is in Thailand, where he needs a visa to stay long term cheaply and easily. For anyone who's stayed in Thailand, you know there are two school options in general - language, and Muay Thai. You can get a year long visa to stay in Thailand if you study either the Thai Language or train at a Muay Thai school.
Johnny chose Muay Thai and started a blog where he would affiliate market protein powder and other stuff and while keeping track of his training to become a 'professional' Muay Thai fighter.
The blog still exists here : https://www.myfightcamp.com/
It's actually for sale for $400 : https://www.facebook.com/MyFightCamp/posts/pfbid0bJQ1Ps1Hiu6DZh6wodyochiVUpfiCBHv3GdBugSDReCUJG3FepyDakMNChyHVjJpl
In reality, the gyms that teach foreigners for visas generally just just setup fun fights at beer bars for tourists and the fights count on that gyms professional record - that's how Johnny is a 'professional Muay Thai fighter'.
You can see him fight here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AvSJwZJsZ4
They're long deleted forum posts now, but others in the muay thai community were not big fans of Johnny, but they didn't have to wait long for him to disappear - he'd found what would ultimately become his fortune..
PERSONA 3 - JOHNNY FD - THE DIGITAL NOMAD
Johnny has been scratching out a living by writing ebooks about how to live cheaply in Thailand, hawking protein powder for commission on his blog and leading pickup artist bootcamps whenever he can .. it's made him enough to live, well, like a poor Thai person.. but then, he strikes gold..
He's changed the names and text a few times over the years, but here is his first post where he starts promoting what was then called The Four Hour Millionaires Training System - now know as Dropship Lifestyle. A course by another shady character, Anton Kraly.
He writes..

I signed up for the $4.95 trial, where I get 7 days to watch all of the videos and test it out to see if I like it. My original plan was to just watch all of the videos and then cancel the program before having the pay for the full thing, but honestly, after watching just module 1, I realized that this product is worth more than a $10,000 MBA Program and 2 hours of Business School.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130713001513/https://www.johnnyfd.com/2013/05/starting-online-business-easy-and-free.html
It's a course designed to teach you how to dropship and make money passively. Basically you make a website, add products you don't own but can buy elsewhere. When an order comes in, buy it elsewhere for less and send it to the customer, pocketing the difference.
I'll link to another discussion from the digital nomad subreddit at the time about the whole scam, notably a conversation where it's explained and Johnny and Anton are discussed in depth - I highly recommended reading this comment chain to get a good idea of how it works and have some background :
https://old.reddit.com/digitalnomad/comments/5u41df/the_dropshipping_scam_is_a_terribly_dark_story/ddrwtvn/
Well, whaddya know.. after just a month or two of following the course, Johnny is already profitable!
https://www.johnnyfd.com/2013/08/start-here-here-are-steps-to-start.html
He makes a big post to tell everyone and a guide for how to follow in his footsteps (using his affiliate link to buy the course..)
Also, here is an example of how Johnny marketed the course - with obvious fake screenshots of income.
** RECEIPTS - Faking income reports to convince people to buy the dropshipping course **
This is a post Johnny made on an old pick up artist site to get more people to buy the course and fill his pockets.
https://www.abcsofattraction.com/blog/how-johnny-wolf-got-rich-using-money-to-attract-women
You can see this is one of his early days hawking that dropshipping course for affiliate cash before he got a bit wiser - he used to fake screenshots by editing in the browser Dev Tools / Inspect Page (you can edit any website that way but changes will be gone when you refresh the page).
If you look at the screenshot of the Shopify dashboard he posted to try and show his success : https://www.abcsofattraction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/jw-2-1024x576-1.jpg
.. the number of people who got to checkout is higher than the number of people who added an item to their cart. This makes no sense, as you need to add an item to your cart to checkout with it.
Johnny didn't realise he was making this mistake for a months at least, he then started to cut that section off completely from his 'income reports', like here : https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J-yLM8s399E/VH2PGVxEFDI/AAAAAAAAHtQ/KiD94v_qvpM/s1600/Nov%2B2014%2BShopify.png
Taken from : https://www.johnnyfd.com/2014/12/november-2014-income-report-great-being.html
Eventually he clocked it, and then he made sure all his future screenshots made logical sense. When asked about why for many months the numbers were wrong, he said it must have been some kind of '+Shopify bug'.
In short - he is faking income statements to try and sell a course (that costs thousands of dollars) to get commission on sign ups. Morally bankrupt.
..
Oh yeah, before we go any further, I forgot.. remember when Johnny said before leaving for Thailand he was working as a PUA as his full time job?
Not anymore - before Johnny found a way to make passive income and live the life in Thailand, he was actually a decently paid office worker, leaving home at 7am for the daily commute, sat in a miserable cubicle all day for $48,000 a year!
https://web.archive.org/web/20130713003447/http://www.johnnyfd.com/2013/05/a-typical-fantastic-day-living-in.html
This is a story he will make up again and again in 'interviews' (paid adverts) for Business Insider etc..
..
PERSONA 3 - JOHNNY FD - THE DIGITAL NOMAD - RECAP SO FAR & THE BUSINESS INSIDER ARTICLE..
So far we have Johnny making up a backstory of being an office worker, hiding his PUA past. He used a fake 'real' name in Chiang Mai, Johnny Thejon. He has started marketing a get rich passive income course by his scammy pal in order to get commission from people who sign up, using faked screenshots of income and other lies.
The digital nomad movement started taking off at this time, and Chiang Mai, Thailand was the epicenter. because of this Johnny managed to get hits on Google as he was one of the only people blogging about it all. He capitalised on this by paying Business Insider for a feature - you know the ones 'This guy left the 9-5 and now he makes $1mil a year while sitting in a hammock' and then it's basically an ad for the dudes course or scheme. They're everywhere, Business Insider is rife with them. They're paid adverts, basically.
So Johnny pays for an article in Business Insider - https://www.businessinsider.com/johnny-fd-earning-over-10000-a-month-online-2015-8#ixzz3iO9tOigB
From the start it's full of lies :

In 2008, Johnny FD was 27 years old and living in California, earning about $50,000 a year working in business-to-business sales.
"The highlight of my day was driving to and from work, just because those were the moments I had an excuse to listen to music and not think about how little my life was going anywhere," he remembers. "It wasn't even that I was unhappy. I was just so unmotivated."
When the company he worked for was sold later that year, he was offered a choice: stick with his position, or take a stipend and be laid off. He chose to go.
After spending a few months blowing through his savings with friends in Los Angeles ("I'm lucky I got out without too much debt — my friends all have $20,000 of credit-card bills they're still trying to pay off"), he turned his sights on somewhere a little farther from home: Thailand.

What happens next kicks off some huge drama in the digital nomad scene - the comments are now removed, but the comments were full of people calling him out for lies and scams and from a few people who knew him in the US detailing his past, which most people were unaware of.
Here is a thread from the digital nomad forum discussing some of it :
https://www.reddit.com/digitalnomad/comments/3g7xuq/internet_entrepreneur_johnny_fd_thejon_exposed_as/
Turns out his gf didn't know his real name nor his past and he was using her to promote the course to his PUA artist groups in secret. She promptly left him and went back home to South Africa.
So now the cat is out of the bag, and Johnny makes an infamous post on his blog that is even in his Youtube bio today, a blatant damage control attempt.
https://www.johnnyfd.com/2015/08/who-is-real-johnny-fd-jen-wolf-halo.html
Complete with lame psychology bullshit and the excuses that are a recurring theme whenever he faces criticism. Remember when he made his post justifying his lies to sell stuff when facing criticism in the PUA community?

sometimes people need to be tricked into buying something they really need and will benefit from

Just a new spin on the same shit :

What others say and do are a projection of their own selves and insecurities, especially since I'm 100% sure than anyone who takes the time to go out of their way to say bad thing about others are not happy or successful in their own lives. At the end of the day, I know that I am a good person and everything I do is with good intentions to help others find their own happiness and success.

(For the record, I'm pretty happy.. I just figure people should know about this dude being a fraud/scammer, and it's actually quite cool to type all this up as I remember it all happening, brings back some memories)
Anyway, this eventually dies down (it's mostly a reddit thing as the main Chiang Mai digital nomad FB group removed any negative stuff) , and Johnny continues to post his 'income reports' (fake) every month in the digital nomad group and continues to market the course every chance he gets, starting to make a ton of cash from it while still pretending it's actually from the business the course taught him to make (it's not, it's from the commissions.)
At this point Johnny has become the face of the digital nomad scene in Chiang Mai. He then starts the Nomad Summit. & starts dropshipping bootcamps.
Oh shit.. here we go again.
So the Nomad Summit takes off, due in part to a guy called Cody McKibbon who was well known and respected in Chiang Mai and digital nomad circles, who naively help Johnny set it up. Long story short, turns out Johnny actually conned Cody, lied to him about prices and basically stole from him.
Cody left the digital nomad scene after being disillusioned by it all, but there's a comment he left here :
https://www.chiangmailocator.com/wiki-digital-nomads-and-the-dream-of-money-and-freedom-p181

Great article, you've hit the nail on the head with many of the growing problems I see in the "nomad" community, after nearly 9 years traveling in those circles.
I've personally grown incredibly tired of all the guru facades and the pyramid schemes, and after partnering with Johnny 2 years in a row to (try to) help give his summit a more professional and ethical foundation, I can say now with certainty that Johnny absolutely lies about his numbers - I discovered he had lied to me for MONTHS, he has lied publicly on his blog about the cost of our venue at Le Meridien hotel (just a small $7,000 typo, I'm sure!), he "fudged" the accounting on our 2017 event by over $4,000 dollars he didn't want to share with me (innocent mistake, I'm sure), and he's still lying to flocks of naive new recruits today.
The guy even put himself at the top of a "Digital Nomad Hierarchy" PYRAMID, on the bigscreen, onstage in front of 300 paying attendees. No shame. I pray people will remove the rose colored glasses and see him for the dangerous villain he truly is, before he deceives too many more ambitious young people. Chiang Mai deserves far better.

Naive newbies to Chiang Mai/digital nomad stuff start taking his dropshipping bootcamps, where he basically has them create a store and will take 50% of profits or something if they make money due to his 'mentorship'. Turns out Johnny is useless and it's basically just him fleecing people if they manage to get lucky, as one poor guy notes here :
https://www.imrhys.com/anton-method/

hahahah LMAO this is the best review I’ve ever read online, but actually, I think it’s the only “anton method” review out there and you’re DEAD ON. Johnny is a fking kook. All you need to do is look up Johnny Wolf on Reddit to read about his whole shady past. His own courses are less than half-ass, more like absolute sht. I could clown on that fool all day long just because he pissed me off so much with his whole “drop shipping partnership” program he ran a couple years back and is still trying to do again this year! It’s comparable to a drop shipping pyramid scheme minus all the recruiting. You do all the work and he keeps a fat portion of your profits for his “coaching” which is complete sht just like the rest of his work. His blog is just a bunch of “me me me” and only a few select bits of value mostly centered around getting a Thai visa, which you eventually find out is not even necessary if you’re actually making enough money to afford to live in Thailand and travel the world. You can just fly in and out of the country all the time. His income reports are the WORST bit of self-centered narcissistic egotistical greedy garbage. You just made my day reading this. I hope more people see Johnny for who he really is… Cheers! -Trevor

At the same time, Johnny was writing guides to Chiang Mai, to Thailand and to anywhere he visited claiming to know the best whatever, best places, best way to do things, when in reality anyone with any knowledge of those places could tell you he doesn't know what he is talking about. Anyone around back then can tell you that in almost 10 years he literally never left the overpriced, westernised tourist area of Chiang Mai and didn't even bother to learn any Thai for the decade he was there. This goes for everything - Johnny presents himself as an expert on any subject, and providing the person he's targeting has 0 experience with the subject, they have no way to realise he's talking shit. Anyone can see this now, his Ukraine videos, Russian war takes, investments, anywhere he goes he's completely ignorant and clueless - yet somehow it took a few years for the digital nomad community to realise this - why?
In fact, people were vocal about Johnny being a fraud from the start and called him out all the time, unfortunately the community in Chiang Mai, especially the digital nomad groups/community at large, were full of moronic 'only positive vibes' people who would delete any negative comments, ban negative commenters and use the same psychology bullshit Johnny would use - basically they fucked up the whole digital nomad scene to the point nobody wanted to identify as one anymore - the term now is a cliche that conjures up images of dropshipping scammers, frauds and just clueless influencer types posing with laptops by the beach. Nowadays anyone serious about travelling and working online avoids anything marketed at 'digital nomads' and refers to themselves as 'location independent'.
Anyway, outside of the Chiang Mai noob / positive vibe airhead group, the location independent types and some of the digital nomad community were starting to shun Johnny, despite him still being one of the most well known leading figures in the 'digital nomad' world. He was side-eyed everywhere and then started being banned from various co-working spaces such as Dojo in Bali, basically unwelcome in any place that wasn't awash with fresh off the plane idiots with no idea of his past and no ability to think critically. After all, they're buying into a guy selling a course telling them that they too can make $1000+ in passive income a month within just two months if they work hard enough and follow the steps of the course properly to set up a dropshipping store. They clearly didn't wonder why the guy would be selling that info instead of using it, like why doesn't he make $100,000 a month with multiple stores? & why would want to bring competition into his easy money maker?
Johnny was actually asked these questions by what he termed 'unsuccessful naysayers' and in typical scammer guru fashion his answers were that he has an 'abundance mindset' not a 'scarcity mindset' and so he wants to share with everyone, and he's not interested in making multiple stores for big money because..

I've realized that my unique talent and passion isn't running ecommerce stores full time, but instead is sparking and creating passion and having a voice in the world. I love teaching, I love interviewing others, and I love blogging and podcasting.

At this point people are rightfully skeptical and some people begin to ask Johnny if they can meetup and actually see/show his Shopify dashboards and income stuff in real-time, and generally keep asking tough questions that Johnny puts down to 'haters' etc.
Johnny then announces that he's sold his dropshipping store.
https://www.johnnyfd.com/2016/05/i-sold-my-drop-shipping-store-for-60000.html
I guess it is just bad timing, but now nobody can see the particulars for this store as Johnny writes :

I've completely walked away from this store which means I no longer have any ownership it in at all and have already gotten paid. While I technically didn't sign a no-compete or non-disclosure agreement but out of respect for the new owner, I'm never going to start another store in the same niche or publicly talk about it as he's a great guy and I wish him all of the success in the world.

Coincidentally, Johnny had also started a store with his then girlfriend Larissa in November 2014 : https://www.johnnyfd.com/2014/11/new-store-challenge-johnny-larissas-30.html
In February 2017, posts are made re: Johnny and the scam, and the details of this store are publicly posted, meaning people can actually see the traffic and so on at the very least.

Which is https://suntanningstore.com btw. Where he is 'Lisa' and claims (s)he's been running the business since 2011, when the domain wasn't registered until 2014, Nov 17th. (The day he posted on his blog about starting a new store with his then-girlfriend Larissa.) http://web.archive.org/web/20170223142939/https://www.whois.com/whois/suntanningstore.com

https://old.reddit.com/digitalnomad/comments/5u41df/the_dropshipping_scam_is_a_terribly_dark_story/ddxc88c/
Less than 30 days later, March 15th 2017, Johnny makes a post and tells people he is retiring from dropshipping noting that he has just sold the store.

I should have probably make a formal blog post about it, but Larissa is buying a house and to help pay for it, we've sold our dropshipping store, the one we started together two years ago.

https://www.johnnyfd.com/2017/03/how-i-retired-at-35-and-in-just-4-years.html
Crazy timing.
He will become a bit wiser in future when he starts new stores and use Shopify development stores as well as simply fund the stores sales from his own pocket and wash the money to be able to keep up the dropshipping income facade when put on the spot, as done by other notable dropship scammers that got caught out. ** I forget the name of one that was caught on a live stream where he was showing his dashboard to 'prove' he was legit, and an eagle eyed viewer saw the web address - went to it and it was a closed address/store. I'll try and remember the guys name and link that here, I'm pretty sure Johnny was pals with him or mentioned him a few times, an asian guy with a mohawk/long hair. **

4UFX Forex Broker 4uGroups 4usignals.com 4xbankers Limited 4Xbrands Limited 4XCellent 4XP Investments & Trading and Forex Place Ltd. 50option 53 Capital Trade Limited 53option (53 Option) 5Barz AG (CH) 5Decimals Limited 5Gulden Corporation Ltd. 5LINX Enterprises Inc. 5markets LTD 60options 72Option, owned and operated by Epic Ventures Ltd. 7526679 Canada Inc / Quantum Trading 777 Trades ...

GM Litigation Assistance - Internationale Waarschuwingen

Summit.news: Tokyo Olympics Set to Slap Ban on Cheering & Eating

TIL In 2015, a British man living in Tokyo dressed up as a fully-lit Christmas tree to spread holiday cheer. The costume used 99 batteries, 100 feet of wiring, and took two months to make.

PuroVerse - NJPW Presents The Tokyo Summit 2015

日本初開催！「OpenStack Summit Tokyo 2015」の見どころを解説◇IaaSクラウドコンピューティング系ノーモララー大集合 1027-1030 グランドプリンスホテル新高輪で開催

(Diplo) Tokyo to Host 7th China-South Korea-Japan Trilateral Summit | The trilateral Northeast Asian summit will meet for the first time since 2015, with a focus on North Korea.

Request: Paul Allen flair

PuroVerse - NJPW Presents Tokyo Summit 2015 *CARD*

Ceph at the OpenStack Summit Tokyo 2015

[Opera] 'So adventurous a tale, Which may rank with most romances' – Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, comic opera's biggest and most controversial hit

Tracing One's Ancestry to a Protoplasmal Atomic Globule: Gilbert and Sullivan before The Mikado

Virtue is Triumphant Only in Theatrical Performances: A Synopsis

Life's Eventime Comes Much Too Soon: Gilbert and Sullivan after The Mikado

Here's a How-De-Do: A Troubled Production

Let the Performance Fit The Times: The Problem of Staging

1: Ignore/Dismiss

2: Restage

3: Synthesise

4: Experiment

A Fascination Frantic in a Ruin That's Romantic: Reckoning With and Reclaiming The Mikado in America

If Patriotic Sentiment is Wanted, I've Patriotic Ballads Cut and Dry: The Mikado in Japan

There's Yet a Month of Afternoon: Conclusions

An analysis of crime statistics in London, or why this city isn't as dangerous as comments would have you believe

Source:

Is London the most dangerous city in the UK?

Is London the most violent city in the UK?

Am I more likely to be mugged in London than anywhere else in the UK?

London is more than just London

What about the most dangerous boroughs?

London compared to cities worldwide?

Conclusions:

The top 10 games from each year from the past 100 years, according to BGG rankings

1920

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

PuroVerse - NJPW Presents Tokyo Summit 2015 CARD