Welcome to the third edition of Ghost Mail Weekender! We are having fun with it and we hope that you are as well.

Everybody wants in on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) trend these days, and big brands are no different. Although we still know very little about how AI really works and have barely scratched the surface of what it could do (sci-fi movies give us far too many frightening clues), that hasn’t stopped everyone from electric toothbrush makers to restaurateurs from claiming that their products have been enhanced with AI tech.

And yes, restaurateurs is the correct spelling. English is a funny old language.

Of course, a few have been fibbing along the way. One such chancer is Toronto-based investment adviser Delphia, which claimed to use AI to predict upcoming companies and trends. Sadly for them (and their marketing campaign), this is an ability that AI does not yet possess. Delphia has been rapped on the knuckles for their tall tale and has agreed to pay a $225k fine.

It just goes to show: artificial intelligence is mostly still artificial. If you want to learn more about it, our resident ghost spoke with Nico Katzke of Satrix on the AI topic recently. You can find it here.

Dominique Olivier's article this week is a love letter to the thrifters out there, while giving incredible insight into how younger consumers are thinking about the world. We also bring you a story on a ghost town in the US - of the non-finance variety.

And finally, as fun as international travel is, nobody likes going to jail. Dominique found give fascinating ways to go to jail in faraway places - for everything from chewing gum through to having too many playing cards in your possession.

Have a terrific day!

The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn)

TL;DR: There’s a ghost town in the US that sits over an underground mine fire that has been burning since 1962. Incredibly, it was named Byrnesville even before the fire broke out. 

OK, so we are stretching the truth a little here in order to get a good hook (which, if you’re still reading, has clearly been effective). Technically, Byrnesville doesn’t classify as a ghost town because it doesn’t exist anymore. The town was abandoned and mostly demolished by 1996, so it was at that stage a ghost town. The fact that there is a perpetually burning coal mine fire underneath what’s left of it is accurate though.

This story starts in the neighbouring town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a coal mine fire broke out in the mines under the town sometime in 1962. Ironically, the cause of the fire is believed to be a group of volunteer firemen, who were hired to clean up the town landfill prior to Memorial Day celebrations. A small garbage fire apparently got out of their control and entered an unsealed opening into a nearby coal mine.

If it had been any other type of mine, and if the abandoned mine system under Centralia wasn’t a chaotically twisted labyrinth of passages and interconnected tunnels, then there’s a good chance that the fire would have died out on its own. Unfortunately these conditions provided what we can only imagine to be nirvana for a fire: an endless supply of fuel in the form of unmined coal deposits, and lots of little gusts of oxygen coming in from the mine openings all over town.

Astonishingly, residents of Centralia seemed to be either unaware or unbothered by the literal hellfire under their feet, because they didn’t see reason to panic until 1979. It was around this time that a gas-station owner inserted a dipstick into one of his underground fuel tanks and found it to be oddly hot upon retrieval. When he lowered a thermometer into the tank on a string, he was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was 78 degrees Celsius.

Three years later, a twelve-year-old boy narrowly escaped an unpleasant end when a 46m deep sinkhole opened under his feet in his grandmother’s garden (he was plucked to safety at the last moment by a quick-thinking cousin). The plume of hot steam that billowed out of the hole was tested and found to contain a lethal level of carbon monoxide.

This is straight out of your favourite end-of-days movie, isn't it?

So now we’ve got an inextinguishable underground fire, a couple of simmering fuel tanks, sinkholes opening at random and lethal carbon monoxide fumes in the air. You’d expect that all of this would motivate people to go live somewhere else, but by 1981, residents of Centralia were still bitterly divided on whether or not the fire posed any threat to them or their homes. Finally, by 1983, the government was able to convince 1000 people to move out of the town by offering them cash buyouts.

Not everyone was willing to move though. In the last census, conducted in 2020, five people were still living in Centralia. Yes, the fire is still burning and yes, every now and then a sinkhole does swallow an entire building. And yet, they remain, those fearless five.

What they’re doing there and why they’ve opted to live at hell’s door is a mystery that we’ll probably never untangle. A town without a Woolies Food is one thing, but this is just extreme.
 

1. Thailand: possessing more than 120 playing cards

Back in the mid-1930s, Thailand enacted a gambling act, which in turn led to the proliferation of illegal casinos. To counteract this, the government assumed control over the production of playing cards and decreed that individuals could only possess a maximum of 120 cards at any given time. Those caught gambling (or carrying lots of cards) risk hefty fines or even imprisonment.

2. Singapore: chewing gum

In response to years of maintenance headaches caused by gum stuck in keyholes or on elevator buttons, former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew banned chewing gum altogether. The only gum allowed is therapeutic, dental, or nicotine gum, and even that must be purchased from a doctor or registered pharmacist. Selling unauthorised gum in Singapore could land you a fine of up to R18 million, or even a two-year stint behind bars.

3. Dubai: affection

Engaging in public displays of affection, like kissing, is a surefire way to stir up trouble in Dubai. Even for married couples, the most allowed is holding hands. Dancing and randomly addressing women in public spaces are also discouraged, and all these actions could land you in jail in no time.

4. Australia: swearing

In Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales, there are strict laws against offensive language in public. Swearing falls under what's known as a 'summary offence' in these areas, and they're pretty serious about it too: in Queensland and Victoria, being convicted of offensive language could result in a prison sentence of up to six months. That's a bad day, mate.

5. Barbados: wearing camouflage print

If Barbados is your holiday destination, it's wise to give your suitcase a once-over. Wearing camouflage clothing, regardless of its colour, is strictly prohibited there. This regulation harks back to the prevention of individuals impersonating military personnel for illicit activities, and authorities take it quite seriously, considering it a significant offence.